Why so many good restaurants empty on a nice weekend?

DATELINE: Saturday, Oct. 21, In Vaison and nearby Malaucène

Awoke to cooling weather after a warm-ish night. I walked out in the dawn gloom to my favorite bakery; I've developed a taste for their pastry with apples -- chausson aux pommes -- literally "a slipper of apples". Tastes much better than it sounds.

After breakfast, we walked around Vaison, partly to explore an alternate route for moving the car between the Post Office lot and the cathedral parking area (as market days require).

As usual, luncheon was the feature event planned for the day. Destination: a restaurant named Le Four à Chaux (the lime kiln). It's in the village of Caromb near larger Malaucène. On the map, it looks quite close to Vaison, but the narrow road swoops and curves all the way, making it a longer and tenser drive.

The final approach to the restaurant takes you off the road at a stone bridge, then under that bridge to the eatery on the bank of a small river (the river gets two arches of the bridge; the restaurant gets one).

The restaurant occupied quite a large building, probably the combined home-workplace of the kiln operator. Today, it's nicely decorated, with inventive lighting. Not crowded, though. Each of the only three occupied tables had a separate small dining room to itself. That's only three couples for the Saturday "lunch crowd". I hope they do better on other days and evenings.

So many empty tables at peak mealtime

The menu was full of things I never ate as a child. Travel in Europe really broadened my gustatory horizons.

The half-liter bottle of wine we ordered arrived chilled, to our surprise, but went well with our meal.

The drive home seemed shorter, but with less traffic it was easier to drive.

Very colorful autumn vegetation decorated the hillsides and valleys.

I think a nap may have occurred shortly after our arrival home. The late afternoon and evening passed pleasantly, with aperitifs and cheese as dusk turned to night.

REMINDER: More of Roz's photos are viewable by clicking the link to the left of this post. Or click here to go directly to Day 18.