On the day after Bastille Day, 40 enfants de notre patrie gathered for the usual lunch, this year provided by Peter Kelso assisted by Society Francophile Paul Dressler.

For canapes, there was a choice of Burgundian gougeres, little choux pastry shapes flavoured with gruyere cheese and very popular, and a smoked eel pate served on crisp bread rounds and rice crackers. Besides the ever-reliable Lustau sherries, the aperitif was a sparkling Vouvray from Marc Bredif. Refreshing (if a little warm), with the apple flavour typical of chenin blanc much in evidence.

For the main course, we moved to S-W France with a traditional cassoulet de Toulouse. Lamb shoulder, pork belly, a smoked pork hock and Toulouse pork sausages were slow cookd with white haricot beans, rind from the pork and a few aromatic vegetables, served topped with breadcrumbs. The beans were still quite separate and, despite liberal additions of liquid during cooking, some found it a bit dry. Still, plenty of rich meat 'n' beans flavour, and well matched with a cold grated celeriac salad, bended with grated nashi pear, lemon juice and some finely chopped kale for colour and texture. The wines were also "local", a 2009 Dom Alary Carianne Cotes du Rhone Villages, and a La Gerbaude Cotes du Rhone from the same maker and year. It was an interesting contrast, the first with sweeter fruit but lighter, the second bigger and more tannic, with a longer life ahead of it.

The cheese went from the peasant food of the main course to the aristocracy of Beaufort, a fine (and costly) semi-hard unpasteurised cows' milk cheese from the Rhone-Alpes area, with terrific firm but creamy texture and a lovely sweet fruity flavour. The two Aussie wines served with it were a 2006 Macquariedale Reserve Thomas shiraz, a pretty good example of a modern, savoury but clean Hunter red, and the Bowen Coonawarra cabernet from the same year, also a typical example of the area, with big fruit, some mint but all held in balance by fine tannins. Walnuts, dried figs and dried muscatels went well with both cheese and wine.

And finally, to Ethiopia, the home of the coffee bean, whence we enjoyed a brew made from quality Yirgachef medium roast beans, producing a rich and smooth, but assertive, palate with the usual citrus notes leading to a long finish.