Frédéric Cassel: Charlotte au Fraise des Bois

It was time to visit Frédéric Cassel again, and a new month and so a new set of "inspirations", though they still had a few other seasonal cakes (I would like to try their Fraise, the one I haven't had, next). Today, though I got the Charlotte au Fraise des Bois, which is a fromage blanc mousse with wild strawberry, essentially rare cheesecake. I ate it will a spoon. Not an exciting choice, but the cheese flavor was refreshing/nice. There's a big effect of shop bias, but I'm going to call this excellent. It certainly was not disappointing, which just good cake can be. Calling this a charlotte seems a stretch, since cheese mousse is a long way from bread, sponge cake, or biscuits that would traditionally encircle the fruit center of a charlotte. The run was fine, though a little rain was sprinkled in.

Bigarreaux: Bronte

Planned a big cycling tour of the usual shops I check every month, but decided to start as last week and explore the route out to Maison Douce halfway, which I was satisfied this time, before heading down to Bigarreaux, which opens earliest of the ones I'm interested in, 9 am. I got the Bronte, which they marked as a specialty, I think. It's Sicilian pistachios and wild strawberry. It was definitely good, but I guess I'm not that into strawberry, and I definitely don't like a gelatinous texture (as gelatinous textures go, I have no complaint here, just I don't have any praise either). This knocks P. Bigarreaux out of the Excellent category, since there are definitely some Quite Good shops that I rate high, though based on fewer cakes, so Bigarreaux did well staying at the level it was to cake number eight.

I did manage to get up to Aigre-Douce, but called it quits after that, since I was getting dangerously tired (I'm more of a danger to myself and others tired on a bicycle than running) and, having started in rain, had neglected to put on sunscreen and the September subtropical noon sun was breaking through the clouds.

Total I did about 48 km, near as I can tell, though Google does not allow that all used paths are usable. For example, I was briefly along this river when trying to get back southeast to Bigarreaux without following Ring Road 8 (which I have good reason to dislike). I like the way this picture turned out. To bad it was not taken with a good camera (or by someone who knows how to use any kind of camera well).