Apres-boot sale brunch at The Cafe Rouge, Westbourne

Car boot survival kit!

I took the chaps into town for the regular Sunday morning boot sale at the Greyhound/Speedway Stadium.

Because I'm now incapable of walking around a boot sale, I take my tried and tested boot sale survival kit.  It involves a book, a bottle of something nice to drink (in this case, mineral water) and some fruit or another (in this case, two apricots).  All of which make sitting in a baking hot car park for nigh on an hour, rather more bearable.

Not much of a view!

Still, they came back with quite a haul today!  They found me a James Blunt CD, a potato ricer, a lovely blue & white china plate (I'm a sucker for blue & white china) and some hand grip exercisers (you wouldn't believe how I'm losing my grip - hahahahaha! - no, seriously).  Son & heir found a radio which he could take apart (yes, he's into that phase at the moment, nothing is safe) and hubby came back with some bits and pieces for himself too.

We were just preparing to leave the car park, when hubby suggested we go for a bite of breakfast somewhere.  What an extraordinarily civilised idea!

The question was, where to go?  After juggling various names and rejecting them because of the parking/walking situation, we settled upon the Cafe Rouge at Westbourne.

After a short stagger, during which I discovered that my knees really DON'T like going over unlevel ground, we took our places in their conservatory where it was both light and airy.  There were several other families there for a late breakfast, so we didn't feel at all out of place.

The breakfast menu is really fairly varied and after toying with the idea of scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, or maybe croque monsieur, or pain perdu with mixed berries, or how about an omelette, I settled on a basket of baked goods, which included a baguette, a mini croissant and a mini pain au chocolat.  Everything was warmed, the baguette was fresh and fluffy with just the right amount of crustiness.  The croissant was two mouthfuls of loveliness and the pain au chocolat was suitably chocolatey.  The Bonne Maman strawberry jam was predictably good.

Suitably French? Perhaps not, but nice all the same!

Son & heir went for the Croque Madame which turned out to be far from delicate or ladylike, being a socking great wodge of sliced bloomer bread with ham sandwiched inside, covered in a deliciously creamy grilled cheese confection that was topped off with a fried egg!

A great wodge of Croque Madame. Oh, but the cheese! So creamy! So oh la la!

Hubby was going with the French theme and settled for a whopping great croissant.  Coffee was ordered, two lattes for hubby and myself and an Americano for son & heir - who very quickly swapped his for hubby's latte, once he tasted how strong it was!  I noticed that hubby very definitely wasn't complaining.

The prices were all very achievable, the atmosphere was friendly and the decor charming.  I particularly liked the fact that the wall lamps all had a different shade - which sounds a horrible mish-mash, but in fact worked extremely well.

We all very much approved of this as an approach to Sunday mornings - and I suspect The Cafe Rouge may well see a bit more of us from time to time!

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