Down the hill to Franklin

Jimmy and I decided to take advantage of the perfect fall day and make the scenic 15 mile drive to Franklin this morning.   Franklin is the county seat for Macon county, where Highlands is also located, and I've been wanting to do a little title research in the courthouse there.  I'd always heard that my great-grandfather had a place in Highlands before he bought the house in Hendersonville, and I thought it would be interesting to find out where it was.

No luck.  There were not a lot of transactions in the time frame I was searching, and none for Bray.  He must have rented a place or stayed in a hotel like the Highlands Inn, which has been here for 125 years.  I guess he didn't like it here because he went a few miles east and bought the Buncombe Street house in Hendersonville that we all remember so fondly.

The Franklin courthouse is only a few blocks from a popular local restaurant, Cafe Rel, which serves excellent French cuisine, and is incongruously located in a large gas station. Jimmy got linguine with clam sauce (clams in the shells) and I had chicken livers and shallots braised in brandy.  The recipes all seem to be a la Julia Childs, in that they must use a stick of butter in every dish. Rich but Good.