In Chagny we had an opportunity to go to a three star Michelin restaurant. We stood outside, looked at the menu prices and decided we just couldn’t justify $500+ for one meal.
Instead we took the advice of a local Frenchmen who told us to go to place whose name translated to, “The Kitchen Across”. We walked to the address he had given and it turned out to be the much cheaper café, across the street from the three star, owned by the same people. It was so good I can’t imagine how anything could be five times better to be worth the price. I’ve included a photo that actually makes the amount of food look smaller because the piece of fois gras on top of the roasted duck breast in a was huge and the best I’ve ever tasted. Rob had the quail with a very light lemon wine sauce. Yummy.We’ve met quite a few people doing the pilgrimage to Santiago Compostella. If you saw the Martin Sheen movie, The Way, you know what we are talking about. One morning just as we took off we passed a lady with a big backpack and a little Jack Russell walking the footpath next to the canal. After we passed her I thought we could have asked if she wanted a lift. That evening we stopped and who comes along but the gal. (That’s how slow we go on the water). It was a warm day so I asked if she (Maryange) would like some cold water for herself and the dog. We were chatting and she asked if her dog could play with ours. But of course. The three dogs had a gay old time and in the end she spend an hour on the deck, sharing a glass of bubbly and telling us of her travels. I thought she was very interesting and brave. .
Speaking of brave people there was the handsome young German couple we met at the Laundromat on a horrible rainy day. They were camping, traveling by bicycle for six weeks from the Atlantic coast of France to their home near Frankfurt, with their four children aged 5, 3 and one year old twins. True. She rode a bike with a seat behind her for the three year old and towing a little wagon full of gear. He had a bike with big saddlebags and pulled the basket on wheels with the twins and the five year old road his own bike. They were all smiles having a great time, although not so much when we met them in the pouring rain in St. Jean de Losne. Note the two little ones fast asleep in their weatherproof cart.
The countryside is especially beautiful with rolling hills planted with grape vines, accented with thick patches of trees and small very picturesque little villages. We had lunch today with a Canadian couple. They have come from the direction we are going to we swapped information about moorings, interesting sights, etc. As we were leaving a couple who had heard our accents stopped us. They were from San Diego and bought a house here in 1999 when they were dirt cheap. They explained that there is a lot of money here with the wine so all the old villages have been renovated and the food shops and restaurants are top notch. Just like Napa in many ways. There are two hundred people in their village and yet there are three Brits and two Dutch households that speak English. It’s true for the area which is why they say their French isn’t as good as it should be.
A week ago we were sitting on the boat and Rob said there’s a fire on the other side of the canal. Next to a wheat field there were about five attractive newer built two story homes. Smoke was coming from one and within five minutes it was a huge plume of black smoke. I said to Rob that I couldn’t believe a house could burn so quickly and wondered if someone had set it. The fire department came, but couldn’t do anything except to keep it from spreading to the houses on either side. Ten minutes later the whole house collapsed. it took less than a half hour. The next day a French woman told us the story that was in the paper. A 70 year old man, who was sick, committed suicide. It wasn’t his first attempt. He used gas to start the fire, his wife got out with some burns. It didn’t say if he had tried to keep her in. The sad thing is that because of the circumstances insurance will probably not pay for anything. It was a sad bizarre thing to do to his poor wife.
On a lighter note we had drinks one evening with two couples from Brittan and one from South Africa. We got to talking about current news from our countries. The big stink in S.A. is about a painting being shown in a gallery that has Zuma, the S.A. President, painted in frontal nudity with a big “stiffy” and of course the shower head over his head. We didn’t get the shower head part. It seems this guy is a is a semi-educated chieftain (with four wives) and made a very stupid statement two years ago. His comment about aids was that you didn’t have to wear condoms, just shower after sex. He has since retracted his statement, but since then every time there is a cartoon in the paper there is a shower over his head. And we thought we had lame politicians.
We love news from friends and family. Skye has a new car. Alice and John are on a honeymoon. Martha poked her eye with a stick. Toni and Craig are in Germany. Barbara and Betty are as busy as always. Keep the news coming.
Ed: I just noticed that for some reason Blogger credited this post to me when, obviously, it is from Terry
No comments:
Post a Comment