Be Careful What you Wish For!

At the end of a lovely afternoon, I wished for a straight forward passage returning to the City of Bordeaux in our rental car. Somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, at a roundabout...yes, they have plenty of these wondrous things in France, and we love them...but I followed the sign that said BORDEAUX, and next thing you know, the GPS 'lady' with the English accent is telling me to pull over and make a U-turn when possible. A small (ha!) discussion about the merits of said GPS lady and the signs at the roundabout, and the confliction thereof ensued. A U-Turn I did!

We followed the signs for Merignac, which sounded awfully familiar, but I couldn't quite think why...until we came to the AIRPORT! Voila! Bordeaux Airport = Merignac!
 This was a VERY round about way of getting us back to the city and we were sorry  the moment we left the airport environs and encountered traffic lights. It took us another 45 minutes to drive 7 kms.
The traffic was horrendous...or did I just indicate that? lol. The road markings are a little challenging, but fortunately the signs are clear...if I can follow them. I did take an 'unauthorized' (by the GPS lady) detour, but it all ended up in the right place...phew! If I had it all on camera, it might have made a funny movie. Stress??? what's that???

We have decided that the air conditioning in our room doesn't go below about 5C...but there is NO WAY the temperature in the room is that low. We were hot last night!
We slept, and woke around 8.30am. Our rental car was available for pick up at 10am. We only had to go a short distance for the car, so we took half an hour to find some breakfast. McDonalds it was unfortunately, and not a patch on what we normally get back home (oh no! did I really say that??? Who eats McD's when they are overseas, anyway??? cretins!) but it was sustenance, and much less expensive and faster than the usual café au lait and croissant. I have to say that it is very  good for one's digestion to take TIME over breakfast.
A wrong turn in the subterranean passage to the Voiture (rental car) depot, but we found the right place after back tracking. Just as well we had sussed it all out last night, non?

The car had not been detailed....I hate to say this but...This is France! and any expectation of it having been detailed was out of place. We get a good rate for our car...Just under $300 for three weeks and 2 days incl. all the fees...from Thrifty. Waz spends much time finding specials, and we belong to several loyalty programs that offer those. Apparently it pays to.

So, with a car to take us 'places' we set off.
This was the view from the 6th floor of the parking garage, this morning. Lots of fog to burn off, and it didn't rain, fortunately.

Of course we have a 'stick shift' car, and fortunately I am pretty good at driving them...mostly...but don't ask Waz that question...he is forced to lie!:) I grew up driving stick, so I SHOULD know. We also have a premium juice car this time, vs a Gazole or Diesel vehicle, which we usually ask for. The gas prices are a little high to what we are used to; about 1.34euros per Litre!

Today's journey was out to a restaurant that had been recommended by our new friends Sam and Loubna, from the Excuse My French Café. They told us of a lovely Oyster Cabane, that we simply HAD to visit for lunch. We took the road out of Bordeaux, heading towards the sea and the Presqu'ile Cap Ferret. (Peninsula Cap Ferret). Here is our first view of the Atlantic Ocean. I had to pull over to take this photo. The tide has a looooong way to come back in.

 Travelling through many typical seaside towns, which were quite sophisticated and showed that these must be the holiday homes of the well to do, in Bordeaux. Plenty of fancy vehicles on the road and outside restaurants. I can imagine all these people love coming out to the seaside on the weekends, and in this glorious weather, sitting in seaside restaurants (which charge a premium, I might add) enjoying the views and the stunning seafood. We did the same, but just in a different kind of place. Ours was seaside, but no prestige, to speak of...well, we enjoyed it's rustic charms and the hostess was superbe! We managed to have an adequate Frenglish conversation, and order our food and eat it too..whoopee! lol.

This was our destination for lunch. First we had to find our way to the port. Lots of closed up holiday homes along this little path.

 The last of the Hortensias against the white, shuttered home, with a tiny white picket fence. Charming:)

 Of course the street/dock was paved with Oyster shells....this is what we are here for!

 The small port is high and almost dry. The oyster boats dominate, but we did find an elderly Chris Craft on the sand, that someone lives aboard.

 Aha! We found it!

 And some of what we will be eating.

So, here are the sorters. You buy Oysters by size. We are about to eat #3's. These machines grade to #5''s.

This is all on the way to our restaurant, or Cabane, which is at the end of this little lane.

 Which has items of interest along the way, non?

 Et Voila! Here it is. The view, the means to capture the Fruit de Mer (seafood) on offer and the interest while we eat....as if we needed more interest!

 Les Choix! The choices!!
We opted for Formule #1. 6 oysters each, with bread, butter, a glass of wine and wedge of lemon. We also chose a Pate alongside.

 On offer were also Sea snails, which looked a little rubbery for my liking and Crevettes or prawns. The prawns were large, and though we didn't eat any, we did admire them on other's plates.

This 'fisherman' was on his way out to his Oyster beds.

 The tide had a long way to come back in. We watched a couple of tourist boats pass by.

And now....Huitres naturelles. Oysters as nature intended them to be eaten Straight from the Atlantic oyster beds and onto ice. A quick squeeze of citron (lemon) and down the hatch! Magnifique!

 What is the butter doing there? Keeping cold of course! It is meant for the bread.

 The bread was a brown cereal (grain) bread which paired perfectly with the Rustique-style Pate, fabrique en maison. Made in house, or on the premises. Strong flavor of bacon, so you can assume it was a Pork Pate. We had encore pain...another basket of bread, delivered...to finish the pate. Yum!

The white wine was delightful...I'm enjoying drinking wine again, after years of not doing so due to migraine inducing Nitrites in American wines.

The Cabane 57, from the front, or waterside. Just a small, rustic cabine aubord de la mer...cabin beside the sea.
On a warmer day we would have sat outside. That wind was a bit fierce though. The owner built a fire in their small Godin wood stove, and it soon had us all toasty. Another group came in after us, and two couples. It was fun watching what the French chose for their lunch, and how they ate it. Live and learn!

 A la Gauche, or to the left...

We walked back to the car along the main dock.

 Back in the car, and one false start later, we round our next destination...Cap Ferret. We wanted the Pointe, and also to see Le Phare, or light house. We found both, with the lighthouse being the first.

 The grounds and edifice was closed until December, due to renovations. Too bad!

 Next and final stop was the Dunes du Cap Ferret. The dunes are slowly being replanted, and there are fences everywhere to protect the delicate landscape. We are now opposite the famous Dunes of Arcachon, on the opposite shore at the mouth of the Gironde River, some 60 kms from Bordeaux. If you look at a map, you will see that the city of Bordeaux is quite a long way down the river, from the sea. Parts of the ocean front were closed to foot traffic, and we were encouraged to seek the water along quite a strenuous walk...only because we were walking in deep sand...and once we reached the peak of the track, we stopped, not wanting to have to walk back up the hill in those same conditions, from the seaside.

 Plenty of pines along the roadside, and indeed forests for cutting. We had to laugh...Florida is another peninsula made of sand, and we were trying to get away from it! aiee!

 There were warnings to stay out of the ocean at this point due to the unpredictable nature of the tide and the rip generated by the same. We could totally understand that you would NEVER want to enter the water here. We watched a couple of boats coming back into port, and admired their Captain's skill in this kind of water.

 In the distance you can see the Dunes of Arcachon, on the far shore, across the mouth of the Gironde River. The Dunes are about 2 1/2 kms long, going south and are famous, being the largest sand dunes on the European Continent.

 Along the way was this Croix de Marin, or Cross of Mariners. There are many such crosses along coastal Europe, remembering those fisher folks who perished at sea.

  The woman walking towards us made a good scale model for the landscape, I thought. On both sides, sparse vegetation is trying desperately to recover it's place in this windswept landscape.  The sand was deep and hard to navigate. I tried walking along the fence line, but this too had been well churned by those who had gone before.

 Looking back from whence we came. Those huts are in a fenced off area containing what we think are Natural Gas well heads.  There was no sign announcing their presence or their type. You can see the pine forest in the background.

 We decided not to go further, due to the difficulty of walking in the deep sand. We had also achieved our goal of seeing the Atlantic ocean from the peak.

 Someone had cut the fence on both sides of the track and done donuts in the delicate sand dunes. There is always one, (or more) and that is all it takes to ruin sometimes years of hard work and growth, in such places. We felt quite pissy about it. You can see where the fence has been cut, on the right side.

 Looking back towards the Phare (light house) on the right, and the Cell tower on the left.

We desperately needed to buy more water and sought a supermarche (supermarket). We had spied this Lidl on the way there, and made a note to stop there on the return.
Oh joy! We LOVE visiting these stores. They are a mix of big box, offering wonderful prices for bulk items that are unheard of in the USA, and individual items.  This particular store is fairly new, I would say. Lots of Christmas goodies for sale, including decorations, which are unbelievably inexpensive.

 Some examples of prices....
The croissants are 'normal' size, but .29 centimes each. This is crazy. You buy Boulanger/Patissier croissants for anywhere between .80 and 1.80eu, normally. We didn't buy any, because we want there to be a continuation of specialty Boulangerie and Patisserie stores.

 Same thing for Pain Chocolat, or in Bordeaux, Chocolatines.

We always buy the fruit, and these Blueberries were an excellent price. We enjoyed some before heading out to dinner, tonight. These ones from Argentina...all those air miles!! 1/4 of a pound (4oz).

 I have been thoroughly enjoying drinking Rose, and so this one was an easy choice to take with us tomorrow. Pretty good price, but by no means the least expensive of wines.

 We don't eat Snickers Bars, but I thought this might be of interest to American readers in particular. 5 full sized Snickers bars for 1.49 euros. less that $2 US

Arriving back in the City, we parked the car down the road...quite a way, I might add, in a public parking building...subterranean, I might add....there is a Park on top of it! Many hotels, and certainly the cheap ones, don't have dedicated parking. We will pay tomorrow, when I have to negotiate the one way streets around here and bring the car to the front of the hotel so we can load our bags. We have gained some baggage since we arrived. Typique!
Last but not least....Dinner!

Waz had a wee nap, and sawed down some trees (ha!) while I started this Blog and sorted the many photos out and resized them for easy of management. The ones you are seeing here are only the tip of the iceberg, I might add. Plenty more where they come from:)

So, off to dinner we went. Undecided, we perused the menu boards out-front, and decided to return to the first night's choice. We sat next to a lovely couple from....Australia! her accent was the give-away, as per usual. They were completing 3 months stay in these parts. They had stayed one month in each of three towns, and loved it.
We ordered. Boissons - deux verre (two glasses) rose vine, and a Ca'd'eau (carafe of water). Plat - main course...Him: Confit de Canard. Suitably crispy skin, fall off the bone flesh with frites, petite salade with a slice of tomate.  Moi: Tagliatelli Carbonara...done properly with an egg yolk on the side, along with the cheese. I mixed both into the pasta and it was divine.
At the next table a couple enjoyed a 'taster' platter for dessert....well, she did, anyway! lol. We kept eyeing this, and decided to enjoy one between the two of us. We also ordered our new favorite dinner finisher, a café Alongee...a Double espresso, which beautifully cuts the sugar of dessert.
Dessert was  delish...as you can see below! Oh, sorry, I was so taken with the food I forgot to take a photo! Quelle domage! How COULD I??

 Ok..let me tell you about it. There was a pistache macaron...petite. (green colored pistachio..small), a mousse chocolate (the brown shot glass), a Yaout Cerise (Yoghurt with cherry coulis) and a Crème Speculoos, which had cold espresso at the bottom. Yum! Then there was the tiny chocolate muffin with  a ganache bomb in the bottom. That's the last bite on the plate, there. you can just make out the ganache...the shiny stuff on the left.

Of course we had strained belts, after all that food and drink, so we walked the block, discovering a sexy clothing shop, along with the Video parlor...the clothing was not for family TV consumption, I assure you, but 'interesting' to say the least. Use your imagination!!! Being France, it was on full display in the window... the clothes, not the video!

We crossed the street, taking our lives into our own hands, at that time of night. 9 pm really is too late for us to be eating. We felt like we should have been walking for at least an hour, following dinner. Not wanting to walk the back streets, we have retired to our room where Waz is watching the Rugby...France Bleus vs South Africa. We earlier watched the NZ All Blacks vs Scotland, but don't know who won that one.

I think we will go find a Euro Millions Lottery store tomorrow. Last time we were here (last year) we bought a couple of tickets. The prizes aren't as high as the US lottery, but we will take whatever they are offering right now.

Time for me to pack bags and get ready to leave Bordeaux early, tomorrow. We are east-bound for our house and cat sit for the next three weeks.

See you on the 'other' side. Bonne Nuit!