Heading South!

Friday, August 27, 2010

Allo!

Well, my challenge today is to get everything written before I fall asleep! Let’s see how I do, shall we?!

Took a lovely walk last night -- down the hill to the Seine, then across the bridge to the back of Notre Dame. The bridge we crossed has lately been in the news -- seems that newly married couples have been locking locks along the bridge, and fairly recently, the police came along and broke them all off! But as you can see, the tradition is starting up again; can't discourage young love! From there, along the Seine past Rue St. Michel, and stopped at L'Ecluse, one of our favorite places, for a glass of wine...which turned into a wonderful platter of chacuterie...staggered back to the hotel around 10.

Up around 7 and down to breakfast at 8 a.m. Small, lovely breakfast room – croissant and pain au chocolat, orange juice, apple sauce (!) and hot chocolate for me, café for R. Then a final repacking and out the door to find the bus to Gare de Lyon.

Caught the #63 on St. Germain which took us right to the Gare. Arrived about 9:30 a.m. for a 10:20 TGV train. Platform not even posted yet! Only problem was lack of elevators or escalators to get luggage to the platform…ugh! Found our seats – on the upper deck of a double-decked train car, and the train took off right on time. Absolutely lovely ride – just about three hours, only one other stop – Valence – before arriving in Nimes. Of course we arrived at 1:22 p.m. – the Avis desk is closed from 1:15 – 2:15 p.m. How French! Split a nice ham and cheese baguette while waiting; gal arrived right on time. Got our car – a REALLY cute Citroen diesel that really moves! Shot out of the underground parking at the gare and headed towards Aigues-Mortes.

Took about half an hour to get there – lots of roundabouts! But WOW – the traffic on the peage (tollway) going towards us (and towards Paris) was incredible! Figure that this is probably the last official weekend of annual vacations, and that everybody probably needs to get home to get to work in Monday! Will make note NOT to drive in that direction any time soon!

Got to Aigues-Mortes and drove right to our hotel – last year’s experience very good! As it was a bit after 3 p.m. our room was ready. This time we have room #8 on the third floor of the main (old) building. Very, very nice! Not quite as big as last year’s, but lovely window on the main street, and lots of terrific amenities. Unpacked and got sorted out, then headed downstairs for a glass of wine and a rest. Really lovely place! Since last year they’ve added a real restaurant. Looked at the menu, and to be honest, there is nothing on it that I want to eat! So, have decided to go to town and find something. After wine we headed the couple blocks into “town” for a good look around. The weather is VERY hot and sticky here! Had a good walk around – including revisiting the stone staircase down which the fireman wrestled Robert – looks just as daunting as ever! Finally headed back to the hotel and directly into the pool. Their pool is indoor/outdoor. That is, it has sliding glass doors that can keep it warm in winter and cool in summer. Doors were open, and we had the entire pool to ourselves! VERY refreshing! Back upstairs to clean up and rest a bit, and then out for dinner about 7 p.m.

Well...talk about the Slow Food movement…Decided on a place on a side street called La Salicorne. Incredible meal; lovely atmosphere; Spanish music, but think we’ve found the best place in town! We started with a sparkling aperitif – some sort of fresh fruit juice and champagne – wonderful! As an amuse-bouche, we were presented with small marinated peppers stuffed with tuna and freshly roasted almonds; YUM! From there, R had the smoked salmon starter, and I had the eggplant. Both were incredible; the presentation beyond belief! For mains, R had the turbot, which came in a saffron butter sauce. I had the scallops; perfectly cooked. Both came with servings of pasta and grilled tomatoes, carrots and zucchini. I was hoping to share a dessert, but R wanted his own. He ended up with a melon mixture and a rose petal ice cream. I had raspberries, blackberries and pine nuts over a pastry with an amazing sorbet; unreal! Washed everything down with a bottle of local white wine…STUFFED! Two hours, fifteen minutes, start to end! Staggered back to the hotel, and are now in for the night…and I am NOT waking up any time early, as the wall doesn’t open until 10 a.m.

So! Sorry this is so short tonight, but I’m WAY too tired for more!
Much love,
m
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