The last day in France

We got up and wandered into town for coffee. I had a croissant so I wouldn't have to think about getting breakfast elsewhere. The we went off wandering.

First we went to the cathedral, which is really massive. It's gothic and sits at the highest point in town, and it's tall, long, and wide. Inside it's light and the ceiling just keeps going. The stained glass windows glow deeply. I took a number of pictures, but nothing could really convey it properly.

Then we walked off to the area called the Marais, which in Bourges actually kind of is a marais (usually translated as "marsh"). Actually, it's a number of low islands with water running between, that have become garden plots for the people of Bourges. There are some houses, but mostly there are little plots with flowers, tomatoes, and that sort of thing growing. Most were not terribly well groomed, but still it was a nice idea, especially if you lived in an apartment or house in town with no green space.

Then we went shopping. A store I'd seen in Brive called Devred was open and in honor of the Pentecost was offering a 20% off sale, so I bought shirts that I liked, and Eric bought one.

Then it was lunch time. Our guidebooks recommended a place called Le Bourbonnoux, and so we thought a nice formal lunch would be good, so we could not worry about dinner as we hit the road to get close to Paris to leave tomorrow.

The restaurant turned out to be quite fancy, though not too expensive; also creative, though not always 100% successful. They brought us some amuse-bouche: a whipped smoked something on a spoon (which could have been anything, since it just tasted of smoke, though it was good), a little something like a tortilla española but softer, and some cured olives. The starters were good: I had a crab ("dormeur") gelée with a chunky pea whip on top, served with a "dome" of fennel (a cross between a whip and an aspic) with grapefruit wedges, pignoli, and dried violets. It was pretty elaborate but it came together well. In particular, the fennel, grapefruit, and pignoli married remarkably well. Eric had a flan of white asparagus, which was a nice thick item, neither too eggy, too creamy, nor too gelatiny. My main dish was chunks of lamb in a coconut milk sauce (which tasted only very lightly of coconut, and was delicious) with a sort of eggplant cake (which was a little odd but not bad). Eric had a filet of a fish called lieu jaune, served on a bed of green lentils (a local regional specialty, very tasty), with a "sauce de volaille", a sort of odd but tasty poultry-based sauce, and some sort of dried vegetable which was tasty but unidentifiable. For dessert I had a sablé with strawberries and a little custard, with ice cream. The sablé was based on green lentils as well, and was lovely, especially with the strawberries and custard. The ice cream was also green lentil, and that was unpleasant. The flavor wasn't terrible, but the texture was sort of granular. I didn't eat it. Eric had a delicious chocolate mousse that had some strawberry sauce on top. With our coffees were were given a few little treats, but at this point we could hardly eat any more. There was a little square of chocolate ganache or fudge or something that neither of us ate; a grapefruit gelée that was very tasty and slightly bitter; a large red grape coated in sugar, which was a little odd; some sort of apple custard square that was kind of heavy, and a pair of meringues that were like eating nothing at all.

Afterwords we rolled out the door and strolled a bit just to get back to feeling halfway normal. It became quite cold and windy, and was unpleasant outside. We couldn't go in anywhere because that would involve having a drink of something, and we were both exceptionally full. So after a short wander (and an unsuccessful foray into the Fnac bookstore) we headed back to the car and drove off.

The rest of the trip is not much to talk about. Since it wasn't too late, we decided to head further than we'd originally planned. We went all the way past Paris to a little town just past the airport, called Saint Witz, which is mostly a suburban bedroom community, with a large grouping of hotels on the outskirts. Traffic into and around Paris had been terrible, and we'd lost about an hour, so we thought it best to just stop and sleep. We chose a cheap hotel with WiFi (which does not work apparently unless you have a PC and a GSM phone where they can SMS you a password, of all the obscene ideas – so no WiFi). We ate a depressingly lackluster dinner at the chain hotel next door. After so much good food, it's a little hard to step down so far.

Our hotel itself, a Hotel B&B, is actually pretty funny. It's one of those places where if you arrive after hours (past 8:30pm on a holiday like today) there's no one there, but you can get admittance to a room and pay for it from an outside kiosk. The rooms are all apparently two-story, with a bathroom and toilet room downstairs, plus a little table, and a bedroom and TV upstairs. It is otherwise quite utilitarian. It's not an experience I need to repeat, but it's not so bad to be having it now. Tomorrow morning we'll get up and head to the airport to return to Chicago.

Labels: france, journal

posted by Tony at 11:12 PM