Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Bordeaux, Cuisine de France, and the Lightning Storm

Yesterday was our Bordeaux day, as we visited the wine capital of France! So we set off in the big wagon again, making it there in good time, although parking proved to be a bit of an issue as the car parks were too low for the 1.9m or 2m height of the wagon. But we made it, and not too far from the city centre.

First priority, as always, was lunch, courtesy of the local Irish Pub (me being in my Northern Ireland shirt, and it being a republican bar... hehe!). Sadly, their menu was just for show, and all they had on offer was three types of baguette - but it was still good food! (Just a pity we didn't get the promised Irish Stew...)

We then went to see the Cathedral, with its impressive organ and numerous side chapels. Outside, the bell tower is open to the public, so for the bargainous price of 3.50 euro, we climbed up the tower to enjoy the view of the city. So I was a bit raging as I realised I had left my camera in the wagon... but I borrowed Lynsey's for the afternoon so photos will follow in due course. We then saw the Victory Square, then moved up the main shopping area as temperatures rose to over 38 degrees... Having visited another monument at the other end (something similar to Nelson's column, with fountains) and enjoyed the wind-carried spray to cool us down, dinner was on the agenda.

The restaurant we went to was very reasonable - 11 euro for a three course meal with plenty of choice. One of the starters was snail... and being in France, we thought we should try them. So six snails were brought to the table and the moment of reckoning was upon us. Would we, or could we eat the snail? Yes, except for Bryan! It came in its shell, cooked in a garlic sauce, so with a special curved two-pronged fork to pull it out. Despite being slightly chewy, it was quite good, only really tasting the garlic. Steve's main course was sheep intestine (I can't remember the French name), so again we tried a wee bit - this time it came with spices, and was quite nice, although I don't think I'll be trying it again soon!

Dinner ended, we set off for home down the motorway again towards the south. And we kept seeing the sky light up. Originally, we thought it was lights of oncoming traffic, but soon realised it was lightning... What an impressive lightning display! Truly God is all powerful, and creation displays his glory and majesty! The problem came when we got to our junction... for the last two miles of motorway, the wind was fierce, and it was a bit of a wrestling match to keep the wagon straight on the road. Similarly on the country road to Morcenx, where there was one freak patch of rain, no longer than a foot... and that was all the rain we saw the whole time!

With the wind up, our attic dorm was nice and cool for our final night in France.

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