Rural Life

A gastronomic weekend in St Malo

Last weekend we went up to St Malo as a bit of a city break.  It is a wonderful city, rebuilt after being pretty well destroyed in 1944, when the Germans settled in and tried to hold out against the Allies.  The rebuilding work was done amazingly well and the IntraMuros is wonderful.  Here is St Malo.

On the Friday night, we went out in search of dinner and a Beaujolais Nouveau.  We tried this place first, but they had no Beaujolais and no oysters and no food that didn't have a trace of mussel - which I can't eat.  So after being stung for a single beer, we left.  They had only just opened after a few days closed, but not having half the menu was not a good idea!

Instead we went two doors down (you don't have to go far in St Malo to find a bar or restaurant), who did have the required Beaujolais (very fruity, very silly, just as you would expect).  John had moules mariniere and I had oysters, then John had the fish of the day which had a mussel sauce, while I had brandade morue and salad - very good indeed.  Our afters were a plate of well cared for cheeses for me and apple crumble for John - all very good, 20 euros a head plus wine and infusions.

It being November and because we didn't really fancy sandwiches and there aren't many real food shops in St Malo (though biscuits and sweets are well catered for), we ate out for Saturday lunch.  John needed more moules, so we went to the Lion D'Or for moules frites for John and a massive goat's cheese and lardons salad for me, washed down with Chardonnay.  Again very good and at 15 euros or so each for the food, quite affordable.  Our lunch neighbours on one side were charming, but I wanted to smack the girl on the other side of me as she picked at her food until it was cold and made sure she finished the rice but the scallop casserole was another matter!

On Saturday night, I needed Mont St Michel pre-sale lamb from the salt marshes, so in order to ensure we got the real MacCoy, we went to the Hotel de France et Chateaubriand (named after the poet, who also gave his name to the steak).  Our 22 euro menu included fish soup with all the trimmings for John and a seafood platter for me, then our pre-sale lamb with beans and carrots, and then a dessert of baked pineapple, washed down with half a bottle of Muscadet and a bottle of Cotes de Rhone.  The restaurant is very elegant and art deco and the service is impeccable and the chef is a genius.  Another wonderful meal.

We went home on Sunday, but as we had done so much walking on the Friday and Saturday, we didn't put on a pound despite our greedy excesses - the wonders of French cooking and sea air!

 

A bit of time out

I have been quiet for a while, partly trying to cope with the fruit and nuts and also taking some time off.  As I work from home and spend most of my day it seems in front of a computer, that holiday time did include being banned from switching my computer on apart from doing a bit of internet banking.

So how did I fill my 10 days off (including 2 weekends - it really wasn't a long break at all)?

Well, we went to Futuroscope for a day, which is about 2 hours drive south from here, and we made sure we went on a weekday and outside of school holidays.  Once we had checked into our hotel, we hit the park and did 11 rides and attractions before getting tired and needing to eat, after which we watched the evening show and retired to our hotel.  I am not a theme park person but it was superb.  We built up from reclining in comfy armchairs to watch a projection of planets on a domed screen, through walking through a hi-tech hall of mirrors, going up on the Gyroscope, to a white knuckle ride through the Vienne department on a variety of vehicles, to an even more white knuckle ride showing an ecologically sound speed race 100 years in the future. 

For details of Futuroscope follow this link.

We went on to our favourite hotel in Brive la Gaillarde for a night - for more details follow this link.

Then we had a relaxing four days at home, dealing with the mason, chopping down a hedge, finding tiles, collecting nuts - stuff like that, before heading off for another weekend, but this time at the sea.  We haven't downloaded the photos yet, but the Brittany coast when it is blowing a gale is fabulous.  We stayed at this hotel and had a jolly nice time, including breakfast outdoors on the terrace on Sunday morning, watching the tide go out.

However, now I am back at work, in front of the coputer and feeling that I must take some time out to set up the heating in my office before I freeze!

The Drove Road

I finally got round to getting the photos developed from my summer travels in the UK.  I spent some of the wettest weeks of July and September and November (not strictly summer but similar weather conditions in each month) in the UK for work.  However it was a privilege for part of that time to be spent in Somerset and I stayed at the Coombe House Hotel near Nether Stowey twice - much recommended.

From my roost at Nether Stowey I had to go to Taunton a few times and there are two possible routes.  The sensible but very long one is along proper roads around the Quantocks and via Bridgewater, the not so sensible route is over the top of the Quantocks on what some might call roads but are really more like narrow tubes between high hedges.  Naturally I opted for the dangers of the narrow roads over the hills.

This did mean that I found my way back to my favourite place when I was a child - Triscombe Stone up on the Drove Road that follows the line of the Quantocks.  I did a couple of walks up there - my risk analysis for both walks was that I was crazy!  It was wet, visibility was minimal as the clouds sat on the hills, there was no one else around, my only waterproof was a high visibility vest and mobile phone signals were dodgy at best.  Still, you are only young and foolish once, right?  And I survived.

So here is the Drove Road - a wonderfully atmospheric place.  One day I will walk the whole of it from end to end, while I am still young and foolish enough to.

Brive la Gaillarde and Sete

It has been all quiet on the posting front as we have done the unimaginable for us and taken a holiday.  Our excuse was that we needed to buy southern French wine and good quality olive oil - something we achieved, but in reality, having not had a holiday for two years, we needed time out.

We got in the car and headed south and indulged ourselves at our favourite restaurant - at Brive la Gaillarde down in the Correze, and called La Cremaillere.  It is actually a hotel as well, but as we hadn't booked we couldn't get a room, but we could get a table for dinner.  The chef there is a master and our meals were sumptuous but well judged so that we could actually move afterwards and didn't feel at all bloated or uncomfortable.  We asked them to recommend a wine and it went with the meal fabulously without being the most expensive on the menu.  The amuses bouche of pumpkin veloute, toast with tapenade and the most amazing mushroom fondant (or cappuchino as they called it) were perfection and live in the memory.

So if you are in the area - perhaps for a rugby match - this is the place to look for!

 

From there we went over the Millau viaduct and headed for the Med.  There is now a service station by the bridge so you can stop and wonder at this edifice before driving over it and heading on your way.

 

We headed for Sete - a fairly substantial port near Montpellier, with a fishing fleet, a regular ferry service to Morocco and an active port that had the Arianne collector ship and loads of bits of wind turbines in when we were there.  We were lucky to get a fine room at the Grand Hotel overlooking the canal junction.  The canals join the Mediterranean with a lagoon behind Sete and its spit of beach that leads to Agde and Cap d'Agde to the east, so are salt water.  The water is so clear you can admire dog fish drifting in the current and the oysters and sea urchins that have populated the sides of the canals.  Another place we recommend!  Here is the hotel -

 

And here is the excellent view of the canals at dusk from our third floor room balcony.  About a kilometre along the canal straight ahead is the local MacDonalds that was pelted with octopi by Jose Bove and his chums in protest at Americanisation and fast food.

Too wet to walk

We did a bit of a road trip last week - not a particularly green thing to do, but it had to be done for work reasons.

For part of the time, we did our third ever trip to Wales, this time the South Wales valleys and the Brecon Beacons.  I know December isn't a good time to do this sort of thing,  but we did hope that the weather would be kind enough to give us an hour or so's respite to walk up a Beacon and get some good fresh air.

Sadly every time we stopped the car at a likely lay-by, the heavens opened.  Even with boots, walking tents/cagoules and warm clothes, we felt it was too dangerous to set off across unknown territory.  The scenery was stunning however, as demonstrated by the photo.  Next time.....

Autumn blues

It's that time of year - not quite time to start preparing for Christmas but too far from summer.  It is a tricky time of year to have a birthday - although many thanks to my mother for pushing me out on a date that many would say is totally memorable.  If you are of a certain generation, you certainly know what you were doing when I was born!!

This autumn, with the dry weather and sudden cold snap, we have had fabulous leaf colour - no need to go to Canada (apologies to all Canadians) when you have autumn colours like these - and this was past the peak!

For tree twitchers everywhere - the particularly yellow tree just left of centre is an elm!

But like I say, the leaves are gone, and it is that time of year - so what to do to cheer me up?  My erstwhile work colleagues have some pretty awful ideas - how about a nice Skype conference?  No thanks!  I am depressed enough as it is.

John has come up with a much better idea.  The oyster beds of Cancale are not far away and (no really!) by the sea.  What better way to cheer me up than time by the sea, breathing fresh sea air, and eating prime oysters, and perhaps catching a jazz band in St Malo?  I can't wait!