This is a bar that closes at 9pm and is thus packed before the sun is down. They serve a sweet white wine that is, really, much too sweet but still very good (and cheap for how strong it is). There are wine barrels set up all around the bar, which is mostly an outdoor terrasse....a backyard half covered with an overhang, and half not. You call over one of the two barmaids (who are always being called out to) who slap down some glasses if you don't already have them and grab the bottle from their hip where there is a sort of a holster and they pour out the drinks and you pay on the spot. In some ways it is not efficient at all, but much more amusing.
After that we headed back to eat dinner and watched "Back to the Future." Hah.
Thursday I walked around Pornichet from 10-12 was Aurelien did work. I spent a lot of time on the beach and especially a line of rocks that run from the sand pretty far out into the ocean that serves as a dividing wall fo the marina.
Lunch, then we did some errands. He took me to St. Nazaire where he goes to school. He showed me around campus and then we walked around the bay just beside the school. I did not have my camera, but it was quite astounding how different the beach at Pornichet could be from that at the neighboring town of St. Nazaire. The bay at St Nazaire was essentially cliffs that dropped down to the water. There was a footpath all along the cliff that was reminiscent of Concarneau, but with many more hills.
The day ended with a walk in Pornichet again, and then Aurelien's school friend Sonya came over to play Guitar Hero. We also went out to a bar called La Terrasse that was giving beginning salsa lessons when we were there at 8. We did not participate, although I wish we had since that was the first time I've seen any salsa (or dance at all) this stay in France. We took some monacos and sat on the terrasse to talk while we waited for the creperie we wanted to eat at emptied out. We then ate some galettes, I made the mistake of getting mine with "poireaux" (scallions/leek) which I mistook for "poires" (pears). Uhmmm, yea I didn't even finish it. We had cidre with the meal and closed down the creperie, having arrived late. We then headed back to his apartment and Sonya left shortly after, which was good because we both went to bed early.
Friday I left on a train around at 11:42 for Nantes, where I stayed for two hours on a layover. I had lunch at a little boulangerie near the gelato shop in the quartier bouffet which always makes me think of Molly (and her obsession with this shop ^_^). I then sat under the bridge at the chateau (same as I used to) soaking in the sun (not as I used to) and headed back to the train station to get a coffee and wait a few more minutes before getting on the train. I got into Quimperle four minutes to five and waited 40ish mins for the last coach to Concarneau that put me at home around 6:40. I was alone for the night with Julia still in Scotland and Miguel in Paris.
Saturday I made a tarte tartin, an upside down apple tart which is pretty easy to make, but very good. However, it becomes much more difficult to make when you realize you don't know how to start the oven. I had only ever used the oven when cooking with Miguel and Julia, so they had always started the oven. I thought I knew how to start the oven, but when it came down to it, the tarte waiting to cook, I could not get it to work. I had to knock on almost every door in the building before I found someone home. Julien, a neighbor in the other part of the building, came over and showed me how, although the way he did it was more complicated than that of Miguel because he lifted the bottom of the oven, which Miguel has never done. In fact, I still don't know how to start the oven, but I will learn one of these days.
Miguel got home in the afternoon and we decided to make fajitas that night, for which I had bought all the necessities. I made the guacamole from scratch and found creme fraiche that tasted similar enough to sour cream. I bought shredded emmentale cheese and Old El Paso tortillas from the supermarket. We threw together onions, red peppers and chicken with a packet of Old El Paso fajita seasoning (not so great, imo) and attempted some "Spanish" rice with diced tomatoes and onions. As you can't easily find black beans in France we ate red beans on the side, and that worked alright.
We were expecting Julia to be home by dinner, and we also invited Julien and his girlfriend, Cindy. Julia ended up being stuck in London another night thanks to RyanAir and Cindy had back pain, so it ended up just me, Miguel and Julien eating the fajitas along with a local white beer. We'll call it French-Mex; a valiant effort, but not entirely true to form. (Still tasty.)
Sunday Julia finally got home after a very painful travelling experience. Because she is not a citizen of the EU RyanAir apparently requires you to have a stamp verifying your passport in order to reenter France....I don't know. So she had to stay the night Saturday in London to buy a much more expensive ticket with another agency (she was not reimbursed for the RyanAir ticket) that flew her into Dinon, where she then had to hitchhike to get to a train station to get a connection to Brest and then finally arrive by train and coach in Concarneau. Lesson: RyanAir is not worth it.
That day I had tried to make galettes. I made the batter just as Roselyne had shown me several times....and it still did not work out. It came down to a combination of not having a large enough skillet that wouldn't stick, not having the apparatus to smooth out the batter, not using the correct hotness on the stove, and something in the batter that made the galettes crack as they cooked. All-in-all, it came down to around 11pm and we were eating the disaster that was these galettes.
Monday none of us did much. Julia and I left in the evening for Fouesnant, a neighboring town, for choir rehearsal. Which lasted three hours at the end of which I was ready to collapse. Instead we got home at 10pm and I started making tomato basil chicken with rice for dinner, which worked out MUCH better than the galettes of the previous night.
Julia went into the mayor's office today to ask about the carte de sejour....annnnd they know nothing. We compared our current visas to that which Julia had last year. Her visa from last year was for three months and demanded a carte de sejour to follow the months after it expired. Our current visas last the entire length of our contracts, plus a month or two. We'd like to say that we don't need the carte de sejour (which, it is true that supposedly France was going to phase this out), but at the orientation Oct 7 they told us we would still need it. Thank you, Brittany, for being so up-to-date. We have to call into the prefecture in Quimper to ask further questions. For now let's cross our fingers.
Later today I will attempt a clafoutis aux pommes--Apple Clafoutis, which to my understanding is a bit like apples baked in a custard. Not sure. It sounds and looks tasty, so we'll give it a go. News on the clafoutis later.
Best,
Alicia
1 comments:
Hmmm...we used RyanAir and it was fine, but we were merely tourists with light loads and only staying in the country for a week, so I suppose that helped a lot. This is definitely why I just paid for the more expensive straight flight to Germany on Lufthansa.
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