La Rochelle, Bordeaux,

 La Rochelle, France

8 June

We opted out of an excursion for this port.  To be honest, we are getting ready to go hone and the excursions on offer are becoming less interesting to us.  A walking tour of a city has just never appealed to us. Museums and Churches don’t appeal to George so they are out too.  I know Rod and Merry went on a tour entitled "Green Venice". It seemed quite nice, but the description just made it sound dull.  

Instead, I did the next best thing.  I searched puzzle shops in La Rochelle!  We found four and went on a walk about to see if we could find anything we didn’t already have.  As luck would have it, we found two puzzles.  Well, really only one but that’s ok.  The first was produced by Smartgames, and the second is a modern version of Jeux de Société.  It’s a little suitcase with 6 different puzzles inside.  This will be a modern version of the many sets we have from the 1800's & 1900’s.  

One of the sights that surprised me was the numbering left over from times past.

There were some nice buildings and a few interesting sculptures.  We even arrived in time for a street fair. 

We wandered around the town for a while, then found a place to have a bit of lunch.  It was ok. I had to laugh at myself.  I ordered a charcuterie board and as there was no bread or crackers with it, I just ate the cheese and meat by themselves.  I saw this rolled up cheese in a wrapper, so I unwrapped it and took a small chunk so I could say I tried them all.  YUCK!  I just took a mouthful of butter!  End of meal.

We spent a bit of time sitting along the waterfront watching the boats go by and then we walked along the waterfront to go back to the ship.  George wouldn’t let me ride the carousel.  He said it was for smaller kids than me. 

Along the way we saw some great graffiti. 

Since it was docked quite a way from the city, we took the shuttle bus back.   Upon our return, we played a game of RummyQ and napped until dinner.  

La Verdos-Sea Day

9 June

As usual, we were lazy in the morning.  We had lunch around 11:30 and then played a game of cards with our friends.  Since we were to dock in Bordeaux today we sat out on the balcony after the game and watched the river go by.  We had a lovely bottle of wine and enjoyed the scenery.  At one point, we turned around and backed into the port.  But first, we went under an elevator bridge!  I’ve never seen one of these before.  It was a thrill to watch. 

That night we had an ATW dinner and cocktail party.  There were something like 6 busses heading over.  Free flow wine and hors d’oeuvre abound.  There were a couple of oyster stations and a few men making caricatures of the guests.  No, we didn’t get one done-the lines were a bit long, and there were quite a few guests having both artists do their caricature. 

I saw a sculpture of a lady in the pond and took off to take a look.  There was also a nymph, and I believe a thinker. 

The owners of this chateau never showed up.  I have a feeling it was just set up for dinner parties.  But we did have a group of shepherds on stilts wander around amongst us.  

After a while we all wandered over to the stables to have dinner.  As we entered we were given a hat to wear.  When we politely refused, we were told "no hat, no wine". Sold.  I’ll take the light brown one.  

We all sat at three long tables in a rather random fashion. The table setting was fresh fruit and veg, the wine glasses didn’t match, nor did the tableware.  There were candles all up and down the tables and wine barrels on the side for us to put our hats on.  All in all, it was a lovely rustic setting. 

The first wine we had was nasty.  I don’t know how to say it other than that.  It was a red, and I think it was off.  It was so earthy and just flat. The smell was impossible to get past.  I thought I was crazy because people on the other side of the table loved it.  When I smelled their wine, we had two different wines.  Both were poured from the same vintage, but not the same bottle.  We asked to have our glasses changed out and the second was better but not really to our taste.  

The meal was served.  It was pepper stuffed veal with an eggplant and pepper stack and mashed potatoes all covered in a lovely red wine jus.  Sadly I’m allergic to peppers so mine was just veal with a bit of eggplant and mashed potatoes.  No jus.  Dry as can be.  But the wine was good.  

The next course was cheese and we had a good time trying to get people to eat goat and sheep cheese.  I got a kick out of George’s instructions on how to eat the cheese and how the wine enhanced it; while our table guests just shook their heads.  For me, you can’t go wrong with cheese.  Dessert was a chocolate cup with raspberries.  The wine with this course was simply amazing! 

The waiter put down one bottle of wine in front of us and told us that was the last one. By this time, no one was drinking and we corked it and took the remainder back to the room. It was just too good to throw away.  

Needless to say, after 4 glasses of wine we slept well that night.

Bordeaux

10 June

Initially we were to leave port this evening, but we woke to an announcement by the captain telling us the next port of call would be cancelled due to weather and that we would have an extra night here and be leaving on 11 June at 4 am.  Oh great! We could have dinner in town.  

We went on a sand dune hike and oyster tasting tour today.  The sand dunes are a natural phenomenon and the largest dunes in Europe. We opted to take the 270+ steps rather than climb the dune as George had twisted his ankle the day before.  The view from the top was spectacular!  We spent about 1/2 an hour sitting here before heading back down to the bus.

Along the way we stopped so I could put my shoes back on and while we were doing so, a group of school children walked past.  They all greeted George with Bonjour Papa Noel.  We get this everywhere we go and it always makes us smile.  

After the hike, we drove another 10 minutes to the waterfront where we learned about how they farm the oysters and how the oysters reproduce.  Basically, the oysters shoot their eggs out and when that is done, the oysters change genders and fertilize them.  The eggs are then caught on a variety of different catching devices and later are brought back and scraped off and placed into bags to grow. 

We were told the oysters take up to 3 years to grow before the are ready to be eaten.  From here we took a walk over to some waterfront tables and had a glass of white wine and a half a dozen oysters. They were delicious!  I’m not big on oysters, but these were so fresh and simply divine.  I had 4 and gave the last two to George-I’m such a good wife.  We returned to the ship and played a game or two before going to dinner.

Now, we had reservations at Toscana so I decided we would eat there tonight and have dinner in town tomorrow night.  I can see all you clever folk shaking your heads at me. You are right.  I didn’t really listen to the announcement.  We had a lovely dinner with an amazing view and a fantastic bottle of wine, so all was well.

Sea day

11 June

Ok, today really was a sea day.  I woke up around 5 am and saw that we were indeed moving. Oops.  I got it wrong and we wouldn’t be having dinner tonight in town.  Oh well.  We have reservations for Toscana again.  

We spent the morning playing games and watching movies.  Our lunch was room service and I’ll be honest, we didn’t get dressed until dinner time.  What a way to spend the day.  I simply love it.