Oxford and Harry Potter

Christ Church College is where it is at. 

Zillions of people will attest. All wanting to see the Harry Potter sites.

This is the inspiration for Hogwart's Great hall

And Alice wonderland stretchy neck fireirons.

Alice use to play on the other side of this wall. Lewis Carroll could look down on her. A little creepy I think

The perfect end to a long day.

Le Recreation

Many years ago we read a book called "You Can't See Paris From Here". It's about an American family that goes to live for a year in the village of Les Arques near Cahors with a restaurant called Le Recreation.  We came for a fabulous lunch in 2007 and returned again this trip. I am happy to report that it is still fabulous, even though it has changed hands. The restaurant is housed in the old village school. We sat under a huge chestnut tree and had the multi course 39 Euro menu. Started with gazpacho, Tom had cheesy crust wrapped asparagus for his entree, I had sesame coated shrimp with mango salsa.

For the main dish I had lamb with sweet potato purée and a meat stuffed squash blossom. Tom had pork tenderloin.

But of course the polmerol wine was extra good and it was decanted into a fancy stemmed pourer.

We took the remainder of the bottle with us to have with our burgers from Jacks that evening. Good burgers too.9

Desert was the crowning glory and we had to spend the remainder of the afternoon under a tree sleeping it off. 

The Toulouse airport was the final destination. Tom says he is over Formula 1 hotels, cheap as they might be and even though they have a 3 Euro breakfast that includes chocolate spread. Next time we are going for air conditioning.  I was over them years ago (good sport points).

He is flying home and I am off to London. I am really sad to leave France, I could easily stay a few more months. We made new friends, rode our bikes, explored new foods and really had a great time. I just need to win the lottery so I can buy my own house in France. Every one can come visit.

Dream come true?

Our landlord in St. Colombe mentioned he was going to Bergerac for the race, too. Maybe he could find us tickets to the Technology Camp? Maybe!!!! Dude, we got into the heart of the TV, radio, timing and scoring center of the TdF. Be still, my beating heart...

First, we had to park and find the finish line with the TdF Village adjacent. It was pouring buckets while the crew was setting up steel fence, banners, inflatables and more. 

Then they would need to pick it back up when the wind and rain blew everything down - just like our races. 

Then we met Jean Marc and he had E Ride tickets! He works for Orange, the big French telecom company who had the contract to provide WiFi, digital transmissions for photos, and a thousand other projects keeping the Tour connected with the world. They were staged inside this enormous compound set up next to the finish line with miles of cables everywhere

We had a tour of 1 of their semi trailers packed to the gills with equipment

And then we got to the Finish line itself. Inside the timing booth, checked out the photo finish equipment, oogled the location

We entered another trailer, this one set up for press conferences with a TV link back to the school auditorium 500 yards away that served as their press center. Everybody got a shot at the microphone and then they made a BIG mistake - they gave me my turn......

I did not get the job

I got the consolation prize - a nice lunch while waiting in a dry place for a very rainy finish to the race. WHAT a day at the races!

And on to Monbazillac

I

After checking out the start of the time trial in Bergerac and buying out the boutique

We made our way to Monbazillac the home of the sweet desert wine that goes so well with fois gras. It was quiet and calm and the place to get a salade du chef- duck breast two ways. Afterwards we slept it off in the forest surrounding the Chateau de Monbazillac. Lovely with a cool breeze.

What a great view they have.

A visit to the Chateau resulted in the purchase of two half bottles to drink with you know what at Christmas time if they last that long.

Somebody spent hours making thousand of mostly yellow flowers. They were everywhere, on fences, grape vines, hanging on buildings and decorating bikes. They did themselves proud for yesterday's stage. 

Different travel styles in France

We saw a ton of cyclists enjoying the same canal path we used - only they were packed for camping. Most just loaded up panniers front and back like the orange bags in the photo but we saw a lot of families using small carts, too. Sometimes they were loaded with squids but often they had oodles of camping implements.

Cooking class a la Francaise

First we went to the marche in Laverdac and bought meat, vegetables and fruit. 

I contributed eels to make the pickled eels from the Italian cooking class.

We had to have a little snack in the garden before we started. We had to have a little snack before we went as well...

We had two women from the US and one much younger one from Amsterdam.  

We layered rabbit and pintade in a pan to braise for a grande meat pie.

We used the broth to make a "summer" cassoulet vegetable soup with beans.

We had to disturb the baby ducks and mama to pick the Marabelle plums for our desert tart.

Here are the eels ready to eat. Most satisfying even though I didn't get to make the pie, that was done the next day and had to pack up for our departure to Bergerac and the tour.

Check out Kate Hill's web site, it's a great experience of you can manage it.

http://kitchen-at-camont.com/

What else do they grow in France?

Great big fat green leaves - what do we have here? Some sort of cabbage? Something the "Bio" political people want to convince us they've found the new Quinoa? Nah, this is a cash crop that dries out in these tall, all wood barns that dot the Gascon farmer's landscape

Give up? Think tobacco

Little flavor bombs

Remember when I showed you the beautiful prunes in their original state? Here's what they get transformed into after some Agen magic. The prune guts are removed, mixed with all sorts of extraordinary flavors - the proprietor of this shop calls them "Perfumed" - OK, I'll go with that! Ten they are reinserted back into the prune bag and Voila! I just know they are plump little explosions of flavor

A trip to Toulouse

Now here is a train station where you could be proud to arrive  However we drove  and chanced to park in the garage above a fabulous indoor market. We thought the one in Agen was pretty nifty, but Victor Hugo is much bigger.

I was taken by the seafood displays.

But Tom's heart was won by the aged beef. The beef with the pink dots is aged 60 days. And that pink dot also corresponds to Major money! 42 Euros a kilo, that's 21 Euros a pound and that's currently about $28/pound for your aged Charolais. 

These little couteaux clams are the specialty of our landlord who cooks them on the grill.

The second floor of the market is all restaurants and you can eat on the balcony. We didn't eat there, we wandered along to the main square where there was lots of action. 

One side is flanked by city hall and Saturday is wedding day. There were brides and people streaming up from the underground parking lot in their cha cha clothes. The market in the middle was hopping and we were treated to a brass band similar to a pep band only much better. And there was a pro Palestinian protest escorted by motorcycle police and followed by vans full of armored police and even a bus to haul off misbehaviors. Not needed all was peaceful.  

We had lunch in one of the restaurant along the square where Tom had cassoulet de Toulouse with a duck leg. I had very nice fish, thank you, I think cassoulet is like spaghetti or chili, you like your own best.

We had a wander around the alleys and streets of old town Toulouse and then headed back to Saint Columbe for a fabulous thunder and lighting storm. You could feel the temperature drop, a welcome respite from the muggy heat.

Marche Nocternal II (Deux)

Different town, different night and lots more people. The summer season has started, it is hot  again. Rain is predicted for Sunday, hurrah! Maybe. The evening was lovely in Lapayrade, a tiny fortified town up on the top of a hill. The acordion was playing, people were dancing, people were eating. 

We had roasted rolled and stuffed pintade (guinea fowl) and 2 kinds of sorbet, organic and artisinal. Rubarb, pear with candied ginger, apricot and plum. And the first figs of the season.

And a great frog serenade as we walked back to the car.

Last photo - the one lane bridge across the Lot river as we made our way home.

Recognize it Greta?

Southern France discovers BELGIAN beer!

Last time we were in this neck of the woods, 2009, we had to make do with French stadium beer. You know, like Bud or Coors Light or Miller - the stuff you pay $8 or $9 at a Giants game. the French variety is either Kronenbourg or 1664 and that's all that was in the grocery stores back then. But the Belgians have invaded and now we got ourselves some real suds!

Although not a problem, more of a cultural twist, their 6-packs come in 25 cl bottles - half the size we're used to. I can still buy the regular 750 cl bottles like we have at home but these petites really make the "cute" definition for some of our demographic

the apricot is for scale, Dudes.