Brittany and a spectacular lunch
Our 3 day in France and it was time to leave the Loire and move on to a short stay in Brittnay. The drive from Amboise took about 4 hrs. The major roads in France are really good so it made the driving pretty easy. Combined with the greatest marriage savior of the 21st Century, the GPS, getting around France is mostly a breeze. The cities somewhat more difficult but you just ignore the "recalculating" that the GPS does and everything is good. As long as Linda say's "she's happy" (Linda referring to the GPS), there is domestic bliss in the car.
We did have a little exciting adventure at the toll booth. Like I said the roads in France, at least the major roads are pretty good to some extent because you're paying for them. A number of the major roads are toll roads. The way it works is that as you drive down these toll roads, there are stops where you get a ticket that is coded with where you began. Later there will be another stop where you put the ticket in the machine and it tell's you what you owe. Here's the problem, paying. Certain lanes require that you have a French Credit card or a special card that is used to pay similar to the fast pass we have in the US. Now I'm fine with paying. The problem is that only the far right lane allows you to pay in Euro's. A lesson that we now know. Of course we got in the wrong lane, the card did not work and there was no place to put in Euro's. As we fumbled with trying to figure all of this out, we did not make friends with the guy who followed us into the lane thinking that we knew what we were doing. I could tell by the hand gestures that he was making (these do not require translation) he was not happy with us and had to back out. After a good five or 10 minutes of trying and calling for aid (they only spoke French) we ended up backing out too and going to the lane that did accept Euro's.
Lesson learned.
On to a fantastic lunch in Brittany. We had made reservations at Château Richeux et le restaurant Le Coquillage, A fantasic old Chateau that over looks the the English channel just outside of Cancale. This was such a memorable place that I'm not going to spare you the photos on this one.
A perfect wine, The French call it Chablis, we call it Chardonnay, it was perfect with the shellfish
Madame and the Fromage trolley. Unforgivably room did not allow. We had to skip the cheese. We will make up for this transgression at another time..
This photo doesn't really do this justice. The pastry chef had probably 20 different desserts to choose from. Five different fresh fruit desserts, cakes, strawberry tarts, biscuits, custards, poach pears with chocolate sauce, 3 different kinds of homemade ice cream, mille-feuille with vanilla cream, and profiteroles with pistachio cream. He would even make you up a sampler plate of as much as you wanted. A dessert junkie's heaven. By this time we were pretty spent but couldn't resist a little taste of the mille-feuille with vanilla cream, and profiteroles with pastachio cream and strawberry tart. Fantastic.
What a great memory! Definitely one of the top ten meals of my life.
We did have a little exciting adventure at the toll booth. Like I said the roads in France, at least the major roads are pretty good to some extent because you're paying for them. A number of the major roads are toll roads. The way it works is that as you drive down these toll roads, there are stops where you get a ticket that is coded with where you began. Later there will be another stop where you put the ticket in the machine and it tell's you what you owe. Here's the problem, paying. Certain lanes require that you have a French Credit card or a special card that is used to pay similar to the fast pass we have in the US. Now I'm fine with paying. The problem is that only the far right lane allows you to pay in Euro's. A lesson that we now know. Of course we got in the wrong lane, the card did not work and there was no place to put in Euro's. As we fumbled with trying to figure all of this out, we did not make friends with the guy who followed us into the lane thinking that we knew what we were doing. I could tell by the hand gestures that he was making (these do not require translation) he was not happy with us and had to back out. After a good five or 10 minutes of trying and calling for aid (they only spoke French) we ended up backing out too and going to the lane that did accept Euro's.
Lesson learned.
On to a fantastic lunch in Brittany. We had made reservations at Château Richeux et le restaurant Le Coquillage, A fantasic old Chateau that over looks the the English channel just outside of Cancale. This was such a memorable place that I'm not going to spare you the photos on this one.
Overlooking the English Channel
The Room with our table in center of the picture window.
The Amuse Buche
Tempura Langostines, Mustard Marinated Mackerl, and Rillet of Sardines -a great start
Here's the star of the show. This is what we came for.
All Local seafood, including Oysters, Langostines, Clams, Lobster, Spider Crab, Rock Crab, Cockles and Welks - unbelievable. It was huge. The photo doesn't do it justice. it was unbelievable. When they brought it to the table the couple sitting next to us said "good luck".
Linda and I prepare for the feast. Ok I thought the same thing when they brought out the baby bibs. I'm not wearing this silly thing. I capitulated and I'm glad I did. I think by the end of the meal they would have had to hose is down. We had shellfish debris scattered everywhere
This is the after photo. I thought we did pretty good. A few Oysters (It broke my heart to leave them) a few Welks, they were pretty good if you could get past their boggier like appearance. And some cockles, not the greatest thing I've ever eaten. All in all and unbelievably memorable meal.
Madame and the Fromage trolley. Unforgivably room did not allow. We had to skip the cheese. We will make up for this transgression at another time..
This photo doesn't really do this justice. The pastry chef had probably 20 different desserts to choose from. Five different fresh fruit desserts, cakes, strawberry tarts, biscuits, custards, poach pears with chocolate sauce, 3 different kinds of homemade ice cream, mille-feuille with vanilla cream, and profiteroles with pistachio cream. He would even make you up a sampler plate of as much as you wanted. A dessert junkie's heaven. By this time we were pretty spent but couldn't resist a little taste of the mille-feuille with vanilla cream, and profiteroles with pastachio cream and strawberry tart. Fantastic.
What a great memory! Definitely one of the top ten meals of my life.
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