Arcachon

Following the events described in this blog entry, this happened:

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Our excursion for today was to take a ferry across the bay to Cap Ferret, and toodle about a bit. We walked our bikes out onto the pier, and waited for the ferry to arrive. Feelings of adventure swelled within us.

This particular ferry boat filled up rather quickly, and we ended up boarding another that came in right behind it. The second craft was significantly larger, but either would have been cool in retrospect.

Across the bay, oyster beds lined the shore on either side of the pier.

Tide was out, and the beds could be worked, in whatever way one works an oyster bed. I speculate that this man was doing something to keep the oysters moist while the tide was out.

I have no idea what duties fell to Oyster Dog to accomplish.

When we arrived, tide was out and you can see the boats on the shore resting on the sandy beach. When we returned in the afternoon to take the ferry back, the tide had come in, the boats were floating at anchor, and the oyster beds were completely submerged.

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Cycling Experience: Replace chain after it slips off the chainring.  Level up!!!

I didn’t know the chain had jumped the chainring, as I was riding about 50 yards ahead. That look of smug satisfaction comes from figuring out how to put the chain back on and executing the plan all by herself. Boo-yah!

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We pedaled out to a small harbor area, and settled in for a midday snack. Our map and accompanying directions strongly recommended this locale, so we grabbed a table in the shade of a tree/umbrella combo.

I ordered a Chèvre salad, and what the menu said was a duck terrine. I ordered the terrine thinking I could complete the pig-salmon-duck loaf chunk trifecta. To wash it all down, a 2011 Larrivet Haut-Brion.

The duck terrine was actually a jar of stuff. Savory enough, but not really what I was after. Frankly, I really wasn’t overly interested in duck loaf chunks either. And thusly did I learn a lesson about ordering something simply for the potential photo op.

Julia went for grilled sardines, with salad.

They were reportedly quite tasty. So tasty, in fact, that Julia decided to try Sardine Eyeball. 

Here is the result.

You’re welcome.

Of course, if you are not into that, there is always cheese.

Chris makes his Cheese Face

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We had seen a lot of medieval churches over the last few days – one in every village of a certain size or larger. This church, however, had a unique visual impact.

This is a Catholic church, but the building has a heavy Algerian influence.

Inside, of note, was a fabulous cloth chandelier. We speculated that this could also have provided inspiration for the Travelling Scarf.

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A stop at a grocery store yielded the following images.

So Beautiful

Strangely Appropriate

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Offered without comment.

I want a doggie.

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Back across the bay again, we decided to have dinner at one of the beach front restaurants.

The menu offered sangria, so we decided to check it out. It was pretty good. Not as good as Spanish sangria, but better than what we’ve had stateside.

The restaurant was named “Moules & Beef”. Checking wordreference.com disclosed that moules means ‘mussels’. It noted that moules was also used as a slang term for a body part, in a manner similar to how the word ‘clam’ is sometimes used in American English. So, we riffed on that whole thing for a while, because we are ridiculously immature at times, and also it’s fun.

I would not have thought it possible to feel as though I needed a break from the cuisine we had been enjoying thus far, but in fact all I really wanted was something simple. So I got a burger and a beer. I requested the burger ‘medium’, but it was pretty much raw in the middle. Hey, tartare burger, I decided. Overall, it was pretty tasty. The bun was fantastic. [That was not sarcasm, it really was notably good. – ed.]

Julia got a big pot of warm, slippery moules. <chortle...>

They were garlicy, with parsley, and totally slurp worthy.

Julia had also ordered what appeared on the menu as Café Gourmand. We had thought this would be something like ‘really really good coffee’. As it turns out, this phrase refers to a collection of dessert foods. And also café.

Too Much Dessert

We didn’t leave much behind, but, seriously, at that point, we had to work at it.

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Partway through the events described above, we took this picture.

This is the Highest Sand Dune in Europe. We are heading there tomorrow.