Tuesday, 8 January 2013

Mon anniversaire


Yesterday was my birthday.  I had lots of email and texts which was very nice given the distance from family and friends.  It was a leisurely start to day with the decision made to go to the Ile de Re which is a holiday destination in the summer.

The Ile de Re is an island a few kilometres north west of La Rochelle.  It is reached by a bridge that rises a fifty metres or so above the sea.  It attracts a hefty toll of 850.

I thought that for my birthday I would have a nice meal at a local bistro in the town of St Martin de Re.  The island is flat and I suspect that the highest part is only 10 metres or so above sea level.  Remarkably it even grows grapes and makes wine.  The first town to go through is called Rivedoux which is clearly where many people go for their holiday there being a camping ground and some rather nice looking beaches.  They even looked nice under the leaden sky that has been ever present since we arrived in France. 

The entrance to St Martin de Re
St Martin de Re is another fortified town with the defences designed by Vauban who must have made a fortune in the 1600s when these elaborate defences were constructed.  They looked very similar to the defences of Le Quesnoy.  We wandered around the impressive defences getting muddy when we went off the path,  then entered through the main gates to the town.  It was very pretty and like nothing one would see in the New World!!

There was a church that from the distance looked like a ruin however it was still a functioning church.  The top part of the church had been destroyed but at some stage it had been roofed over so that it was lower than usual for the style of church.  I found out that you could go up the clock tower and found the door but when rereading the instructions I discovered that it was closed.

It was lunchtime and it seemed a good time to have a meal.  We found this little bistro on one of the quai which did not seem to be busy until we opened the door to find a place full of people, mostly locals.  The food looked good and simple and we had the specials of the day which included huitres chaud (oysters which had been warmed by a sauce ) and then we shared a fillet of fish on fennel (it was well cooked and tasty – probably monkfish) and Noix de jambon avec champignons (it too was delicious with the pork being very tender).  Simple food done deliciously which is what France is all about in my opinion. 

Window display for kitchen utensils
The next stop was a hypermarche, E Leclerc to be precise.  It was huge and we spent a joyful hour or so wandering the aisles looking at the food that was available and getting a few supplies.  There was a lot of variety although in the cheese section there were not as many cheeses as I thought there might be and compared to other supermarkets I have been to.  However it was nice asking for specific amounts of cheeses and getting some charcuterie for a light dinner.  We  also got some Petit Pate de Lapin. 


Boat harbour and church in background
 There was a also a reasonable cellar of wine and I got a half bottle of bubbly which I think came from the Loire and a bottle Chateau Lanessan 2009 (15€) which is an old favourite of mine.  It was from a superb year so I looked forward to having it during the evening.

The evening was spent sipping away on wine, the Lanessan was superb, and the bubbly ok.  The food, which we nibbled on through the evening, was great. I think that with the amount of cheese, wine, baguette and pain au raisins that  I am having I will need to do a lot more walking to deal with the calories or I will be rather larger when I return to Wellington.

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