Skip to main content

 Freezing outside, literally.  


We bundle up at noon and walk to La Cuisine de la Croître,  the gourmet restaurant next to the old Bishop's castle... They offer a tasting menu today, 48euros each for three (official) courses.  Actually received 6 sets, all photographed by Barb: beginning chips, amuse-bouche of hummous, entrée of very-soft-slow-boiled (64degrees for 1 hour!) egg in special sauce, main plate of lamb confit surrounded by seasonal vegetables+polenta, then dessert: galette of mango-rhubarb plus pineapple sorbet with dried pear slice, then financier + mango jelly cube.  Two full glasses of 3 types of great wine (I appreciated that the sommelier selected them for us, appropriate for each dish, and gave us the last two halves as credit for one:  white Languedoc Pays de l'Or, then spicy red  CotesDuRhone with the lamb, then sweet Gros Manseng (my favorite, an unusual white) for the dessert.

Walk around the corner to Le Musée de la Résistance, very comprehensive with good A/V accompaniments, and some historiography, some review of the controversies about the resistance through the years since the war, and distinction between collaborators and collaborationists, emphasizing that the former simply cooperated minimally with the occupiers, while the latter welcomed the nazi ideology and were mercifully few.


Walk around the corner to La Cathédrale Saint-Etienne, with its huge buttresses and spare gothic non-decoration (all granite), seemingly the largest cathedral we've seen so far, 23.5 meters high inside, under constant renovation.  And the bishop's garden.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My COVID journey, finally

11oct22 story of Covid: I flew to Des Moines for a mini-reunion of Thomas cousins; flew back on Monday the 3rd.  I did not wear a mask.  Evidently I should have worn a mask, as I later came down with Covid.  The infection could come from anywhere, typically airborne virus shed by someone in the communicable phase of the disease.   Throughout my airport and flight experience was quite calm and uneventful, so my guess is the most likely vector for the virus was the deplaning time – people are really eager to get out,  they are talking, pressing close together, straining to grab bags from the overhead compartment and coordinate with their partners, thus breathing heavily.  Very few people wore a mask.  I do not remember anyone coughing or sniffling or breathing heavily around me, but that deplaning process is always rather hectic.  I did not press to go quickly, but I did not want to delay my windowside seatmate, so I joined the crowd.  As it was, when I arrived at baggage claim, my suit

Montpellier

  [23mar22] Another walking day: to the A rc de Triomphe , passing through quaint quiet attractive old neighborhoods, particularly the P lace de Marché des Fleurs.  Arc de Triomphe is spectacular, next to an equally impressive Palais de Justice , and the Promenade de Peyrou that has a great view of the surrounding hills and the aqueduct built by Peyrou to supply the city's fountains.  The Jardin des Plantes – oldest botanical garden in Europe – opens at noon, so we walk around to the Cathedral St.Etienne, with its obscure side entrance, but huge interior space, really huge and rather stark, in keeping with its 13 th century origin – though of course several later kings and bishops added chapels, stained-glass, and organ.  While there, the organ started up, providing appropriate sonic accompaniment to the surroundings (ref. My video).   We return to the garden to await its opening, chatting with some Chicago tourists (go Bears!).  The garden is very nice place for sauntering, and

Riding the Bus often

From 201010 Saudi scenes It is ironic that this land of cheap gasoline has so much group transport -- buses. From 201010 Saudi scenes Our housing compound has a Toyota-Coaster bus that takes some to/from school (we usually go earlier and return later, on a similar bus that the school provides). Driver Yahya takes residents on the 90-minute trip down to the Big City shopping every Thursday morning. The above picture shows our group one Thursday, usually going to Ikea or the new Lulu's Hypermarket , or the Dhahran Mall. Coleman rides a different bus every day to and from school -- usually 100 minutes there, 80 minutes back.  His bus is evidently an old tourist bus, usually comfortable but a bit dusty.  The air-conditioning usually works too well.  I've ridden it with him several times, to attend business meetings at the district office. From 201010 Saudi scenes There he is, at 5:45am every morning, at the start of the bus run. Fortunately only about 20 students