Day 2 - Sunday

I'm wondering about the effect of sleep or lack there of on my daily activities. Sleep was hit or miss for me the first night. I drifted in and out until we roused from the bed around noon on Sunday. That made for a short day for us. We were lacking energy so spent the day walking, checking out the gare (train station) for future travel to La Rochel and figuring out the metro. We found the grocery store and bought something for breakfast for the next day. We did make a stop at the pharmacy to find help for anti-snoring for Anne!

Since we only had a banana and yogurt for breakfast by 5pm we were a little hungry so we decided french fries would be the ticket. One tray would have been sufficient however, two was too much. (Anne said she was hungry). We came back to the hotel to work on the internet that was not working well for us. Then we went in search of dinner at 9pm!

Guess we must have converted to the French way of eating late or it could have been jet lag. However it was, we were seated outside at Le Plombe du Cantal at 9:30pm. We started in the bar at 9pm since the tables out front on the street were all taken. Eating on the street is by far the most entertaining so we opted to wait so we could try a new kir cocktail made with cassis and white wine. The bartender was very sociable and after trying the veritable concoction and giving the report that it was a bit sweet for us, we were called to a table out front. Saved by the call so to speak.

We were ushered to a table 24 inches round, with a table directly to the left and directly to the right of the same dimensions. The table was pulled apart from one side to allow entry on the opposite side and then it was returned to it's spot. Along the back wall where I sat were 12 tall flat wooden chairs with one chair in front. This left no possible way to exit your spot without moving the table. There were 6 tables side by side like this with one chair able to watch the bar traffic and the chairs on the wall side able to watch pedestrian traffic. Elbows were mere inches away. This gives new meaning to personal space!

Being so far north on the equator, France has day light very late in the evening. Maybe that is why they eat so late. So when they are eating dinner at 9 or 10pm it actually feels like 6 or 7pm.  Dark skies usually arrive around 11:30pm. So it makes for a pleasant evening. If there is a chill in the air, the restaurants have the overhead outdoor heaters to keep you in your seat and spending money!

We ordered two dinners which we eventually found out was enough for 4 people. I ordered a salad topped with duck confit and gizzard sausage. We ended up sharing my dinner and taking Anne's dinner home for breakfast the following morning. Since she had ordered an omelet it worked out fine. My salad was oh so good. We walked home in the falling dusk peering into shops open well after American stores would be closed. We could not believe the amount of restaurants we came across one after the other, with 90% of them being Creperies.  There were also street vendors to sell you crepes.   

   

We ended up back at the hotel and hit the sack around 12:15am.