Friday, December 23, 2005

To Normandy

Ashley, Kelly I mounted up our trusty Toyota steed and headed off to the northwest and points thereabouts on Sunday December the 19th. A cold overcast morning with clear sky on the western horizon bringing hope that our little expedition to Mont St. Michel and Carnac would yeild lovely pictures and suitable weather for pleasant gawking. We took our new metal detector and planned a stop or two to attempt a metalic find as well. The first night was to be spent near/in Lemans after a tour of the 11th century castle at Fourgeres. The driving was easy and the kilometers just flew along, we got to Fourgeres about 11:30 to learn that only the gift shop was open to us!

So off to the zoo at Doux just south of Samour to reacquaint ourselves with the pack of friendly vultures we had discoverred our last trip there.
Thwarted again! Closed for the winter not to reopen until February! The web site and guide book were both wrong, alas. So off to Lemans to find dinner and have a decent nights sleep. We found the ETAP and booked ourselves in. Then out and about to locate dinner. The Maitre Kanter was right there and being a Sunday night one of the few open restaurants, so in we went out of the brisk winter air. Seating was crowdede orderred various seafood dishes, Ash had some mushroom ravioli with foie gras sauce as a starter and a lovely
alsatian Tokay Pinot Gris split for Ash and Kelly, delicious. I sipped on a straight Irish whiskey and finally orderred a glass of Reisling for my grilled swordfish. Our dinners were served in a very timely manner and well prepared to boot. Kelly had a chacroute (sour crout) of mixed seafood, Ash had the Moules Marinaire (mussels with a tomato sauce). This small chain of restaurants does the job every time we've had the pleasure of going to one, I highly recommend the experience when you are in Lemans.