#345 Barcelona

We left France by train, stopped overnight in Perpignan, took two more trains heading south and ended up in Barcelona for a paella with Carrie & Tom.

It used to be that buying stuff in the market was cheaper than shopping in stores but that seems to have changed with low price supermarkets like Lidl and Aldi - except today.

I ran into Barcelona's famous Boqueria market and selected a kilo of fresh tuna for 15€, some green beans for 3€, a pair of ace kitchen scissors for 12€, a tin of new improved Ghana Fresh Palm Nut Cream Concentrate for another few euros and finally got a right short haircut for 4€ (plus a 1€ tip). Bargains the lot :-)

My barber was so pleased with the tip that he agreed to come out and be photographed in front of his shop.

#344 Cahors

We are in Cahors . . I think . . ?

On thursday we went with our friends Brian & Maureen to a village fête in nearby Aujols and a night of eating duck & chips and drinking glasses and glasses of wine.

We sat outside on benches with a few hundred locals and were serenaded by a three piece band; piano, base and accordion - why is it that the accordion is so popular in France? and, possibly, Argentina . . . ?

Anyway, I digress because the next day we went out eating again, this time for lunch at the Auberge Lou Bordié in the village of Bach. Actually, it's not the first time we've been here (#179) and I'm assuming the renown clebrity chef Jamie Oliver must have read my blog and so decided to come to film a piece for one of his Chanel 4 tv shows in the restaurant (the one about about the pyrénées part of France).

The boss lady, Madame Valette has plenty of photos of Jamie taking over her kitchen, so we took one as well.

I tried to take a pic of our serveuse Mélodie bringing our éntrée but she was too quick and I missed the plate - sorry.

#343 440km from Chateau Gontier to Montmoreau St Cybard.

Sunday:

A long day's drive. Our poor old Winnebago is 22 years old and creaks and groans a bit if I try to exert it. Taking the direct route, with all the stopping and starting for junctions and roundabouts, has the 7400cc engine really guzzling the gas. So I drove at a stately pace and kept to motorways to save fuel.

In its (and my) youth, I would select cruise control and be flying down the autoroutes at 70mph, a Bob Marley cassette cranked up to full volume. Now an average of 50mph still gets us there (eventually). But, sad to say, seemed to have mislaid all the reggae tapes - and who's got new cassette tapes these days?

We are on an almost empty municipal campsite with not much going for it except, right next door - a swimming pool :-)

#342 A Bit Fishy

I like to think I'm a bit of a gourmand, I follow one rule when perusing menus in expensive restaurants - ignore any dish costing more than 10€ ;-)

However the other day was (apparently) our wedding anniversary so when we went out to eat I ignored my costing rule and also my "wtf is that?" criteria and ordered something I didn't know called Sandre. This turned out to be a very nice piece of fresh water fish much esteemed locally.

I checked with wikipedia and found its alternate spelling Zander, this picture and a little story to go with it:

In July 2009 in Switzerland, a zander attacked tourists in a Lake near Italy, sending two to the Emergency Room with the worst cut being about 10 centimeters long. The zander was later caught by the local police who cooked it and offered it to the tourists for the trouble it caused. It is very unusual for zanders to attack humans.