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The bodies spoke very loudly this morning, the alarm amy have gone off at 7:30 but we didn’t get out of bed until 9:30. Breakfast is until 10:30 so we just splashed water on our faces and hair quickly dressed and went down to eat. The breakfast room was very busy and warm. The offerings were extensive, including the egg station where they would cook them anyway you wanted, including an omelet, they even had batter for crepes. We made it easy and just had scrambled eggs with the usual suspects. The croissants here, obviously not from a bakery but mass produced and small.
At the moment we are just finishing up getting ready to go pick up a couple of bikes to explore two different sections of the city. It is a sunny day, a bit windy, but the humidity is high. It should be a good day for bike riding. While Jerry was getting ready, I checked work e-mails and caught up on the trip finances. Looking forward to discovering the city today, so more on that later.
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The original plan was to rent our bikes yesterday afternoon and have them for the two full
days we are here, that of course did not work because they insisted you store him inside overnight and our hotel, 4 star or not, did not have that type of accommodations. So, after breakfast we headed back over to rent them a day at a time. When we arrived at green bikes, they were closed for their 2-hour lunch period, I expect that in Spain, but not really France. Our entire next two days hinged on the bikes, so we were a bit at a loss of what to do. Fortunately, for once google maps came through and located another bike shop that was open and only 250 meters away. The name of this rental shop is Cycling Tour La Rochelle, I recommend them over Green Bikes, they are more flexible, open for better hours, and as long as you lock it, they don’t care if the bike is in or outside overnight. There are other reasons, I would recommend them, but we will get to that in a bit.
We did have to use my translation app in conversation mode to get through the rental process, but it still went pretty smoothly. With our bikes and baskets,
we headed off to explore neighborhoods we might want to live in. The first several were way to affluential and out of our retirement budget, others were just to modern and had zero Frenchness to them. The bike paths here are the best I have ever seen in any city; bikes clearly rule in La Rochelle. It was also mostly flat. We took some wrong turns here and there but managed to hit all the spots we wanted to check out.
We headed back towards the central market to check out the area north of the center of town. It has been awhile since we have really done much bike riding. We bought ourselves two brand new bikes for Christmas, they are very sturdy, easy to ride and will last for years. So far, we have only taken them out once, but now that Spring is here, we will start using them more. The reason we bought them was for our retirement here in Europe. We don’t own a car now and we don’t plan on owning one when we retire, hence the bikes, and our requirement that the village have a train station.
I am sure everyone
has heard the saying “its like riding a bike, once you learn you never forget.” Well, that may be true, but it doesn’t mean you are quite the expert you were when you were 12 and it was your only way of getting anywhere. Jerry has very good balance, I do not, I never have, and I never will. So, each time I started out I was a bit wobbly but managed to stay upright until. . . it happened. The next 60 minutes of our trip was like a scene from an “I Love Lucy” episode or that scene in every 40’s romantic comedy, that involves a bike, a stream and, you know what comes next. The role of Lucy was played by me, in todays episode. We were making the turn to ride through the park on our way to the next neighborhood, Jerry was a good 200 feet ahead of me, and I started off, wobbly and with a pedestrian dead ahead. I had two choices, first, knock her over, didn’t really seem like the right option to cause an international incident, so the second option was really the only choice, straight to the blackberry bushes, and
right into the canal, bike, passport, phone and all. There is no photographic evidence of this, so I could have kept my dignity and not even mentioned it, but what fun would that be. It wasn’t funny at the time, but riding back to the hotel, drenched, muddy and embarrassed, I really couldn’t help but laugh.
The unplanned swim put an end to the day’s tour. Back at the hotel, it took about an hour to get all of the mud out of places I am not sure how it even got to. The most amazing thing, my phone still works and the only thing I lost was my sunglasses. After I got cleaned up, we went back to the bike shop, and this is why I recommend this place. They didn’t really care about the bike, were much more concerned that I was not hurt. I did twist my bad ankle, but mostly my pride was damaged. The guy at the bike shop adjusted the handlebars, which were pretty twisted but not broken and off we went. Tomorrow will be another bike day, hopefully free of any slap stick comedy.
Back in the room, Jerry is out
doing some wine shopping and other things we need for the rest of our trip. My clothes from today on soaking in the bathtub to see if the mud can be gotten out. I was knee deep in the mud in the canal, felt like quicksand. I would still be in the canal at this moment, if it were not for the help of two landscapers that happened to have a latter and helped me out of the drink.
We don’t have a dinner reservation yet, Jordan at the front desk is working on it. We did not have lunch because I spent to much time in the canal. Breakfast was pretty filling so really was fine without lunch. I now must have wine to fully recover from the days Lucy episode.
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Dinner at Annette
Well, this was certainly the highlight of the day. It is hard to top a header in to a canal, but dinner managed to do it. Annette is not a tourist hangout; it is where the locals eat and, on a street, where the locals eat. It was next to a pizza place and that pizza smelled great.
Annette is very small, maybe 8 tables inside and some outside seating. We opted for outside as the inside seemed a bit stuffy, but by the end it was a bit nippy outside.
The food was very good and a bottle of Burgundy for $55 dollars, that is unheard of back home. I don’t have many pictures for the day, so sorry for most of them being food.
Jerry started with a velouté of asparagus, very similar to a dish I had in Lyon. Very nice almond cream on the bottom with some grilled asparagus and a pinch of espelette, which is French Basque paprika.
I had tempura of cod. It was a French play on British fish & chips, very good.
The entrées were equally as good, Hake in an artichoke sauce for Jerry and Grilled lamb ribs for me.
We both went with the Chocolate tart for dessert. It was a very relaxing dinner and we enjoyed watching the locals pass by. I do think we have happened upon gay pride weekend here in La Rochelle, their seems to be an influx of the boys arriving in town for the weekend. We leave
Saturday morning, so we will miss the festivities.
That’s pretty much it for the day, what more do you want. Another day of biking tomorrow in different sections of the city.
If I don't get a lot of comments on this post, then, you're just not reading.
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Sharon Hughson
non-member comment
Thanks for the Laugh
I'm so glad nothing was hurt but your pride in the bike accident. And, yes, I was laughing as I pictured this. Didn't the gal whose life was saved by your swerve stop to help? If not, how rude! I'm also glad the bike shop had their priorities right. One in the states would probably have made you buy the bike. "You break it, you buy it!" Was the dish of the day the tempura cod? If you said, I missed it, but I do see the photo. It doesn't sound like you found the right neighborhood for retirement yet, so I hope the search tomorrow is more fruitful.