Bourg - Day 4 & 5

09-04: I’m feeling under the weather today didn't do much of anything. Perhaps too much food and drink last night with our friends. Stuart did all the household duties and any necessities. We have a similar trash and recycle system here in town. It is by the church, just a short walk from the apartment. So that was a good job done. Before we had to drive to the church in the teeny town of Mombrier to deposit trash. Stuart also fixed lunch, Croque Monsieur (I didn’t eat much) and for dinner it was shrimp risotto, which really hit the spot. We bought the fresh shrimp in the market yesterday. We played some games. I started reading a book, something I haven’t done in a long time, it is a luxury! They have several books in English here. This one is John Grisham the Widow. I think it will be good. Stuart has done a few things for travel clients. We are both really looking forward to Blaye tomorrow and the Farmer’s market.

09-05: We got up a bit earlier than usual to be ready for the Farmer’s market in Blaye. Stuart went down to the boulangerie patisserie that is just 2-3 doors from us and got a delightful pastry with raisins. Of course, he got a fresh warm baguette and a croissant as well. Now it’s off to the market. What fun! We got at least 4 types of cheese we were looking for and several produce items. Everything is so fresh and bright. They seem to have more clothing and sweets than they did 2 years ago, but it was still a wonderful stop. I was really happy to see some linens and purchased 3 hand towels for our kitchen at home. They are very good quality like the ones I hope to also find in Avignon. We stopped for a snack at Le Petit Port restaurant, as we did last time. It was a bit surprising how unfriendly the staff was. No one smiling, no service with a smile for sure. We had a tiny plate of 4 little items plus a drink and felt fortified to go on to our next stop. We went to a home goods store because we wanted a few things. We have 1 broken ice tray, so we bought a new one. We also got a grater, laundry soap, dish liquid, wash clothes (those are not provided in Europe), and a few other things we deemed necessary. It was a good day. We played more Rummikub, some reading, some photos arranging, and off to bed.

Bourg - Day 3

09-03: Today is a day of rest. Stuart made a nice breakfast for us. We went to dinner at Fanny & Paul’s home so we got to see our farmhouse from the outside anyway. Just a few things have changed. There is a table with benches instead of a table and chairs in front. They also added a lovely planter box as a sort of privacy shield. Things are much the same. Anyway, we had a lovely dinner with constant conversation thanks to their proficiency in English. We had pork “spider” that Paul grilled. It is some portion around the neck from my understanding. Accompanying that was roasted pepper, onion, and other vegetables. Everything was delicious. I forgot to mention that first we had breadsticks, a dip, salami, bread, cherry tomato, and Aperol Spritz. White wine followed that, then red wine with the dinner. After the entrée we had a cheese course followed by dessert, Gâteau Basque, with the Basque cross on top. All the while we ate outside enjoying the lovely weather. To the south we could see Venus as the sun went down. It was a lovely evening with friends.

Bourg - Day 2

09-02: We decided after doing laundry and settling in, we would like to eat lunch out before heading to the grocery store for supplies. We did quite a bit of research only to find out all restaurants but Bourg’Joie close about 1p and don’t open again until 6 or 7. We didn’t want to go shopping when we are hungry and we have no food (except crackers) so de l we started out for Bourg’Joie. To our surprise, just on the corner was a small café that was open. It is called Le Boudoir l’oeil ecoute. They have a small but tasty menu. It seems they specialize in sweets, pastry, ice cream, etc. However, they have a few salads and the standard croque monsieur, which is what we had. We couldn’t leave without trying the ice cream for me and a sweet crêpe for Stuart. Both delicious of course. Now we are off to Carrefour for our first supply of groceries. All the basics and a few other things. We are all set for at least a week. Tomorrow night we will go to the home of Fanny and Paul as we have been invited for dinner. That should be fun and at least we will see our little farm house then and what it looks like in September. I probably won’t post a blog daily as we don’t have many plans here. We do plan to relax. Stuart has things he needs to do on his laptop and I will spend my time working on albums. 

Paris to Bourg by TGV

09-01: Last night we got some disappointing news from our hosts Fanny and Paul. We will not be staying in the Mombrier cottage but in an apartment, they also host in Bourg. Now that might be good news to most people but we were so looking forward to the rustic countryside home. She booked us for the apartment and not the cottage, and now it cannot be changed. 

We bid farewell to Paris and boarded our train to Bordeaux. The trip was uneventful passing many fields of corn and other farming along the way. Small communities and even larger ones are seen from the track but further away. As usual we had a hard time finding the rental car area. Once we did, it took at least 30 minutes to secure the car, but I think a good portion of that was “chatting” about our destination in Bourg. Anyway, off to find the car and then the extended search on level 5 of that area. We finally secured the car and made our way to Bourg. Of course, that was after I navigated us back to the train station! Ugh. We drove into the heart of the small town and found the apartment immediately. Sadly, it is a narrow, winding stairway up to our 1^st floor apartment. Stuart hauled the suitcases up, what a blessing. It is a nice enough place, and we like this little town. We often drove the 10 minutes here from Mombrier to eat or for the Sunday market. There is a nice wine shop near us, but pricey. We will have plenty of opportunities to check out the restaurants here. Previously we only dined at Bourg’Joie, which was our favorite café-bar back in 2024. There were different servers last night for our dinner. We noticed the Italian restaurant, owned by a friend of Fanny’s was now a Kebab restaurant. That is disappointing as we enjoyed pizza there more than once! Anyway, we had each had a salad at Joie and enjoyed some wine. We took the very short walk back to the apartment, past the now-closed bakery, and began the unpacking process. After that, a bit of Rummikub and off to bed. Travel days can be exhausting. 

A bit blurry but a glimpse of the France along the way to Bordeaux.