Our day started by dragging our bodies (minds were not engaged) out of bed at 5:30 AM. Holy cow, our clothes were smoky… and our swimsuits still damp. A small challenge to keep our luggage untainted.
We somehow packed and headed out into the pre-dawn early-light morning. The cats were out in force.. all of them. The birds were all creating a huge songfest, must be why the cats are about. The ocean was spectacular with palm trees and agave cactus framing it. We ended up at the train station just as the sun came up over the water. Okay, actually a nice morning for having had no sleep.
Our train ride to Nice was smooth. Most of the trip the ocean was in view from the train, revealing early morning sunbathers, sailboats, cruise ships building/maintenance docks and lots of lucky citizens with views of the sea.
In Nice, we spotted a fast food Chinese-Indian-Indonesian restaurant across from the train station, and we ran towards it with glee. No milk, no pizza.. with spice, please! The selection of items was immense.
We landed in Arles, France. After four tries, we found a hotel that had one room left. Okay, sounds fine by us.
Derrell decided he wanted a fine French meal. We picked a restaurant with tons of the recommended restaurant stickers on it and settled in. Unfortunately, French food is still French. We had a great assortment of items: crawfish goo wrapped in puff pastry with a creamy leek sauce with baby crawfish eyeing you around the plate; smoked salmon in a nice presentation; herb crusted overly rare lamb; fishy fish with saffron cream (uh-oh, the milk thing kept this on my plate uneaten); great baked tomatoes; great potato-au-gratin; horrible vegetable pate; good green beans wrapped in bacon; adequate rice pilaf; standard baguette; spicy appetizer olives; cheese plate of blue cheese, tangy something cheese, and something or other cheese (Derrell decided this was the best part of the meal). Okay, so we are back on variety, but the food and textures is quite challenging. The scariest part of the meal was reading the menu. They had an English translation that read ‘Leg of Guinea-Pig’. Luckily, Derrell’s menu had a hand-written correction ‘Leg of Guinea-Fowl’. That was right above the Piglet entry, no correction on that one. Hmm.. how about a simple salad for lunch tomorrow (no eyeballs, no pets…)?
