My Very Own Self
"Sugar and spice and everything nice, My Dearly Beloved and then Some
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|  || Monday, September 18, 2006 || Day 13 - La Rochelle!Went to La Rochelle today. As you probably did not know, La Rochelle is a little seaside town on the western coast of France, located in the same région of Poitou-Charantes as my little town, Poitiers. As the weather would have it, the day dawned rather cloudy and the photos generally took on a greyish tone. Happily though, there is Picasa.  [From left to right - First row: boats at La Rochelle, me on a park bench, La Rochelle buildings; Second row: Old towers, Lumpy at the train station, nice old woman who sold peanuts-in-sugar; Third row: nice man Lumpy posed with, distant view of the town, The ”Tchou-Tchou” whom brought us to the Minimes Beach]I could wax lyrical about the quaintness and general adorability of this darling little seaside place, but I’ll let the pictures do the talking instead. A picture after all, says a thousand words. And try as I may, I could never in phrases totally capture the charm of this lovely town. The gentle murmur of the sea, the fresh landward breeze, the hum of the seaside crowd, the cheerful boats berthed by shore, the warm caress of the friendly sun (which decided to turn up after all!), the tranquility of ancient towers standing vanguard, the beauty of the sky joining up with the sea... I don’t do La Rochelle justice! Nor do the pictures really... each may well say a thousand words, but so many more do they miss out! Still, that’s the best I can do so too bad for you. But I strongly urge you to go there for yourselves one day. On to a topic I can talk about: Food. At Shumin’s insistence, on authority of the Lonely Planet guidebook, we went to André’s, a seafood restaurant so good it took over 17!! We ordered the seafood platter which was highly recommended - consisting of mussels, prawns, 2 fish (who remembers what sort), squid and little... Norwegian/Normandy (?) lobsters and butter rice.  [From left to right - First Row: me outside an interestingly named resturant, my plate at André’s, oyster-sheller at André’s; Second row: me at André’s - what lovely decor!, THE seafood platter, me and the seafood platter; Third row: me outside André’s with the seafood men, Lumpy and the nuts-in-sugar we bought, the nuts stand and a pot of boiling sugar]OOOOOOHH! The prawns were sweet and succulent, the squid was vividly fresh and the fish was strangely decent. Granted, the little lobsters were... well little and unspectacular but the mussels... Oh the mussels... flavour like never before. Every bite was an explosion of flavour... a seafoodish sort of saltiness mingled with sweet and fresh and juicy. This was taste itself! Every mouthful was so good I had to gasp then sigh in contentment and disbelief and then be left breathless. I ended the meal smiling. €26 it cost me but worth every penny (or, if you must be particular, centime). Oh I would go back, just for the mussels themselves. [Must try oysters too next... if mussels alone can produce such an effect...]. For dessert (which was also our starter since we reached La Rochelle early and André’s hadn’t opened yet and we were greedy), we bought sugared peanuts - delicious crunchy nuts coated in caramelised sugar - happiness in a mouthful. They were good. We finished them all (well at least Shumin and I gobbled them down greedily, then she decided to watch her weight so I polished them off). I love La Rochelle! *** Oh and in case you were wondering, this is Shumin and a very apt photo of her:  In case you are one of my really hopeless and uncaring friends, she’s the one on exchange in France with me!
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