Wednesday, October 24, 2012

made it to France!

drove across the border after numerous wrong turns on the Spanish freeways and immediately ran into a little French fishing village right on the coast - popped into a little coffee shop where we were greeted with "bon jour" in that sing song manner of the French - just love it - "cafe Ameicain sil vu plait" - then sat on a beautiful sidewalk with the sun pouring down and thought to myself - and since we were in France I used my quiet, internal Gordo voice - "this is what I'm talking about" 

we were heading up into the Pyranees mountains today to visit a couple of towns I had discovered during the previous nights insomnia - the first was Sare - a tiny village overlooking the greenest hills and the sheep on them - beautiful beyond belief - the village itself is listed as one of the most beautiful in France - a typical 2 1/2 hour lunch with a local bottle each of rose and white followed - Jamie took so many pictures of each dish as they arrived I thought we were on a food vacation - the French are the best in the world at preparing and presenting food - running across a restaurant of this quality in New York City would be difficult and that we stumbled on it in a 300 person town in the mountains - in a hotel - is just unbelievable - God I love this place!

I had seen the town of Espelette on the map the previous night and wondered if it had anything to do with the spread that was sitting on my stores shelf - well it did - the town is famous all over France for producing chili peppers - they were everywhere when we arrived - hanging on buildings - in the stores - at one we did some very nice communicating by pointing and tasting and ended up buying some really fun (and hot) new products that I want to start importing for my store - super cool town with very nice and helpful people - will always think of this experience when using my Espelette Chutney.

the final stop was in Biarritz - a bustling city on the coast - so different from its neighbor San Sebastian - reserved and quiet as compared to loud and demonstrative - I loved Spain and its offerings but this country fits my personality so much more - they are confident and understated, love the finer things of life and offer a level of service that is just remarkable.

off to a corkdork's Mecca in the morning - I tossed around lying a mat down and lay prone facing north towards Bordeaux when I arise in the morning - decided against it - we have winery tours up there for the next two days but am a bit apprehensive - I've always been so afraid of Bordeaux that I've just avoided it - this is serious wino country where the legends come and bottles sell for thousands - I feel I'm jumping into the deep end - will let you know if I can swim!

your pal,

mt

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