Hey hey! Ever hear of Les Côtes-du-Rhône? Ever wonder where this magical place is? Well, much to my surprise, it just means "Grown on the sides of the river Rhone". Once again, proof that everything sounds better in French. On a foggy Sunday morning, not so early, we set off to follow the Rhone river all the way to the delta which opens into a region called Le Camargue. We passed by huge windpower mills, at least two huge and horrible looking nuclear power plants, riverside villages and awesome views of the Rhone valley. We stopped at a rest stop is Montelimar which is where "Nougat" comes from. You know, like the inside of a Three Muskateers bar?! Except this is the real deal...which is quite different. Classic style is white nougat with pistachios in it. YUMMY! So after a nice lunch and some nougat we were back on the road towards a city called Saintes Maries de la MerIt's a famous religious site for Roma gypsies who make a yearly pilgrimage there to dip a statue of a black Saint Sarah into the ocean for purification or some such thing. I didn't see any gypsies (other than myself)but I guess it was the wrong time of year ;). So, the Camargue is wild and huge and beautiful. They are totally into horses (and I'm totally not) and there are bird sanctuaries, roadside vendors with local products and lots of seafood. So, when we first arrived we went down to the sea....the Meditteranean sea. Now, officially I have had my feet in two oceans and one sea. So, we collected shells, took some pics, watched crazy people swimming and just laid in the sun before we checked into our hotel at 3. We stayed at an adorable hotel called Mangio Fango, which is just fun to say, try it. When we checked into our room we were greeted by a serpent on our back porch leading out to the Croquet (I shit you not) field. Since Stephane is deathly afraid of snakes he pretty much stayed off the grass and porch for the entire rest of the visit. So, after resting for a little while we decided to go back into town and find a nice restaurant to eat at. It was not a difficult decision as it is the off season and there were only like two open. We chose the one named "Le Fournelet", and we definately made the right choice. Okay, so, when we first walked in the smell was incredible. Like crab boiling and butter. Fucking YUM! We passed a table of a family who had ordered this "Tower o' Seafood". I swear I had to put my hand in my pocket to stop from plucking a shrimp off of it as we walked by. They must have seen me drooling because they looked at me kind of funny. SO, we were seated in a quiet alcove (love it) and ordered white wine. I never drink white wine because white wine is for pussies, but I drank it that night! Oh boy did I drink it! It was the first white wine I have ever tasted that I truly loved! So, I guess I'm a pussy now too. So, after perusing the overwhelmingly yummy menu and staring down our fellow diners choices, I decided on a four course menu of Tourteau avec Aioli (Boiled and chilled HUGE crab with mayo), Homard de grillade (Grilled Lobster) a cheese plate and dessert of Profiterole (which was a HUGE dessert) and like I said, plenty of white wine. Stephane got a fucking awesome Boullabaisse ( and might I mention a "real" one) with a whole small fish, langoustines, chunks of other fish and scallops. I also ate some of his dinner because I LOVE food! (as if the size of my ass doesn't give that away) LOL After Stephane rolled my drunkin ass out of the restaurant we decided that we both needed a walk after that meal. While we were walking along the boardwalk of the Med sea we saw night fisherman, boat lights and a HUGE wild cat. That's right, you heard me right, a huge wild cat. Now, I'm not talking mountain lion here. I'm talking, someone's little Fluffy escaped and has gone on a wild foraging fest resulting in the LARGEST domestic cat I have ever laid eyes on. When I first saw it slinking around by the garbage pail I thought it was a raccoon. So, after that we returned to the hotel for some shut eye before waking up in the morning for some exploring in the Camargue and then a drive to Toulouse to meet Stephane's family (EEEK!). So, in the foggy ocean morning we ate breakfast, packed our things and then went out on a picture finding and wildlife seeking mission. We stopped at one of the roadside markets and bought local wild rice, Saucisson d'tareau (bull sausage....mmmmm...spicy) and some wine (of course). We saw horses and egrets and herons and wild flamingos. Totally awesome nature viewing. After a while we left the Camargue for the drive to Toulouse. We decided to take mostly backroads so that I could see the Provence region and the Midi-Pyrenees region on the way to Toulouse. I bought "Herbs d'provence" in Provence (you know I loved that shit) and some yummy pears. I swear I don't make Stephane stop at every stand on the side of every road in France, I swear. Just the ones that are open. :) So , we stopped in a village called Vauvert for lunch at an adorable place called "Le Romarin" (rosemary). It was so-called because of the huge amount of wild rosemary growing in the drive way. We had the plat du jour (plate of the day) and it was typical Provencal Poulet avec rice (provencal chicken with rice). Good shit. And guess what else? Come on... you know....WINE! So, after that our drive took us less than an hour from the Spain border and past the Montagne Noire (Black Mountains) and also past a neat medieval castle , Chateau Comtal in Carcassonne.Finally, we arrived in his parents town of Mons which is a village in Toulouse. Seeing as how I've been typing forever, I'll finsih this blog sometime soon. You can hear all about dinner with the family and an excursion to Stephane's 88 year old French grannies farm in Tecou.
Stay tuned!
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