Today I saw so many things!
Woke up kinda late (9:30?), showered and shaved, then had peanut butter (from Mississippi) on bread with chocolate chips in it (the person that bought it thought they were raisins), brewed up some Dunkin Donuts coffee Bob brought from the States, and walked around the neighborhood a bit. The apartment is right next to a waterfall on a river (need to look that up - need to get the address, too!). It was a gorgeous morning but a little cool - forty degrees or so.
We received a text that the Cholet Dogs won their match last night so we were on for hockey tonight - that ruled out a trek to the ocean. So, instead, we hit the road. We first went to my coworkers' previous apartment (which reportedly stunk like a sewer constantly, the kitchen flooded whenever the shower was run - there was even a squeegee in the kitchen for the purpose of cleaning up - and, perhaps worst of all, there was absolutely no wifi). Anyway, when they moved out yesterday, one of them forgot half a carton of smokes so we headed there hoping to recover the lost packs.
GPS got us there pronto and AJ was able to recover his smokes. We were a little worried the people would be upset due to us backing out of the rental but they were very friendly. Didn't speak any English at all, however.
From there we just hit the GPS up for nearby attractions. We ended up, first, at Clisson to check out the chateau there. I grabbed some Euros (I hate not having any cash in my pocket!) then walked around Clisson for a few hours. The castle is just sitting there in the middle of the town - incredible.
By this time it is a little after 3pm and we need to be at the hatchery at 4:30. It takes forever to get anywhere here. So, we headed there with a quick stop at McD's where I did not have a baby can of Heineken with my Le M, pommes fries, and ??? pistache frappe. From there, I took the wheel of the van.
We drove back to the hatchery after finding that all grocery stores are closed on Sundays, hung out for a half-hour or so, then Jonathon met us and we followed him to Cholet for the game. Turns out it was the final game of the season and they were up for the title. There were no goals in the first period - pretty typical. The second period ended up 3-1 Cholet (they were playing the C???bery Elephants). The third period ended tied at 5 each. Sudden death overtime, no goals. The tiebreaker ended after four shots each with a score of 7-6 - Cholet won!
I swear, you would not even have known you were at a French hockey game except for the French announcer (all the music was in English) and the severely reduced violence. Well, and, especially considering this game was for the title, the crowd was pretty tame - well, except for the contingency of about twenty fans of the away team!
AJ insists I broke a record for most photos taken in a day by an American tourist in Europe. I assure it wasn't even close. But, I did take some - a quite reasonable amount, I'd say. One hundred fifteen.
Dinner was very light - I whipped up some tomatoes and garlic in olive oil to put on our slight bread reserve. It turned out okay - not as good as when I was following Piergiorgio's instruction. Didn't help that I forgot to not-quite-toast the bread in the oven first! C'est la vie. It went beautifully, however, with half a bottle of Leffe Blond.
And, now it's now and it's past bedtime - bus leaves at 6:30 tomorrow morning.
I hope I haven't forgotten anything major...
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Brief photo selection:
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| Our place is at the far right of this building. |
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| Our trusty steed. |
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| Park with windmill and vineyard. |
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| The old apartment. |
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| First European bicycle. |
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| So beautiful. |
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| Chateau de Clisson. |
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| McD's. |
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| Found this at the bottom of a somewhat sketchy unimproved road - yes, I was driving. |
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| Cholet wins in the tiebraker! |
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