A table for 6

Sunday 13th May

Happy Mothers Day to all the Mums out there. I get to do this again here on 27th May.

Today we went for a short drive up the coast to the town of Fouras. This is a little beach town I guess sort of like Lorne, but without the crowds. In fact most of the people around in the streets seemed to be older adults (over 30s I'd guess). It was quite surprising to find the markets and most of the shops open on a Sunday, though they appeared to be shutting up shop around 1pm. The fish market and the fruit, vege and meat markets were open till 1pm. We bought paella and cous cous for the next 2 nights dinner.

Our accommodation here in Rochefort is only 500m from the centre of town and in a fairly typical french building. Comfortable and quiet. Last night we had dinner at a Chinese buffet restaurant - we found these last time in France. As well as all the buffet items you can pick your meat and veg to have cooked with the sauce of your choice. We weren't as happy with this one as those of the past, partly because the buffet items weren't overly hot, but now we know there is a microwave we'll heat our selections next time we try another one.

The fish market - very clean and no wet floors.

He finally got a feed of oysters - 4 euro dozen (about $6).

Cous cous - with chicken, sausage, lamb and veges.

And the paella with chicken, chorizo, prawns,
mussels and langoustines (like mini crayfish).

We stopped at a lovely restaurant on the beach front for lunch. Moules (mussels) and frites for Rob, and I had a lovely lasagne. Now you ask why I titled this 'a table for 6'. Well the table next to us sat 6 but between them they had 14 legs. I dont think I'll get used to the dog sitting up on a chair next to me for lunch. We had a lovely waitress and she was keen to speak her small amount of English. We find the French always guess us to be English, and are very surprised and happy when we say Australian.

The Fort de Vauban and Chateau de Fouras.
We had a lovely conversation here with a french lady
who was prepared to listen to our attempts at French
and to help us when we fumbled.

Fort Boyard in the water off Fouras.
Built under Napoleon Bonaparte.

A fishing trap/hut.

Looking back to Fort Vauban.

One of the channels in Rochefort where boats are moored.