Tonight's dinner was possibly and most probably THE most delicious meal I have ever had...well, that I can remember, put it that way. Not just that, but the service was unhurried and impeccable. I had Quail breast with black truffle crème sauce, with savory tortillas and courgette stuffed with spinach and tomato concasse. Waz thinks his Moules Mariniere et Frites were the best tasting too. We topped it off by sharing a most amazing tasting chocolate mousse, praline biscuit with nougat glace et crème Chantilly. WOW! and a Café noir. Superbe!!! How much? 53 euros! unbelievable! But, the bottle of still Evian water was 5.5 euros of that. I forgot to order tap water. I should have known!!!
Honestly...and for fear of going on and on...the delicate flavors were all tasted and not overwhelmed by any of the others.
So. lets go back a few hours, shall we?
I told you in the previous post that we rose after 12 hours of sleep. My eyes just didn't want to open, this morning, and it took a while for some moisture to get into them. This air conditioning isn't much fun, when it dries you all out! Necessary, unfortunately.
We made our way, around 10am, to the Rennes Train Station where our favorite Café is. Valentins is a Boulangerie and café. We bought two Café au Lait, 2 Pain au Raisin, a Crescent aux Armandes for Waz and a pain chocolat kind of thing for me:) Yes, we ate them all! Well, this was Breakfast, after all, and this IS France!!
Sorry, no photos. I didn't want to look too much like a tourist who photographs all the food...I did take the above photos very surrepticiously, sitting in a far corner when nobody could see me! phew!
Anyhoo...While we ate, a few people came to play at the public piano in the corner. The first fellow was very tentative and not very interesting, but the fellow who patiently waited on the side for him to finish, was fantastic. He played confidently and well. Then a young woman dropped her backpack beside the piano and stood next to it, listening. The pianist soon engaged her in conversation, and they agreed for him to play something he had on his phone. We returned the cups et all to the café, and went back to the Hotel to clean our teeth and fill our water bottles before setting off again for our day out. On the way back through the Station (the fastest way to reach our destination), we encountered the same pair, now playing a duet. Delightful, truly! Music brought these former strangers together.:)
The two of them would have been 'playing' together for about 20 mins or so.
The mural in the background is all around the walls in the station because it is under construction.
Speaking of construction...well, kind of. I omitted to show you the bathroom 'capsule' in the last post. It really does look like it has just landed in the room:) Quite amusing!
Ok...Back to things that happened today.
Having set off on foot (car tomorrow!) for the Parc du Thabor (tay bor), about 2kms from the hotel, we ambled down the boulevard, looking in shop windows, perusing the Real Estate, as we do! ha!..Wow! pricey in this city! and ogling menus outside restaurants.
All very fun!
Photos were taken, of course, and we marveled at the beauty of the Lycee (High School) building, wishing American Schools could look like this...and also how folks who live here take this history that they live with, for granted.
Was it prescient that I took this photo this morning, of the restaurant where we ended up having our dinner tonight?
Very classy, though it wasn't top shelf by any stretch. I believe we will be back! We have an Anniversary to celebrate while we are in France! No, not wedding!:)
Don't you love the Grand Boulevards with their trees, now beginning to turn color!
I'm a collector of 'details' and I love these ones. The sky helps, of course. What a stunning day it was today. In the middle 80's F and we couldn't have wished for nicer weather to go walking in a Garden and Park.
Textiles are also one of my more favored subjects, and this rug in a window display certainly caught my eye. Love the colors! I could be tempted to come back for this, except I have nowhere to put it! No, not even on the boat!
We also tried out a sofa-bed in a bed shop. Managing to make ourselves understood...well, I did, as the manager spoke no English. I asked if I could lie down in it to test the comfort level, and indeed it was what he said it would be...ULTRA comfy. Beats any of the sofa beds we have tried or slept on in the US. This was a deluxe model, at $2200 euros, but there was another bed there for about 1,600 euros that we also liked. Well, only by taking these little risks do we increase our French Vocab, and that one worked out well for us.
You would have had a hard time wiping a smile off our faces, today. We certainly are in our happy place. I guess this shows by the photos we take...well, I take. Waz takes his own, and ours are very similar in subject matter, strangely...or not!
The Vilaine River is just one of the rivers that converge in Rennes. This canal is not navigable...well, this section of it.
I love signs with a sense of humor, don't you? Keep your dog on a leash!
This lovely building , the Palais St Georges, is now home to the local Police, among others. The gardens were one of the lovely things we saw on the way to the Park. Of course the formal gardens completely 'go' with the formal structures.
I don't mind a few weeks with my Echevaria (Ice plants) and Bedding Begonias.
The warmth and sunset colors in these lovelies, gladdens the heart. I love roses, and the perfume was magic!
Waz spied this gorgeous butterfly, which was hairy like a moth. Such depth of color!
On our way back from the Park, and because it was now past 2pm, and we had forgotten that cafes and restaurants close at 2pm, we ended up with a chicken salad baguette for Waz and a heated Quiche Lorraine for me, from this literally 'corner' Boulangerie.
This is the sign over the door. Love it!
On the road up the hill towards the Parc du Thabor, we came across a lot of people waiting around outside this building. The municipal Swimming Pool. It was almost lunch time, so I guess they were on lunch break? Having been built in 1925, the decorations were very Art Deco. Lovely tiles around the arched door, and the metal door was stunning too.
I don't remember what this building was, but it is possibly Government something, Rennes being the seat of Department Government, of Bretagne and Ile et Villaine.
I love the formality of these buildings, and the symmetry too. Slate roofs often have patterns, like this one does.
The wisteria is almost finished blooming, but it is certainly very lush right now.
More details. Amazing!
This is the entry gate to the Parc du Thabor.
This church used to own the Parc. It dates back to the tenth century...well, parts of it do...the rest were added and renovated in the 11th, 12th, 15th and so on through to modern times. Like most of these old churches, it needs a lot more money thrown at it. Stunning structure inside though.
The beginning of our walk through the Parc. Such orderly lines of trees. The Arboretum included large California Redwoods, which rather surprised us, but shouldn't have.
Just down the hill at the bottom of the Parc, is a secondary school and College. Anne de Bretagne Lycee et College. We saw so many young people in the parc eating their lunch and studying. What a lovely place to do both.
One of the more modern stained glass windows in the Cathedral. Certainly the easiest one to photograph.
The colored light from the window splays across the stone details inside.
I love discoveries like this. A fresco was uncovered during renovation of the Cathedral. This one is of the Death of St John the Baptist. The colors are still amazingly fresh. They have cleaned this well.
Moving on towards the Rose Garden and the rest of the parc.
This tree is losing it's leaves early.
Monument and cathedral spire.
Decorative elements everywhere, as one would expect. Lights and lamp posts in particular.
This is an American....specifically A Virginia Cypress. So soft!
Foxgloves were past their best, but still lovely, with their little spotted throats.
A bee on a cone flower.
Glorious color! Roses.
Oh my goodness....the DAHLIAS!!!! Sorry for the overkill, but they are gorgeous right now. Great waves of them all over, and such delicious colors. Enjoy the next ummmm....few photos of blooms.
repeat...I LOVE this fluffy one!
Enough??
There is a lovely Aviary in the middle of the Parc. I took this photo of a stunning pheasant, through the tiny mesh covering the outside.
It is nest building time at the aviary. Waz watched in fascination as two love birds exchanged a feather. Doves were picking up sticks and flying to the nest face.
These young men were practicing juggling, and later we watched as they did some tumbling. Just two of so many young people in the parc. Office workers also lunched on benches and in groups on the grass, shaded by the gorgeous trees.
I love natural children's playgrounds. it takes a little more thought and creativity to create them, strangely, but this one is lovely...very organic!
This area below is the play area for small children.
I did tell you I went to the Rose Garden, didn't I? Well, I will spare you the gazillion photos, but just take a look at the stunning colors in these ones. New in the foreground, and the same rose variety, a little older on the right.
This is NZ butter yellow, don't you think? So perfect!
Well after I spent 45 mins circling and photographing the Dahlias and Roses, and Waz sat and contemplated the lovely surroundings under the Cork tree...Yes, this is where cork comes from!
We left the parc in search of lunch, circling the restaurants that we all closing, at 2pm, and eating a baguette sandwich (Waz) and Quiche Lorraine (me) sitting on a stone wall alongside a busy road. No matter, it was food!
Of course, we were looking for that Gelateria we had seen on our way out, that morning. Ahhh! the joy of a French Gelato! We had our own 2 boule coupe de Gelato. Waz had passion and Stracciatelli and I had Passion (divine and puckering stuff!) and Sable Breton...a creamy concoction with Breton biscuit in it! yum! The sofa we sat on invited us to kick back and relax. We did, and glad for the break in proceedings.
All done for the afternoon.
We made our way back to the Hotel, after walking for a good four hours, encountering this Grafitti on the surrounding boards of the construction, outside the station.
Waz took a nap while I updated some information and uploaded 400 photos, taken during our adventure today.
Of course we waited for 7pm...or after that, to go out for our fabulous Dinner. The quest was for Moules (mussels) Frites, for Waz. I didn't mind what I ate...I was just simply hungry. As previously mentioned, the evening was a total success. We arrived back at the Hotel around 10pm.
Time for us to go and pick up the rental car, and make our way to our digs for the next nine weeks.
Au Revoir!
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