Back in France, and "in position!"

Tuesday evening, June 9, 2015

Hallo!

Well, we actually had a lovely dinner tonight here in Brugge.  We went out about 7 p.m. and weren’t really able to get any good suggestions from our hotel owner, as everything she thought of apparently is closed tonight!  (When we asked her if it was usual for restaurants to close on Tuesday nights, she replied that no, it was usually Wednesday nights!)  So!  We headed out toward the more non-touristy part of Brugge.  I was determined that we were NOT going to eat in any place around the Market square, where we would be surrounded by everybody speaking English!  We retraced our route to the boat ride this morning, but R didn’t really like the look of Mozarthuis (where I had hot chocolate and he had tea) for dinner.  Across the courtyard was the hotel and restaurant of the Duc de Boulogne, which looked fairly interesting. 

R's gray shrimp salad

My Belgian white asparagus

Lovely room overlooking the canal on two sides!

R was still up for looking a bit more, but I basically said I had about 5 more minutes left in my standing-out-in-the-cold time.  So, we went back and took another look at the hotel’s restaurant, and decided this was the place.  We hadn’t reserved, but we were a bit early, and fortunately, they had room for us.  They showed us to one riverside table, but the sun was too hot (I know, I can’t make up my mind) shining in on me, so we moved to a less sunny table, still by the water’s edge.  We both decided to take the “menu” – starter, main course and dessert.  R took the grey shrimp salad for starters, with the duck breast for his main course, followed, (of course!) by fruit salad and sorbet.  I started with their Belgian white asparagus with chopped hard boiled egg and butter sauce, followed by their rib steak cooked perfectly that came with a potato pancake, several roasted potatoes, and a small ramekin of very nicely cooked veggies in a cheese sauce. 

R's duck breast

My steak

We both enjoyed our meals very, very much!  For dessert, R had the fruit salad with peach sorbet, and I had Dame Blanche – which was two scoops of vanilla ice cream, with a dark chocolate sauce poured over it, followed by a large dollop of their home-made whipped cream…YUM!  We had a bottle of their red house wine, a Grenache/Merlot blend, which was excellent.  The dining room was really beautiful, with windows overlooking canals on two sides, and it was SO nice and warm … we had a really lovely dinner! 

Tomorrow morning, will find us packing up and heading back to France to Chateau d’Ermenonville, near Aeroport Charles de Gaulle.  We’re still not sure how we’re getting there – I am thinking possibly through Compiegne (where Germany surrendered after WWI, and where Hitler made France surrender in WWII) but we’ll see! 

More later!

m

xxx

Bonjour, we are back in France!

In fact, as R likes to put it, we are “in position” for tomorrow’s travel home.  This morning, we were up at our usual time, and ready to go by breakfast time of 8:30 a.m.  It really felt like the wind had died down, which is good, and it was also a bit warmer.  It took two trips to get everything into the car, but it still fits, which is the main thing.  Lovely breakfast again, and out on the road about 9 a.m.  As it turned out, Robert wanted me to turn left immediately upon exiting the parking area, but guess what?  They are digging up the road! 

R's fruit salad with peach sorbet

My "Dame Blanche" with real whipped cream!

(Hard to go where there are no more cobbles…) So, a much more complicated route out of town, but eventually we made it.  We have both decided that Brugge is truly a lovely small city, and there is much more to explore than we were able to get to in only a day and a half.  So … shall we say, next time?!

We would through some very small and uncrowded roads heading back into France, and in fact, took until lunch time to even make it close to the border.  I had Robert take some pictures of some of the road signs, to possibly explain some of my confusion.  When there are no recognizable words or pictures, it can get a bit dicey occasionally!  And we honestly had no idea if these were important words, or town names, or what!  I did finally come to recognize that when a white line ends with a red rectangle, that means the road is cut off and you can’t get through…who says I can’t learn symbology?

Another shot of Brugge!

We did stop for a quick lunch at a Carrefour, and decided to head directly to Ermenonville via the peage (tollway), and made it to le Chateau d’Ermenonville just on 2 p.m. 

A town?

At any rate...

We did like the green cow!

As our room reportedly wasn’t ready yet, we deposited our luggage and decided to make a trial run to Charles de Gaulle airport.  (We have stayed many times at the chateau for airport convenience, but with all the building that has been going on, we wanted to be sure we could still find it!)  It took about 20 minutes to get there, but what we had forgotten to find out was which terminal United Airlines flies from – and that is critical at de Gaulle.  We had an interesting time finding out how to exit CDG – there is an incredible amount of signage all over the place, and lots and lots of dead ends or gated entries.  Finally found our way back to the hotel about 3 p.m. and picked up our keys to room #301.  We have never stayed in this wing of the hotel before. 

These crowded Belgian roads...

(We have probably stayed here 10 – 12 times over the years, and have even had their tower suite once, which was wonderful!) 

I love our bedroom!

View out the other side of our room

Chateau from the front

But 301 sits all by itself at the end of one of the buildings, and it is really much larger than many of their rooms.  We also have a lovely working area and desk, with views over the courtyard in one direction, and over the moat and the woods from the other!  We have opened the windows and the cross breeze is wonderful – and I’m also back in shorts, which is nice.

A statue in Ermenonville

Another front view

Me in the back of the chateau

Cute red pergola!

So…I reorganized luggage (paying special attention to all liquids and things that cannot go into carry-on luggage), and R got the computer up and running.  I checked us in on-line, and R went down with the flash drive and now we have our boarding passes as well!  Neat!  We then walked a bit through town – it’s very small, and there’s not much too it from a commercial point of view, but we did find two restaurants just outside the gates for dinner.  They do have a lovely restaurant here, but their menus are either 45€ or 50€ each, or you can order a la carte … and with the meat choices being lamb, veal or pigeon, let us only say, I’ll stay in and eat chocolate!  We then walked down the property to a wonderful old, colorful gazebo, which I always like to do.  Then back, as R wanting a sit down, and I wanted to blog!

So!  Dear friends, we are now getting ready for the Paris/Washington Dulles/Phoenix trip tomorrow.  Take care, and I will definitely include tonight’s dinner at some point!

Lots of love,

m

xxx