September 20th
Sadly my time here in Saint Pair sur Mer comes to an end….What a lovely respite this has been, before I return to the more traditional tourist mode of trying (maybe) to rush around and see as much as possible in a short amount of time….
Yesterday, Monday, I did a wash and hung it outside in the gray skies. Later I walked into town for some groceries, including a cake mix for dinner tomorrow; en route I totally wasted money going into the Casino to play some .02 slots in Saint Pair sur Mer. BUT the VIEW!!!! What a boring thing to do….I went for another walk after I dropped off the groceries to enjoy the beach again….I am reading a William Boyd book, Stars and Bars, I found in the house …It is about an Englishman who has gone to New York City from London to continue his work in procuring works of art to be sold by his company. The book says it was made into a movie with Daniel Day Lewis?! I’ve read other Boyd books; one was recently on PBS, but this is from the mid-‘80’s, so it is not one of his best….
Today I invited Mimi to come for dinner, as I have eaten at her place so much!!! In the morning I walked into town to buy some chicken for dinner to have with the apple cake which I planned to make. The Mamie Gâteau cake mix directions called for three eggs and 20 cl de crème liquid. Hmm…how much liquid WAS that exactly? I looked on the Blackberry browser, so I learned that a liter has 100 cl, so 20 would be 20% of a liter. But the only measuring container was a multi-purpose (for dry as well as liquid ingredients) one that made it hard for me to figure out how much liquid. (I used milk, not cream.) I peeled and cut most of the apples in the house, thanks to Chantal’s mother, to put in the bottom of the cake. I had turned the oven on when I started this process, and finally realized that it was not getting hot!? Mimi didn’t get my SOS email, so I called Nicole who explained how to do it. But I had actually done what she said, except that I had pushed the wrong button, so I DID get it to work….
When in town I had wandered into the Tourist Information office, and I learned about a small monastery in town which sold pottery and a seven minute walk from the house according to Google Maps. With my cooking behind me I walked up there. There was no pottery of interest, but there was a very small, interesting chapel I really liked.
Mimi came about 7. The menu consisted of baked chicken breasts stuffed with broccoli spears and lemon slices with a mustard-lemon spread on top. I made ratatouille with eggplant, mushroom, garlic, onion and tomatoes. I also served a tossed salad with the traditional French salad dressing of one tablespoon of vinegar to two tablespoons of olive oil, a teaspoon of mustard, salt and pepper. (Mimi had never had this with mushrooms, but I had bought some really nice looking mushrooms at the market, so it was a good addition.) And the cake, well, the cake was quite tasty! It was really like a sponge cake with apples in the bottom, so I will try it again sometime at home!
Today I am preparing to leave, as my train tomorrow will leave Granville just before 6AM. Nicole and Jacques are returning from Caen about 6 tonight, so we will have dinner. They are returning to take me to the station and close up the house!!! (I had planned to take a cab….) I’ll take the Air France bus from the train station to Charles DeGaulle Airport to catch a 2:30 Easyjet plane to Prague with 4:30 arrival time. I have arranged to meet three Couch Surfers, so I will have more CS stories!
Mimi has picked me up to go meet Lydie for tea at Picorette in Granville at 2. I’ll do my final Saint Pair sur Mer blog post here at her house. (I cannot upload any pictures right now, but I will later, if you want to check back.) Now she has to come back to Boston to visit me sometime! We’ll have drinks with Nicole and Jacques when they arrive so they can meet. What a delightful time I have had here In Saint Pair sur Mer!!
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