Le deuxieme Jour

I got up around 8 am local time although the town church bell began ringing in the distance at 6am. Every now and then I could hear a car pass by on an adjacent street. TinTin, one of the two pooches here, jumped up onto the bed with me and nipped at me to get up. Following her down the stairs, and into the kitchen, I found coffee and fresh brioche waiting along with my father and Sylvie. It was a nice change. After le petit dejeuner, my father and I went to CarreFour to buy some spinach and to pickup a SIMM chip for a cellphone. Next we stopped on the edge of town down the street from the local cemetery to take a look at the “jardin” which is a private wooded area my father uses for cookouts and parties. It was like a lot of the land here, rugged, rocky, covered in shrubs, low growing trees, tall tufts of grass, and spotted with the ocassional cactus and succulent. After taking a picture or two of the mountains, we headed back to the house to eat lunch. Lunch was vinegrette over shredded carrots and cucumber, a garlic chanterelle omlette, some baguette and goat cheese brie and for dessert a small serving of vanilla mousse. I'm not really used to eating like this, so it's my hope to pickup a bicycle this afternoon and head to the beach for some cycling and swimming.

We had to inflate the tires on the bike I'll be using so I didn't get out on it today. I did however get a chance to see the beach, and the rest of my father's “jardin” He is growing edible mushrooms in his own patch and I offered to show him how to increase his yields and regulate the frequency of the mushroom fruiting. I have just enough time here to see one full mushroom life cycle so hopefully I will be eating my own mushrooms before I leave. We also drove past le chateau du Valmy which was someone's home 150 years ago but is now the headquarters of a sprawling mountainside vineyard. Right now it's 6:30 pm so I should probably get on Rosetta Stone before dinnertime. I have a feeling I won't want to do much of anything once we've eaten. More to come...