Jamie and Scott Go Francing: Day 8

Saturday, 24 May 2008

We slept in a bit before heading downstairs for breakfast. We discovered that they don’t take credit cards so we had to make an emergency trip to Loudeac to grab some cash…in doing so we also discovered our cash withdrawal limit on our cards. Luckily we got enough and headed back to the B&B.

After saying goodbye to Christiana and Christian, we drove to Bignan to have lunch at Auberge La Chouanniere which had been highly recommended by Christian – evidently he used to send trainee chefs there. As you would expect, the food was fantastic (including the foie gras as all good meals should include). We highly recommend a stop here if you are heading south.

Next was on to Vannes through the drizzle. We’d been very lucky with the weather so far. As we drove it kept getting worse and worse. We got to Vannes and quickly discovered that the map I’d printed would’ve been better if it had shown the way through town centre. Nevertheless, we found our B&B – Villa Catherine http://www.villa-catherine.fr/ thanks to some fantastic navigation by Jamie.

After getting settled in our room we decided to walk to town for dinner. The 20 min walk seemed like a better idea before we got absolutely soaked. We walked for around for a while, Jamie trying to take photos while I held the umbrella for her. As it was raining so hard, we were forced to stop at several pubs along the way, including an odd Irish place called Paddy O’Dowd’s where we a few pints of Guinness.

At 7:30pm we wandered up the street to the Green Guide recommended La Table des Gourmets for a fantastic 6 course tasting menu with wine pairings. The entertainment for the evening included watching an old guy wine and dine a MUCH younger woman – the debate was if she was a woman of negotiable affection or not…

We trudged back to Villa Catherine and watched the finale of Eurovision 2008 (some European singing competition) before passing out with exhaustion.

Pictures from Day 8: