I saw the forecast was for pretty good weather this morning: no rain, and only a slight headwind (enough to make riding a bit difficult but nothing like yesterday!) The forecast called for rain in the early afternoon with more wind. So, my goal was to leave early this morning and go as far as possible before the rain started. Pushing as hard as I could, I ended up doing 51km in 4 hours, arriving at the hotel in Vouillé at noon. I only had rain for the last couple of kilometers, so the timing was pretty good :-)
The hotel is actually a castle which seems to be in the middle of the forest.
I had lunch in the castle restaurant. It was much classier than what I'm used to. The wine menu was several pages long. As for the food, they had a few menus to choose from, each one with starter, main dish, and dessert, with prices ranging from 19 eur for the menu of the day, to I believe 66 eur. I picked one somewhere in the middle. :-) For the first dish (starter), the food was about the size of my thumb, served on a huge dish. It was a (classy) piece of chicken with pea puree. After the starter, another dish came. It was also a miniscule portion, and I started thinking that I'd better make a trip out to the supermarket after lunch to get some substance. But after that plate came another,and finally the dessert, so I didn't leave the restaurant still hungry :-) The dessert was delicious : an assortment of various apple desserts.
I was the only one in the restaurant, which was huge. It was a bit weird, but I got the best service. For one of the courses, I had two knives and two forks. Of course, I had no idea why :-)
After lunch, I had a nice nap. Then, not in the mood for another classy meal for tonight or tomorrow morning, I went to Super U and got enough food for dinner, breakfast tomorrow and snacks: sandwich, fruitcake, banana, fig cookies, cereal, juice, and two small apple pies. Yum.
Well, I see that it was worth it pushing hard on the pedals. 51 kms is a good distance, and very close to the average for every day of your trip.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the food, I always wondered why they use so big dishes for such minuscule portions. I guess a lot of fancy people associate this with class. But it doesn't help much the hungry stomach.
Cheer up, young lady. The end is close. (And I don't mean the end of the world). hahaha
Love you
Papa
Well, the main dish was a decent size on a normal size plate, but I forgot to take a picture of it. :-)
DeleteI hope the end of the world is not here. If it can just wait till my vacation is over, that's ok :-)
Well, I've never stayed in a castle before. That's impressive. You say you had the dining room to yourself and the service was superb? Is there any chance you were not at a hotel but at a royal residence and they mistook you for the Queen?
ReplyDeleteHahaha that must be it! It all makes sense now :-)
DeleteThat hotel looks awesome, but there is something wrong with your camera. That box of cereal doesn't look anything like Raisin Nut Bran and I don't see any McDonald's apple pies anywhere in the picture...must have been cropped.
ReplyDeletep.s. totally off topic, but I finally got myself a new phone after using the original Galaxy S for almost 3 years; a Nexus 4. Only had it for a night but it's awesome! :-)
Hahaha that cereal doesn't exist here :-( Neither does mini shredded wheat. Neither do McDonald's apple pies. Are you torturing me on purpose?!
DeleteWow you endured the galaxy s that long? Congrats on the new phone. I was going to get a N4 for my boyfriend for Christmas, but it was all sold out. Instead, I got him the Xperia Go so he could surf the web from the shower and never be away from the net again :-) Then he was nice enough to let me use it on this trip :-)