Thursday, September 14. Clear and temperate.
Another seven hour sleep and we are almost over our jet lag. Breakfast at the hotel and a bit of a wait-and-pack up before the taxi arrived and took us to the Medieval town of St. Gilles, on the canal that we will be sailing on. We wandered down to see the canal and the station where we get the boat tomorrow afternoon. We had a short tour of the boat where we discovered a new meaning to the word tiny.
We then had a search for the super market which we located in spite of having an inadequate map of this town. For your information, the term Medieval Town is another way of saying the streets are laid out in the shape of a Maze, very interesting but frustrating indeed. I also completely forgot that the French have acquired the thought that stores should not be open at convenient times, but that the shopkeepers need a three hour siesta in the early afternoon, hours vary.
We started back to the hotel intending to catch a little bite to eat on the way as it was four hours before our dinner reservation. The French also seem to have acquired the habit of making it impossible to catch a bite to eat except between some hours that were decreed by Napoleon or some Napoleon wanna-be. No wonder the French are petite, they can't find a place to eat and the super-market opens and shuts like a revolving door! Our lunch consisted of a small apple each and a cookie taken at the breakfast table for such an emergency.
3/4 of us decided to check out the now-open super market. The name Super Market is a complete misnomer. It certainly is quaint I must say and things haven't changed much in the 57 years since we had similar experiences in French stores. The bread shop and meat shops must be camouflaged on some side street as never did find them, open or shut.
I must be in a bad mood or something so I probably should stop writing.
Another seven hour sleep and we are almost over our jet lag. Breakfast at the hotel and a bit of a wait-and-pack up before the taxi arrived and took us to the Medieval town of St. Gilles, on the canal that we will be sailing on. We wandered down to see the canal and the station where we get the boat tomorrow afternoon. We had a short tour of the boat where we discovered a new meaning to the word tiny.
We then had a search for the super market which we located in spite of having an inadequate map of this town. For your information, the term Medieval Town is another way of saying the streets are laid out in the shape of a Maze, very interesting but frustrating indeed. I also completely forgot that the French have acquired the thought that stores should not be open at convenient times, but that the shopkeepers need a three hour siesta in the early afternoon, hours vary.
We started back to the hotel intending to catch a little bite to eat on the way as it was four hours before our dinner reservation. The French also seem to have acquired the habit of making it impossible to catch a bite to eat except between some hours that were decreed by Napoleon or some Napoleon wanna-be. No wonder the French are petite, they can't find a place to eat and the super-market opens and shuts like a revolving door! Our lunch consisted of a small apple each and a cookie taken at the breakfast table for such an emergency.
3/4 of us decided to check out the now-open super market. The name Super Market is a complete misnomer. It certainly is quaint I must say and things haven't changed much in the 57 years since we had similar experiences in French stores. The bread shop and meat shops must be camouflaged on some side street as never did find them, open or shut.
I must be in a bad mood or something so I probably should stop writing.
We went for our 7:00 dinner at the hotel restaurant. It was long and lovely. For some time we were speaking to the waitress in our French that gets us by, sort of, until we found out that she was from Brazil at which point French went out the window and it was English only from then on.
Our day in pictures... sort of
Our younger travelling companions and Captain Dave, left, and tour guide Alyssa.
In search of the canal and our boat.
Behold, the SS Minnow, oops no, Crusader!
Captain Dave, rather disappointedly surveying his craft…
On a cheery note, how French is this!
Captain Dave seems to have accepted his fate.
Back to town, in search of food.
We think our hotel is somewhere near here, not sure. But nobody to ask because of course, they are all sleeping.
Napoleon said to do that!
French or what?
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