Today we decide to explore the lovely town of Auxerre. We noticed the day before that many of the streets had small bronze markers bearing the name “Cadet Roussel”, Jerome told us that this was a walking trail through the old city highlighting major, remarkable monuments and picturesque streets and colorful neighborhoods. We can get the guide to the walking tour at the tourist office. After a nice breakfast of fresh pressed juice, croissants, baguettes, yogurt and homemade preserves, we head down to the tourist office.
We spent a nice leisurely day exploring the old town, stopping for a libation on a barge down the river. We have dinner at “La Tour”, the entrée du jour. It was a salad nicoisse, halibut fillets with rice in a lemon sauce followed by a chocolate banana crumble thingy (think banana chocolate crisp). Very good. Stop off at a local place for a last drink before heading back to the ranch. It’s still almost midnight before we get to bed, so much for an early night.
-M
Our original plans were to drive an hour or so to one of the famous abbeys, but after chatting with Jerome we decided to spend our day wandering Auxerre. The city is quite attractive with medieval streets, shops, churches, cathedral and abbey.
Not much English is spoken which made for some interesting dialogs with the natives. The most entertaining conversation involved our failed quest to find a place to purchase a small extension cord. Poor girl had absolutely no idea what we were talking about. Aside from that, Mary has handled communications pretty well!
-D
