Good Morning again. We hope all is well with you and you are enjoying the blog as much as I am enjoying writing it.
We left off just about to meet our good friend Laurence Brun for dinner. Laurence is a friend through Deb and Jon Luhrs and Andrea Luhrs, who used to live here. Laurence is a French/English teacher who has carved out a niche with companies that require their employees to speak English (or
as it was with Andrea, English speakers to speak French). She is hired by the company to do the training. Such an interesting woman and we try to see her whenever we are in the area.
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| Jean and Laurence |
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| Carrot Veloute with cream. Best thing I ever ate! |
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| Mongolian Beef Stir Fry |
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| Beef Steak with Sauce |
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| Dave and Jerry had Rare Duck Breast |
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| Chocolate lava cake |
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| apple tart |
We came back to the apartment and all slept well (which is pretty rare for 4 adults over the age of 65). In the morning we decided to go to see the huge Roman Amphitheater in Orange about 15 miles away. Walked down to the train, jumped on a train heading north and got out at Orange.
But first, some pictures of random beautiful French men.
Ok, back to the blog.
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| Train Station and train coming in. |
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| Orange town center |
The Classical Theatre is what we came to see. Built at the end of the 1st Century AD it is one of the most impressive sites in the world. The most striking feature is the stage wall that is 37m high with a 3.5 meter statue of Agustus in the central alcove above the stage. The stage is and always has been made of wood. The acoustics are remarkable, so that even a soft whisper on the stage can be heard by all 9000 people seated in the arena. It was originally covered in rich mosaics and frescos.
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| On Stage again! |
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Look at that little bitty guy on the stage!
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Oops! More beautiful men!
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| Traffic control - the barrier goes up and down. |
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| Did I say it was spring here? |
When we got back to town we were all tired. Dee's cold is better but her back is out. David and I have caught her cold (and mine is developing a cough as usual) and Jerry was just plain tired. So we chose a place that we had been before called Peace and Love. Run by an old Hippie Earth Mother, its a one woman show. She does all the cooking in the afternoon and has a very eclectic view of the world and restaurants.
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| Dee and I had a pastry shell with Asparagus in cream sauce for Entree |
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| Dave had Escargot (snails) in Garlic butter |
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| Jerry had smoked salmon with a wonderful sauce |
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| slippery little suckers! |
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| I had Fillet of Pork in mushroom sauce |
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| Shrimp and scallops |
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| Dave had Greek Lasagne with Feta Cheese |
Food was good, wine was better. Cheap dinner. But we collapsed.
Almost tragedy on the way to the restaurant.
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| This is not the street, and the sidewalk was about half as wide. |
We were walking down one of the skinny, skinny roads to the restaurant and there was a car coming behind us. We went up on the sidewalk (about 12 inches wide) on the left, there was a girl on the right hand side, and really the car was not large but it took up the whole street. Jerry bumped a pipe sticking out of the building with his left shoulder and fell off the sidewalk and into the car. He really fell into the mirror and driver's side door. Fortunately he didn't get under the wheels, but ended up in the street on his back. OHHHHH NO! The poor driver was ashen face. Jumped out of the car. Oh Monsieur, Ambulance? We got him up and he was fine, but I had nightmares all night about it! Not even bruised! He's a tough old bird.
Well that's all for today. Saturday is a rain day. Dee and I are going to shop some this afternoon. A bientot!
