Only in New Orleans.
Stacey and I went to New Orleans early Sunday morning to catch a Mardi Gras parade. I know you thought Mardi Gras was over, think again. I will write more on the Indians and all the great places we ate later this week, but for now enjoy these photos Stacey took. This was amazing stuff and a great day. We spent about 3 hours parading with these guys.
I think we only spent one night in San Sebastian, maybe two, I can’t remember. I do remember the walk we took through the old part of town. On this walk we came across these two old men working on an old wooden boat. If I was able to ask them and if they would have let me, I would have stayed and become their apprentice.
Beside it being the best food town in the world it is also one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The fact that it was on the coast was nice, but the town itself was spectacular. Old stone roads everywhere. Allys connecting to more ally’s which are full of tapas bars. I think this was my introduction to tapas. In San Sebastian eating tapas in an art and I didn’t realize it at the time. You go from tapas bar to tapas bar eating a little at each and if your in the know you only eat certain dishes at certain bars because they do that dish the best.
San Sebastian is of course a port and fishing is their thing. So lots of the tapas dishes are seafood and most all the wine you will drink is local. San Sebastian has more 5 star dining-rooms then any other city in the world, but that’s not to say you can’t eat cheap, there are plenty of restaurants that are very, very good that are not rated and are very reasonable. The tapas bars are not expensive to eat at. The average price of a tapas serving is about $3.50.
After spending a little time in San Sebastian I can see why the Basque people want to hold on to their heritage. It is a place very rich and steeped in it’s culture. They are a unique people with their own language and ways of life and you can’t blame them for wanting to hold on to it. They are referred to as “separatist” but they have been living in this region, speaking their language and cultivating their way of life longer then the country they want independence from. I don’t get it. How can you ask someone to let go of something like that?
An Uncle of Stacey’s pasted last Friday and Monday we flew to Jackson, Mississippi for the funeral. We had to drive about an hour to Bay Springs for the service, kind of a rural area. That should have been a hint right off. Let me back up and tell ya how it all started and just got worse.
We got up at 5:30 a.m. to catch our flight. I needed grooming in a bad way, I have a very hairy face. I got hair coming out of my nose, my ears, hell if I’m not careful I’m gonna have a uni-brow one day. My plan is one day I’m gonna let my facial hair grow til I look like a werewolf, then I’m gonna go have an electrolysis treatment and have them carve out the perfect facial hair pattern. This morning I just wanted to shave and use my electric clippers to trim my goatee. I spent a hundred dollars on these clippers and they worked well at first, then the part that cuts your whiskers started to get loose. Well I forgot about that and at 5:30 a.m. when I went to trim my goatee I turned on the trimmer, put it to my face, a screw fell into the sink and before I could stop I cut all the hair off above my lip, but only on one side. Hell yea, this is gonna be a great day.
I did what I could with my goatee, and we left for the airport. Things went great there as well. For some reason ( Nascar at Atlanta speedway) the airport was really busy and we had to park on row 101, there are 102 rows so we had a long walk. Inside, the security line was longer then I have ever seen it, thank god we can use the employees gate and that didn’t take long at all.
We get to Jackson and rent a car and get directions and I was still in a bad mood. We hit the interstate, go about 1 mile and Stacey has to tell me to exit here. What the hell are you talking about I ask. She tells me the directions say exit here. What? I just listened to the guy and he didn’t say that. Stacey tells me to stop at the gas station and ask if this is the way. Well I’m a man so I make her go in and ask, of course she’s right so off we go again. We drive an hour find the funeral home and decide to get something to eat as we are a little early. Can’t find nothing but fast food and of course I pick one that sucks more then any we have ever been to. So far so good.
We get through the service and go to the cemetery and after that I make the worst decision I have ever made in my whole life. See I know better. I have read the books and talked to the people who have been there and I know better. But I’m on a roll and just can’t help myself. Stacey has called Delta, there is a flight a little earlier then the one we planned on taking home and do I think we should take it or do we want to go to her Uncles church right up the road and eat. See I know better, church food, made by little old ladies in a town of about 500 people, you always eat with them if you get the chance. Not me, I say lets go and catch that earlier flight.
God I am so stupid.
So we go and we have to hurry cause we are cutting it close. We’ve got to drive an hour, fill the rental with gas or they charge $7 a gallon. Then we have to turn in the rental, check in for our flight and get to the gate. We drive, we stop at the gas station and we are stressing by this time. So when I pull up to the pump and realize the gas tank is on the other side of the car it’s a big deal and I let everyone around know. Then when I turn the car around and go to remove the gas cap and realize you open it from the inside of the car it’s a big deal and I let everyone around know. Then when I hit the switch that opens the trunk instead of the gas cap switch and go to open the gas cap and can’t cause I hit the wrong switch it’s a big deal and I have to let everyone around know. I get gas in the car we drive off and Stacey says dammit and I hit the brakes and say WHAT’S WRONG as the trunk pops open. I forgot to close it, it’s a big deal and well you know, I have to let everyone around know. Finally we drop off the car, run inside, check in, head for security and see a long, long line, it’s a big deal and I have to let everyone know. Then Stacey realizes we are in the wrong line, the line we need to go through is clear and we make it to the gate and learn the plane is an hour late. All that pain and suffering for nothing. This is a very big deal and I have to let everyone in this tiny airport know and do so.
The airport is basically shut down cause Obamas’ plane has just landed. He just lost my vote.
Well we finally get to the Atlanta airport and I have been in a bad mood all day long, which puts Stacey in a bad mood. But I fix this by cutting some guy off when he tries to get in front of us when exiting the plane. This is a pet peeve of ours, they are sitting behind you and jump up and stand in the spot where you are supposed to stand. So when I jump up and stand on this guys foot accidentally on purpose, this makes Stacey happy and like that we are both in a good mood for the first time that day. That’ sick isn’t it?
Well we are walking to row 102 to get our car and Stacey calls her Dad, checking to see that he got home o.k. I ask her to ask him if they had fried chicken at the church lunch. Of course they did, along with fried catfish, ham, tater salad, green bean casserole, mac and cheese, cornbread and more. All cooked by little old church ladies in a rural town.That’s what I meant when I said earlier, that should have been a hint right off. God I’m so stupid.
So we spend a few more days checking out Bordeaux and the surrounding area. It’s kinda of overwhelming as there is so much to see and do. We go to Vin Expo one day and that was unreal. Like I said before it is the largest wine convention in the world, everyone and their brother were there. We tasted lots of good wine, I am sure. Met lots of nice people, I’m sure. We also went back to St.Emilion for dinner one night. We went with our roommates and with their knowledge of wine we were able to try wines we will probably never see again. Bordeaux was fun, I’m glad we went and I’m ready to move on.
So it’s off to San Sebastian. Never been there, I have no idea what to expect. I had learned a little bit about the Basque and their struggle to hold on to the culture. It makes sense to me, these people have one of the richest histories that survives today. At this time the world was a more peaceful place and you could drive from country to country and never stop at a boarder crossing. We went through what looked like a toll gate each time, but no one was there to collect money or look at passports. Stacey and I were the first to arrive and we had no idea where we are going once we hit San Sebastian. We end up on a road that is on jetty that sticks out into Bay of Biscay. Lots of water sports going on even though it’s kinda cold. Funny thing is we hardly park and right behind us are our roommates. And we have parked right across for the hotel Parmma. So we check in as we have no rooms reserved anywhere else. Then we head up the street to the Bar at the End of the World. That’s the name of it and it sits almost in the water, at the end of the road that we had just happened to park on, where we just happened to meet our friends and where we just happened to get a room for the night. I have no idea how we got so lucky, but on top of that about an hour later the other half of our party showed up. They end up right where we are and are able to get a room as well.
So we have checked into our horse stable and if the guy had not told us so we really never would have known. It’s more like a ground floor garage apartment with a beautiful view of row after row of grape vines.
Our roommates show up the next day, following in our path. They flew to Barcelona and drove to Bordeaux. But, they didn’t need to stop at a truck stop and sleep like us. They found us with no problem. I am amazed that we can pull this off. You fly for about ten hours, then you have to drive for another three or four, from one country to another. Your in a place you have never been to before and with directions on paper you find a vineyard run by a man you can not communicate with and your friends do the same thing the next day with no problem.
So the rest of the group shows up later that night for dinner. We have moved the large dining table out to the court yard and have prepared a meal to share. I can’t remember all we had, but I do remember we prepared chickens with a stuffing made with the figs we bought the day before. We had a great time as you can imagine. There was about ten of us from different parts of the Southeast and here we were sitting across a dirt road from a field of grapevines having dinner. I remember we had trouble with the stove, it would not get as hot a needed to cook the bird in a timely fashion. No problem we had tons of good, fresh, local wines and no where to go any time soon.
The next day Stacey and I are on our own and we decide to drive to Saint Emilion. Saint Emilion is a very old city where the Romans planted grapes in 2 AD. It is about 40 miles from Bordeaux and is practically carved out of the limestone cliffs which surrounds the city. Saint Emilion is tiny and tight. Narrow roads and alleys and it all goes straight up, or down depending on where you park. Stacey and I spent the day just walking around and checking out the sights. The small city center is at the bottom edge of the cliffs. If you start at the top, like we did, you walk down and down and around and twist and turn and end up at the bottom of the city looking up at the huge church carved in the cliffs side. The city is really built on this cliff side and if you find the right place the views are great. Vineyards for as far as you can see.
That was all we did that day and that was enough, it is a special place in this world. We have plans to meet our friends back at our place to go to dinner. We were on our own that day because the couple we were staying with had to attend Vin Expo, as in, they had to work. So our plan was to meet about dark and find someplace really cool to have dinner.
Well Stacey and I got lost going home. It’s all small roads around these parts, no highways and not many signs. So after about thirty minutes of knowing we are lost Stacey is getting a little restless. I just laughed and said , yea were lost in Bordeaux, France. This did not suck.
I have been thinking about Spain, as in San Sebastien, lately. Reason being is that I am working for a client who pays me in room and board at her house in France. What you say, France? You’re thinking Spain but your writing France. Thing is her house is in the Basque region of France, on the Spanish boarder. The Basque region stretches through both France and Spain. Her home is in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains, where the hills meet the Atlantic Ocean. It is a beautiful rugged part of the world, we really enjoyed our first visit and can’t wait to go again.
My friends house is in a village called Soca. It is very close to St. Jean de Luz, which is a vacation town on the French side of the Pyrenees. It is also very close to San Sebastian, which is on the other side of the Pyrenees. And if you have ever been to San Sebastian you know what a good thing that is. Especially if you like to eat, there is no other place on earth like San Sebastian when it comes to food.
I think I will back it up and take a few days to tell you how we came to visit this ancient city I had hardly ever heard of. It was years ago, maybe seven or eight, when a friend in the wine business invited us to meet him in Bordeaux, France for Vin Expo. Vin Expo is the largest wine gathering in the world. Wine makers come from all over the world come to show off their wines for the world. We just went along for fun and it was fun indeed.
As we planed the trip we split into two groups and each found a place to rent in or around Bordeaux. Our group was smaller than the other, it was just Stacey and I and friends who were in the wine business in Alabama. We found a place to stay in the Graves region, at Chateau Lacoste.
So this is the first leg of this trip and man was it a trip. The nearest to Bordeaux we could fly direct from Atlanta was Barcelona, Spain. Another city I really, really love, but we had no plans to visit this trip. We were gonna land, take a cab to the train depot and get a train to Bordeaux. No problem, yea right. We flew first class, get to Barcelona and because we flew first class I was probably drunk. They just don’t know how to say no in first class when it comes to more wine , please. I usually drink all night on these trips and pay for it for a few days. Anyway we land, get the cab and he rips us off for about $30.00 on the fare. That never happens now that we are savvy travelers. Inside the train depot we realize that we calculated the time change wrong and we have like twelve hours to wait for the train. Then we have the ride to Bordeaux and then we have to get to our rental house. We decide to rent a car and drive. The car rental is at the airport, so back in a cab and it only cost half as much to get back to the airport, go figure. We rent a car and get a map and hit the road. Now at this point we have not slept for more than twenty four hours and we are gonna try and drive about four hours to Bordeaux. NOT. We hit the brick wall about an hour on the road. I didn’t see any Holiday Inns or Motel 6 or 5 or whatever. We did figure out that the gas stations/restaurant/truck stop was the place to get a room, so we pulled over for the next one and got the one person running the whole operation to show us a room. Clean, small, warm and dry, we’ll take it. We lay down and of course can’t sleep. We go downstairs to the restaurant and eat a little food, still can’t sleep. So we get in the car and go for a little ride. We are in a small village, there seems to be no commerce of any kind until we find a small bar. We go in and it’s just us and the guy running the place and neither of us can speak the others language. We manage to order something to drink, we drink, get tired and go back to truck stop and fall asleep.
Next morning we head out and have a lovely drive through the Pyrenees, into France from Spain. We stop at a roadside produce stand somewhere in France and buy a few things as we are to cook dinner for the whole group the first night and them the next night. We find the largest figs I have ever seen in my life, they are a purplish black and about the size of a baseball. We continue on and find our rental without much problem. We are staying at a Chateau that has converted the horse stables to a carriage house and it’s right nice, if not a bit musty.
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