Danny's European Adventure Part III-Van Gogh, Champions League Madness, and Rekindling a Culinary Love
On the fourth day, he got his fish soup. Today was our fourth full day at our lovely apartment in Montseret, France. All of them have been filled with travels, adventure, the occasional frustrations of trying to get around complicated back roads with only Siri as an assistant, and a whole lot more. The joy of the fish soup will be described later.
Since we last chatted, Wednesday dawned with the threat of rain, which would prove to be not just a threat. I was still basically recovering from my first dose of seeing the wildly comical Champions League recreation described in Wednesday’s blog. If you didn’t see the short examples on my Twitter page, it is certainly worth it. On to my seventh straight day of running which went without incident, although subsequent to the morning runs each day has seen my knee barking at me a bit more, but it is fun to remember why I enjoyed it so much when I did it constantly.
The wet forecast led us to decide that this would be a perfect day to do one thing that we were going to do no matter what, which is to see the Van Gogh exhibition at the Carriers de Lumieres in Les Baux de Provence.
It was a two hour drive each way, and a ninety-minute wait in line for what would basically be a one-hour presentation, and every moment of the time we put in to experience it was worth the effort. A staggering achievement of projection of the works of the legendary artist on the walls of a huge cave, which rise up to one hundred feet high. There are multiple walls and buttresses, and the images, combined with amazing music of all kinds, pretty much blows you away. The images are not always static, slowly moving at times with portions of the art emerging and disappearing.
They are also shown at minutely different times for each projection, creating a constantly shifting and moving tableau, and you can adjust your viewing level or location and see multiple views of the same image virtually simultaneously. Truly a stupendous achievement, and an incredible experience for the ridiculous price of twelve Euros.
But the sports fan in me certainly was thinking during the day about getting a second dose of the Danny De Vito lookalike, and his crazy French antics in the second Champions League semifinal between Tottenham and Ajax. Neither the game nor “Danny” disappointed, this time teamed with a lovely young lady on play-by-play, who was the epitome of professional French stoicism amidst the cacophony created by her manic partner.
My brother-in-law is equally as avid a golfer as I am, so there was always in place a plan for one round for us amidst all of the enjoyable trips and epicurean delights. It came on Thursday. Ten years ago each of us likely would have balked at the prospect of middling rental clubs at an older French course in Carcassone, but we had a great time while the wives enjoyed the castle there. I was a bit wistful, although I wouldn’t have traded our golf, since I had been to the castle last year. A monstrous 13th century construction is basically a town inside, with restaurants, shops and a cathedral. Randy and I settled for par 3’s, 4’s and 5’s instead.
We hustled home to get ready for a visit from some friends who were going to view the property we are staying in, and a few adjacent ones, and then have light dinner, drinks and a nice evening. But they had friends who had popped in at the last moment, and so it turned into just viewing the property, a light hors d’oeuvre, a glass of wine, and off they go. A bit of a shame, but the remaining four of us had a nice quiet time chatting and listening to my Spotify selections. It was nice.
But even nicer was the big day today, the day when I would finally get my Soup aux Poission. We went to the restaurant that I first experienced it at as described in my travel blog on May 2nd. I ordered it last year and was taken aback when I saw no visible signs of fish, but this description that I found recently sums up the culinary delight this way…..”no fish is visible. It is there all right, but it has disappeared into the liquid. The body of the fish has gone. The soul remains. The fish is ground, crushed, pulverized, and then cooked until it has become liquid itself, and the soup is then strained to eliminate any telltale traces of the ingredients that provides its greatness.”
It is the best soup I have ever eaten and it isn’t even close. However, having enjoyed it twice here In France last year, I was a bit trepidatious as to whether my enjoyment had been overblown by memory. Not to worry, at La Grillade du Chateau in Ventenac-en-Minervois, the thrill was still there. The old girlfriend still looked great. The restaurant is known to many of the locals as “the Chicken Restaurant” not due to the menu, but for the fact that two roosters roam around in the outside locations, looking for scraps and causing general delight.
Not as much as the tasty broth, served up in a small cast iron kettle that kept it piping hot the whole delicious time. I have only a few days left here but I certainly hope to be having a second date with my rekindled love. Au revoir for now, mes amis.