Last Friday in France

This week has been interesting... our plans to go to Angouleme fell through so we have been thinking of things to do on the fly and our host Emmanuel has been arranging for more career visits in Bordeaux. So early this week Damian, Charity and I rented bikes and biked along the quay in Bordeaux. Charity and I crossed the river and I spied a lady sitting drawing the skyline. I coerced Charity into asking her if they were for sale, and what ensued ended up being one of my favorite encounters here in France! Her name is Marie, and she signed each picture, wrote an inscription to me on the back, gave us directions to her house in case we wanted to see more art, and gave me one painting for free! These French folks put us to shame I tell you! See the picture of Marie and I below:

The next day we decided we wanted to see the are around Angouleme anyway, so we got up at 3:30 am and headed to the coastal town of La Rochelle on the train.

We took a boat ride out into the ocean and toured some historic places; checked out the offerings at the local farmers market, and had a picnic in the park with our findings.

Can you guess which foods we didnt eat? Look closely, the chickens have some unusual parts remaining!

We visited a wine cave in La Rochelle, and sampled the regional specialty; cognac.

Today we went to a really neat water control center, where they monitor all the Bordeaux detention and storage tanks, the local weather, and all the workers who may be underground in the water pipes. It turns out Bordeaux gets about ten major flood events each summer and they have to spring into action to empty all the detention facilities into the Garonne river, and warn workers in its path. It is too interesting to go into on this funky French keyboard, but Ill put a detailed description down when I return to Seattle. because it is very unique and innovative.