Today the baby girl and I woke up early and took the train from Begles to Arcachon, a beautiful beach resort on the Bay of Arcachon. I haven’t been there in years because ever since my cousin built his summer house in Cap Ferret, the family has preferred visiting the Cap to be close to him. The train ride was great, the train, even though we had second class tickets, the accomodations felt like first class, the train was on time and we got there in 50 minutes, the roundtrip fare was twenty two euros, a bargain in my opinion. Once we got to Arcachon we didn’t need a car, you can walk the entire town. If we had felt like it, we could have rented scooters or bicycles. I don’t see myself on a scooter, it just screams danger and an emergency room visit. As we walked down the beautiful little streets filled with boutiques, cafes, ice cream stands, creperies and patisserie, we walked onto the city square where the big Marche was still going on, it was like visiting a food conniseur’s paradise. The seafood displays were incredible, every fish you can imagine just fished that morning, mollusks galore, oysters everywhere, shrimp, langoustine, freshly made mayonaise spiced with different aromas, the tiny sea snails and the tiny shrimps that I adore. This is just the seafood, there were the butchers, the charcuterie makers, the produce vendors and the bread makers. Every single food product smelled and looked fresh off the tree or vine, the baby girl and I walked around the Marche as if we were in a museum with a reverence usually saved for the masters work. It was tremendous.
We then took a boat ride to Cap Ferret, that was fun in and of itself, the ride takes 30 minutes and you get to see magnificant villas, the Dune de Pyla, not at all far away and all the sail boats and motor boats, it was so pretty on the water. When we got off at the Cap we walked around a bit and found a nice seaside brasserie where we had lunch. We each had the famous soupe de poissons served with croutons, garlic and saffron aoili and grated swiss cheese. The soup is a thick puree of fish soup that tastes of the sea, combine that flavor with the piquant garlic, the subtle saffron and the nuttiness of the swiss cheese, throw in the croutons for contrasting texture, you have a masterpiece on your hands and in your belly.
Afterwards, we walked a bit more, took the boat back to Arcachon, took the train back to Begles and had dinner at the other Tantine’s house with her son, my chauffeur, and her granddaughter. After which we came home and I am now going to fall into bed because sea air will knock the socks right off you and I lost mine a while ago, lol.
laurieanichols 