Hotel Féniers

Sitting here at the airport in Lisbon getting ready for a flight back to the States. Vacation is over. WAAAAAAH!

It was such a good trip. And the last couple of days were pretty interesting.

Got to spend several hours wandering around Bordeaux. It was nice, but I have to admit I’m scratching my head as to how it got rated the best city in the world by Lonely Planet? The airport was in sad shape and it’s expansion was really lame. Poorly designed and moche, kind of like an elevated pole barn– if there is such a thing. Traffic was really bad. The Capucins indoor fresh market was mediocre at best. And poorly attended. And kind of dirty. And too far away from city center. It was the very first time Beth and I chose not to have oysters and a glass or rose at a French indoor market ( a hobby of ours). It was that gross.

Many of the buildings in the center were black with soot and grime and badly in need of power washing.  There was a lot of shopping where we were but it was mostly crap like H&M. And besides that there were too many blue shoes for sale.  The French are hell bent on bringing back the 80’s.  Just check out Izod these days.

On the plus side the cathedral was gorgeous, we saw a Rembrandt, and the old French guy who let us in, when we told him we were from the US, thanked us for not being English.  I guess that’s worth something. We also got to sit in on a really cool baroque quartet in a quiet part of the cathedral. Loved it and could have spent the rest of the afternoon sitting idly by. And I’m sure the City of wine is amazing– but I’ll have to wait until next time.

Of course, and not unexpectedly, we did have a really good lunch and met some great people.  It was so typical for us in a French bistro. Before long we were bantering back and forth with the couple sitting next to us and an hour later we were invited to come to Niort, close to La Rochelle, to visit– and stay with them. Crazy, huh? But it happens every time we go to France. It’s no coincidence.

I am, however, quickly becoming an ambassador for the Creuse region where our house is located. The French call it a “trou perdue,” a lost hole, which makes me laugh, because I don’t think people realize how cool it is. The guy we met at lunch, Nicolas, laughed when we told him where the house was. He laughed less when I told him how much we paid and started looking at his Google Maps when I showed him some photos of our house and the area.

I think he was ready to move when I told him they were laying fiber just down the road! Kidding, but the Creuse, traditionally, was one of France’s poorest regions and wasn’t know for much other than Limousin beef and stone masonry. I’ll take both, thankyouverymuch, and when you throw in peace and quiet, virtually no traffic, world class biking (the Tour de France swung by just 15 minutes from Feniers last year) and hiking, woods full of mushrooms and streams and brook trout? Excellent bistros and super friendly people to boot?  Heaven.

We left Bordeaux at 7:45 and got to Lisbon around 9pm last night. Ran into a complete %$^$%^ at Customs which didn’t get things off on a good foot– but did have a great cabbie who took us to our airport hotel, waited for us, then brought us into the city.  He dropped us off at Time Out market which is the Lisbon equivalent of a hawker stand in Singapore. There were dozens of restaurants selling everything imaginable on the outside interior of the building. You can buy your food from any of them and when it is ready you grab it and find a place to sit at one of the hundreds of large wooden tables on the interior. Love the concept, but the food was crap. A poopy shrimp and hotdog (said it was sausage) stew, really salty SALT cod tempura of all things and some chicken mushroom pies that just weren’t very good. Wine was excellent, though, and we got a huge pour for 3.50 euro.

The place was LOADED with Americans. It was nuts. We sat across from three 20 something friends from the east coast and had a nice conversation until some a**hole got pissed at one of the girls for “sitting in his lap.” He was nonplussed because she was sitting too close to him. Really? He was SUCH a self-absorbed, arrogant a-hole. So I asked the 30 something year old douche what his problem was– and then he started flipping me shit. When I accused him of being typically British he snapped back “I’m not English, mate.”

I so nearly said “I didn’t realize they have a**holes in Australia, too.  I had to have been purple at that point and it was right on the tip of my tongue– but Beth grabbed my arm and suggested we go for a walk.  So I did. It was the smart move and we left.

Around 30 minutes later– it took me that long to cool off–  we found an awesome little Portugese bar. Hung out for a couple of hours with an older Portugese guy and got his life story. He and Beth exchanged music and we drank wine until 2am in the morning.

And now, yeah. It’s 9:00 am here in Lisbon. Beth is grumpy. I’m grumpy. Not looking forward to the long flight back and wishing we could spend a few more days here. But we were really lucky to have such a great trip and we will be back soon.

When we get back to Oregon Beth will take some more time and post some photos.  She is with her Mom in Rhode Island and I’m with my Mom in New Hampshire for a few days.

A bientot!