Well, if you saw the short post yesterday you might be wondering WTF?!
We wanted to do something more substantial than the previous day so made some proper plans. In the morning we’d visit the Fort in Belfort which was rather big and had been restored and preserved for visitors. It was quite interesting and we were provided with an audio tour in English. Initially the device had have a number entered as you approached an area but once indoors a special system took over and it gave you the appropriate information for the current area automatically.
After this we set off to our next destination but stopped when we found an open Patisserie at lunch time! Pen was disproportionately happy about this and actually cheered. 🙂
We stopped in the car park of a fancy church but only to eat lunch as a picnic nearby. Mike had a rant about architects who can build pretty stuff but don’t give a moment’s thought for the poor people who have to maintain the thing for the next fifty years.
This was a stepping stone for our intended destination – the Mining Musee with the deepest shaft etc. etc. (don’t bother, all the jokes have been done). There wasn’t much information available but the thought of being able to go into an old mine was quite exciting. Unfortunately that was all it was: a thought. It was just a relatively small building with lots of static exhibits and a rather irritable lady on the desk who didn’t have any change. It was a bit of a disappointment and we finished up with rather a lot of time spare.
To use up the rest of the afternoon we decided to go for a fun drive in some of the surrounding mountains. It was obvious from the map there that were some really twisty roads which needed driving. However, on the way we wanted to find another of the local forts. The history is long but the one at Belfort is just one of many in the area but we weren’t sure if any of the others were open to the public. Anyway, we followed the directions of the sat nav which lead us up a rather rough road to a small car park. Fortunately the tyres survived the punishing kilometre. The car park was occupied by a bunch of kids on mountain bikes being taught to ride off road by a teacher. All looked rather surprised to see a car arrive. We checked and they didn’t mind so we wandered off up the hill to the fort.
There we found a bunch of French squaddies out for training with full armaments – assault riffles, LMG etc. Near by we could hear the pop of 5.56mm and the boom of a 7.62 machine gun then a few minutes later another bunch ran up with a tripod mounted Browning and set it up pointing down the hill we’d just walked up. So we just stood next to the fort (which appeared to be their temporary base) and watched all this. The fort was being used a temporary base for the troops and was open but we’d probably have been shot, in French, if we’d tried to enter.
Since there was no way we were going to voluntarily stand down range of a bunch of heavily armed (it looked like they were using training weapons with blanks but, well…) new recruits we just waited. No one seemed to mind. Eventually once they ran off, seemingly to collect something they’d lost… ammo perhaps… we made our way back to the car. At this point the school kids were cycling up the hill. Hopefully some survived the day.
Then after this excitement a fun drive up and down, then up and down a hill/mountain at some speed and vigour. Most enjoyable until it started raining. Then the traction control was turned off and the limits of traction at low speed were explored with interesting results – we need a limited slip diff. Uh hu.
This evening was to herald another attempt at a Michelin starred meal. We’d tried to arrange it at a couple of the other places but they were closed or we just couldn’t arrange something in time.
It’s pretty hard to describe the experience, and an unforgettable one it was. We thought we’d opt for the basic menu as that was mostly likely to end well as Mike doesn’t eat cheese. There was a tasting menu (degustation) on offer at half price (where half of a lot is still a lot) but the risk of lots of cheese was high so our host had so informed the restaurant.
Anyway on arrival it seemed that none of the staff spoke any English (not as uncommon as you might think) so we spoke to the only person who did – the chef, Christian. He was lovely and helpful and understanding. He was amused, in a good way, that Mike didn’t eat cheese… nor drink wine and explained that the tasting menu had no cheese. We took the plunge and didn’t regret it. I would love to tell you what we ate but we have very little clue. The waitresses explained each course… in French. We picked out the odd word and recognised some of the things of the place. There were some small tomatoes on one place and some fish (or other marine life on another) but that’s about it.
Ten courses later (nine really as we excluded the cheese course) we’d eaten green, red, yellow orange, pink and brown (if there’d been something blue we could have played food snooker). Hard, soft, liquid, solid, salty, bitter, sweet, hot, cold, meat, veg, fruit. Everything really. Even stuff like looked like mint mousse with cream but turned out to be something made of potato (pomme de terre).
The whole thing took four hours and we didn’t get back until midnight, thus the short post yesterday. The courses kept coming and we only knew when to stop when another couple got up and paid their bill. In fact, yet another couple across from us were used as our guides. Mike watched them to see how they ate the food and with which implement (we didn’t even recognise some of the cutlery) and then we copied. It was a fairly surreal experience. We wanted to photograph the food as it almost art but felt it would be rather unfrench. However, we subsequently saw one of the French couples doing just that.
After the meal we were able to thank the chef in person – he’d taken the time to substitute ice cream for mascapone on one of the courses for Mike, which was much appreciated. A long, wonderful, memorable experience.
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