The Silence Is Golden, Trust Me
Apologies, dear reader, for the lack of content here over the past few days, and for the fact that it is likely to be the case until the weekend.
The reasons are varied, but mainly revolve around time away from the laptop and time researching TTS (for which I am currently a bit behind schedule).
Special apologies to subscribers to my email services, who will have noticed that they did not receive their usual daily mails yesterday. Although there were no qualifiers for either service, I was unable to share this information, due to the fact that apparently the French do not need internet cafe's. I couldn't find one open in the whole of Brittany (well, Boulogne or Calais anyway!).
Which leads me on to where I've been for the last couple of days....
Now I fancy myself as a bit of a cunning linguist (hoo hoo hoo) when it comes to English, but it's only when you put yourself in a different country that you truly appreciate the joys of rudimentary communication. A weekend pootling around the Breton, trying to make myself understood in my pidjun parlance was really great.
To anyone who lives in the South of England, I seriously recommend doing what I and my lady friend did: drive to Folkestone, hop on the Eurotunnel, and emerge in Calais barely half an hour later.
We parked the car in the FREE car park next to the train station and, without a plan, just jumped on a train in a direction. Alas, due to our timescale (we only had two days), we were limited in where we could get to (direct trains from Calais only go as far as Amiens to the West or Lille to the East).
Nevertheless, we decided on Boulogne-sur-mer, which was about 40 minutes away. A short amble with our little backpacks and we found a hotel for the night. Then for some serious strolling. Lovely beaches there, and we had a couple of bieres along the front.
Then a long leisurely dinner (steak au poivre) with a decent Crozes Hermitage, and a spot of cognac before retiring.
Yesterday, we stopped between Boulogne and Calais in a little place called Wimille Wimereux (or Wimmy Wimmy as we pronounced it). It's ostensibly a nothing little village stop, but it's right on the Breton coast, so we walked down to the beach, and strolled and sat and ate ice cream and strolled and sat and drank a beer and strolled, then had lunch.
A weird thing about Brittany is that one of the food specialities is 'Welsh'. That is, welsh rarebit (or cheese on toast if you prefer).
Well, I swear that I have never seen so much cheese on a single meal in my life.
A two inch deep, six inch across, terrine dish had a piece of bread (think Sunblest, not baguette), and a slice of ham in it. The remainder was then filled to within about a quarter of an inch of the brim with what looked and tasted like (and therefore probably was!) Red Leicester.
It truly was a dinner to make Elvis Presley baulk at the thought of the effect it might have on his heart!
Having fished through the fromage for the toast and ham, I emerged slightly punch drunk from cheese consumption into the afternoon breeze once more.
I managed to get the train times wrong (incidentally, very clean and punctual train, just not very frequent), so we strolled the other side of the station into fields and countryside. Lots of fields full of maize, and a few kids chucking water at each other, and a couple of cows, were the only things we encountered. Marvellous.
Then back to Calais to pick up the car, and do some serious booze cruise shopping. I'm a big fan of French white wines and Italian reds. In the absence of anything decent in the latter camp, I treated myself to some splendid looking Premier Cru's from Alsace (Pinot Gris) and the Southwest (Sancerre, Montigny, Puilly-Fume), and also a couple of decent looking reds (Chateauneuf du Pape and a 1999 Fleurie).
These will be savoured before the next run, which will be soon.
Taking out my wine indulgence and a hearty dinner, and the whole affair cost me about £120 (£65 for the Eurotunnel, £35 for the room and breakfast, and £20 for the train tickets).
If you get the chance, try it!
Today is a logical Monday in racing terms and therefore I'll not be wagering horses. However, the footy looks interesting tonight, and a treble featuring Liverpool, Celtic and Arsenal may very well reward at best priced 3.18 with Bet365. I'll be having a slice of that.
For the rest of the week, I'm afraid - as I've mentioned - there will be little of interest here, as I slave over the last elements of research and pulling the document together for TrainerTrackStats. The guide will be available before the website is ready, and there will of course be special offers for Nag3 readers.
So if you know of anybody who might be interested, be sure and use the 'Tell A Friend' link at the top left of the page.
Bon Mardi!
Matt
The reasons are varied, but mainly revolve around time away from the laptop and time researching TTS (for which I am currently a bit behind schedule).
Special apologies to subscribers to my email services, who will have noticed that they did not receive their usual daily mails yesterday. Although there were no qualifiers for either service, I was unable to share this information, due to the fact that apparently the French do not need internet cafe's. I couldn't find one open in the whole of Brittany (well, Boulogne or Calais anyway!).
Which leads me on to where I've been for the last couple of days....
Now I fancy myself as a bit of a cunning linguist (hoo hoo hoo) when it comes to English, but it's only when you put yourself in a different country that you truly appreciate the joys of rudimentary communication. A weekend pootling around the Breton, trying to make myself understood in my pidjun parlance was really great.
To anyone who lives in the South of England, I seriously recommend doing what I and my lady friend did: drive to Folkestone, hop on the Eurotunnel, and emerge in Calais barely half an hour later.
We parked the car in the FREE car park next to the train station and, without a plan, just jumped on a train in a direction. Alas, due to our timescale (we only had two days), we were limited in where we could get to (direct trains from Calais only go as far as Amiens to the West or Lille to the East).
Nevertheless, we decided on Boulogne-sur-mer, which was about 40 minutes away. A short amble with our little backpacks and we found a hotel for the night. Then for some serious strolling. Lovely beaches there, and we had a couple of bieres along the front.
Then a long leisurely dinner (steak au poivre) with a decent Crozes Hermitage, and a spot of cognac before retiring.
Yesterday, we stopped between Boulogne and Calais in a little place called Wimille Wimereux (or Wimmy Wimmy as we pronounced it). It's ostensibly a nothing little village stop, but it's right on the Breton coast, so we walked down to the beach, and strolled and sat and ate ice cream and strolled and sat and drank a beer and strolled, then had lunch.
A weird thing about Brittany is that one of the food specialities is 'Welsh'. That is, welsh rarebit (or cheese on toast if you prefer).
Well, I swear that I have never seen so much cheese on a single meal in my life.
A two inch deep, six inch across, terrine dish had a piece of bread (think Sunblest, not baguette), and a slice of ham in it. The remainder was then filled to within about a quarter of an inch of the brim with what looked and tasted like (and therefore probably was!) Red Leicester.
It truly was a dinner to make Elvis Presley baulk at the thought of the effect it might have on his heart!
Having fished through the fromage for the toast and ham, I emerged slightly punch drunk from cheese consumption into the afternoon breeze once more.
I managed to get the train times wrong (incidentally, very clean and punctual train, just not very frequent), so we strolled the other side of the station into fields and countryside. Lots of fields full of maize, and a few kids chucking water at each other, and a couple of cows, were the only things we encountered. Marvellous.
Then back to Calais to pick up the car, and do some serious booze cruise shopping. I'm a big fan of French white wines and Italian reds. In the absence of anything decent in the latter camp, I treated myself to some splendid looking Premier Cru's from Alsace (Pinot Gris) and the Southwest (Sancerre, Montigny, Puilly-Fume), and also a couple of decent looking reds (Chateauneuf du Pape and a 1999 Fleurie).
These will be savoured before the next run, which will be soon.
Taking out my wine indulgence and a hearty dinner, and the whole affair cost me about £120 (£65 for the Eurotunnel, £35 for the room and breakfast, and £20 for the train tickets).
If you get the chance, try it!
Today is a logical Monday in racing terms and therefore I'll not be wagering horses. However, the footy looks interesting tonight, and a treble featuring Liverpool, Celtic and Arsenal may very well reward at best priced 3.18 with Bet365. I'll be having a slice of that.
For the rest of the week, I'm afraid - as I've mentioned - there will be little of interest here, as I slave over the last elements of research and pulling the document together for TrainerTrackStats. The guide will be available before the website is ready, and there will of course be special offers for Nag3 readers.
So if you know of anybody who might be interested, be sure and use the 'Tell A Friend' link at the top left of the page.
Bon Mardi!
Matt
posted by Matt at
12:20
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home