Mussels in the Market, Chocolate & Wine

Day One, by Stephanie

Best feeling ever waking up in a different country after sleeping the whole night through! We were TIRED from our long journey. The warm soup before dinner was so nurturing. “When in France,” breakfast is pastry. We walked over a mile to the open market, and after cruising most of the “shops,” we settled on an almond chocolate pastry for Karen, a traditional croissant for Kasey and Kelly & I split a flan infused puff pastry. Standing breakfast!

Next up was dejuneur (lunch) at @BistroPoulette, where we sat at the bar and had bowls of mussels. Kelly & I talked in “Franglish” with the waitress and became quite chummy with an Italian couple from Verona (north Italy) sitting next to me. Kasey & Karen befriended Sara from London.

After lunch, we continued our three mile walk through a high-end market centered around a cobblestone road. We stopped for a little personal shopping, then stopped at Kelly’s favorite wine shop. We learned more French and headed home before dinner.

So here’s the foodie experience for the night… we hit two different wine bistros. The first one, @L’ampelo sold wine by the ounce (in machines; select the wine, put your card in and push the bottle you want to try). They provided a plate of creative cheeses and incredible butter (have you tasted the butter in France? Oooh la la!). The second one, @BarauVin, had a line out the door, but is Kelly’s favorite. They knew her by name and gave us bucket pours of wine with a Prosciutto-style meat and possibly a cured slice of beef carpaccio. The cheese was quite mild, but Kelly said, “it can’t compete with the wine!”

Waiting in line at Kelly’s favorite wine bar.

Kelly's apartment sits alongside the Opera building — Kelly’s apartment sits alongside the Opera National de Bordeaux.

Choosing olives for our afternoon snack!

After dinner, I insisted on finding a chocolatier to accompany our aprés dinner vin rouge. Of course, we couldn’t choose, so dark chocolate over orange gel, caramels, lemon and cranberry balls, and a few chocolate squares are enough to give us a taste of everything.

I think wine here has less alcohol in it because it never seemed to affect our head. There’s no science to that… it just seems that way. The food was adventurous, but to me, the chocolate was love.