Chalon Dans La Rue

This week-end we went to Chalon Sur Saone, to the boat, as the weather was still a bit unpredictable (meaning it was too cold to swim in the pool!). We arrived on Friday late afternoon, did a bit of beer & wine shopping in Carrefour and then headed to the local Indian restaurant on the Ile St. Laurent, across the river. We had lovely curries (Jim had lamb madras and I had lobster tail bhuna - very yummy!), followed by some gulab jamin and coupe colonel (lemon sorbet & vodka) - guess who had what dessert?!
On Saturday, we went to Castorama to look at their bathroom designs for ideas for the next part of the project and then headed into Chalon to see some of the 'Chalon Dans La Rue' festival which was on. There were Street Artists, Face Painters, Puppeteers, open theatre, brass bands & strange and wacky people all over different places in the centre, the atmosphere was great, and we have never seen Chalon so busy. Shame the rain forced people into bars and cafes at some points, but in between dodging the showers, it was great fun. We then headed back to the Ile St. Laurent by Velo Taxi (like a rickshaw on wheels powered by an electric bike) which was fab going through the streets and roads of Chalon with everyone waving to us, and to Le Clown Gourmand for our dinner. We were glad we had booked a table, as the restaurant was totally full. The food here is amazing, this restaurant is one of my personal favourites and since it was my treat, I got to pick where we ate! We enjoyed an amouse bouche of chillied tiger prawns served in a pretty miniature bamboo steamer, followed by Frogs Legs in garlic and parsley (Jim), Foie Gras with Mango coulis and passion fruit chutney, then for mains we both had the most magnificent duck with an orange and apricot marmalade and fresh asparagus, and to finish we both had rhubarb sabayon. Washed down with a bottle of Givry 1er Cru 2007. Magnifique!
On Sunday, we got up early and went out for an hour on Ginger Grouse II to blow the cobwebs off (off the boat, not us). The marina was very busy because of the festival and the bank was littered with tents and people sleeping in the backs of vans and cars. The sail was great and we berthed easily an hour later and headed back into Chalon for some more of the festival and a nice, light lunch in the Cafe de la Hotel de Ville, before heading back home to Marly Sur Arroux.
Despite some bad rain showers, overall the weather was not as bad as we thought it was going to be and when the sun shone, it really was quite hot, this week, the weather has to remain the same, a bit mixed and then, fingers crossed, if the weather predictions are correct, we can look forward to a very warm week-end and some fun in the pool a week from now! Bring it on......