Into history

Recently one of our favourite cafés closed down. Le Duperré has been open under that name at least as long as we’ve been in La Rochelle – over 30 years. Its place was opposite the statue if Admiral Duperré and was the first café on the port as you turned left from the big clock tower.

Over the years it was our favourite place for breakfast with children or friends. If I had blood tests before eating in the morning, having breakfast at the Duperré was a treat (Photo of a breakfast there). We met up with J-M’s parents for the first time outside the Duperré – though we didn’t have a drink there on that day because it was full up. I met blogging friend Caroline and her partner there when they came to La Rochelle too.

Every morning before work, Rob would go for his cup of coffee. You might have seen him, with his black bushy beard, sat at a table outside looking at his phone of reading the newspaper.

It has reopened under a different name and the waiter is the same at least for the time being. Before long we’ll be saying;

“Do you remember when it used to be called Le Duperré, how long ago was that?”

The eggs were well and truly scrambled

I was very disappointed with N.C.I.S. yesterday evening. It is very popular in France. Friday evening we have episodes of N.C.I.S. and on Saturday evening episodes of N.C.I.S. Los Angeles.

 In episode 23 of season 11, Tony finds himself in Marseille. Why wasn’t the episode filmed in Marseille? The outside shots looked suspiciously like thinly disguised Washington sets. When Tony asked for breakfast in French the waitress arrived with scrambled eggs! In a café, breakfast is croissants or baguette and jam or both if you ask for ‘petit déjeuner complet’.

In my etiquette book the question is asked “What should one give American guests for breakfast?” and the answer is that American guests do not travel all the way to Europe to be served with their own food, so give them what you normally eat yourself. (The book dates from the 1930s)

I’m sure that CBS could have done better there.

Call it a bit of a dog's dinner...

Yesterday Rob and I went out for lunch to celebrate my birthday which was earlier in the week.  I was going to take pictures of what I had to eat.  I forgot until after I'd eaten and took photos of the empty plates instead. For some reason I can’t get the pictures onto the computer this time. You’ll have to make do with a picture of a breakfast I had a week or so back after going to the lab for blood tests.

(I couldn't even get that one right first time)

Blood sweat and pee

This morning was the morning I’d put by for my blood tests. I also had to provide 24 hours of pee; 3.5 litres, which is quite heavy to carry around in a bag, you know. As usual, after bood tests, Rob treated me to breakfast on the port. Since smoking has been banned in public spaces it’s very difficult to sit outside a café on a warm day without being kippered by all of the smokers. We sat inside.

I’m looking forward to seeing the results. If you read my post about eyebrows you’ll see that someone talked about thyroid problems in the comments. I have been very tired lately, but the worst part is feeling that life is one long set of chores stretching out before me. I had this feeling for a few years before I was diagnosed so I’m hoping to get that sorted.

Olivier and Dom tell me that the non-smoking rule emptied the night clubs at first. Not because people weren’t allowed to smoke. Apparently cigarette smoke does a lot towards masking the smell of sweaty bodies. The last I heard night clubs were going to introduce artificial cigarette smoke so solve the problem.