On the way to Bordeaux we stopped at the village of St. Jean d'Angely to visit the church. Of course lunch came first -- gezier salad (gizzards, likely duck, and don't knock it until you've tried it!), and roasted rabbit.
The church is covered and filled with carvings, which are so remarkable that it is a UNESCO cultural heritage site. Much of it made not much sense to us, but we did appreciate some of the more bizarre carvings. We learned from the materials in the church that the theme is the Apocalypse, so the weird figures are not so surprising.
The faces below are devils looking for bad souls in the church.
Even elephants were represented, quite feat since the artist probably never saw an elephant or even a drawing of one.
Then it was off to Langon, a town just south of Bordeaux, where we picked up Anne at the train station. As it happened, we met our host Christian who was picking up his sisters Isabel and Elizabeth (known as Zha Zha), who led us to the hamlet of Sauviac for the next leg of the trip. We had been trying not to think about it too hard, since we had figured out that there was a party that night -- only 21 names to learn and 21 french speakers to talk to.
Berangere made the melon dish, and a very tasty baked gratin of squashes, eggplant and tomatoes with herbs.
The canales....traditional pastry of Bordeaux.
A bit intimidating.
But a lovely group of French folks, very welcoming and warm.
Jeanne's eldest brother Francois.
Tom, Anne, Ann and Elizabeth (this one known as Babette).
But it was all good, from the melons topped with a salsa made of tomatoes, onions and feta, to the grilled pork steaks, to the traditional canales pastries Christian had made, to the cheese tart supplied by Jean-Marie.
And in a very impressive show, Tom got all the names right before it was time to say goodnight!
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