curlylegend

From my observations, I've never seen any French People eating snails or frogs' legs. On the very rare occasion we've accidentally ended up in a tourist trap resto it was always Brits who dared each other to order them. If you keep away from these places and particularly if you're in France Profonde, that is the places well away from big cities, you'll still get andouille, which are actually chitlins, ris de veau which we would know as sweetbreads, and even panse de brebis known to us as haggis. This will be in the small restos with usually a chalkboard for the daily dish. To me this is real French cuisine. Good wholesome hearty meals freshly cooked with seriously fresh ingredients. In our local supermarche we can get all sorts of stuff that we used to get in Wolverhampton after that last disagreement with the Germans. Like rabbit, calves brains, ox tails, livers from just about all known domestic animals, potted haugh, and squares of pigskin. One of our guests remarked that the French were taking this low fat and no fat stuff as seriously as the UK, because there was plenty of it on the shelves. We had to point out that it was LEFT on the shelves because it's just not that popular round here and the full fat stuff is always first choice. But even we can get McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken if we wanted to go exotic, which a surprising number of the younger locals seem to do. However all is not lost if you prefer over packaged over processed nutritionally questionable junk food, The supermaches are delighted to sell you that too !

Just shows you, takes all sorts...

Oh, never mind, there are lots of other places you can go to. How about Belgium, or Denmark or Germany ? Or even Holland ? I have a friend who also can't stand France, he manages to quarrel with just about everyone he deals with. But he adores Egypt ? He says the only thing wrong with Egypt is the Bloody French Tourists !

If you add in another day, start at St Nazaire and choose a route along the north bank It could be well worth it. Don't bother crossing to the south side to see this, you've got it here...

Rather than retrace my tracks back over the bridge, I decided to continue east along the north side of the river and take one of the free ferries to the south side. But on my way there I passed another peculiarity. A house in, not on, the river. When the tide's in the water is up to the first floor windows. There is no access to it on the south bank, it's all salt marshes. But the odd thing is, sometimes you can see smoke coming out of one of the lums and at night you can see lights going on and off in the house. Another mystery ?

So taking back roads along the north bank of the Loire I eventually got close enough to the small red and white chimney to see what it really was. Yes, it is a house with a garden and a tree. And you can rent it for short periods of time. I couldn't be bothered climbing up the stairs to get the view , maybe another time ?

Once over the bridge, I didn't want to spend too much time in the town of St Nazaire, but I had to get some shots of these odd things. They're right at the end of the dry dock that the Royal Navy sabotaged during WW2 in Operation Chariot. Watch the movie "The Gift Horse" it's pretty close to what happened. So here we have a huge stone foot, then a giant jumper, then, strangest of all, a set of intestines. Why ? Dont ask me, this is France !

To get closer, I had to cross the Pont St Nazaire but before I left the south side I took an image of this. It looks like the skeleton of a sea serpent washed up on the shore, a stone's throw from the bridge.

That's our local power station, originally powered by coal, then oil, latterly gas but now seemingly back to coal. I followed the muddy track to the bank of the river and here's an image looking directly over the river to the opposite bank. Then a closer view of that strange object on the left that looks like a house ?

OK, sorry about slipping into pantomime....sorry , politics ! Lets have another go at shoeing you some of the odd / amusing things I've found near here. So first her is a picture of my old Yamaha in the salt marshes on the south side of the Loire.....a big river in France that empties into the Atlantic ocean.

Did the first minister in Scotland not say that recently about all the chief constables, the head of the law society, and all the other major offices in the country ? Could that not be interpreted as hate crime ?

What green metal thing ? And what kind of heat gun are you using ?

Sorry about that, I've made a bit of an arse of it. I'm sure you used to be able to put together a post with pictures and check and edit it before posting. Couldn't do it last night so off to be din a huff ! Might try later.

Thank goodness, I was getting a bit worried that someone was practicing for the coming revolution.

Yes, indeed, that's very true ! It MIGHT be more complicated than you think.

I thought you might like to see some of the odd things I've discovered on the banks of the Loire . The first two are images from the salt marshes on the south bank of the Loire looking towards our local power station. It was coal fired, then Oil, recently gas and currently back to coal. Yes, you're right, that is a house on top of a truncated chimney.

That's pretty neat, how are you doing it ?

Scooter or Shooter ?

I think we've kind of lost the thread here, have we not ? OK let's get back on track. This weekend I'm going to get an estimate for a haircut. And if the weather is suitable I'm off for a 250km test run to check the performance and fuel consumption of my TDM 850 after the carbureteur overhaul.

If your moto has a catalytic converter it will be electronically fuel injected. I am aware of people changing parts of their exhaust system, in some cases the whole system from front to back, and they all seem to be of the opinion that if the oxygen sensor is left in place, the Electronic control unit automatically reprograms itself when it senses changes to the exhaust system. There are different techniques involved, some, Royal Enfield for example, just require you to start the engine and leave it idling for about 10 minutes and then off you go. But I would research this thoroughly before changing anything.

Of course you're entitled to your opinion and as you're not in Scotland, feel free to express it. The DS to me was the complete opposite of the 2CV in complexity. But it did have that wonderful Citroen elegance. So DS elegant complexity and 2CV elegant simplicity... how's that to sum them up ? To appreciate a 2CV, you really have to grasp what it was designed to replace. Like Issigonis' Mini was to replace the working man's moto and sidecar, the 2CV was genuinely to replace the donkey.

Here, I'm getting out of here. This is getting to political for me ! If my wife gets wind of this, I'l be getting laldy !

Aye, right ! When there's an Orange walk in Glasgow the majority of the polis are away getting ingrown toenails done, or haircuts or something. The truth is they're all away lurking in their various Lodges. Masonic or Orange, frequently both !

Ooh ! That's harsh ! In my humble opinion this is the vehicle that should have been developed for twenty first century use. People raved about linked hydrolastic suspension on BMC cars years ago. Which was pretty unreliable actually. 2CV suspension was an elegant purely mechanical system and caused no problems. And an air cooled flat twin engine ? Jings, BMW are still using them albeit fuel injected and CAT 5 approved. Think about it. What is really more ecological ? A 750kg 2CV capable of easily 100MPG with a lightly upgraded engine or a 1850kg Model 3 Tesla which nobody really knows how much it cost to run ? It is however very much an acquired taste. Like oysters or foie gras or kissing the postman on both cheeks when he's brought you good news.

I'm told that the polis are very keen on this. The idle sods can put in a full shift sitting on their arses listening to clypes and putting peoples' names in the book. Hence the poor souls who've just voiced their opinion will now officially have a police record. Even if they know nothing about it until they ask to go to Disneyland in Florida with the weans. Sorry buddy, police record ? Couldn't let you set foot on American Soil ! I'm also reliably ( do you believe that ?) informed that the polis are particularly interested in young unemployed white males who belong to groups with strong opinions. I'm sure that the Celtic supporting First minister of Scotland now has the Orange Lodge and Rangers supporters at the top of the list. My, my, Orange parades are going to be rather dull affairs from now on.