The Americans came, and now they've gone again

 So last week was the International Christian Communities of Eurasia annual prayer retreat, and it was held in Bordeaux. It kept us going from early morning to late evening, so we spent a lot of the weekend asleep. 

One of the important little moments of the retreat is a meal out in a restaurant. Sometimes host churches have members who own posh eateries. We ate somewhere very impressive in Prague some years back. Others are in awesomely cheap cities. I was more than a little concerned here in Bordeaux. We don't eat out in the evening. Hardly ever. I mean, we're generally busy in the evening. Not only that but most restaurants in Bordeaux are more expensive in the evening than at lunchtime. And I didn't want to use one of the chains, but we needed something affordable and ...

Anyway, you get my drift. So Pat and I were very happy to chance upon somewhere up near Place Gambetta, not too far from the church premises, where they catered for groups. They could handle a group of up to 40 people and gave special menu at a special price including a choice of three starters, main courses and desserts. 

I was especially pleased that one starter was "Salad du Sud-Ouest", which means salad dressed with duck gizzard. It's really good! And this one also came with a few slices of smoked duck breast. Then one main course was "Confit de canard", duck cooked slowly in duck fat. Again, shockingly good.

It all went pretty well, though I did get more cranky as the week went on. Sorry!