New Experiences!

Monday was a great. We spent most of the time in the day helping the family the Celeste was staying with move into the new house. We went back and forth from one end of La Rochelle to the other unloading large furniture items and the placing them in the house. And yes, if you saw a picture of the stairs in an earlier post, we lugged VERY heavy wooden items (such as bedframes, desks. shelves) up those ladder/stairs. It was a great adventure. I was very happy to help out this gracious host family. That evening, Celeste and I were treated to dinner. We took the sea taxi, or ocean bus (which Celeste had never been on and was very excited about going on), to the other side of the La Rochelle port. We got a great view of the towers on the way. Once we got there we went to a very authentic little seafood restaurant which I now forget the name of. I like seafood but must confess I've only ever had the more conservetive items. Again, wanting to immerse myself as far as possible, I looked for something on the menu that I knew I definitely had NOT tried before. I remembered Celeste saying that she particularily enjoyed 'des huitres' (oysters) and I had never had them, so I ordered them. After learning how to suck the dead creature out its shell, the first one went down my throat in a slimly sort of way and tasted very sea-foody. I decided right then that I think I prefered lobster or shrimp, but I ate the remaining six. I'm glad I tried them, but I don't think I'd order them again. Celeste ordered shrimp and the others ordered sardines. I noticed that sardines were frequently consumed in La Rochelle with an accompanying baguette.