Let's get a rental car...it will be fun! (or so we thought!). I truly am confused by the timeframe of our rental car situation, because so much has changed but I'l try to simplify what is going on! Due to the anticipated train strike in France on Sept 18, we decided to get our rental car earlier than planned. I had changed our car reservation online before we left California. We (all 6 of us) took a very small taxi (a Prius...Lenore and I were basically sitting in the trunk of the car!) to the Bordeaux airport to pick up our rental van. When we got to the car rental desk they had no record of the reservation...after a bit of back and forth it was determined that our reservation was for the prior day, and as we had not picked up the car, it had been given to another family. I think the mixup occurred because EuropeCar had changed their online booking platform between the time of the original booking, and the change order I put in. In fact I actually had to get a supervisor on the phone to make the switch for me, as I could not go into the old platform to change the reservation myself. Anyway, for whatever reason, the reservation was for the wrong day. However, the agent was great at the airport and quickly found us a replacement van. It was dented and scratched on both sides (like it had tried to squeeze into too small of a spot somewhere!). Due to an experience last time we rented a car in France, we paid for the full insurance package that covered ALL damaged to the car and also provided roadside assistance and replacement.
We got in our big ol' van, John at the wheel, and headed to a little coastal town of Arcachon which is famous for oysters. The town was lovely; beautiful wide sand beaches, a long promenade lined with lovely restaurants with brightly colored umbrellas - we all fell in love with it! We had a lovely outdoor lunch (including oysters of course), and basked in the glorious weather and relaxed seaside pace of life. The only mishap of this particular day was the parking ticket we incurred by parking in the grocery store parking lot and staying longer than 1.5 hours. (In our defense, we did do grocery shopping at the store!) It was a lovely day, and we all decided we would love to return to Arcachon in the future for a longer stay. Across the bay is another town of Cap Ferret which we didn't have a chance to explore...but maybe next time!?
We headed home for a simple dinner out, and returned to pack and tidy up the apartment.
The following morning we said our goodbyes to Bordeaux and hit the road, headed for the town of Dinan in Brittany. My nephew George enjoys a glass of cognac occasionally, so we were inspired to take a slight detour to the town of Cognac in his honor (and also the perfect time and spot for a little lunch break).
We came across a restaurant called "Siblings", and I couldn't resist the opportunity to have the 3 bros pose under the sign! (as my son Bryan said when I sent this photo to our boys "At least one of the three was able to both smile and look at the camera! So taking pictures of your kids where they all smile and look at the camera never gets easier?!?!")
Right across the street was a small restaurant that had a sign that mentioned beer. Ron is a beer drinker so we though it would be nice to have lunch there so he could enjoy some good beer with his lunch. In fact, what we stumbled into was the most charming restaurant and love story of our entire trip (so far, anyway!)
The restaurant, called "Duette" is owned and operated by the cutest young couple, Richard and Celine. I really wanted to adopt them both and bring them home to California!! (Richard is 35 so he would fit right in with my boys!) Here is their story...then I will get to the food! Richard is from England, and was a rugby player who came to France to play Rugby in Bordeaux. He originally planned to play for 2 years and then return to Great Britain. He ended up playing for a few more years, then worked in a restaurant in Bordeaux where he met the lovely Celine and they fell in love. They worked there for 5 years and moved to her home-town of Cognac. They found a vacant tattoo parlor that was empty and bought it, did all the remodeling work themselves, and opened their dream restaurant "Duette". The play on words represents them as a couple, their 2 different nationalities, food and drink, etc. They said they were drunk one night and came up with the name "Duet", which really isn't a French word at all (who knew?!)..they added another "te" to make it look French, but it really means nothing in either language! Now, a bit about the food and drink. Ron ordered a Belgian beer, Grimbergen...he LOVED it and has been looking for it ever since! If you ever come across this brand of beer, Ron recommends trying it! Apparently they have been brewing this beer since 1132! Wow! Now the food; it was like something you might find in California...only better! Babette had shakshuka eggs (or as they called it chac-chuca), Gary had a full English breakfast (complete with a banger, broiled tomato and beans), and the rest of us had fabulous bagel breakfast Sammies! Mine had a creaamy goat cheese spread, thinly sliced Iberian chorizo, confit tomatoes just bursting with flavor, and little micro greens...it was perfection. And the bagels were a bit different than ours at home, somewhat lighter and not quite as chewy, but still bagel-like and nothing like lousy grocery store bagels from home that I always think are more like just a dense burger buns. Richard showed us all around the sweet little restaurant and explained how he and Celine had built the banquette seats by themselves, done the tile work in the bathroom by themselves, sourced all the furniture from something that sounded like the French equivalent of Craig's List or Facebook MarketPlace. We were sorry to leave them, but we had to head on toward Dinan. (I gave my newly adopted kids big hugs before leaving them.)
OK...now here is where things get a little dicey! Dinan is a walled midievil city at the top of a hill overlooking the Rance River, in the Breton region of France. We followed our gps directions across the river and up into the walled city and it kept leading our big old dented van (the aptly named Renault Traffic model) toward pedestrian only streets that were more narrow than our van. John did such an amazing job backing out of tricky locations, the gps would re-calibrate and send us to another narrow walking road. We truly were trapped and couldn't get to our airbnb. We spent nearly an hour trying to get to our airbnb, calling the host who kept telling us to get to Rue St. Catherine (our airbnb was on a nearby street called Rue du Coignet. GPS couldn't get us onto Rue St. Catherine because the roads were just so narrow. At one point the host told us to just drive down the street...well we did and it was truly the most harrowing thing I've ever done! I think all 6 of us were holding our breath, pedestrians were staring at us like we were aliens, at one point I think we had about 6" on each side of the van. In hindsight, I wish someone had been filming from the bottom of the steep cobblestone hill as we squeezed our way down. Finally the host said she had a date and told us the code to the lockbox on the door. John parked in a parking lot and Gary and I walked to the airbnb. Then Gary found an acceptable road, met John and guided him to the airbnb. I have NO IDEA why the GPS couldn't do what Gary was able to do!
Anyway, the home is adorable...actually 2 homes next door to each other that have been combined. The house is a 16th century half-timbered building, spread over 3 levels. It has ancient wooden beams, crazy creaky spiral staircases, uneven floors...and I love it! We were all so tired and had so much adrenalin going that we could hardly make a decision as to which bedroom each couple should get. One bedroom is up the wider spiral stairs on the left side of the kitchen, and 2 bedrooms are up the narrow spiral stairs on the right side of the kitchen. These stairs are so narrow the there is no room for a hand railing - there is a rope attached at the top and the bottom of the stairs, the we hang onto as we climb the stairs. The bedrooms are big, and the beds are very comfy. Ron and Lenore got the room one flight up on the left side, we got the room 1 flight up on the right side, and John and Babette are one flight up above us. (I really can't describe how frazzled we were from the marathon drive around and around and around and finally through the medieval town of Dinan!)
We eventually headed out dinner, only to find all the restaurants (and there are TONS of restaurants in this little tiny town!) were full. I finally pleaded with one bar tender and he took pity on us, telling us he would have a table in a few minutes for us. We downed a bottle of wine quickly, and finally sat down for dinner. The food was FABULOUS, and the wine pairings that they suggested were great. This was not a fancy restaurant, more of a pub atmosphere, but the food was top notch. There was a Scottish couple sitting next to us that we began chatting with. Turns out he is related to me distantly as we are both MacKinnons!! He and his wife had moved to Brittany and opened a BnB which they ended up closing during Covid, and they were on holiday in Dinan celebrating her birthday week! They were delightful, and it was a great way to end a harrowing day.
I read day 8 before reading this entry. This rental van is certainly creating some interesting and memorable stories. Lol. Dinan seems like another quaint and utterly charming town.
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