last day in france...

31/3/2008

today was our last full day in france and we decided to take a day trip to marseille... too bad the beautiful weather went on vacation and left us with downpour. the metro from the train station came out right in front of the water. we just missed the fresh seafood market so we walked along the old port. the boats were incredible! there were hundreds of them!

we ate lunch at a cafe right on the water, starting with an assortment of fresh oysters, clams, shrimp, and muscles. i had grilled dorade and dad had a seafood pasta. both were outstanding! we did a little "shopping" then headed back for the train station.

everything worked out perfectly. we packed up our bags back at the hotel and then went on a search for dinner around 8:30. we found the opera cafe which was coincedentally enough, right across the street from the theater.

dinner was unbelievable. first they had more servers than all of the paris cafes combined, which means service was pretty good. we started out with aperatifs - dad had whisky and i had a kir. of course when the meal came dad and i did sharesies. i ordered duck which also came with a great side of squash and a delicious risotto. dad had a ground lamb with herbs that was wrapped like an eggroll. we decided these two dishes were in our top three, along with the beef bourguignon we had in beaune - for me this is a big deal because between lunch and dinner everyday for a month, i ate a lot of different meals. for dessert i ordered the opera cup which had ice cream, coffee flavored rum, nutella, nougat, and whipped cream. it was pretty intense!

tomorrow we have an early train to paris and we'll be cutting it close to get to the airport!