Sunflowers

Throughout rural France are fields upon fields of sunflowers. The fields must look stunning in July but in September the sunflowers are all dead, leaving you with a sad, sad view. The perfect setting for a horror movie.

Confit de Canard

While we were at Le Cheval Blanc we asked about any particular French dishes that we should try. Jill suggested we cook Confit de Canard, which is essentially 'duck in a can'. The duck is slightly pre cooked in the can and resting in plenty of duck fat. All you need to do is scrape off some of the fat, place the duck in a roasting pan and cook it until golden. At the same time you can roast some potatoes in the extra fat. Delicious! I also roasted some beetroot in balsamic vinegar and made a salad with the beetroot, goats cheese and baby spinach.

The fabulously large oven

The duck before

Potatoes roasted in duck fat. Roast Beetroot and goats cheese salad.

The roasted duck

It would have to be the most decadent meal, not for everyday, but definitely for special occasions. Plus they sell Confit de Canard in Canada. I see a French Roast sometime soon in our wintery future.

Many thanks to Nick, Christina and Jim for help with the preparation xx

Market Day Riberac

We did not buy the snails, however we did try the goats cheese, strawberries, figs, olives and macaroons - the most expensive macaroons we've ever tasted, nothing on the one's Noosh makes xx

An early morning walk in rural France

One of the lovely girls we were with went for a walk every morning at 8:00am. I made it one of the days....

Le Cheval Blanc

For the last week we've been staying at Le Cheval Blanc, just outside of Riberac, France. Le Cheval Blanc is an old farmhouse that our friend's mother's cousin and her husband renovated and runs as a holiday home. They live next door and can organise everything for you, from the shopping to an airport pick up. They're fabulous.

Le Cheval Blanc

Our balcony

Our room

Our view

A bicycle made for two

Flowers

More Bristol

A grave yard we stumbled across

The pub where our mate works

and of course we couldn't leave Bristol without seeing the world famous suspension bridge

Banksy Tour of Bristol

Cemetery Junction

I saw a great movie on the plane called Cemetery Junction. Set in the early 70s it is a somewhat comedic look into the lives of teenagers as they decide who they will be and where their lives will go.

Llandudno

Hostel view

Bay view

Castle view

New Best Thing view

Manchester

Completely unexpected we ended up with a few hours to kill in the centre of Manchester while we waited for our mate's bus to arrive. We took a ride on the Manchester 'Eye' then visited a few places of interest after that. We were struck by the vast number of abandoned buildings in the center of the city. Apparently the credit crunch has meant that companies have just up and left the buildings to rot.

Lunch was a typical English meat pie and warm beer before a long journey on the motorway to the picturesque Welsh seaside town of Llandudno.

So Long Suckers

Today we leave Alice Springs for the big wide world. It's a little scary, but very exciting (10 out of 10 Noosh), so stay tuned. Over the next few months I will endeavour to update the blog as much as I can while we travel through Europe and Lebanon and eventually landin Canada for the upcoming ski season.