Fishing trip

[MooN]

to Beaune to stock up on tins of tuna,mackerel, sardines, fish soup, and various other delicacies from "La Belle Iloise" https://www.labelleiloise.fr/en/information/the-cannery-1  As I am to be in lockdown with the animals children I will need to feed them I suppose and tins of fish with rice, or pasta, or spuds, is about the limit of my culinary skills. Besides, I like fish but live too far from the sea for anything to be truly fresh by the time it gets here... I'd planned to ride anyway today so adapted my ride to swing by Beaune and pick up a haul of canned fish. 

fuel first

Have you read "Clochmerle"? this made me think of it. A monument to the local dead of the first war when the french troops still wore bright blue uniforms.

Rare to see one still coloured 

 

"Blessed be the cheesemakers"

 

Epoisses has a well preserved chateau fortress that is still privately owned and in the same family since 1661 which is sufficiently rare in France to be worthy of note, as most of them changed hands with the revolution in 1790summat.

The very pointy extremeties of the castle walls is typical of castles designed by Vauban who was the first person to figure out that a fort based on an exaggerated star floorplan allowed all of the walls to be swept by fire from at least one other he was an incredible guy and hugely important in French history. 

stopped her for Lunch and took a leaf out of Bobo neleg's book of lunch by having sarnies and a flask of tea ( how very english of me!) 

 by the time I got to Beaune, which is a aealthy and pretentios place heaving with porche cayennes andBMWx6s and audi convertibles, and got what I wanted from a mindnumblingly dense shop assistant I needed to push a bit to get home before curfew so didn't stop much on the way back except once to remove the thermal liner from my jacket and have another swig of tea

 

 

 

 As per usual, I outran the gps and got home with half an hour to spare... about 320 km in all. 

[Grasshopper]

Looks like a great ride, and nice weather too.  

I enjoy the bits of history you add to the story.

 

[boboneleg]

Superb yet again Chris, cracking photo is this one

[MooN]

8 minutes ago, Grasshopper's Ride said:

Looks like a great ride, and nice weather too.  

I enjoy the bits of history you add to the story.

 

Thanks, history is kinda my thing but can get boring very quickly for those not interested so i try and keep it to a minimum 

[Grasshopper]

4 minutes ago, MooN said:

Thanks, history is kinda my thing but can get boring very quickly for those not interested so i try and keep it to a minimum 

Ohhhh I love history, you could start a thread and talk all you want about it, all good by me! 

[XTreme]

Brilliant Chris.....and going out on the bike and coming back smelling of fish? That's the 70's in a nutshell AFAIC.

First wife wasn't too impressed as I recall......but that's the way we rolled back then! 

And this has to give Fred's river shots a run for their money in BOTM....

[Pedro]

I love canned fish, but isn’t Auxerre a big enough town to have at least a couple of markets selling freshly caught fish? It does surprise me.

 I really like the colour of your bike, and it seems so suited to the riding you do, lovely places!

[boboneleg]

The history is ace  Chris, keep it coming.

[Tym]

If this keeps up i;ll never win BOTM again...lol great shots! 

[MooN]

11 hours ago, Pedro said:

I love canned fish, but isn’t Auxerre a big enough town to have at least a couple of markets selling freshly caught fish? It does surprise me.

 I really like the colour of your bike, and it seems so suited to the riding you do, lovely places!

Auxerre is 300 odd km from the nearest coast Pedro, that means that any fish is offloaded and sold on the dock, then it goes to the market in Rungis (paris), then it goes to the wholesalers, then it goes to the fishmonger... that means a minimum of 36 hrs in a truck.... + the time on a market stall hat is not fresh!  I lived too long on the cosat to eat 48h old "fresh" fish. 

[Pedro]

33 minutes ago, MooN said:

Auxerre is 300 odd km from the nearest coast Pedro, that means that any fish is offloaded and sold on the dock, then it goes to the market in Rungis (paris), then it goes to the wholesalers, then it goes to the fishmonger... that means a minimum of 36 hrs in a truck.... + the time on a market stall hat is not fresh!  I lived too long on the cosat to eat 48h old "fresh" fish. 

I assumed it was brought directly there bypassing Paris

[MooN]

8 hours ago, Pedro said:

I assumed it was brought directly there bypassing Paris

Nope, alomst ALL food products in france go via the Rungis market, there are miriad stupid situations whereby fish from Marseille ( for example) is caught, sold off the boat, travels to Rungis, is sold there to a wholesaler, and then  taken back to Marseille to be sold as "fresh" on the markets and in the restaurants there... some story all along the coast, the restaurants only by from their wholsaler who only buys in bulk from Rungis... stupid, stupid, stupid...  Having discovered this I no longer eat "fresh" fish unlessI can buy it from the boat, which is what we do when we holiday in Britanny. It's also why I never, ever eat shellfish in a restaurant here. 

[XTreme]

3 minutes ago, MooN said:

Nope, alomst ALL food products in france go via the Rungis market, there are miriad stupid situations whereby fish from Marseille ( for example) is caught, sold off the boat, travels to Rungis, is sold there to a wholesaler, and then  taken back to Marseille to be sold as "fresh" on the markets and in the restaurants there... some story all along the coast, the restaurants only by from their wholsaler who only buys in bulk from Rungis... stupid, stupid, stupid...  Having discovered this I no longer eat "fresh" fish unlessI can buy it from the boat, which is what we do when we holiday in Britanny. It's also why I never, ever eat shellfish in a restaurant here. 

Bit of Spanish logic there Chris!

[Pedro]

1 minute ago, MooN said:

Nope, alomst ALL food products in france go via the Rungis market, there are miriad stupid situations whereby fish from Marseille ( for example) is caught, sold off the boat, travels to Rungis, is sold there to a wholesaler, and then  taken back to Marseille to be sold as "fresh" on the markets and in the restaurants there... some story all along the coast, the restaurants only by from their wholsaler who only buys in bulk from Rungis... stupid, stupid, stupid...  Having discovered this I no longer eat "fresh" fish unlessI can buy it from the boat, which is what we do when we holiday in Britanny. It's also why I never, ever eat shellfish in a restaurant here. 

In Portugal we have small markets in medium fishing towns. On the smallest villages some have closed because they just couldn't justify the costs of being open and cater for modern health rules with such small volume, but you will easily have fish for lunch caught that same morning in most places on the coast. Not to say restaurants or fishmongers don't sell yesterday's catch too, but that's another thing.

Better to buy something frozen a couple of hours after hitting the market than fish that has been traveling for two days.