French delights

Yesterday I said that we had a goal of heading to the gaufres Liegeois... which we did, first thing in the late morning (we stayed up late last night and slept in like crazy this morning. I felt guilty and unvirtuous for not demonstrating to Yarrow that we could beat jet lag by adhering closer to schedule, but then I thought, hey, we just crossed France by train with all that luggage. We're tired. Why not sleep?)
Anyway then we went streight to the Bonne Liegeois. Verdict? It ain't Jean Galler.

Jean Galler is the waffles you want to have. And the chocolate you want to have. It's in Belgium. And they make waffles with chocolate inside that are To Die For wonderful. I mean maybe not worth death, but really, really, really good.

The ones here in Cherbourg were not that good. I've just been discussing this disappointment with Anne-Christine, my friend from Liege, and she said she has just stopped trying to have "Belgian waffles" outside of Belgium because people just don't get it.

Good advice. After this morning, we will know better. :) No more Jean Galler waffles unless we are actually in Liege.

Anne-Christine says she'll go take one for the team and have a Galler waffle this week so we can show you. Update forthcoming.

So anyway, the not-amazing waffle (mind you, it was still good, just not AMAZING) was the worst experience of today. Pretty good day, eh?

Big Omission here: we found a lovely, lovely bar last night, which we didn't go into until today. We went twice today. It's the kind of cafe you make home. Warm yellow walls and plaid carpet and plush red booths and a wooden bar and history all over the place... I'll try to get some photos of it in the morning.

After the waffles, we went to the Thomas Henry museum. This was awesome. This dude Thomas Henry was a painter, but when he went up to Paris to paint, he also became an art dealer. And he made a fortune, and he donated a whole whack of paintings to his home town, Cherbourg. It was only 5 Euros for me to get in, and free for the kid.

The museum is divided to educate people on Dutch, Italian, Spanish, and French painters. It was great. 

They had a nice bathroom sign. More French humour: Yarrow noticed the garbage cans in the mall were marked with dead fish. :)

Here we have a fine example of a legendary female assassin. Details below. Her method looks pretty effective, eh?

Here's another mighty girl for you. She looks sweet, doesn't she?

Don't you wish fashions were still like this? I do, sometimes. I mean, why not?

Crazy stuff men used to do because they could get away with it.

Yes, that's right. That's them, on the yard arms (or whatever you call those cross-pieces on the masts).

There are a few girls in that shot, too. 

This was my favourite girl statue in the museum. Of alabaster, I'd guess. Girl wearing clothes and reading a book. Well, she's not reading it, she's holding it. Still lovely.

And then, some other around-towning happened...

Seriously huge chunks of steaks at Carrefour. About 10 bucks each. Cheaper than home for sure.

I have a new appreciation for slate roofs after watching the water gush off them. For some reason I've really been noticing the slate in this town. Verdict on Cherbourg: I love it somehow. I just love France, et c'est ca.

This was dinner, steak and ratatouille for Yarrow, and sausages and potatoes for me, starting with escargot and ending with something called an Incroyable Merveilleux, which did not look impressive when it came, but did, indeed, taste impressive and marvellous. noisette cream covered by good chocolate, over a meringue. Yum.

And back to the hotel room for some time with cats and to write one blog.