So after getting situated in the hotel and cleaned up, our first peek at Nantes came on the way to dinner. Our destination this evening would be a restaurant called “La Boudoir”.

Our hotel is located in the pedestrian part of town, so except for the odd taxi or bicycle we could walk without worries as we looked all around. There are quite a few small, bars and cafes and they all seemed pretty lively.

Our restaurant is literally a five minute walk from the hotel. When we arrived, we were warmly greeted and then taken charge of by the owner. She and I had traded emails, as we were not sure if we would get there due to the train strike. She was so nice and made sure our server took very good care of us throughout the evening.

We truly enjoyed the little bit of extra pampering after the day’s travel. As for the meal – ooh la la! Started off with our traditional Kir Royals, along with an amuse-bouche that was puréed asparagus with little bits of pepperoni. Very different, and very good.

For our meals, Sue skipped the starter and then had a grilled turbot fish plate. I started with a crab salad with minced vegetables and a thin pastry shell made with ginger. My main dish was a grilled fish called St Pierre along with a langoustine. We had a bottle of Pouilly Fume and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

For dessert, we both had something called a Mojito. It was a combination of flavors just like the drink. It had a base of a financier, citrus, honey, spun sugar and cream. I’ll let that all settle in and just say that the meal was wonderful.

During the evening I also got little French lessons – mostly pronunciation and all with a big smile. We even got to join in and sing happy birthday to a woman celebrating with family. The fun part was that we were the only non French people there and felt like we belonged. Thank you to Nathalie and staff for a lovely evening.

A short walk back to the hotel and we were asleep in a blink. That bed sure felt good!

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