Mugel and Mèze

Friday, I chaperoned Laureva's class field trip to the Mugel calanques and park in La Ciotat. We had nice warm sunny weather, but a thunderstorm skirted us midday and rained down on Lascours. It was reportedly the hardest rain of the latest two-week period of storms.

On the field trip, we learned all about la Posidonie, an aquatic plant endemic to the Mediterranean. We looked for it on the beach, learned all about it, and looked at pieces under microscopes. 

Things I remember: grows only one centimeter per year; only flowers and fruits when water temperatures stay at 27°C for at least two weeks; the fruit looks like a green olive and is called l'olive de mer; banks of leaves washed up on the beach help prevent coastal erosion; it's a protected plant and illegal to drop anchor in a bed and remove its detritus from beaches; little hairs which break off from the stems get formed into little brown hairy balls called pelottes de posidonie, kind of like dust bunnies, and looking a bit like nut shells. 

The bus arrived back in Lascours about a quarter to four. I headed directly home to meet Sylvain and get ready for our weekend trip. We packed and were on the road to Mèze by 5:45pm. During the drive, I realized why my wedding ring had been snagging on my clothes all day: the diamond had fallen out. I have no idea when that happened, but sometime before leaving the house Friday morning, at least. 

We checked in to our hotel at the harbor, then had just enough time for a beer at a nearby brasserie before heading to our 8pm dinner reservation at La Barbe Bleue, a seafood restaurant Sylvain had seen recommended online. 

At the hotel, our towels were folded on the bed like birds, so I took this picture for the girls:

For our beer, we had a little table on the edge of the quai, and a lovely undisturbed view of the smooth water, boats and palm trees. Here's a selfie at the harbor area from the next morning:

Our dinner was delightful. Sylvain had oysters that he declared to be some of the best he's ever had. I had rillettes de maquereaux, a sort of fish dip to spread on toast. Then we shared some mussels baked with aïoli, and each had a tielle sétoise (a sort of seafood torte) with salad. The food was so good, but not too filling, that we decided to have dessert, as well. We shared an order of profiterolles (vanilla ice cream stuffed cream puffs with chocolate sauce) and an order of pain perdu (French toast). We both agreed we'd happily return to Méze and the restaurant on future trips.