Day5 - Shopping day !!!

Bon Jour Monsieur as I hear it from anyone I see within Hotel Mercure. Another great morning in France..!!! Pretty darn cold and almost anyone human I spot resembles an old steam engine. A breath of fresh air in and a bout of steam out. Woke up 2 hours early this morning. Time to get have breakfast. Today the restaurant at Mercure was crowded. Time for pancake, dutch cheese and a small dose of berry jam and nutella. I meet my team mates back in office with their version of time well spent over last evening and almost all have a unified answer (Got drunk like a skunk). To be honest, I think I too was in a similar state but attributed to too much lemonade or double espressos !! However after shift David was kind enough to drop Dennis and I at our hotel. We quickly dumped our luggage to visit Decathlon after which we were to explore our options for diner. Dave was driving a rental car, a Citroen Picasso which was quite a peppy hatchback. About 10 mins later we were at Decathlon store in Bourgoin Jallieu. I headed straight to the cycling section while Dave and Dennis explored other sport areas. This was quite a big store almost twice as big as the one in Bangalore and Dave mentioned that the branch at Bron was massive. I ended up picking up an overshoe which I've been wanting for quite a while for ride during rains and keeping my feet dry. Dave didn't purchase anything and as I proceeded to the billing counter I was skeptical whether the membership card would work in another country and it did. It was a pleasant surprise. The search for the diner began. The car was parked at a parking lot near a church at #7, Place Carnot in Bourgoin. This was Dave's idea as he had been to this Italian restaurant (Couverts) during a visit last year. But we found out that almost all the restaurants that we managed set our eyes would open only at 19:00hrs and close by about 22:00hrs. With a half hour to spare we spent time roaming the shopping alley which is lined with stores. So good to see civilization after being in a place where there is hardly anything else apart from hotel on one side of highway and office on the other. I kept clicking away to glory with the X6 and time and again requesting Dave to click a few which he gladly obliged. A few snaps of cars followed and finally it was time to enter the restaurant and with the help of Dave who spoke French ( A great boon as I only know one word "Merci" meaning thank you) we were able to clarify the options available for me (A Vegan). It looked like Dave eats anything served to him on a plate. Only after a meal, does his inquisitve part of mind kick in to figure out if the dish was the result of a Bovine sacrifice or a smoked Gallus domesticus. A true example of a point n shoot as he just stares at the menu for a quick minute and points to an option and nods his head which the waitress reciprocates with the a lovely French accent (made cool by the tongue twisters and hisses). I order a Spaghetti and a pizza. Spaghetti resembled the curry noodles and the Pizza was more like a paratha with mexican sauce chilli and some local vegetable that resembles cucumber with mushroom and capsicum as toppings. I enjoyed the change in taste and after spending about an hour, Dave dropped us back to the hotel and he continued his half hour journey to his hotel.

A sight on the way to office... There's no one in it and the car is almost kissing the tarmac.. !! :-|

The "Mini Countryman"

A Nice chopper like Bike 

A Standard Mini Cooper used in "The Italian Job"

 The original Mini which truly is a MINI !!!

The Rental Citroen Picasso driven by Dave.

Dave Dennis and I heading to Decathlon on the French motorway B1008.

At Decathlon - Shopping at the home turf of this superstore

A Superb Bicycle Stand in the town of Bourgoin. 

France Ahh..!!!

Dave, Dennis an I await by a Church for restaurant to open  

The Italian "Spaghetti restaurant"

I already am missing my roadbike and I wish I had it here so I could explore more of this beautiful countryside. No more updates for tonight. Gotta catch some sleep before shift start in 7 hours :-)