The Autumn Leaves

Went to dinner last night with some friends in Nantes.  My favorite restaurant, Monseigneur's, a Moroccan place located in his old building near the Commerce section of town.  You enter through this long, desolate and, thankfully, recently painted hallway with nothing on the dingy walls except the dinge.  Then you take a stairway that has to be several hundred years old.  Everything is gray and unappealing until you enter a small foyer and the restaurant explodes outward in front of you. Everything is color, the walls painted with magnificent Arabic designs and brilliantly lit.  The food is not fancy.  It is merely to die for.  Couscous that seems more air than reality, light and fluffy as a dream.  Served with stewed vegetables, olives, chickpeas.  The meats are superbly grilled, the usual order: brochettes of beef and merguez, a wonderful Moroccan sausage that is the best I've ever eaten; accompanying stewed lamb shanks with the meat falling off the bone.   Add to that wonderful people and the rainy Saturday night becomes a wonderland.  It doesn't get any better than that.

Lounged around the house this morning and decided to take a little ride.  The trees are turning color and beginning to loose their leaves, reminding one of New Hampshire in the fall.  Thought a few pictures would be in order, so I drove out to the golf course I usually play and snapped some.

Pulled down this interesting little road near the golf course and saw this old man looking out over the field near the river.  See him?

He's there.  A little beat up by the years but, like yours truly, still hanging in.  (Of course, he's better looking...it's been a rough road sometimes.)

Entrance to the golf course.

Clubhouse

8th and 9th Fairways

Down the fairway

I believe I shanked one over there once.  It did not seem so pretty at the time.

Chateau Clearmont above the course

A little stop on the way home to get a picture of the Loire and a casualty.

Pleasant little ride in the country.