A black and white French loo

After Portugal yesterday, we’re in Caen in northern France’s Normandy region. It’s where we ended our Loire cycling trip back in 2016 - I can’t believe it was that long ago! Although, I also can’t believe that I haven’t been out on my bike for a couple of years either…

We only had a night or two in Caen and its purpose was to break up the long drive home. These loos were in a restaurant close to the hotel and one where we’d stopped for a morning coffee after exploring the town. The tiles on the floor, and the mirrors were real scene stealers.

It wasn’t too much longer after these photos were taken that we retrieved the car from the underground car park, loaded the bikes back on and set on our way to Deauville. Another great town on our way home, that journey though was the one where the car smelt of goat, or rather goat’s cheese, and even for an avid lover of the stuff, it was challenging!

Dinner at The Pharmacy

When we go away I always set MOH a challenge of finding us somewhere to eat, and when we went to Lisbon that was no different but there was an addition this time as it was our wedding anniversary while we were away and so our plan was to celebrate this while we were in Lisbon. The actual day was during the walk, and even I think that might have been too much of a challenge for him, but to be fair, the boy did good.

In fact he excelled himself, and it’s definitely a challenge I’ll be repeating on future holidays. His sense of direction though isn’t anywhere near as good as his restaurant choices, as he’d been trying to manoeuvre a walk past of this restaurant on our travels around Lisbon. And while we came close, when he set out to find it, i realised why he was heading in the wrong direction, and wouldn’t have it.

The restaurant of choice was The Pharmacy - or Pharmacia, not to be confused with The Old Pharmacy which his internal navigation system was veering towards. It’s in this pretty grand building, and is very popular. We didn’t have a booking, but thought we’d try our luck

We arrived at these ornate gates, which hadn’t registered on my gate scale at the time, and we were in luck. There was a bit of a wait but we were promised a table. Result.

While we were waiting I decided to check out the garden, which was mainly beds leading up to the gates and raised beds which acted as a retaining wall for the sloped grassed garden. And after a day in the sun, you can just imagine its scent.

I still don’t know the name of these pretty pink flowers, and I’m still fascinated by the square central parts of the white flowers. Unusual, and pretty aren’t they?

Much further away from the main part of the garden, and stuck out of the way I discovered this succulent beauty with its frilled edge leaves, and delicate pink colour. It’s a bit cabbage-esque isn’t it?

While I was still exploring and snapping parts of the garden our table became available, and so inside we went. The decor inside is eclectic and has a medical feel, which is carried through onto the menu, which arrives on a clipboard. Of course.

Check out the wallpaper. And the curiosities.

As we were celebrating (and to be fair even if we hadn’t been) we ordered cocktails. MOH went for an LSD which arrived in a medical looking receptacle, and my antihistamine arrived with the instructions to eat the flowers. OK…

They were great, and tasty as well as pretty. His tasted like cough candy, and mine was much preferred. Having seen the decor where we were, and in the main restaurant, I had high hopes for the loos. And the signs above the lift fed the anticipation. However, as it turned out, they weren’t anything special at all. I think this is because the restaurant shares the building with a municipal space, and well, the loos were distinctly uninspiring.

Back in the restaurant though, our table overlooked this cupboard which proved a popular stop for staff and something that provided a great people watching opportunity too.

The food was good, it was the sharing type and we had a good meal. I even took some photos, but let’s be honest there was no way he was sharing my matcha and pistachio panna cotta, which is an unusual pudding choice for me. I could have perhaps eaten at least another one.

But with these scales in sight, that didn’t happen.

Vintage threads

In yesterday’s post I shared my latest purchase, a large basket of embroidery and crochet threads. Today I’m sharing more of what I discovered as I tried to untangle its contents.

There were several pieces of cardboard with the embroidery threads wound around and labelled, no doubt for use in a project. The yellows, oranges and greens will come in useful for my future tablecloth project, but as I was sorting through these I couldn’t help but wonder about their original intended purpose, or their owner.

There was a clue on what the crochet threads were used for, with a couple of beautifully crocheted squares and more in a plastic bag. Just look at the detail and exquisiteness of the stitches, as well as the colour, which as you’d imagine was a hit with me.

Sorting through the basket revealed quite a few balls of crochet threads, some embroidery and tapestry skeins, and a rather shocking amount of gold sewing thread. Fourteen in fact, most of which still had the protective wrapping on. Had I stumbled across the craft supplies of another yellow fan? Or had she bought them with a project in mind, that didn’t come to fruition, who knows?

There were also some trimmings, the sort you’d find in the haberdashers. There were pom poms and fringing, the white ones were interesting though, as the individual threads are clearly visible.

There was a booklet of patterns, dated Spring 1938, which I need to look at further and which gives a clue to the age of the previous owner. The handwriting too of some of the threads which were labelled with the price (1/6 d) and number of skeins suggests these might not have been in active use for quite a while.

But the real find, apart from the yellow cotton obsession, was these tiny metal crochet hooks each with a cover for the hooked end. And I thought the crochet was exquisite, these were something else.

So all in all, quite a find.

Now I just need to find a home for them, and a plan to use them - but even I may struggle to get through the lifetime supply of yellow cotton…