Tahiti and Back – Day 2
Woke up at four this morning, which is late for me, especially when you figure that it meant past seven at home. TBG was already awake and stirring when I accidently used the wrong light switch and turned on all the lights in the room. I mean to turn on the bathroom light, but oh, well…
We took showers and sorted out our suitcases. The day was slowly waking up outside and it was nice to sit with a cup of coffee and listen to the waves, the magpies, doves and roosters. Last night I didn’t think we were even close to the ocean, but we are and the waves sound like the distant roar of jet engines. I was so happy that I had a momentary bout of crying. It feels so good to be here.
We decided that we would purposefully keep the day low key. After breakfast, we headed over to Carrefour to do a little shopping. It took some wandering around, but we found what we were looking for and a lot of stuff we weren’t, like Chef’s Cream – a pre thickened cream to cut back on prep time for sauces – or escargot, frozen and ready to do. We truly are in French Polynesia.
After checking out, we decided to drive for a bit, just to get the feel for the place. There are not mail boxes or house numbers here, but every driveway has a sign – Servetude and the family’s last name - like Servetude Picard. Pretty neat.
We headed back to the hotel and managed to hold out until noon for lunch. We went down to the main dining room and had a lovely feast. TBG had a seared tuna and a beet-an- cabbage slaw bowl and I had the poisson du lagoon, and this time it was Emperor fish. It was served on a bed of mashed custard bananas and topped with dried pineapple. Incroyable!
The afternoon was spent lounging around, writing postcards, napping and watching French TV. We also managed to squeeze in a swim. The pool water wasn’t as warm as I’d have liked, but it was okay. It felt good to swim again.
We decided to stay on property and dine at their two-star Michelin restaurant. What a fun evening that was. I was amazed at how many people joined us. It was called Le Lotus and was over the water. Sadly, it was a sultry night, so a bit hot, but still nice.
Dinner was pretty darn spectacular. It started with a canape, carrot and ginger puree with fresh raw fish and nuts. Then the amuse was a cauliflower puree with a different fish and a potato chip. I questioned that until I tasted it and it tasted just like onion dip, but no onions.
For the main course, I selected mahi mahi and TBG has the chef’s special Popoi fish over coconut rice. Sadly when mine came out, there were two little clams sitting on top of it. Not part of the dish, and I’m not even sure they were clams, but I didn’t want to take the chance, so TBG swapped plates with me. His was okay, but mine looked fabulous, which he agreed with. It had a vegetable cannoli with a leaf ‘pasta’ shell.
Then dessert, which we shouldn’t have had, but did anyhow. I had a Polynesian fruit medley with black sesame sorbet and the TBG had a chocolate thing. Sheets of dark chocolate over a chocolate mousse, I think. He didn’t offer to share. :P
The walk back to the room was very long and my legs and back were feeling the stress of the day. Thankfully, they didn’t keep me up too much last night and aren’t too bad this morning. Still a glorious first day in Paradise.
We took showers and sorted out our suitcases. The day was slowly waking up outside and it was nice to sit with a cup of coffee and listen to the waves, the magpies, doves and roosters. Last night I didn’t think we were even close to the ocean, but we are and the waves sound like the distant roar of jet engines. I was so happy that I had a momentary bout of crying. It feels so good to be here.
We decided that we would purposefully keep the day low key. After breakfast, we headed over to Carrefour to do a little shopping. It took some wandering around, but we found what we were looking for and a lot of stuff we weren’t, like Chef’s Cream – a pre thickened cream to cut back on prep time for sauces – or escargot, frozen and ready to do. We truly are in French Polynesia.
After checking out, we decided to drive for a bit, just to get the feel for the place. There are not mail boxes or house numbers here, but every driveway has a sign – Servetude and the family’s last name - like Servetude Picard. Pretty neat.
We headed back to the hotel and managed to hold out until noon for lunch. We went down to the main dining room and had a lovely feast. TBG had a seared tuna and a beet-an- cabbage slaw bowl and I had the poisson du lagoon, and this time it was Emperor fish. It was served on a bed of mashed custard bananas and topped with dried pineapple. Incroyable!
The afternoon was spent lounging around, writing postcards, napping and watching French TV. We also managed to squeeze in a swim. The pool water wasn’t as warm as I’d have liked, but it was okay. It felt good to swim again.
We decided to stay on property and dine at their two-star Michelin restaurant. What a fun evening that was. I was amazed at how many people joined us. It was called Le Lotus and was over the water. Sadly, it was a sultry night, so a bit hot, but still nice.
Dinner was pretty darn spectacular. It started with a canape, carrot and ginger puree with fresh raw fish and nuts. Then the amuse was a cauliflower puree with a different fish and a potato chip. I questioned that until I tasted it and it tasted just like onion dip, but no onions.
For the main course, I selected mahi mahi and TBG has the chef’s special Popoi fish over coconut rice. Sadly when mine came out, there were two little clams sitting on top of it. Not part of the dish, and I’m not even sure they were clams, but I didn’t want to take the chance, so TBG swapped plates with me. His was okay, but mine looked fabulous, which he agreed with. It had a vegetable cannoli with a leaf ‘pasta’ shell.
Then dessert, which we shouldn’t have had, but did anyhow. I had a Polynesian fruit medley with black sesame sorbet and the TBG had a chocolate thing. Sheets of dark chocolate over a chocolate mousse, I think. He didn’t offer to share. :P
The walk back to the room was very long and my legs and back were feeling the stress of the day. Thankfully, they didn’t keep me up too much last night and aren’t too bad this morning. Still a glorious first day in Paradise.