Glou Glou, Miam Miam

Bordeaux, 11/28/10

We play at a tiny wine bar/bistro whose name I forget but there is a sign outside that says "Glou-Glou, Miam Miam" and one of my new French friends tells me that these are universal noises that people make when they drink and eat. I am happy to be able to use my petit peu de francais instead of just saying "si" and "gracias" constantly. There is a bad-ass girl throwing the party and DJing who plays a lot of riot girl and a really nervous young guy doing live sound for the first time who I talk with a lot. We are showered with amazing wine and offered this glazed caramel and chocolate tart as soon as we arrive. We set up in the corner and our soundcheck kind of morphs into our set since the whole neighborhood seemed to be crammed into the space ready to go at 5:30 on the nose. There is a curtain seperating the stage from the kitchen and we change clothes wedged between countertops and cases of wine. The proprietor keeps up a steady stream of conversation and food preparation as we are setting up, and by the time we are done playing there is a beautiful spread of pate and chorizo and watercress salad and rustic loaves of bread layed out for us with wine and sparkling water and that epic tart for dessert. The show is super high-energy and there is a little girl on her mom's shoulders in the audience. I drink copious amounts of incredible wine and am feeling pretty awesome about my French, talking to everybody and making friends and asking lots of questions. Two cute boys invite us to their recording studio and the next day one of them sends an email saying nice to meet you and that he wants to marry Kate. I don't want to leave but Luke wants to get a head start so we can have some time to hang out in Lyon the next day, so I grab two bottles of wine for the van and stay up in the backseat talking to Margot about marriage. I pass out on the floor of the van at some point and wake up several hours later to a loud grinding noise and horrible shaking. We creep along at 30mph through the mountains for what seems like forever until we find an Etap and everyone stumbles in to bed, too tired to do anything about the van until morning.