bouquet-O-fish

We spent a fabulous weekend in the centre of France. We were staying with friends who were celebrating their son's Christening as well as their 30th birthday so, to our great delight, the party lasted over 2 days. It was great to see them again (they live in Switzerland) as well as meet new ones. We had a marvelous time.

To and fro their lovely estate, we did some sightseeing along the way. Our first stop was in Montluçon, which is a lovely medieval town that is culminated by the castle of the Duc de Bourbon. The Cher river runs through the city and we saw a peculiar thing whilst walking along its bank. The water is littered with trash and was very murky so we were intrigued when we saw what looked like a strange algae formation bobbing on the surface. When we looked closer, we realized it was a group of fish, huddled closely together, standing straight up and keeping very still. They were alive because once in a while, one of them would swim away from the group. It ressembled a bouquet of flower and looked something like this:
On the way back, we made a detour by Vichy. Alas, we didn't have the chance to relax in a thermal bath. One of these days, i'll splurge on a spa/thermal bath/massage getaway. The architecture of the late 19th & early 20th century is interesting and we were happy to visit it.

I wish all our week-ends were like this...