Happy 2 Month-iversary!

Before we get to the good stuff....

HAPPY TWO MONTH ANNIVERSARY!

     This means one of two things. One, you've all officially gone two or more months without seeing me in person. (Is this cause for celebration? If there's desserts involved, heck yeah!!) Two, my stay in France is 2/3 of the way over!

I had to... There is a serious lack of minions on this blog.

     Don't despair! There's still lots of fun activities to be done/photographed, and many more blog entries to come! Let's start by reviewing what I did this week, shall we?

      One main highlight of this week was accompanying Marie to venture downtown for "the most beautiful market in Nantes". We lugged along a large sack on wheels and a basket or two down narrow roads, and even passed through a mini flea market, but I didn't stop to look. (Sorry Mom!) I first started to notice the market's pop-up stands outside a long, low standing building. These were selling fresh seafood, flowers and vegetables. In fact, the market was similar in many ways to the St. Jacob's farmer's market, but there were no loose cows wandering around!

Oysters, anyone?

     Our first stop was a vegetable stand for some zucchinis and "celery", which I think is celery root. (celeriac?) It's big, brown, round, and tastes great when pureed in Marie's coveted Thermomix food processor.

     The next stop was checking out cheeses. The French don't futz around with their dairy products, let me tell you! There was a huge displayed area with a bazillion kinds, and a guy prepping a 3 ft wide tartiflette! (potato/cheese/onion dish)

The appropriately dressed cheese master.

      While Marie made her cheesy choices, I moved our giant grocery bag out of the way, towards the end of the stall (aka an area without glass panels), when I got slapped in the face by the scent of 50 tonnes of goat cheese! Surprise! Next, we visited the seafood sector, which was basically the entire lower level. And I thought the cheese scent was strong! After that, we moved along to the butcheries. There was so much meat! From foie gras to chicken giblets, they had it all. I even found this beauty nestled among the meat.

Nomz?

     Talk about biting off more than you can chew! It was about as long as my forearm! I haven't tasted cow's tongue yet, but I hear it's actually a very tender meat. I think I'll stick with my hamburgers for now, though.... As I took a picture, the meat vendor asked me en Francais if I thought his cow tongue was ugly! Marie had to jump in and save ignorant me from offending him, explain that I was Canadian. He got pretty excited after that, and let me take some more meat pictures.

     I was also treated to some great dining with Juliette's dad, Patrick. He loves to serve us desserts, and I can't say I mind eating them! This weekend alone I tasted caramel-drizzled pistachio cake with raspberry sauce, a chocolate tart with a white chocolate cream slab and strawberries, and a vanilla tart topped with whipped cream, miniature cream-puffs, and hard caramel discs. Creampuff-ception, much? (I'm definitely going to have to join cross-country next year.) Lastly, as a late Easter surprise, he bought us girls a giant chocolate fish (for Poisson D'Avril as well?) filled with chocolate goodies! This buddy didn't last long, though....

Glub Glub!

    Also with Juliette's dad, we watched the original version of "The Italian Job". Even in French, it wasn't half bad, although Juliette didn't appreciate the ending. On a completely unrelated note, Juliette recently inherited her mom's old iPhone, so she's been Instagramming up a storm. I'm also going to load her up with my music colletion, because she definitely needs some One Direction in there. ;)

     Thinking back earlier into the week, I demonstrated some more Canadian sport ability in gym class. In wrestling, I was the prime example for executing a half-nelson (I think they may or may not be more terrified of me now!) and I tackled hurdles in the freezing cold like a champ. On Wednesday afternoon, I went for a biking tour of one of Nantes' many parks with Natalka, and we had impromptu photo shoots on bridges and playgrounds. One of the most memorable moments? As a group of elderly people cleared the path for us to pass through, I began to say "excusez-nous", to pardon us for making them move. However, I was a little brain-dead, because I shouted out "excusez-vous" instead! (equivalent to excuse you!) We sped out of there pretty quickly after that. I'm sorry to any French people I've offended in my two months here!

      What else is there to add? Oh yes, a took a listening test in my music class, and was one of the only people to get perfect! (I wasn't about to admit that I'd guessed on half of the questions, because I hadn't understood the assignment!) ;)

      I still can't believe how quickly these last two months have come and gone. I feel like I've learned so much and I'm so grateful to be here! I'm also super pumped for the upcoming 2 week vacation and trip to Paris! What's more, next weekend I'm journeying to the nether regions of Nantes to tour the Bretagne Castle, and ride some elephants! (They're wooden, don't worry.)

Again, thanks for reading and putting up with my shenanigans.

Miss everyone a bunch, and good luck to everyone at WO running for Co-Prez!

Bisous! Lia xox