Jeff and I went to Monoprix grocery store right when I got back from running because we were HUNGRY! We walked there--it's less than half a mile away. After obtaining food, eating food, and showering, I was finally ready to head out for the day with the family at 11:30am. We walked a few blocks to the open air Saturday marche/market in the heart of Vannes. It was packed with people! There were so many tents selling a huge variety of items: books, clothes, hats, fruits, veggies, meat, paella, etc. Leslie was in her element, shopping around. I even found a darling kids French counting book which we bought for four euros. Rose and Amber are learning to count in French (Jay refuses to do any French--he can be oddly inexplicably stubborn sometimes). We got some delectable fresh strawberries and blueberries and then picked up some haricots verts (green beans) and gorgeous red ripe tomates (tomatoes) for lunch and dinner. I thought we weren't going to get any good tomatoes this summer since we abandoned our garden for a month, but the tomatoes here are delicious!
We took our bounty home and made a fresh feast for lunch with baguette, soft cheese, sweet tomatoes, and a small jar of Jeff's favorite meat spread, terrine. After a bit of rest, we headed back outside around 2pm to see more of the rustic downtown. It is so nice staying in an apartment so close to downtown! No public transit necessary. We admired the fortress and medieval city ramparts and walked down to the water, where the kids played on a cool rope playground for at least an hour. Then we headed up onto the old ramparts on our way home.
All of the restaurants here don't open for dinner till 7pm (the norm for small town France). We were all hungry at 5, so Jeff and I made our second trip of the day to Monoprix grocery store, where we loaded up on galettes, refrigerated pizzas, and lardons (bacon) and frozen potato hash. We are stocked with food for Sunday! Jeff and I lugged it all home in our two handy folding grocery bags, and I immediately began heating the ham and cheese galettes (savory buckwheat crepe) in the microwave. I had to look up how to cook green beans correctly on google, and I made those too. We had a lovely French dinner all from the grocery store and marche.
We got the girls into bed right after dinner, and BOY do I hope they sleep well tonight. Amber was "too tired" to walk today but had all the energy in the world to run around the playground for an hour. Rose was at her most epic-ly contrary of all time. Every thing that came out of her mouth was a complaint, an accusation, a correction, or a whine. I wanted to SHAKE HER. Thankfully she mellowed out a tad after playing at the playground for an hour, but during dinner she was still in extra obnoxious mode, disputing, complaining, and doing weird annoying voices. Hence the 7pm bedtime. PLEASE let them sleep a lot tonight, for the adults' AND that of the kids'.
Jay relished being the opposite of Rose's rage today. He smiled and was mellow and patient. He overdid it a few times on purpose to annoy Rose, though, so I still had to get on his case a bit. We survived, and Vannes is such a wonderful town! I love it! It looks like a fairy tale.
A few fotos from my morning run...
Low tide--at high tide this whole area is covered in water.
Tasting that salty fresh breeze.
I love this coastal pathway!
Beautiful bounty. The tiny red berries are gooseberries. We totally should've tried them, but we didn't know what they were till we looked it up later.
These massive paella skillets were so awesome.
Jay and Rose, carrying our fresh purchases: haricots verts et tomates.
Playing outside the city walls.
"little town, it's a quiet village...every day like the one before"
Down by the harbor (excuse the random man, haha)
Three words: half timbered houses!
One word: AMBY!
Searching for the old city ramparts
Heading up to the ramparts
Up on the ramparts. It was so cool to have a functional rustic town inside actual old school RAMPARTS.
Jeff and I slipped out for an evening walk together--that is our favorite date: a simple hand-holding walk (especially in an interesting place).
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