May 6, 2017. French market day

LOCATION:  Housesitting outside of Poullouen, Brittany, France

WEATHER:  Mostly cloudy.  Bit of rain.  Highs in 50s

 

It rained all night.  The farmers should be happy, as the hoomeowner told us that it has been a dry spring so far.     Morning chores incuded tidying up the coop, feeding the chickens, and collecting the eggs.

We decided to check out a different market this Saturday.  We drove about 30 miles to another old town.  The market is very large here.  It was fun going to different stalls.  We bought some "lard" which is French for bacon, some pate, unusual cheeses and some veg.  Many of the town's old buildings almost look Swiss.

 

After a hard morning of shopping, George was in need of a toilet and a beer.  We stopped in this bar to fulfill both needs.  It was a real "locals" hangout.

 

Then, we found a darling small cafe for lunch.  We had planned to buy some mussels in the market, but couldn't find any good ones.  This cafe was featuring steamed mussels, so we ordered a pot.

The mussels were absolutely delicious and were bigger than we have had before.  They were served with a big plate of fries.  Everyone else had a pot of mussels each, but we split one.  Even at that, we were so full that we had to leave some of the wonderful juice at the bottom of the pot that is so good soaked up with French bread.  All for $9!    

On our way back to the car, we stopped to buy our daily baguette...

The town has interesting architecture and a huge aquaduct that runs through it.

 

Back home, we made a fire in the fire pit outside and grilled some andouille sausage we had bought. It is different from the kind popular in Louisiana, USA.  This is literally "cow colon".  It is extremely popular here, and we even saw a stall at the market that only sold different kinds of andouille.  Our homeowners as well as the British campers warned us NOT to buy it as it  smells really awful and tastes really strong.  So, we had to buy some.   :-). We did cook it outside in case the odor was too strong for the indoors kitchen.  After we cooked it, we tasted it, and it tasted fine to us.  We will eat it another evening.     DINNER:  Cheesy polenta with a tomato sauce and meatballs.