Ahhh.... Vacation

Oh vacation, how I love thee.  Days at a time to sit on my butt and do nothing but read.  Deep down, I think this may have been one of the subconscious things influencing my choice to go into education... you know, besides the children, of course!

The vacation house that we stayed at belongs to the grandparents.  It was awesome!  It was spacious and had two bedrooms upstairs which meant that I got my own room most of the time.  That was pretty sweet and helped me to get over the jet lag in two days.  Not too shabby!

Alexandra and I shared a room for a few nights when Caroline’s parents came to visit.  Alexandra warned me “If you hear a sound in the middle of the night that sounds inhuman and terrifying, don’t worry.  It’s just my grandfather snoring.  He’s not dying or anything.  It’s just how he sounds.” I laughed until I cried.  Then I heard the snoring and I understood.  I’m pretty sure that the neighbors three miles down the road heard it, too.

I went to a lot of little markets that had touristy stuff for sale and some that were like flea markets with things that people had made or wanted to get rid of for sale.  I got some cute little souvenir things that are typical of Bretagne – a bowl with a Breton couple in the middle and my name on the side, a cider cup (they drink hard cider out of big teacups), and some caramel made with salted butter.  YUM.

I visited the salt marshes where they actually go out every night and rake the salt off of the top of the water.  I bought some fleur du sel which is the fine salt that comes off of the top of the water.  Caroline bought some gros sel which is salt that’s raked from the water just above the bottom.

We ate some gallettes, which are salted crepes, with chopped ham, gruyere, and an egg.  They were super tasty.  Then we ate some crepes (which are sugary) with Nutella.  OMG.  How has this not caught on in the US?!  A warm, sugary crepe with melted Nutella in the middle?  To die for!

Caroline’s parents joined us for a few days and I rode with them and Alexandra to a market.  Caroline and Olivier drove separately because the cars here are super small.  When we were done with the market, I had seen something that I wanted to get, so I stopped with Caroline and Olivier.  Caroline’s dad is very impatient, so he wanted the house key so that he, Caroline’s mom, and Alexandra could head out.  Caroline, Olivier, and I got what I wanted, then we drove the 25 minutes back to the house to find that no one was there.  Caroline’s dad hadn’t paid attention to where they had parked the car and they were still looking for it!  I had paid attention and told them where it was, but no one believed me until I showed them the picture I had taken in the area that just happened to have the street sign in the background.  Oh hey, it turns out I was right after all.  They were so late getting back that Caroline, Olivier, and I had time to go to the next town, have a diable au grenadine (fizzy lemonade and grenadine, but their grenadine is more mixed berry than cherry) and a Coke, and go to the beach to take some pictures before they got back.  That was a really long way to explain that I had my first French café experience.  It was pretty awesome.  You sit and chill and the waitress comes and takes your order while you relax under a nice umbrella on the patio.  Ahhh... wonderful!

Now we're back from vacation and I'll be heading to Paris for the first time tomorrow!  Stay tuned for more Frenchtastic adventures!

:) Sarah