Day 12: Meandering Markets

View from where I went and read.

A Building that I ran into while getting lost.


The coolest door handle I've ever seen.


Purple doors for purple people?


Eglise de St. Nicolas

Place Royale


A baguette in the French tradition. This baguette had yummy seeds. I enjoyed the packaging which said things like, "Eat bread to live well" and "A meal without bread is no meal."



What was left of the gateau brioche that I bought.

12 septembre 2009 (Day 12)

This morning, after leisurely getting ready for my Saturday all to myself, I went up into Commerce, the center of the ville to go to the “marche” (market) that is held there every Saturday morning. After meandering around for some time I proceeded to ask a very nice city worker and mail man for directions. I discovered that the Market is much much much larger than I imagined. I assumed that they would have fresh produce and meats, but there was much more. There were clothing vendors, shoe vendors, people selling random odds and ends, Chinese food, Indian food, Islamic attire, olives, fruits & veggies, bread & desserts, sausages, jewelry, and the list could go on. It was probably the size of at least two football fields. I roamed around, in and out of all of the vendors. I was tempted to buy a shirt and some shoes, but I didn’t. I ended up buying a great 4 grain baguette (oats, sesame, sunflower, nataise tomatoes, 2 pears, a small zucchini, and some baby spinach. I should have bought some of the big leaves (0,80E per kilo) instead of the mini spinach would cost 0,80E for 100 grams (aka 8,00E per kilo). There was this really cute older gentleman who was telling me not to be scared and come forward and buy something. I eventually went back to his stand to buy my pears. A younger fellow helped me and he gave me the most amazing fruit with my change. I think it is called a margiolette or something like that. We don’t have anything like it in the states, but it was superb. That vendor has me sold, I believe I will be frequenting his stand and the marvelous Boulanger who makes the 4 grain baguette often on Saturdays.

After the market at Petite Hollande (the one at Commerce) I aimlessly wandering around the centre ville to get myself lost. I saw a lot of fantastic architecture that I didn’t know was here. I also saw the dessert that I had at Cody’s which I enjoyed so much. It is called “Paille framboise” so straw strawberry. It looks like a sandwich with strawberry jam in the middle except the “bread” I suppose you could say looks more like pieces of straw stacked orderly upon each other.

I am still having trouble orienting myself here, the streets aren’t in any block format, so I just picked whatever road had more architecturally impressive buildings. Walking down the sidewalk you see so many quaint things. Many of the houses have key holes that are used by those antique giant keys that open things like treasure boxes. I walked into some shops and bookstores, but I didn’t find anything of note. After an hour or so of simply roaming, thinking of nothing, having no pressing appointments I stumbled upon tramway line 3. I decided to take the tram back to commerce since I doubted my ability to transform the roads on the map that lead to Commerce to the ones my feet walked over.

While riding on the tram I saw another marche, so I got off. It was in the Talensac area, but wasn’t the same market I went to previously. This marche was mostly antiques and wine. It was so cute seeing all the customers being wine connoisseurs, swirling their wine and pecking their lips. There was yet another cute gentleman making this odd bread that looked like a swirly castle. I tried the most incredible sample with almonds, but he was all out of bread when I wanted to buy a “gateau de brioche” (at least I think that was the name) gateau meaning cake and brioche meaning sweet bread. The cool thing is he’d wrap the bread onto a rolling pin and stick that in the oven. It would turn around until it was fully cooked and then he’d roll it in almonds, cocoa powder, walnuts, coconut, sugar, cheese, etc. The man persuaded me to buy a sugared one that he had made earlier which was still hot. It is one of the most delicious 4 euros I’ve had here so far.

I almost forgot, they have bread here in France that looks like mom’s braided Swedish bread, but I haven’t tried any yet. Crepes cost around 2E here and right now I’m ironically eating some delightful yogurt by “Danone”(aka Dannon). In my defense, it tastes a lot better here than in the states (especially since I got 16 little cartons for around 2 euros) with all the different flavors like: cherry, peach, apple, peach, pineapple, and strawberry. Continuing on the food tangent, they don’t give as much nutritional information here (calories, protein, sugar, fat, and fiber & salt if you are lucky), but it does have the information in a rainbow of colors. An interesting thing to note is that the average French person’s daily caloric intake for a man is 2,600 calories, 2,100 calories for a woman, and a whopping 2,700 calories for an adolescent and yet we are the fat ones in America.

I went down to some chairs by part of the river and had dinner and read some more. It was really pleasant and relaxing. I’m loving Nantes! One year of study abroad may not be enough !