September 1 -- shifting from La Rochelle to Tours

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We woke up early again, on the 1st.

After bread and yogurt and tea (made in my own room with my own kettle!), we headed out to get a few last things.

I think this was in the window of the tourist office.

Canna leaf.

This is the glacier (but a different location) from which we acquired our Car-a-sel ice cream, the night before.

"Sorbets or Ice creams, make your choice."   Mmmmm.  A taste of each, please......

Given that there is a Speculoos flavor I'm betting the one in the lower left that looks like it has gingersnap bits on it is the Speculoos....

I think this was above a jewelry store's door.

Tons of cute baby/little-kid shoes.

Another present we did not bring home.  Only 60 Euro for a swim suit he'd not be caught dead in......

Or what about these?  Tasteful, no?

Another look at shingles-over-half-timbering.  I wonder if, once upon a time, there were leetle windows where those two rectangles are.  Also wondering about that window on top.  Curious about what the inside is like.......

Chantal told us that covered walkways (like the ones you can't really see here, but can, I bet, imagine behind the arch) were originally places where merchandise was sold.  Shoppers then as now could continue to shop, despite inclement weather......

The market.

These long skinny radishes are very photogenic.(I think of them as French radishes, but do not know what their variety is.)

Mirabelle plums.  The sign says "This product is fragile.  Please do not squish.  Thank you."

(Well, really, appuyer translates as "push," but I bet I captured the sense of the request....)

"Sweet peppers."

The sign on the left says "Black Rye.  Wheat flour, pure rye, sea salt, and sourdough leavener."

My vocabulary for this kind of thing is very limited.  Isn't it cool that Google is ready and eager to translate for us?  I didn't know frement, siegle, or sel de Guerande meant.  Bio means "organic."

The sign on the right says it's made from flour 100% from grain milled on the farm.

I find baskets of mixed tomatoes irresistible.

I think carrots with this shape generally taste better than other shapes..........

We are big fans of Pooh, at our house.

Sea salt was a major product of Ile de Ré in times past.  When we first arrived, we were bemused by representations (on postcards, and as stuffed animals) of donkeys.  In what appeared to us to be pyjamas.  They were ubiquitous.  And puzzling.

We asked Chantal about them, and she explained that the donkeys hauled or carried sea salt, and wore culottes to protect their legs from insect bites.  (the slide show at that link shows actual modern donkeys in "pyjamas," and also shows the sort of cartoon image of the donkeys that we saw on postcards).

You knew we had to bring home some of the famous Ile de Ré salt.  If they had had little samplers, with the different kinds in little plastic bags (not in glass containers!), I would absolutely have gotten one.  As it was, I didn't really want to be carrying a kilo of salt, so we settled for the plain kind.  Wouldn't it have been fun to try the one with "four algues"?  (Google translates algues as "algae", but I bet it means "sea weed" in this case.  I think some kinds of sea weed are algae......  But not all.....)

Another presentation of sea salt, with very cute and appropriate boat-shaped salt dishes.

Chantal picked us up at the hotel, and kindly delivered us to the train station.

She came out to the train with us, and we bid each other au revoir, with promises to keep in touch.

How lucky we were, to have met her and to have had her to guide us around her favorite parts of La Rochelle!

Merci beaucoup, Chantal!


My daughter's take on this fine morning can be found at the end of this post.



In order to facilitate chronological traverse of these posts, here is a link to the post that comes after this one.

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