La Cigale, ayant chanté...

Still having an amazing time -lots of fun times, music, laughter and beautiful things: you notice so much more in a different place!

I am a little worried, though… I’m using English expressions speaking French way more than I used to! (I’ll choose to believe the people who say it’s because I’m more relaxed!)

 Went to see a poetry battle (my second time at that theatre) with Marion, the eldest daughter of the Brousses, and Anna. Totally re-confirmed the French stereotype: funny and dramatic, and love to debate and talk politics in everything, even with poetry! We each had a yellow and red card (for each team) and at the end of each round which we raised for the team we thought was the best -it was really cool!

 Me and Anna bought a macaron à l'huile d'olive et à la mandarine (mandarin and olive oil!) from La Galerie L Fayette -ah-may-zing. It was a close call between this and a chocolate and fois gras macaroon.

 And a Chocolat Viennois with spekuloos (two of my favourite things!). This weekend it's actually got cold (minus one during the day!) so this was a real treat after taking the boat over to Trentemoult again. It's weird thinking how old this cafe (La Reine Blanche) is -there was even a soap opera filmed there once!

 Okay so it seems like I kind of have a thing with macaroons -I promise I just bought this one (fraise balsimique, balsamic strawberry) for the bag! (and the shop was pretty too, with a long glass case).

 Les belles Maria, Laura and Anna. We had breakfast at La Cigale (The Cicada), the most well-known restaurant in Nantes (mostly because it was the only affordable thing on the menu!)

 And me and Didier (it was breakfast, so it was early in the morning!)

 The brioches, pain, and petites pastries were pretty good, especially with tea (including caramel or pomme d'amour -toffee apple!- flavour), coffee or hot chocolate and grapefruit and orange juice, with caramel, apple compote, plum jam and of course butter to go with, but the real star was the decor. It's a historic building with amazing blue-and-yellow tiling, some of them painted, between oriental and old roman bath-houses (and the toilets were no exception -we made sure we checked them out too!)

 Just one of my favourite places, the markets. I took these photos because I leave in two saturdays' time, and I'll be in Paris next weekend, so I may not get another chance to go to a market in France. This is shellfish (mostly shrimps), of which the French eat a lot of, by the way.

 I haven't yet decided which stand I  like best, but during the Christmas markets there were lots of dried sausage stands, like this one, and they always gave out tasters! The French eat a lot of these as well; I like the peppery ones!

 and more prepared seafood meals. It may shock you to know that these are not the biggest dishes of food I have seen at a market (and there are other dishes that actually get cooked in these, but with the flat disk taken out)

 Des Galettes des Rois, a tradition that stems from the Christmas story, where the wise men (or kings, rois) apparently arrived to see Jesus on the 6th of January, so on the Sunday closest these cake-sized pastries are eaten, and whoever finds a little china figurine in their slice of almond filling gets to wear a gold crown. As you can see though (I took these photos today) the tradition tends to carry on until all the galettes are sold..

 And the chickens (lets just say a pretty good smell when you're wrapped up to your eyes and it's -1 degrees celcius at 11am in the morning)

and some nuts. There are heaps more stands but unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately for you -I do rather like French markets) I ran out of battery on my camera..