Après le petit dejeuner, we went to the nearby town of Cholet to shop in the market. The market is set up in the area in front of and around the church. There are clothes vendors, and I saw one artisan recaning chairs, but the main attraction for me are the many selling produce, meats, cheeses, and baked goods. I manage to try something new almost every time we pass. This time Vicki and I shared some kind of pastry with chocolate and cream in it, and we took a flan with us.
Teresa bought our lunch there - a roast chicken and potatoes that cooked in the drippings under the rotisserie. Pretty awesome.
We didn't make it into the church, but these doors were pretty incredible.
Une abeille - there are flowers all over the place and bees and other critters are buzzing around all the time. 
For the Fourth, we grilled the sardines (delicious) and two kinds of saucisses - one of pork and one that was a mixture of beef and mutton (both delicious). A Caprese salad and some white beans (how to describe them? Maybe... delicious) and baskets of French bread with good friends. Salut!
We played American music, enjoyed a little more French wine, had some of Slyman's eau de vie and talked for hours. Conversations are wonderful and bizarre, flowing in and out of French and English, in and out of politics, philosophy, history, culture, etc. If you don't understand what is being said, you can either raise the question or simply wait a few minutes for the topic to change. Conversations like these don't happen in the States very much, at least in my experience. I think they are fostered and expected here - and they make our dinners here memorable. In fact, these dinner experiences are probably what we will remember as much as anything else - and what we look forward to when we return.
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