Zut Alors!

Well, another great start to a day. I woke up, took a bath, got dressed, and started doing the dishes for breakfast. I put my hand and the sponge into a mug, took one swipe and blod was everywhere. I sliced my pinky finger with a shard of porcelain that was sticking out of a crack inside of the mug. Half an inch long and deep enough to almost touch the bone, it is really disgusting and painful and should probably have stitches but I think a "Made in France" scar would be the ultimate souvenir. Ahhh! I have a picture, but I'll spare you.

After I bought some antiseptic and "blood stop" bandages, we made our way to the Saturday morning market. It is in a beautiful grove of trees and has everything from matresses to chickens to prunes. Big, stinky wheels of cheese no smaller than a large dog, farm fresh eggs and artisan breads and sausages. I went to take a picture of the cheese and the woman was not happy that she might be in it, yelling "Oh la la!," as she ran to hide. Oops.

We stocked up on beets, zucchini, tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries, garlic, and the best baguette I've had so far in France. We came home for a rest and because everything is closed from noon to 2 o'clock.

This cute town, it takes 5 minutes to walk from one end to another and has the medieval city wall still standing with different "doors" into the city. All the roads are in a circle around it, and it makes it feel as big as New York City to a stranger. We walked to the "outskirts" of the city to a junk store, kind of like Tuesday Morning in the States. The first thing you see as you walk into the store is a shelf of porn and flesh covered tea pots that have penises as their spouts. Oh. La. La. I welcome any special orders, at a small fee.

I found a funeral home across the street and had to go inside. I think its safe to say that I'm missing a certain American mortician, and that drew me in. The thing I've noticed about this region is that there are loads of babies and old people, and therefore, loads of schools, pharmacies, and funeral homes. I talked to the directore, who complimented my "perfect" French, and left.

I then had my first experience at the infamous French "hypermarché," a step up from the super market, its a HYPER market. What grocery store lets you have a glass of wine and foie gras as their sample?! This is ludicrous and delicious and should be implemented in all stores everywhere. Shopping has never been so relaxing.

We returned home, I cooked, we feasted and had a bottle of Bordeaux, and then went to the movies. La Souterraine has a one-theatre movie house, connected to the little public library. It was playing an Egyptian film titled "Chaos," in Arabic, with French subtitles. Two hours of cheesy soap opera drama, gratuitous and disturbing violence, and the pleasant portayal of real voluptious women as sexy and beautiful, we walked out of there so satisfied having simply understood what happened. Our language skills surprised and delighted us, even if the movie was bad.

**pictures coming soon**