Destination France 2017: After the Rain

We woke up to a lazy Sunday morning, the air fresh and clean. It had rained most of the night but the sun was making valiant attempts to peek out from between the clouds. In the distance, heavier clouds saturated with moisture threatened to spill open in the coming hours. Time to appreciate our cozy little cocoon.

Weekends are made for crêpes, and although we don't have maple syrup on hand, we have fruit and a wonderful homemade apricot jam that our hosts gifted to us upon arrival. Also, I found a beautiful cast iron crêpe griddle hidden in the back pantry that just needed a little seasoning to bring it back to its glory days.

Recipe for Crêpes: 1 cup flour, dash of salt, 1.5 cups milk, 2 eggs. Whisk till there are no lumps and ladle onto hot griddle, a half ladle at a time. (A well-seasoned griddle does not need any butter, but you may add a tiny amount of butter for taste and colour, if you wish.) When bubbles form, flip. When golden, remove from griddle and keep in a warm plate or eat immediately.

The reason I took a picture of this particular crêpe is that it reminded me of the shape of France, a hexagon. Be imaginative, squint your eyes, and you'll see it too!

Not sure what this one looks like... any guesses? Africa? A lion's head?

By the time we added the strawberries, the bananas, the juice, the coffee and tea - we had a feast!

Did you notice the beautiful light yellow serviettes that I bought at the market this week? They are apparently a special "Cholet weave", easy to launder and guaranteed to last forever. I think it was in glancing at the serviettes that we decided to take a Sunday afternoon drive to Cholet. But one thing at a time - breakfast is not yet finished.

Look at the apricot jam oozing out of this crêpe. Oh my, it was delicious!

The weather cleared up, kind of, for a few hours, so we decided to head out during the lull. As we walked to the car, we couldn't help but admire the plants and flowers, their thirst quenched and now looking very perky.

The yellow is not part of the lavender - they are pretty butterflies!

I don`t know if you can see these huge black bees, but they drone and look menacing. Fortunately, they are so interested in the lavender nectar that they take no note of us walking by.

Can't wait for the weather to be sunny enough for us to eat al fresco in the back garden. Perfect little spot!

Oh yes, we were on our way for that Sunday drive. We decided to roam a few back roads with the aim of eventually reaching Cholet.

I realize that we are incredibly fortunate to be able to travel at leisure, with no time constraints and no schedules. It is a real privilege to be able to decide on the spur of the moment to go somewhere, anywhere, and to do it at our pace. Staying in one spot for 2.5 months is a luxury we never cease to appreciate.

The only reason we stopped to take this photo is that my father's name was Maurice.

Joan of Arc, battling on.

We reached Cholet and stopped at this gorgeous church, which was closed. I don't think it's even the largest one in the city, but it is close to the "Office de Tourisme".

What an attractive way to beautify the building, with these colourful plants.

Karl

Sunday means that pretty well everything is closed. With hardly any traffic on the road, it gave us an opportunity to reconnaissance the town, as Karl with his military background would say, and figure out where we'd like to visit when we next come to Cholet.

On our way home we came across a Pat à Pain! (Play on words: Pâte à pain means bread dough.) We discovered this chain a few years ago and swore it would give McDonald's a run for its money. If you could choose between a fast food that offers a variety of sandwiches on fresh baguettes, pizza, quiches, salads, desserts and pastries, specialty coffees and the possibility to buy a bread on your way home, wouldn't you prefer that to McDonald's or Tim Hortons? We certainly do! Too bad it's not in Canada... Big sigh.