Running & Reading in Rennes: If you thought life in a small town was boring...

That little path on the right is my
running trail. It goes for miles and is
filled with other runners all day.

think again! We had an adventurous day in Cesson-Sévigné yesterday, starting off with a run on the trail by the river for me and then a walk around town. We did some boring things like buying envelopes and going to the post office and grocery store. Then we explored a local park, full of blackberries and walking/running trails, a field, and a lake. I think we've found our perfect picnic spot. On the way to this park is an organic supermarket: Scarabée Biocoop. It is a LOT like a very small Whole Foods--smells lovely and fresh, has very limited merchandise, prices most of the products at lest 1.5 times more than they should be, but then prices some more cheaply than you can find them anywhere else. I'll never understand supermarket pricing.

Parc de la Monniais, which we are
dubbing Blackberry Park.

What they did have was very important! They had all different grades of flour, maple syrup, molasses, and TWO kinds of brown sugar in the bulk section. This brown sugar was moist, dark, and smelled of light molasses. Perfection. We purchased the molasses to transform what we already bought into a better version of brown sugar instead of just accumulating more and more types of sugar. They also sell LOTS of cookbooks, including a blank one! That might be my first frivolous purchase in France come next month. This little market will also be perfect for picking up picnic goods on the way to Blackberry Park.

Twix 10+2=1 dozen Twix bars!

What other sorts of adventures did we have? We went to Carrefour (much like Walmart) to pick up some cinnamon because I made my first pumpkin custard here with a fresh local pumpkin yesterday. It was delicious. The recipe is on the new "Two-Burner Meals" page for recipes (which Aaron titled!). Now, to the right, you'll see an image of a GIANT pack of Twix bars, so if you were thinking that everything in the US is bigger than everything in France, you just have to go to Carrefour to learn differently! (No, we didn't buy it).

What is that I'm hearing echoing across the Atlantic? "Lisa, you implied that life in your small town isn't boring..." Well, never fear! We are at the good stuff! Right in the parking lot of Carrefour, what did we see? Camels! Llamas! Donkeys! Oh my! That's right! You don't need to go to Africa to see a camel; you can find three right in Cesson-Sévigné! Why were they there? The Zavatta Circus has come to town with the yellow trucks, blaring music, and exotic animals for the week. This is the second circus in our little town in the three weeks we've been here. We're beginning to wonder if it's the favorite stop of the animals or just some sort of September thing for small towns. We're not sure if we'll attend of not; I don't like clowns, and I hate seeing the one with all the big cats in the cages. Aaron just thinks they don't seem like very much fun. We were hoping they would let the lions out in the parking lot, but no such (un)luck.