Vannes ramparts and markets

Please excuse any typos... I'm writing this on an AZERTY keyboard.  ARGHHHH!!!!

I arrived back in Vannes late Monday afternoon and returned to the high school to attend some more classes.  This week I am going to be visiting some classes at the collège - this is like middle school, so the students are younger.

Yesterday, one of the classes that I was to attend at the lycée didn't end up running, so I went for a walk into town and visited the old city ramparts which were constructed between the 3rd and 12th centuries.  Unfortunately, the weather was a bit drizzly (a common occurence here in Brittany, apparently) so I returned to school a wee bit wet.  In the afternoon I sat in on a PE class which was, quite frankly, organised chaos.

Last night for dinner, we had a typically French meal of raclette (stupidly, I forgot to take photos, so the images will be from Google). You hqve a type of grill on the table and you put a little tray filled with raclette cheese under it.  Once it is bubbling hot, you pour it over boiled potatoes qnd eat with cold meats like ham, salami and proscuitto.  Yummy!  We followed this with a typically Breton pqstry called Kouign-amann.  My host told me that it is basically sugar and butter.  The pastry itself is not unlike the taste and texture of a croissant, but on top the sugar is deliciously caramelised.  According to Wikepedia, the recipe originated in Dournenez in Brittany in 1860 and requires a ratio of 40% dough, 30% butter and 30% sugar.

Today the deputy principal kept my schedule free so I could walk into town and see the Wednesday markets.  They were quite impressive with fruit and vegetable stalls as far as the eye could see.  There were also cheese and crepe stalls and the seafood pavilion.  There were clothes as well, but they all seemed a bit old fashioned.  I have my eye out for a new jacket, but nothing really jumped out at me today.

Tonight I'm going to make pavlova.  I already cooked the meringue shell last night and there was much ooohing and ahhhing from my host family as I removed it from the oven.

Good thing I'm doing lots of walking!!!