When I moved back to Civray, I mistakenly thought the ad for my house meant it was 5 minutes outside of Civray, not 5 minutes outside of a village that is a 10 minute drive from Civray. While the commute to work is fantastic still, I really preferred living somewhere walking distance from all of the shops and restaurants of Civray.
To better acquaint myself with my new village, I took a walk in the opposite direction towards the town. It is quite common to see people walking into town, so I wasn't out of place on the country roads. It is incredible to see the old buildings that are here, like this old farming structure that appears to possibly be in use today?
As it turns out, my current village does not have trash pick up at your house, you have to take it to the communal drop off, which is here. The yellow bins are for recycling . . . and by the end of the week, the black bins are QUITE full. The whole trash thing was the moment when I determined that my permanent residence would be IN Civray and not a neighboring community! Hauling my trash to a central repository is just a big NO for me.
I did manage to find the infamous "dépôt de pain," which serves as the local bakery since there isn't one. I've read that the pastries are so good they sell out in the morning, but you can reserve one for pick-up on your way to work, which might be my plan for the next few months! Fresh pastry always beats day-old pastry! I also like the idea here that a standard store wasn't feasible, but adding a little building onto a large empty parking lot suited the size of the town and made for a convenient location.
During my walk into town, in search of the one restaurant that was listed (never found it and may not exist now), I saw that a "brocante" was in Civray on one of the signs and, let's face it, there's really NOTHING happening on Sundays in rural France normally. I headed on down and my American co-worker joined me. It was a fun few hours looking at antiques, decorative items and junk that people were trying to sell, plus some rather nice collections of antiques for viewing.
While enjoying a coffee after, the mayor of Civray dropped by our table since he's aware of the invading Americans working in his region. We had a nice chat and, despite not normally giving the bisou (cheek kiss) to strangers, we kissed the mayor! The older French ladies were quite shocked! I'm not sure they were as shocked as us Americans were at this antique French lighter though - yes, the flame comes out exactly where it appears it does, along with little red blinking lights on the ta-tas.
If you were ever curious what happens on a Sunday in a sleepy French country town, here's a peak at the collections that were on display. First, some older clothing with some truly impressive headgear!
And a lovely display of antique hats! There were many other collections, in addition to the brocante area where you could buy things.
My co-worker is also convinced that I'm going to have good luck in France because she's been looking for this antique cat box she saw in a perfume store (which she showed me the day before), then I found one at the brocante! I told her I'm more convinced that perhaps I've brought HER good luck by coming to France. :-)
I believe the best part of these little village events is the chance to greet your neighbors and have a quick chat. It seemed many people were socializing, not just shopping. When we took a quick walk around the rest of Civray, I was very happy to find a kebab shop that is open Sundays for dinner (!) and to learn that the beer bar is not only open on Sunday evenings, but open until 2 du matin (!!!) (aka AM) on Friday and Saturday - could it be that Civray actually has a weekend nightlife?!? We've decided that a mission to the beer bar is in order!
The day before all of these local adventures, I went up to Poitiers to do a little shopping because I was in serious need of a fall/spring coat. I found one that I loved, but one thing that I had read online (and witnessed for myself) is that French women show much less cleavage, but a visible bra is not an issue - like "black bra under a white shirt" visible. What I was NOT aware of was that "headlights" are potentially also a "thing." It appears they may not only be acceptable, but desirable enough that you can purchase a bra that will provide them for you! I'm really not quite sure what to think here!
Lastly, I return to my love of chèvre. This is a cheese so versatile that it featured prominently in both my dinner AND my dessert. First, a chèvre lasagna (with eggplant and pesto) that was quite good and then chèvre with fruit, nuts, salt, pepper and honey for dessert . . . I know, it sounds weird to an American palette, but it was DEVINE. I really cannot get enough of French cuisine! Even better, I can somehow eat like this over here and actually lose weight.
And while I really only went to buy a coat and new jeans, I ended up with a new skirt and sweater . . . and a matching scarf, of course! It's almost impossible not to find gorgeous, well-cut clothing here. If I can limit myself to one new outfit per month, I think I can avoid going broke!
It's fun to notice random small changes that I've already made. I find myself searching the internet for "best ways to wear a scarf" when I've never really been into them at home. I find that I'm buying more solid color (like black) items and using colorful accessories to dress them up. That's not to say I've traded in my American clothes, nor do I plan to. I'm happy to adapt to the culture, but for now I still want to keep certain things the same.
On the topic of scarves, French women wear them in a 100 different ways that all look perfect; mine still look like a 5 year old dressed me, but I'll get there! I spend far too much time currently staring at French scarves and trying to figure out how to properly pull one off. I think I managed on my first day back in France though with the classic "fold in half and pull through the loop" style I learned many years ago in New York.
I meant to add my Le Mans photos to my first post, but things got busy and it was set to post on Thursday, so you have a photo-less post! So, here are a few pictures of Le Mans! First, a view of the city from my hotel - a pretty typical French town.
When I first arrived in Le Mans, I knew I needed to get out in the sun and get active to fight off jet lag. I wasn't sure where anything really was, but I'd already left the hotel with no real internet access, so I just followed what appeared to be the main road. I knew that properties were quite affordable in Civray, but was curious about Le Mans when I passed by a real estate shop. As it turns out, they're quite affordable compared to Portland as well - about $280k USD for brand new house - 3 bedroom, 2 car garage! Turns out that moving to an actual city after a few years is a legitimate possibility.
I took a couple of other random pictures as I walked around and found my way to a path by the river. First, the local "sporting" hotel. I'm not entirely certain what differentiates a "sporting" hotel from other sorts of hotels, but there you have it:
I also found this old, partially burnt out building interesting. Most buildings here are made of stone, not wood structures like at home, so it's uncommon for something to actually burn to the ground or "burn down." Curious what happened here though - perhaps it was a hookah incident given the hookah signs?
It was a real challenge to find somewhere to eat dinner on Sunday night, even in a bigger city like Le Mans; however, I was there because it was cheaper/easier to ride into work with PB the next day, so he made sure I didn't starve! He very thoughtfully chose to look for an open restaurant near the Cathedral so I could see the most beautiful part of the city, which it certainly was! I had thought I couldn't really be impressed by French churches anymore, since I've seen so many of them, but the exterior architecture of this one was extraordinary. A short climb up the stairs took us to a meandering walk through the picturesque "old city," which retains enough of it's original look that I'm told it is often used for period films.
Unfortunately, none of the restaurants with an actual view of the cathedral were open for dinner, so a slight modification of the plans was necessary, but there was a small restaurant open in the old village, so we weren't forced to find the nearest McDonald's!
