More B.W.E.

As you already know, I spent the weekend in Chantepie (next to Rennes - - Brittany region) with my colleague Karen and her boyfriend Fabien, who is a baker, and Friday night we made galletes and crêpes. Crêpes are kind of like pancakes, but very very thin. Then you put dessert things on top and fold it up to make a nummy little sandwich. And galletes are the same thing, but they're more dinnery than dessertey. They're made with black flour instead of white. And mine had ham, cheese, and egg. So in the end I guess they're almost like an omelette (with much less egg) wrapped up inside a very thin pancake! The best part is they are so easy to make. In fact, I made one for lunch today. New plan for when I return to the States: open crêpe and galette restaurant.

So my camera officially sucks. I can take video, but unless I set it to e-mail quality (which absolutely sucks), I can’t post anything over 3 minutes long. As it turns out my camera creates an absurdly huge file size that neither youtube, facebook, blogger, or flickr will let me upload. So there goes the galette video I promised.

Luckily you can still see the one of Fabien flipping a crêpe:


On Saturday, my lovely hosts took me around Rennes. There was a telethon happening to raise money for muscular dystrophy. There were plenty of vendors there, and also two Christmas markets, so I had the chance to buy many, many Christmas presents. We were supposed to go see some French music; unfortunately the bar we wanted to go to was sold-out for the night. But we did get this nice surprise in the street:

I was so entranced by these percussionists. I think it was their baggy pants that drew me in. That, or their clear passion for the music. They rocked.

We had pizza for dinner at this place that apparently used to me much better, but wasn't all that anymore. Then we watched the end of the Miss Francepageant. Both Miss Bretagne (Karen's region) and Miss Normandy (my region) made it into the top 10, which made for some intense cat-fighting. In the end, Miss Bretagne made it into the top 5, but it was someone else who won.

I dreamed some more in French, and then it was time for a traditional Sunday petite dej' (breakfast), complete with baguette, leftover crêpes, nutella(!) and this really delicious caramel cream that Karen introduced me to and since been a little obsessive over. Then we had a nice tour of the Bretagne coast, where I was inspired to write the best poem ever. Or at least all of my poems.

Karen and Fabien took me to St. Malo, which is one of my favorite places here so far. On walking toward it, it looks like a big castle or maybe old farm building, but when you walk into the entrance, you realize it's this whole village. And there are a zillion stores and bakers and breaders and everything you would ever need. Of course there are also more people than any crowds-chlaustrophobic like me could handle, but c'est la vie.

And the best part about St. Malo? The beignets (donuts). There are these beignets bigger than your hand, and you can fill them with anything you want. Chocolate, jelly, NUTELLA! I know I'm supposed to be watching my weight and sugar and all that, but I just couldn't resist. I wish I had taken video of the factory-style assembly line too, but I was too entranced by all the Nutella. Rock out.

After our beignets we had the good chance to see the most beautiful sunset I've seen since Chile 2007. Best. Weekend. Ever.