birthday, carnaval and more fun food experiences

hi everyone!

as some of you may have heard - i have internet service at the apt again so i can get back to updating the old bloggerino!
as of today i have just 4 more days til i go back on vacation!! i am pretty excited for this one - my friend cathie will be coming and we're going to gallavant about europe, which i haven't done since i've been here! yay!
the last couple weeks have been fun - i celebrated my birthday with two other assistant buddies, one who has the same birthday as me and another whose was the week after - heres a couple pics from that.

carina and rachel - co-hostesses for the evening and carina's apt!

i've spent some more time with my landlords lately and though i've said this before, i'll say it again - they are so cool and nice! first, they invited me out to taste some wine at a little local fair in Vallet - we drove about a half hour through countryside that was absolutely covered with vineyards (for muscadet, our local specialty), drank a little muscadet, beaujolais and bordeaux, ate a couple oysters and macaroons (here, they're called 'rochers', 'macarons' are a totally different kind of cookie) and then watched a little band play. next event was a typically French lunch - that is to say, 5 courses, aperitif, wine and coffee, etc. Mme Delanoe made boudin noir (blood sausage) for me since i had mentioned that i had never tried it. it was pretty good!

then, after break, i will travel with them to st. nazaire, (i think!) where their beach house is!! i'm very excited for that. and grateful that they are so generous with me.

*the band playing - a couple of these men are former students of M Delanoe - who taught music locally for many many years, and still conducts a local orchestra from time to time.

*sea salts and oysters, both local products....

*some pate that Mme Delanoe made and gave me!

this past weekend was Carnaval!!! Saturday the *entire* downtown area turned into one big flea market (with a mix of cheap knockoffs and more decent stuff) and Sunday was the parade, which lasted for hours with kids and (some) adults alike, dressed in costumes, spraying each other with silly string and throwing confetti. i've never seen anything like it! i had taken tons pf pictures but, being the slap-monkey that i am, i accidentally deleted most of them. :-(

so i will borrow some of my friend merediths' to show y'all what it was like....

what i though was most interesting was watching the French, who can be so cold and aloof, loosening up a bit and being so tolerant of strangers and strangers' children spraying them with silly string and confetti. even the cops walking the streets were covered! but that's what Carnaval is all about anyway - breaking the rules!