La Piste aux Etoiles!

We had a really big day today, quite fun and quite daring! This morning, before lunch, we headed to the city center to enjoy the twice weekly open air market. It was huge and wonderful! Everything from books to clothing to shoes to bread to cheeses to seafood to fruits and veggies. We wandered the streets for quite some time, taking it all in before buying a large basket/bag to carry items in and to look like natives. They are not big into plastic bags here, even at the grocery stores, you don't get a bag at all unless you bring your own! Everyone just loads their items back into the grocery cart to get them out to their cars. Anyway, we had a great time at the market and I was capable and brave enough to buy the basket and then some of the best strawberries we have ever eaten in addition to a baguette. After a lunch at home, we walked the 40 minute walk to the place where we had seen the circus tents go up yesterday. The kids were great but until we got off the busy streets and along the walking path along the sea, I was nervous walking with all 4 in tow. We spent our 55 Euro for our tickets and got in a line before we even thought about the fact that we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into - the name of the circus was "La Piste aux Etoiles". I had no idea what any one of those words meant and started to wonder what the heck I was doing with my 4 young children. We plodded onward however (no risk, no gain, eh?)and entered the circus tent and had a great time! It was a small circus but well put together and very enjoyable. We spent more than 2 hours there and the kids had a ball. We couldn't understand a word but enjoyed listening to the soundtrack from the "Lion King" in French followed by the theme to "Happy Days" in English. Pretty entertaining. The name of the circus actually means "The Runway to the Stars" per my French dictionary when we got home. We had an enjoyable walk back home with a chance to see some boats go through the drawbridge that we will have to cross each day to our actual house. We also saw some huge groups of kids in the park playing "Red Rover" and some old men in the park playing Bocce ball. Pretty fun! One comment that I had to address.... No, we ordered our pizza sans egg! We are not quite ready to make that leap into French culture yet!