Today I was treated to a shopping day by good friend Jeff. He generously offered to drive me to St. Hilaire-du-Harcouet to visit the Wednesday morning market, do my groceries and visit a few hardware stores. He and his wife had taken Matthew and I to this market two weeks ago and it had blown us away. Tons of vendors are selling everything from pajamas to octopus. There are linens, clothing, outerwear, pots, pans, furniture, plants, cooked food, farm stands, cheese, butchers and seafood- even live chickens and geese. It is the kind of place that makes for great people watching where you could spend an hour or two easily.

I had a specific reason to visit today. When Matthew and I had been two weeks ago we spotted some attractive, solid-wood furniture for sale. I need to buy some wooden chairs for my mom’s table and these were cheaper than we saw at IKEA. The advertised amount on the tickets ranged from 25 euro to 34 and they were very sturdy. Jeff offered his truck and it was my intention to buy six.

When I found the vendor, I told him in French that I wished to buy six chairs. He seemed astonished. He then put the number 195 in his calculator and subtracted 25 euro coming up with the number 170. I agreed that looked like a fair price and assumed he was taking off the 25 euro because I was buying so many. He then typed a much larger number into his calculator and showed me 1107. I figured he had done something wrong or added an extra digit so I told him I didn’t understand and asked for clarification.

We went back and forth not understanding each other until he asked the woman selling hats next to his site to come over. I used google translate to explain my confusion. She in turn told me that the posted amounts on the ticket referred to the discount on those pieces of furniture not the total price (25 euro off or 34 euro off as the case may be). She had me look at the ticket again and in small print was a larger number scribbled out. The chair actually cost 195 euro pre-discount! Now I’m all for supporting local craftsmanship but these didn’t appear to be handmade. I wouldn’t pay 190 for a wooden kitchen chair unless it also made my dinner, cleaned up, and did the vacuuming.

I thanked the vendor and his friend and told them I understood but would not be purchasing. The local brocante sells chairs for 15-30 euro a piece and I would much rather have mismatched or used chairs for that price. I really was blown away. You can buy beautiful solid wood antique dining sets (tables and chairs) for 250 -300 euro. What the hell was this guy pulling with his nearly 200 euro chairs?

Frustrated by my lack of success, I went and bought some beautiful chevre, artichokes, tomatoes, and fresh apples. I was able to communicate with the vendors easily and I was pleased by the quality of the fresh produce. I hope to steam the whole artichokes and serve them with melted butter and lemon, salt and pepper. At the very least they look fun to eat.

After the market had her way with me, Jeff took me to home stores to purchase carbon monoxide monitors (which he had noted weren’t present when I gave him a tour of the house) a hose, and some light bulbs. There were no carbon monoxide monitors to be had at either of the two stores we looked at but I got everything else and added some strawberry plants. Yesterday, I had uncovered a patch of strawberries in my garden that I am hoping to resurrect.

The last stop was the grocery store and I got a big assortment of foods to freeze and bake with. Jeff was so patient as I studied the sucre (sugar) looking for brown so I could make chocolate chip cookies. I got lots of goodies including frozen crevettes/shrimp (head included) that I hope to make a lovely scampi with. Jeff pointed out a display of whole chickens for sale that actually had the heads included in the cellophane package.. I was absolutely horrified but he explained the French eat just about every bit of an animal.

We returned back home where I fed him the last of the coq au vin. Sophie was pissed and wanted her walk so that is what we did with our afternoon. We found a longer path and tried that out. Maybe Amazon can bring me a carbon monoxide monitor or two.