Quoina

Today was market day! Christian and I walked to the market and bought a bunch of vegetables. Fanny was making bread and carrot cake so the house smelled delicious when we arrived back home. I changed clothes and planted some more spinach and watered all of the new seeds. I did some weeding and had a really easy morning. I took a walk through town, it really is small. I thought that I wanted to be in a small village in the country for the tutoring, but I think Paris is more my style. I mean within 15 minutes I have checked out the whole city.

Christian told me to take a break so I went back into the center of town. I went to the church to check it out. It was old and beautiful. There were two teenagers and two older women inside. The kids left after I gave them a look for making a rediculous amount of noise (I guess I still have the stink eye). As I got to the front of the church, after carefully looking at each saint and their worship area, one of the old ladies came up to me. She offered to give me a tour and took me around.

Apparently the church is from the 12th century but all of the paintings and other items are newer. They found a tomb in town from the 1770's and they brought it into the church (or maybe they found it in the church) and put it next to one of the saints.

The village is called St. Sulpice, even though he never lived in this town. Apparently he was a good man who was kind to others and so there are many villages called St. Sulpice. This village is St. Sulpice sur Leze (on the river). I hope none of the other villages are on a river.

I took some pictures of the church and the town and headed back. Fanny was headed to her parents' house for the night. I helped scrap old paint off of a door shutter and then helped to to the grout by the pool. I helped some more with the removal of paint on the shutter and then was sent inside to make quoina. It was in french and I have never made it before...my mother has made it in a kitchen that was five feet from me, but that would not be useful now. I could tell it said to boil for 5-10 minutes but I did not know how much water. Christian said double the water to the amount. After I rinsed it, I boiled it for 7 minutes. All of the water was gone (which I knew would happen, despite being told I would have to drain it again)and I decided what to have for dinner. It was late by this time, around 9 and I was sick of ratatouille. I had quoina with pesto, some chickpeas and cherry tomatoes. It was not a lot, but it was enough for me at this time of night.

Tomorrow I will head to the mill for more pictures and to the next town.