On the way to the aquarium we drove through the village of Brouage which is a few kilometers from Marennes. This town had actually been a fortress so it‘s completely enclosed with only two ways in. We decided this would be visited on another day when it isn't raining. This image of a village is not Brouage but another village we drove through on the way to the aquarium.
Being that we are right along the sea there has been a lot of swamps and wetlands, so along the road we saw a lot of swans & storks. The storks build their huge nests on nearly every power pole.
The aquarium is very nice. An elevator takes you inside and when it opens you enter through a glass walkway so you are surrounded on all sides by jelly fish.
In the exhibits there is one very large fish that had a blue face with a knob on his forehead, big blue lips, a greenish blue body and bulging eyes like a chameleon. He was huge and so amazingly unique. As he slowly swam by people his eye would rotate around so he watched them as he went by.
They also had a gigantic tank with another large seating area filled with sharks, including hammerheads and swordfish
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This orchid was in a garden we walked through in the aquarium.
We had lunch at the aquarium which I assumed would have something like hot dogs or hamburgers. It was a regular restaurant and we all decided we would just have salads. We all decided on something different so we could sample each others. Mia translated with some help from the waiter and we had things like country style ham (which is almost like lox), chicken, seafood and a variety of different type salad vegetables. But not the usual, there was eggplant (which I usually hate, but this was great), many other veggies that I didn’t recognize and the usual lettuce. And it was so pretty when it was brought to our table we took pictures of each plate before we ate it. What fun even a meal can be.
Just look at these 'salads'.
Each one was almost too beautiful to eat.
And we all had a different salad so we could sample each others.
It is even exciting driving through the countryside. I had the impression that there would be some old buildings here but never thought everything was old beyond belief. The narrow streets curve through all these little villages and all the homes are ancient and charming.
Even the shed in Thierry's back yard is picture perfect.
When we got home most of Thierry’s family was going to be there to meet us. So what they do in France is have a time before dinner where you have drinks and eat snack foods. So all the bottles come out and all kinds of snack foods. So we met Thierry’s cousin Rose-Marie, her husband Stephane, Thierry’s aunt Monique & her husband Gilles and countless nephews. So as they all showed up there was the usual greetings with kisses all around. Even the littlest kids kiss each other. I had noticed each morning that Laura & Lulu come over before they leave for school and say Bon Jour and everyone kisses. It is quite a sight to see.
Rose-Marie’s husband. Stephane had bought her a Nikon camera in the US which we brought over for her. It’s much cheaper to buy stateside. Mia had told me that they both speak English pretty good and had lived in England for a while. Thierry’s whole family is great but being able to speak with some of the family was so nice.
Evelyne made quiche that was kind of different. It doesn’t have a lot of eggs but does have sour cream. It was delicious and she also made a pizza which was again great.
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