"Our Village" of St. Aignan sur Cher and a little surprise!

The children went to bed last night saying, "I can't believe tomorrow is our last day in St. Aignan!  We are so sad!"  As I was doing Grace's hair this morning she said, "It's going to be so strange not to be here  anymore.  This feels like our own house."  It's true, we are sad to leave this portion of our french adventure.  To stay put in one place for 2 1/2 weeks on a vacation is just a rare treat.  We've really gotten to know our little town and are terribly fond of many aspects and of the routine we have created.

We began this morning at the Champignon (sham-pee-non) Caves in Bourre.  Matt has been most excited for this little fieldtrip to learn about the cultivation and harvesting of mushrooms.  It really is fascinating.

The Champignon Caves are run by the Delalande family.  Interestingly enough Matt is a DeLand, who come from the Delalande family in  France.  (Mom, you need to make a comment to add more details about family history here....)  The kids were thrilled to find the family connection and after seeing the postcards of the feroicous looking bats which live in the caves we headed out on our journey (some of us to learn about mushrooms and others to look for scary bats).

Who knew?  The owners of the Mushrooms Caves are relatives!

Waiting to walk into the caves.  Erik's gonna have to duck....

The tour took us underground in the caves which were left from the mining of the tufa stone, which was used (and still is) in the region for building, specifically of Chateaus.  In this cave alone there are 500 km (310 miles) of underground tunnels.  After the mining took place the citizens learned that the constant 50 degree temperatures, humidity, and darkness created the perfect environment to cultivate mushrooms.  I cannot give you specific details on the process, due to the fact that the tour was in French, but thanks to Erik we do understand a few basics.  They basically have metal framed grow boxes in which they place small square-ish packages of dirt, which they grow the mushrooms in, under artificial light.  They grow four different type of mushrooms and each type requires a difference growing technique.

Perhaps one of the most unexpected facts we learned was about Troglodytes.  Troglodytes were people who would live in the underground caves.  One reason given was to avoid the constant war and seiges which surrounded this region.  Troglodites literally built cities underground, carving them right out of the tufa stone in the tunnels.  The Delalande family had a recreation of one of the cities carved in the caves for us to view.  It was fascinating, although Katie and I decided they probably suffered from Seasonal Affect Disorder without their Vitamin D from the sun.  Simply fascinating.

We told Emme she was going to have to sample all four types of mushrooms
before they would let her leave the caves.  She was not amused...and a little worried.

Look, it's a colony of Troglodytes!

Ironically, Matt is not a huge mushroom fan.  He usually pushes them on to my plate.  I purchased a handful of Parian Mushrooms for sampling with our dinner tonight.  I could not believe the difference between mushrooms I buy in the store in the states and these mushrooms, which had probably been picked this morning.  They were firm in texture and very flavorful.  Matt declared that he was a fan of fresh mushrooms!  Each of the children tasted them as well and George and Anthon win the prize of becoming mushroom fans.  The unfortunate part is that unless they one day live close to mushroom caves they probably will never taste mushrooms this good again.

After lunch, packing and resting we rejoined with our pals the Olsons to go on a historic walking tour of our St. Aignan.  We first headed for a little creme glacee (ice cream).  As we rounded the corner of the Patisserie, Papa and Grammie stepped out from an alley way and said, "Hi there!"  Grace: "How did you guys get here?"  Grandparents:  "Oh, we were just on a little drive and ended up in St. Aignan."  George:  "We are acrossed the ocean!  You can't drive your car across the ocean!"  They said they'd been reading our blog and it looked like so much fun they didn't want to miss out!

Anthon:  "Hey!  What are you doing here?"

Grace:  "Hey!  Look, I just pulled my own tooth out today.
I would have waited if I'd known my dentist was coming!"

Tom:  "What is going on here?  Why are our friends hugging these old people?"

George & Anthon:  "Hey!  We were not done talking to you."

Pause from chatter for a photo.

Grace:  ".....and did you know that France has the best bread, and pastries,
and yogurt, and ice cream, well I haven't been to Italy to
taste the gelato yet......and, and, and."

Sharing St. Aignan with Papa and Grammie.

And so a new chapter of our adventure begins as tomorrow morning we leave St. Aignan to head down to the Provence Region for Roman Ruins and the Mediterranean Sea, with Papa and Grammie along!

A few random photos from the Rues (streets) of St. Aignan: