26.11 Day 71 . . . Niort Shopping

Today was Niort visiting day.
Tre wanted to take Munch to get some clothes so that she had some to leave here and I wanted to go to the vinyl record shop. Also would be a good morning out for Munch to visit a bigger French town, Niort is certainly bigger than most around here.
My cunning plan of telling Munch I wanted to leave by 9am as we arrived home the night before worked perfectly. So the fact that I actually wanted to leave by 9.30am was easily achieved when Munch finally descended the stairs to say she was ready at 9.15am. In her mind she was ‘only’ 15 minutes late, but in mine we were leaving 15minutes earlier than I had wanted.
We arrived in Niort about 45 mins later and after a bit of a pfaff finding a parking space, we found ourselves in central Niort.
We grabbed hot chocolates and then wandered through a couple of streets down and into the market, which was busier than the last time Tre and I had visited.
I love walking the stalls and looking at the fresh produce, Niort seems to sell so many oysters - Tre and I have have spoken about what happens to them each day, those that aren’t sold. Everything on the stalls are laid out so precisely, not just stacked, but stacked in obvious rows and levels and patterns.
After a little while musing the stalls we decided that Tre and Munch could go clothes shopping and I could visit my now favourite Niort shop that sells vinyl records.
So we split and I hit the vinyl shop. Vinyl seems as expensive here as tin he UK, with old well known albums up at the 60-70€ mark. After a good 45 minutes of searching god knows how many boxes I drew a blank.
I found my way to a little cafe and settled down with a drink and a baguette to await the arrival of Tre and Munch about 45 minutes later . . . and simply people watched.
Surprisingly on time the dynamic duo appeared clutching bags and Munch with a broad grin across her face - yep mum had caved in again I guessed.
We then found our way into a restaurant - Bouillon Du Marche in Place des Halles, where we had lunch (Yeah, Yeah I know . . . after a baguette), which was lovely. As we were enjoying our relaxed lunch, Munch thankfully reminded us we had 15 minutes left on our parking - some five minutes plus walk away. Then ensued an episode of speed eating and bill paying that had to be seen to be believed.
Back at ‘Roxvanne’ we drove out of Niort and back towards the main road leading to Melle. At the main roundabout on exiting we were held for well over two minutes due to a convoy of motorbikes. The roads had been closed to allow them access - there must of been hundreds of bikes if not into the thousand mark, was actually quite a spectacle, as long as you weren’t trying to get anywhere in a hurry.
Back in Melle we flew into SuperU to grab more food and then home.
At home we spent the late afternoon chilling and watching some rubbish TV - enjoying the lovely warm fire once again.
After snacks for our evening meal we called it a day - as tomorrow was gonna be a long day taking Munch back to the airport.
Thats her visit done again - time fly’s out here!En savoir plus