We finished out our French countryside trip last week with a visit to “Le Mystère des Faluns,” another troglodyte cave system created by workers in the 18th and 19th centuries who mined limestone as a building material. It’s now an underground museum / art installation that you have to see to really appreciate. Much of the layout pays homage to the undersea world millions of years ago, such as this gallery of artful jellyfish.

Most of the old buildings in France, including all those gorgeous chateaus, used limestone as the core building material. Most of western France was under the ocean at one time which led to the creation of this limestone as the plants, shells, and animals fossilized over time. The 200+ year old manor at which we recently stayed had a front porch made of this stone in which you could see the fossilized shells clearly (but alas, I forgot to take a photo).

We learned about the lunch menu system in restaurants which somehow we did not know until now, but finally got to see in action this week. The first thing to know is that if you want a menu at a restaurant in France, you should ask for a “carte.” Asking for a “menu” may have the effect of placing an order for the special of the day if there is only one; this is also sometimes called a “formula” or “formule.”

Each restaurant that serves a formula lunch creates one to three cost-effective specials of the day and bundles them into a two- or three-course meal with main courses (“plats”), appetizers (“entrees”), dessert, and/or drinks. They are available only on weekdays and are designed to provide a hearty mid-day meal to the working people of France, though anyone can order them.

Formulas are generally a cheaper option than ordering individual items and most cost €15 to €17 in Angers (Paris may be higher), though there is less choice than the full menu. Many of the tradespeople in France are given “lunch tickets” by their employers that they can use to buy these formula lunches and the restaurants collect the money from the companies that employ the workers. Salaries in France are pretty low and this is a non-taxable benefit that working people appreciate. In many places, they call this the “white van brigade” and parking lots at restaurants are filled with the company vehicles (which are often white) of tradespeople at lunch time.

French people usually have a two-hour lunch and they often gather for a glass of beer or wine with their meal and conversation with their friends and colleagues. This is completely normal, but I may never get used to having a drink with lunch!

The town that the manor was in was extremely small (442 people) which is too small to have its own bakery. Instead, it has a baguette vending machine! Just €1,20 (yes, Europeans switch commas for periods in money) or about $1.40 will get you a fresh baked baguette and the machine is filled with fresh products six days a week. Often in small towns these are next to a pizza vending machine, but this town was apparently too small for one of those. We sampled a baguette from this machine and can confirm it was fresh and pretty tasty.

We made it back to Angers with no incidents, though the countryside roads are very narrow and the roundabouts are everywhere. We’ve learned a lot about French driving rules and feel better able to drive here now.