France changed from daylight savings time this past weekend and for the first time, our evening activities this week have happened in the twilight/dark. Greg snapped this lovely photo of the Cathédrale Saint-Maurice d’Angers on Sunday looking beautiful while the bells tolled on our way to dinner at a friend’s house. This was definitely an “I love Angers!” moment.

Dinner was simple, and this time only included four courses, instead of the usual(?) five. Our hostess apologized (unnecessarily!) for the lack of a first course, which might usually be some sliced fruit, soup, or salad. We had:

• Appetizer platters of breads and spreadables including roasted eggplant, spicy tuna, radishes, and smoked salmon, paired with champagne
• A main course of roasted chicken and seasonable fresh vegetables purchased at the local farmers market and bread, paired with a nice red wine
• A cheese course with four different options and bread (and more wine)
• An apple and kiwi tart, pictured above, and made by one of the other guests, who says he makes one every Sunday (what?!) — it was absolutely gorgeous and delicious!!!

Monday night, we went to an evening event at a local amusement-park-meets-botanical-garden called Terra Botanica with some friends. “Terra Nocta,” the evening event, had the park decorated with lights and featured live music and theatre vignettes, and even had some plants for sale. It evoked nice memories of taking the kids to see the winter holiday-themed botanical garden light shows in the U.S. when they were younger.

Thinking of you all as you celebrate Halloween and enjoy the trick-or-treating, which is not really a thing in France.