Building vocabulary - the fun way

I learned a new French word yesterday.
Abats.
It's actually a bit of an overstatement to say that I learned it.
I don't know its gender, its etymology, or the precise definition.
Clearly I'm too lazy to actually look it up. I'm sure my errors will be lovingly and quickly pointed out in comments.
It might be more accurate to say I experienced a new French word yesterday.

I have the definition of abats narrowed down to a few possibilities.
One of them is leftovers. "Whatever you don't eat, I'll keep. Then we can eat some abats tomorrow evening."
Possible definition #2 - random carnage. When that helicoptor turned upside down in the cow pasture, there were abats everywhere.
Possible definition #3 - any category of meat that is not substantial enough to form its own category. "We just received an order of goat head. Where do you want me to store it?" "With the rest of the abats."

How did I come across this strange and intriguing word? LeClerc - the great Wal-Mart of France.
While walking between the coffee aisle, and the fruit section (all the while hoping to avoid the rotting fish corner), I came across the meat section. On my left was what clearly used to be a rabbit (those flopsy ears are still cute, even when you can see digestive organs in the same eye-shot). On my right were signs of categories of meat, most of which I recognized - agneau (lamb), porc, veau (veal), boeuf (beef), poulet (chicken), canard (duck) and then at the very end, was abats. Mystified, I walked toward the white word on a red background to see if I could recognize the animal, like I could the bunny.
On approaching the packaged meat, I did have a glimmer of recognition - not so much in recognizing an animal, but in recognizing an organ - a brain to be exact. (I also learned how to say brain).
The grocery shopper in me was disgusted, but the boy in me was fascinated. I was standing among body parts that I've only seen in anatomy and biology classes. But I wasn't in class - no dumb goggles, no sticky gloves. Just me and guts separated by a thin sheet of clear plastic. Amazing. The French major in me then began to work and I realized this would be a good time to not only test my organ recognition skills, but also to learn the names of organs in French. (Just that day I was wondering how to explain that coffee might be good for your liver to my French professor.)
Heart, brain, liver, feet, tongue even, from every above-mentioned animal. I was dumbfounded. I could live off of veal tongue for a month. It's that big! (I don't really want to, but I could, nonetheless).
I don't really have a good conclusion for this story.