"two cool" Our Ruin in France: Septembre Mise a Jour ( an update concentrating on food and fun)

Well, it has been a very pleasant few months down here in La Sud de France. Pleasant as in sun, windy, warm and welcoming . We wish you were all here to share this beautiful situation with us.

This post will lean heavily toward food and fun and the next will concentrate on the ongoing renovations.

This morning at breakfast I was reminded how much we like the food here. I looked at the crazy selection we enjoy virtually every day. We had a cheeseboard of Cantal, Brebis, Compte, Tomme and Roquefort. For meats, we had Spanish cured ham, chorizo, a Canadien type bacon, rossette (think salami) and a pate du porc. We had four types of olives: escabeche, anchovie stuffed, Lucque, and a chef's special mix. We had a bowl of whole garlic cloves somewhat preserved in a briny mix. Pat had a croissant and I enjoyed a pain du Chocolat baked fresh this morning from our boulangerie. Juice, butter, coffee and tea completed the meal. Each of the foods are tasty by themselves but when combined with others, the explosion of flavors is fantastic.
Not today, but frequently, we will also have fresh tomatoes, cukes, onions, apples or other fresh fruits. Yes, on occasion, we still have bacon and eggs but still with several of the above to go along with it.

A word about the pate. In USA, we would almost consider it Spam. In France, there are probably dozens of varied options and they make it with all meats from. beef, pork, lamb, fig, apricot, duck and rabbit. It is a staple here and the mature lady shoppers will stand at the meat counter and sample several before they buy.

Memorable meals and Brasucades

As usual, we love the food, restaurants and Brasucades here.To recap, a brasucade is a village hosted event and folks come from all around to enjoy Moule, Frites, Quail, Cote de Porc (pork chop), Brochette (turkey or duck on skewers) sausage,and crepes all cooked on the ground over grapevine coals. The courses come off the grills at staged intervals starting with frites and moules. then quail, later brochettes pork, and sausage. It comes complete with free wine, music and dancing and a visit by the Poulain for the kids. Dessert and coffee finish the evening which starts about half 6 and ends about 1 am. I suppose it is very similar to tailgating in USA...except with no ball game.

Premier Brasucade

The first brasucade occurred July 3 and I tried out my Independence Day chapeau on the villagers. Boy, did I get some giggles and looks. It was part of my costume for our fancy dress 4th party.

un idiot avec un chapeau et perruque (wig)

Pat is not impressed

Alison with a plump moule

Our table of about 20

Mssr. Crazy avec le Poulain

Caisse Savon

In June, we were invited to the next village over, Abeilhan, for their annual Caisse Savon. We were invited in French and did not understand exactly what we were going to. I knew that caisse usually means cash register/cashbox or the checkout position in the store. Savon simply means soap. So we assumed it was a soap exposition and sale. (Fine soap is a specialty of this region.)

Santa

We arrived to find people lined up along the street behind barricades as if for a parade of some sort. We wiggled thru the crowd and found a nice place to view the parade. All of a sudden, sirens started and fire emergency vehicles cleared the street and turned into the Cave cooperative near where we were standing. While we were straining to see what the emergency was, the street came alive with funny looking folks seemingly on go-carts. Quickly we realized what it was: a Soap Box Derby!

Pink Pigs

Inmates

Well, for about 2 hours these homemade rigs would race down from the top of the village and finish at the Cave. Wonderful creativity in both their vehicles and their costumes.

don't ask

log on wheels

Lost a wheel and came down the hill in sparks

Don't ask

Santa among the flares

It was a very good slope down the hill so some of the carts reached high speeds. Few had any brakes and drug their feet to maintain a safe speed. When they reached the finish, many were towed or hauled back to the top for another run.

Nurses with bedpans

Babies in a crib

The event was organized by the local equivalent of Jaycees. They wore T-shirts with their club name of “Les Nez Rouges” (the red noses) and it appeared they had earned their name.

Le Ferme Marine

(the fish farm)

Bert, Patrick and Doug conjured up a trip to the all you can eat seafood buffet in Marseillan. True to form, it was more than I expected since the French are usually small portion oriented. The restaurant sits at waters edge of a large saltwater lake populated by oyster, moule and crevette farming. Crustacean (raw bar) is their specialty but any seafood is available at the hot counter. Hot fish is usually served whole so some work is to be expected. The same with escargot (Snails), Bulot (sea snails), crevette (shrimp) and crab. Oysters are shucked and served cold or gratinee. We feasted at lunch for about 2.5 hours and left totally stuffed.

Pat's Poisson

Gambas whole (they only squeal once when you remove the head)

Helene, Patrick and Sonya

Yes, I ate it all

Huitres Gratinee (oysters gratinee)

Profiterole dessert (glace in pastry avec chantilly

Le Repas des Voisins
(Annual dinner on the square with neighbors)

June 27 marked the third neighbors dinner we have attended. It is only for those neighbors on the interior circles of the village. Sometimes it is pot luck as it was this year. Pat took a huge Cobb salad which was totally consumed. Again, we were the only English speakers there but we chatted in English and they chatted in French. Not a syllable was wasted. It is beautiful in that it is community bonding at its finest. We enjoyed meeting old friends and meeting new neighbors and took the time to get better acquainted. As you can see from the photos, our village has welcomed us very fondly.

Manola and Gisele (Gigi)

Our habitual pose avec wine and food

Good friends and neighbors

Trying my French

Three roses and a thorn

Blanc d'Alignan

The Cave Cooperative organised a Cancer Benefit Repas "Blanc d'Alignan" in June . Food, degustation (wine tasting), live show band and Paella for 10 euro. Costumed line dancers strutted for a good while while the rest of got properly lubricated for the dance floor after the meal. Many of our Tourbes friends joined in the frivolity and Mick and Yvonne met the "Hands-on Healer" from Alignan.

Le Guérisseur

Alternative medicine?

Boot Scootin

Pat and Gigi

Alison, Wendy and Pat

Robert, Dorothy and Hannie

John, Bert and Hannie

Kobus and Anna

Mick, Yvonne, Robert and Kobus

Pat and Richard "cutting a rug"

American Independence Day Celebration

For the Fourth celebration, I decided in April to try to do a "fancy dress" theme for our party. I found some cheap costumes online and ordered several in preparation. The plan was to have the key participants in the revolutionary war to be in costume and have a small recounting of the key events. Specifically, the French support of men and money. Of course. we had no shortage of British candidates to play King George, Queen Sophia Charlotte and Generals Cornwallis, Clinton and Howe. Americans were in short supply but we managed Ben Franklin, George Washington, Betsy Ross, and Benedict Arnold in costume. the French were represented by King Louis 16th and Marie Antoinette, Lafayette, Ben Franklin's mistress and an unknown French gunrunner.

Ben Franklin with Louis 16th and Marie Antoinette

Queen Sophia Charlotte

We had about 40 guests not all of whom were in costume. Ben Franklin (me) delivered a short welcome and recap of what the day meant to all. We toasted the British Empire from whom we broke away but then became allies. I played a rendition of "God Save the King" to which the Brits, Aussies, Irish and Scots all chimed in on.

Betsy with her French friends

Ben Franklin and Betsy Ross

Sharing a giggle

Then we toasted the French without whose help, we would not have succeeded in our quest for freedom. I then played "La Marseillaise" and the French sang with enthusiasm I have never seen before. Some had tears in their eyes as they sang with all their strength.

We concluded with a toast to the Americans and sang our national anthem. We only had 5 out of the forty present so our voices were not so loud.

Ann Quinn read a lovely poem from her new book, Monopoems, after the formalities and then back to eating and drinking.

Ann, the Irish Poetess and Chris, French, gunrunner

Sharing a guffaw

And much, much later...

Ben and his French mistress

Yes, we did eat and drink (a lot)

Louis, Marie Antoinette, Lafayette and Pierre

Royalty with Evelyne, Christine and Gigi

Betsy Ross and King George

Bastille Day in Alignan

We had a fairly quiet celebration this year. Prior years have been 2-3 days with all sorts of shows, music, and meals going on. This year only a meal at Place du Cafe (the square) followed by very late fireworks. Even the processional of small children carrying lighted candles was very limited.The fireworks were first rate but for some reason (known only to the French) it was not very exciting this year.

But we managed to have a very enjoyable evening at a table of friends.