Repas des Ainés.

Yesterday, Sunday, was the date of the annual luncheon for the retired folk in our commune, free of charge to all residents above the qualifying age!! I forgot to take photos of all of the courses; my usual trick when I am enjoying my food, but you can see that we did all have quite a lot of fun! We met up at 12h15 and made it home just after 17h30!!

Each of the menus had a picture on the its back and front, all in the style of old French advertisements. There were many different adverts - it must have taken someone ages to print and cut enough  for 150 people! It was also a "spot the  difference" game and one had to find 5 differences between the two pictures - an interesting diversion between food courses!!  Some were quite difficult to find, but I will print a few here to see if you can see the differences, if you have that much time on your hands! The pictures were interesting to see, however,  even if you have not got the time!

Filet de dorade (sea bream fillet).

Lemon sorbet with vodka; the former cleanses the palate, while the vodka supposedly makes more room in the stomach for the next courses! This seems to be called " a colonel's wink" in French!

Rôti de boeuf, with endive, turnip and potato dauphinoise. The meat was tender and cooked perfectly  for our taste! In history, the French military used to call the English soldiers "les rosbifs", because of the red uniforms they used to wear at that time.

Fôret noire. Modern take on a black forest gateau and served with the wrapping still in place!

After the food, wine, champagne and cognac the fun began with a conga line, accompanied by accordion music!!

I guess it was all a bit to much for some, though. Ha ha.

see my daily photo diary  HERE

http://photodiarydps.blogspot.com

and also - My Life Before Charente Updated 022/04/2013

Fishing Competition

During June, our local Mayor hosted the annual fishing competition at his cattle rearing farm.  He has a dam on the property, well stocked with trout and the locals enjoy the competition to see who can catch largest and the heaviest.  Our neighbours invited us along to join them for the midday lunch, which was part of the proceedings.   In the absence of any equipment (or affinity with the hobby!), we did not do any fishing, but we did watch what the others were up to.

The fishermen all trying their luck.

Aperitifs were freely available throughout the morning, and indeed necessary, as the weather was unseasonably cool!!

Above and below, weighing the fish to find the  winner. Note the "state of the art" scales - from the 60's??? Looking at those serious faces, the glory of winning is obviously important!

The tables laid ready for lunch.

Starters, accompanied by plenty of bread and wine!!

Barbecued sardines with a baked potato for main course. Really great fresh food!!

I loved this idea of half a peach baked in a fish shape pastry for dessert. This was preceded by a cheese course, which somehow escaped the camera!!

It appears a good time was had by all, including ourselves, as the diners only left  in the late afternoon!

P.S. The Black Redstart chicks have flown the nest; no sign of foul play, so I hope that all is well and that they lead long and happy lives.

You might also like My Life Before the Charente  updated 8 July 2012.

Some people seem to be having a problem following this link from their reader; I am aware of the problem, but unable to fix it.  If anyone has a solution, I will be more than happy to hear about it. 

Meeting a Blogger and a Repas

Last Friday, we had the pleasure of meeting blogger Kerry and her husband Roger.  They were only staying here in France for a week, taking a short, but active, break.  

We invited them for evening drinks and snacks on this, their last full day before making the drive home; we just hit it off immediately and talked and talked, until we suddenly realised it was almost 23h00 (!) and they had a long drive ahead of them.  They are such lovely people, and I am glad that they have a local place to stay, whenever they can make a visit; we hope we will get the chance to meet up again in the not too distant future.  We seem to have a lot in common and they love France and cycling.  Please take a look at Kerry's blog HERE if you love crafts; she makes the most beautiful cards.  Also you might be lucky and get a bit of news about France there as well.

Roger and Kerry.
Sorry Kerry, in the other photo you were smiling beautifully but the flash caught your glasses quite badly! 

***********************

Yesterday we went to a "repas", which translates pretty much as a meal.  This was a lunch at St Adjutory, organised  by the leisure group of which we are members.  We understood that just over 80 people were expected at the village's Community Hall and arrival time was 12h00.  The cost was a modest €12 each, which included food, wine and of course, great company.

The menu offered six courses, as you can see below, but I forgot to take photos of the first 3 courses!!  First course was a glass of kir - sweet wine. Next up was the asparagus soup - delicious, and in unlimited quantity; I think we all had second helpings!  The filet de lieu was quite a large  piece of fish,  served with a  moulded circular "cake" (the word ecaille literally means "shell") and tomato sauce; the cake seemed to comprise tiny slivers of cucumber in a courgette mixture; it was delicious. 

The main course of tender pork fillet cooked in a  mustard sauce, with a stuffed potato and vegetables, at which point I  remembered my camera ........

This was followed by cheese and salad and of course in France there is always a constant supply of crusty French bread, to eat as and when you want.

Raspberry mousse followed this, and the meal finished with  coffee.

Nigel took this photo of  my neighbour and me at the meal; I cannot remember now what caused quite this much laughter, but at this point it was late afternoon and we were definitely having a good time!! They organise these lunches every 3 months, so we had better get into training!

Note that the lovely earrings and necklace that I am wearing here were made by another blogger friend Jean. She has a number of blogs, but the one with the jewellery is HERE while her mostly French blog is HERE

As always click on photos to enlarge. 

For 'My Life Before the Charente' see HERE

Back Home!

I am sorry that it has taken me so long to get back to my blog, but it really has been non-stop since I arrived here, and things are not going to change much until the end of April! At least I have an internet connection!  After staying overnight with my friends near Montreuil, I drove down through France on Sunday 27 March. I did stop to take one photo of a sign that I took a fancy to, but the day was for driving and not photography!!!  Sorry! The French do have exceptionally lovely road signs though! Plenty of blog material there!

I arrived home to discover that the heating was not working! David, my neighbour, had had a repair job done on it a few weeks previously, only to find when he tried to turn it on, so that I would arrive to a warm house, there was a new electrical fault! He had kindly put electric heaters around the house to try to warm it up for me and as soon as I arrived, I also lit the woodburner. This is very effective and warms things up very quickly, despite the thick stone walls. When the heating guy arrived (after a few days!!), he managed to fix the boiler  temporarily with a bypass, but he is supposed to be getting me a quote on the new part that we need. This could be a shock (it's a Viessmann boiler), but I guess it has to be fixed!

I have managed to get all the weeds out of the vegetable garden, but it still needs digging over. On the only really dry day we have had since I arrived, I managed to cut the grass, but very high, so it will need cutting again soon. Needless to say, I have not managed to do the edges yet. 

;

After the first cut.

There are various flowers in bud around the garden, so I hope very soon there will be some colour. The cherry trees are already losing their blossom, but the apple trees are just coming out.

Apple blossom about to come out.

If any one can tell me what this, I will be very happy. It has large dark evergreen leaves and only flowers in February-March. This was the last flower left. I have had an email saying this is possibly a Bergenia, the photos look right to me, I wonder which species?

We moved this bay tree a couple of years ago and as you can see it is very happy and flowering this year.

The camelia is blooming well

I just caught the cherry tree before it lost its blossom.

Sunday 3 April was the local annual luncheon for the pensioners and a very good time was had by all. Perhaps a bit too much wine was drunk but……….

I am at the back left getting a cuddle!

Later this week,  my roofing man should arrive to help me put a ceiling and insulation into the upper part of the barn. The lounge is in the lower part of the barn and with the extra insulation, I hope this will help to keep the lounge warmer. We hope in time to put two offices upstairs, one for each of us, and another small spare room. I have also arranged for the artisan who made our entrance gates, to put a built-in wardrobe into our bedroom. He is a cabinetmaker who specialises in furniture, so I am sure we will get an excellent job. Although we have many cupboards in the kitchen, we have a serious shortage elsewhere in the house!

The sun is out again and I am off to cut the grass once more. I will be back soon, but bear with me awhile, until I catch up with the backlog of work :-)

Repas annuel des anciens!! – Part 44

Yesterday, Sunday, was the annual luncheon for local residents, held at the local Salle des Fetes (community centre). I had my first “taste” of this luncheon last year, so this year brought no surprises. I took a French friend with me this year; she does not drive, so it was good to have company. We sat down at 12h30, and only arrived home at 18h00!! 

I am on the left, glass in hand!

The menu was as follows:-

A glass of punch, (not as strong as last years!)

Apéritifs
(Various bits and pieces on sliced French bread)
Potage de Légumes - carafes of red wine arrived at this stage
(Vegetable soup)
Salade surprise de la mer aux agrumes
(This was mussels in pastry served with a grapefruit slice)
Coup du milieu
(A pink sorbet served with cognac)
Rosbif et son jus de cuisson, champignons farcis et asperges vertes
(Roast beef and gravy, with stuffed mushrooms and green asparagus)

Served with red and rosé wine.
Salade fromagère
(Cheese and salad)
Chaud froid de pomme flambé au cognac
(Hot baked apple served with ice cream and cognac)
Café and then the Champagne arrived!!!

The results of the champagne! The little lady out in front is about 90 and I gather she has an amazing singing voice.

No eating for few days now as I go into recovery mode.

It was another great and enjoyable occasion and I met many other local residents for the first time, French, Irish and British. We decided that we must all keep in touch and somehow it was arranged that I would host 8 people to aperitifs this Thursday!! I am sure it will all be great fun. My French is probably far behind everyone else’s, but it is amazing how I manage to get by; I more than surprise myself at times!

Next year we must link Nigel's holiday dates with this excellent event, so we can go together. It will all depend on how close the date of the lunch is to the Easter weekend; the Easter bank holiday is a good base around which to arrange his annual leave.