Fete des Mais - Part 2

Having planted our Maypole we all decamped to out local lake. This was in aid of planting a tree, introducing the full new council and, this being France, having a meal and a bit to drink.



Here's the whole council. And here's our very happy new Mayor!




After mercifully short speeches the beer & wine started flowing and the conversations really got going. This was a great chance to bring ourselves up to date with many local friends, get the latest gossip and socialize in general. I for instance ran into friends whose 13 year old son is getting into tennis, but has nobody to play with. I'll probably regret volunteering, but we start next Friday. Can my ego stand getting walloped by a teenager? Probably yes & the exercise will do me good.





After a few goutte's (drops) we all trooped off to the tables under the trees for the repas. In addition to wine we had a buffet selection of several salads, slices of roast pork, pizza slices, cornichons, bread, cheese and fouace (a local kind of cake). It was pretty nice spread all in all.

I'm not going to try to describe the rest of the day, but I will leave you with some pictures of our wonderful friends & neighbors in the village. A bientot!


















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A good time was had by all. By the way that's Madam Le Mayor taking the video.

People are great!

La fete des Mais - a tradition revived. Part 1

This morning our new town council resurrected an old tradition: "La fete des Mais". Literally "the Corn Festival", but really a very old tradition honoring the Earth Goddess which goes back to pre-Christian times. It typically held on the Sunday following the longest day of the year.
Here is the painted tree ready to be put in place. This is the traditional offering. The location was outside the village, but still in the commune. Just outside in fact of the new Mayor's gate. Interesting.



















As you can see we had a pretty good turnout both young & old. About 75 people I'd estimate which is not bad for a commune of only just over 400 people.


















We had some nice decorations as well as a 'friendly' drink before the actual raising of the pole. I must say that the raising was dome most efficiently. The guys seemed to be well organized and know what they were doing. Here's a pretty self explanatory set of pictures of the process. For the sake of scale I'd say the pole is about 50 feet high.











For the rest of the story see part 2 as this was only the start of the day's festivities.

You just have to love France and the French when they do things like this. They do them well, wholeheartedly and with a great sense of occasion and propriety. I love it!

Le Vieux Pont - Again

We went to Le Vieux Pont in Belcastel for lunch yesterday. There were 8 of us at table. Linda & I, our in laws plus our friend Pat & three of her friends. It was particularly interesting in that Pat & her friends are all retirees from P&O's catering division. Thus a well traveled and very knowledgeable group food wise.

We all opted for the 4 course menu. After pre-amuse amusées followed by an amuse our entrée was a choice of either Fois Gras de Canard mi-cuit or Gambas with local vegetables. I had the Gambas which were delicious & accompanied by artichoke, leek and mangetout with a light melange of sauces.
Mains were a fork tender pieces of beef (It looked & tasted like fillet, but wasn't.) with girolles, potatoes and a truffle sauce. The alternate was a lightly poached then grilled piece of cob with spring vegetables. Very very tasty.
Cheeses as always here were local with a selection of maybe 10-15 types. Cabecous, St Nectaire & ,of course, Roquefort.
My dessert was strawberries done several ways with a wild strawberry soup complete with straw. Really nice & light. Others had the chocolate medley of 4 different chocolate desserts.

Overall a nice meal in great surroundings. The room was full as is normal with quite an eclectic crowd. As we were finishing an extended French family, about 15 of them, came in to start celebrating Grandmother's birthday. They were having so much fun we wished we could have stayed.

We enjoyed the company so much that they're all coming to our place for dinner tomorrow. Belly pork is the main course. Not as refined as the restaurant, but very satisfying.