St Igne The Photos....

Here are the pix.

I'm having trouble uploading the video but will try FB

The table after it has been trashed,

Rambo, in the white shirt, looks as if he's had a good time.

The barbecue gets underway

Pass the aligot

Look at that aligot stretch!

Things get underway yummmmmmmm

The redoubtable M. Robert Lafon in his trendy new glasses.

All quiet and neat to begin with, just wait until later.

This is where it all happens,

a C road is so tiny that you can't even see it on most maps.

The Sausage Festival

OK I promised to write about St Igne and here it is. I assure you that you have never lived until you have sat in a field full of drunken French people and stuffed your face with delicious country food and wine. This is what happens every year at St Igne which is a tiny village high in the hills above Verfeil. There is something magical about how it all happens as there appears to be nothing at all in St Igne apart form this field filled with long wooden tables. They also conjure up a dance floor, a band and food for about 300 people. It is especially wonderful for us to go as members of the extended Lafon family. Renne and Robert have the house opposite us in Verfeil and they have kind of adopted us so we get to indulge in a lot of hellos and cheek kissing that we would miss if we were just that mad English couple.

At first it is all very calm and mellow as families arrive and jockey for position on the long wooden benches. Renne of course has arrive early and staked our claim in a prime position.The barbecue fires are lit and the smell of woodsmoke starts to scent the air as the sun goes down. It is like a scene from Jean de Florette! After an hour or so of chit chat the real business begins and food is served. The menu is always the same and always delicious. We begin with salty crisps and ice cold kir made from blackcurrant liqueur and local white wine, this give the perfect balance of salty and tangy sweetness to pique your appetite for the starter of juicy sweet Quercy melon and salty smoky meaty local ham. As this arrives the wine begins to flow and it just keeps coming, rich ruby red in ill assorted and unmarked bottles filled from a huge barrel. By now the full complement of Lafons and friend has arrived and we have been hugged half to death. Everyone has their Laguiole pocket knives out ready to do battle with the food.

Now the highlight of the evening arrives, the aligot, a fabulous smooth puree of buttery potatoes and melted mountain cheese with a hint of garlic. The better the aligot the more it stretches because the stretchiness depends on the quality and quantity of cheese. Our aligot was very stretchy and they lifted it up high with a special paddle just to prove it. The aligot is served by a chain of willing volunteers and is accompanied by wonderful meaty grilled sausage and more wine. Of course there is also unlimited country bread and at this stage you start to think that you'll never eat anything again. By now the tidiness of the tables has also started to disintegrate somewhat, with crusts, the odd melon rind, sundry serviettes etc all over the place.

But...We have not finished yet, a wonderful aroma of barbecued meat heralds the arrival of grilled lamb raised out here on the hills and tasting of wood smoke and the wild grasses and herbs that formed its diet. It is mouth watering. Bones fly in all directions as the last morsels of meat are sought out. By now the tables are a scene of carnage and the arrival of ice cream cones and coffee add the the melee. The once tidy table tops have disintegrated into a total mess.

Now the real fun begins as the music starts up. One of the things that I love about St Igne is that they always play traditional French music first and everyone joins in with folk dances, and waltzes and surprisingly perhaps tangos and paso dobles, although we are only a short distance from the Spanish border. Grandads dance with grand daughters and the young learn the traditional dances from the old. Even John and I have been known to indulge in the odd waltz, sometimes very odd, depending on the amount of wine consumed! All around is laughter and fun and the sight and sound of people really letting their hair down. One man staggers drunkenly towards the bushes for a pee, only just managing to co-ordinate his legs to overcome the obstacle of the gate into the field. This causes much hilarity.

Eventually the traditional songs give way to disco music and people begin to drift away about 1am. It is a magical time and I am going to post some photos and video clips separately so you can share a little of the magic.
Bissous a tous

A busy weekend

Hello Folks

We have certainly had a weekend full of excitement. First off was the Offenbach Festival at Bruniquel. Didn't get to bed till 4am but it was amazing. Look at http://www.bruniqueloff.com/ for an idea about how much fun it was. Then there was the sausage and aligot feast at St Igne of which more in a sec, Sunday took us first to the Brocante (antique and bric a brac fair) at Laguepie where we made an amazing find soon to feature in this very blog; then to St Antonin for the firework display which was so fab it made me weep, (pathetic I know but there are lots of memories associated with this particular event, such as watching it for the first time ever with John the during summer that we decided to get married, ahhhhhhhhhhhh).

We ended up the weekend on Monday (shameful but pleasant) by going to the market in Caussade where we bought beautiful French net curtain material for The Old Dairy, the net curtains there, let's face it, being a disgrace. Joey advice needed about the sewing up! We also had to buy a new hoover as the old one expired on Saturday with a bang, a cloud of dust, cat fur and smoke. Erk. Other purchases included a new shower head and a bag of cat litter, we really know how to live it up!

We then repaired to Septfonds and our favourite restaurant where we ate an amazingly delicious salad, pink melting slices of lamb roasted with garlic and ginger, buttery pasta, fresh strawberries, (John had cake and cream with his), half a litre of rose Gaillac wine and an espresso for 15 Euros each, can we stay here please?? The food in this particular place always has such incredible flavour and the cooking is really intelligent.

I promised to mention St Igne but I think that might need another post, and I have jobs to do, wash the floor, do the laundry, post post cards, book restaurant for arriving guests, hoover with new natty rechargeable dust buster thingy, replace shower head, brush cats, make plum jam, look at French folders for school, (might put that one off), get lunch ready, phew being a french house wife really takes it out of you. Mind you there must be something in the water here that keeps people fit and healthy, here are Mesdames Dazol and Viguier both over 90 both close neighbours and as hail and hearty as anything. You should see them both eat. When asked by John what breed of dog she had Mme. Viguier replied "il est un petit batard!" Tell it like it is girls.

Out and About

When we have visitors it is an ideal time to do some nice, relaxing touristy things and see a bit of our beautiful region of France. Here we are on the tourist trail with Janet, Philip, Lucy and Steve Moule. Philip was pleased to see that Rugby was a part of the experience even if it did mean going into Serge Blanco's shop in Albi. Food was a big part of our experience too, everyone should have cake for breakfast at least once in their life! We did this at the lovely bakers in Cordes before visiting the market and struggling up the almighty hill. I've included a beautiful view of our village Verfeil Sur Seye and no visit to Albi would be complete without an ice cream! Swimming in the river is highly recommended as a way to cool off and obviously buying haircare products in the supermarket is a very serious business. We had such a lovely time sharing our love of this area with dear friends. Thanks for coming guys.

A visit to Rodez

During the last week we have had the lovely Moule family as our guests. We managed to have an amazing time and Spike especially loved being cuddled and hugged by Lucy. Other highlights included swimming in the river Aveyron, playing endless silly games and eating far too much. It was sad when it came to Thursday and we had to wave them off at Rodez airport. There were, however, a few saving graces to make up for having to say goodbye.

First of all we went to Salle La Source for lunch, this is an amazingly beautiful Medieval village with a stunning waterfall. There is also an excellent restaurant in easy driving distance of the airport. It makes a lovely treat for those on afternoon flights to have a final, delicious lunch. Sadly on this occasion there was a crisis in the kitchen and we ended up waiting for over an hour for our main course. Oh dear we were not happy but the patron obviously realised and gave us out puddings by way of compensation. The food was really good too with a special mention going to the chocolate mousse.

On the way home we got to admire the magnificent Tour de France cows made of straw bales. The Tour passed through Rodez this year and we were filled with admiration for this awe inspiring public tribute. We also had a great view of Rodez cathedral in the distance, flanked by some wind turbines. I actually quite like turbines I think they are kind of magnificent and modern looking and quite exciting. Perhaps I don't get out enough but I think they emphasise the beauty and age of the cathedral rather than detracting from it and anything which gives us cleaner energy is a good thing. I'll get off my soapbox now and have my siesta. What a tough life.

Excitement at the supermarket

Now I don't want you to get over excited at the title of this blog. Let's face it supermarkets are not usually that exciting although I must admit that I am a bit addicted to going into them in different parts of the world mainly to see what the local food is like and to see what people are eating. Ive fossicked in freezers from Arran to Zumpango (Mexico...yes really) learning a lot in the process. French supermarkets are usually repositories of everything good and I can't wait to get in there and admire the exotic range of goodies on offer, not least the wide range of intestines and other fascinating body parts!

Well the most exciting news on the old supermarche front in deepest south western France is that there is a brand spanking new Leclerc supermarket on the outskirts of Villefranche de Rouergue which is the town where we do our weekly shopping. Normally we are to be found in Aldi just up the road which is cheap and has all our basic needs at good prices. Going to Leclerc is a bit like going to Waitrose and probably equally expensive but the siren call of the aisles was hard to resist and in we went!

This proved to be something of a mistake as we came out a short time later considerably impoverished but laden with goodies and having had a variety of thrills. Where to star....hmmmm.....well perhaps I should mention the dishy man on the fish counter, sort of a fishy dishy I suppose (sorry!), he was quite easy on the eye and I bought more piscatorial products than strictly necessary!!!! The wonderful choice of fish did help to encourage me!Following that there was the steak mincing machine, for a mere 9 Euros I bought a kilo of steak and.... he cut it off a real joint of virtually fat free meant and minced it right in front of my eyes coooo.

However the most thrilling thing was the vegetable counters honest honest no kidding. They have these amazing funky chilled counters which blow a cooling misty vapour all over the veg and now I come to think of it the fish too in order to keep it calm and chilled whilst it awaits its inevitable fate. I was fascinated, never seen anything like it in all my life. Mind... I think the man who was watching me photograph the veg thought I was a bit funny!

Going off to play cards now and inevitably to get beaten. I'll try to photograph the fishy dishy for your delectation next time.

Random stuff from Verfeil

Well, what's been happening lately? First of all my chum Kathryn arrived from Boston Mass. and we had a fun week going off here and there. She is a professor of Egyptian archaeology at Boston University so she was very excited to go to Figeac and see the house where Jean Francois Champollion was born. He was the man who worked out how to read Egyptian hieroglyphs. She was even more excited however, by the chocolate mouse/mousse cakes which we had at Cordes one morning. Chocolate before Egyptology that's what I say.

Then we took her back to Toulouse airport and then immediately dashed across to Rodez airport to collect our good friends the Moule family from East Harling. Of course another visit to the cake shop in Cordes was indicated yummmmmmmmmmmm.

We had yummy prawns for lunch one day and guess who immediately came out in a fabulous all over pink rash usually only associated (for me anyway) with crayfish. Erk one bottle of witch hazel later I'm still like a strawberry milkshake all over, including in my hair, but at least I don't itch any more! I'm hoping that it was because the prawns had been touching crayfish on the supermarket counter and that I won't have to give up prawns...a potential major disaster!

The cats as usual are unmoved by all this and remain dozy and restful for most of the day and manic and excited during the night when their two favourite games, chase up the stairs, and scratch the fluffy wall paper, can become a little trying at 4 am! John enjoys his beer and lets everything (except the beer hahaha) wash over him! Even the man we saw in Albi who was celebrating his stag night by dressing up as a willy! What more can I add to that!?

Enjoy the pix.