Lent has arrived

The snow and ice were so bad again at the end of last week, that our sacs jaunes (with plastic, paper, and metal to be recycled) weren't picked up. They're still stacked on the side of the road, waiting another pickup. The snow's largely melted now and there's a promise of sunny skies tomorrow.

We have noticed several times, but have forgotten to mention, that eggs in the shops here generally come in boxes of a dozen, rather than in metric boxes of ten, as in The Netherlands. Just to be confusing, there are indeed some boxes of ten, but mostly you'll find eggs by twelve or by six. This seems very strange in the metric homeland.

Another shopping oddity: Things are frequently labeled eco in advertising or in the brand name. Coming from the US and from The Netherlands, our reaction was that these are "green" products. It took us quite a while to realize that these products are economique, cheap in price, rather than ecologically friendly. The house brand of one shop we frequent is called eco+. Like everywhere, these items can be a bargain or not; sometimes the low price reflects low quality; other times they're really a good buy.

Saturday evening we went to a Repas Franco-Britannique (French-British meal) in nearby Lésignac-Durand. The doors opened before 7pm, but dinner wasn't served until almost 9pm. The bar was quite busy during the wait.There was a French soup for starters followed by roast pork, dressing, potatoes, and overcooked green beans. In the pauses, there was a local band, a group of friends who get together to fool around on their instruments once a week, picking out 70s and 80s music. Not great, but not bad, and there were lots of people enjoying the opportunity to dance, including the local character from our choucroute dinner was also there to party. Fuddy-duddies that we are, we left about 11.30, with the pudding (dessert in US English) not yet served.

Each year there is a brochure published of events like this in the area. Each commune hosts several events, dinners or other activities, throughout the year. People come together from all over the area to eat, socialize, and otherwise enjoy themselves. A weekend without an event of some kind is very unusual. This seems to be a very French tradition. Certainly in the US or in The Netherlands, we never saw some many community activities.

Tuesday evening we went to another pub quiz, this time at a bar hosted by a French and Irish couple. Our meal was Irish stew, with the chow line set up on the pool table. Our team came in third this time, and we're donating our vast winnings to the Phoenix Association.