Ed still being without his own Carte Vitale (for medical care), Kaye tried to phone the main CPAM office on Friday to make an appointment, only to find the old number not working. There's now a national number to call. The person who answered there quickly caught on that Kaye was not a native French speaker and transferred her to the English-speaking service. The last time Kaye spoke with them, they were very unhelpful. Just wait some more, was their only advice. This time there was a friendly, cheerful, helpful person who took all our information, said she would find out what the problem is, and call us back on Monday or Tuesday. We had hope! Today, of course, is Wednesday and we've had no return call. We'll give them another day and try again on Friday.
Saturday evening we went to bed with Red Alerts (for weather) in the departements just west and north of us. Our forecast had high winds with gusts up to 110km/hr (almost 70mph). There was some high wind in the night, and we lost a tile from the roof, but soon the winds died down and Sunday was pleasant, off and on sunny. We were lucky since there was a lot of damage in Charente-Maritime, just west of here.
At noon Sunday, along with 100+ other folks, we went for a meal of farci charentais in nearby St. Adjutory. This meal didn't go on quite as long as the repas de la chasse that we attended a year ago February, but it was definitely an occasion. We arrived just after noon and left after five. It was a very convivial afternoon, attended by young and old from the area.
Around one we were served a tasty aperitif of cognac-laced lemonade. Serving the aperitif is always a good sign, since it means the rest of the meal must be on its way. Next came the soup, a tasty broth with minced vegetables and bread floating on top, rather like French onion soup, but without the cheese. After finishing this off, many of the "natives" poured a slog of red wine into their soup plates and slurped it down directly from the bowl. Ed gave it a try, to much amusement, but wasn't very impressed. Kaye didn't think salty wine was such a good idea.
Then came the farci itself, along with braised pork and a big bowl of veggies (turnips, carrots, cabbage, potatoes). Farci charentais (literally a stuffed native of the Charente) is a regional speciality, a stuffed cabbage leaf ball that can be eaten warm or cold. (Here's a recipe with photo, although ours was a little less posh, with more bread and egg and less greens and herbs in the stuffing.) We learned that the soup and main course were all made together. The leaves are stuffed and wrapped in a cloth. The pork, veggies, and farcis were put in enormous pots and cooked slowly for hours. Broth from the pots was dipped out for the soup. For the main,the meat was chunked and shredded and the farcis cut in wedges. Delicious, but filling. Hard to resist the more-ish impusle.
This was all finished off by cheese and salad, followed by a sweet. As the dessert was served they sold bottles of cider, brut or doux. There was a lottery, with potted plants and bottles of wine as the prizes. The grand prize was a dried ham. Our table didn't do very well with the prizes. Needless to say, we didn't eat any dinner that evening.
Spring is really starting to spring now. Birds are singing, bulbs are coming up, trees are pollinating (ah-choo!). The bird feed has been blown over several times in recent days and has a definite lean at the bottom now. It attracts lots and lots of goldfinches. Last year we had only a few; this year we might have more than twenty at a time. (Contrary to everything you read, they are not particularly attracted by niger seed, but love black sunflower seeds.)
No comments:
Post a Comment