And the next day ....!

About 10 days ago I received a letter from the old fogies club in St. Pierre (I really should use its proper name I suppose - it's called Carpe Diem, but old fogies club seems to just trip off the tongue more easily) announcing that the entire committee would be standing down in November and they were looking, in particular, for a new president, secretary and treasurer. Well I thought about it for a few minutes and decided against it, but on the bus heading out to the Périgord I asked Marie-Jo (also on the committee) if they had had any volunteers and she said not - and this is where I should probably ask people to fill my mouth with quick-setting cement next time I open it because I vaguely floated the idea of offering to fill in as treasurer! I knew I didn't want president, potentially wouldn't mind secretary, but figured treasurer would probably suit me better. Well her eyes lit up and before I knew it she'd called Christine (the secretary) over and was telling her that maybe I would be joining the committee!!! Why oh why do I do it!

It turns out the reason they all want out is because the current president - who is in her 80s - is becoming somewhat "over zealous" and seems to think that she gets to decide everything, as opposed to putting things to a vote! So then I got talking to Christine at dinner and she was regaling me with stories about "the one" (you know, I say there's always "the one" when I go on my trips) and I was starting to question my sanity. She did mention that if I joined the committee she might be willing to stay on as secretary, so that would just leave the president to be replaced along with the wider group of committee members! I was quite shocked when she said there were about 160 members (!!!) and quite a lot of money in the bank account, so it would be a shame if it all fell apart because people couldn't see eye to eye!

There were two Portuguese brothers on this trip, although having been in France over 50 years, you wouldn't know it from their accents. They both seemed pretty nice with José being married to Christine and the other living with "the one". After a few days I saw what they meant because she was forever taking digs at him with there being something wrong with everything he said (makes you wonder why some people stay together doesn't it). As a "for instance" when we were leaving a restaurant one day I turned round and told her to watch out for the dog poop on the pavement and she barked at me that she was not blind, thank you very much, and could see it perfectly well (I wish she'd slipped in it to be honest)! Then there was "the market lady" who used to sell clothes on her market stall and was such a rude, aggressive woman I wonder if she ever got any customers! As an example of people's feelings for her, at one point she asked "if this place was free" at the dinner table and was told words to the effect that they would rather not have it occupied by her - so she ended up sitting at our table! Apart from these two women though, pretty much everyone was really nice. There was 85 year old Carmen from Barcelona, Collette from Laos, Roger with the bald head and booming voice and 82 year old Christiane who looks about 70 and routinely hikes up the mountains at the back of my house (and who made me feel totally inadequate)!

Anyway, after giving you a flavour of the group, it was on to day two and our next outings. The first was to a local distillerie where they would pretty much distill anything into liqueurs or eau de vie with no part of the fruit going to waste. I bought a bottle of mirabelle plum liqueur and a walnut eau de vie - nice, but not something you'd want to be chugging down too often!

After lunch we set off for the Bastide de Domme, one of many fortresses in such a heavily contested region. You see when Henry Plantagenet (Henry II of England) married Eléanor of Aquitaine (France) in 1152 this region fell into the hands of the English. Local noblemen fairly routinely switched sides though, and since many of the local militia were only paid when they were actually fighting there followed the 100 year war (more than 100 years actually) between England and France (and so ends the history lesson for today)! It was a pretty little town (fort?) though and well worth the visit!

A google picture of the Bastide
de Domme

I would give my eye teeth to
own this book shop!

On the way back to our hotel the owner/guide pointed out a field of small trees and told us that they used to have a handyman who worked for them for many years. When he retired he planted "truffle oaks" (that's my translation of the French for oak trees which encourage the growth of truffles) in that field but since it usually takes about 10 years for truffles to start growing, the poor man got to enjoy them for just three months before he subsequently died!

On the property there was the daftest, sweetest dog who would roam around carrying a ball looking for anyone to throw it for him. He had all the markings of a border collie but was way bigger than any border collie I've ever seen - but man was he sweet and just wanted to play! I suppose when you have all those grounds to roam around with your ball and a never-ending supply of willing visitors to throw it for you, life can't get much better than that!

In the evening the owner gave us a lesson on how to cook foie gras! Now I know it's long been held as cruel to force feed geese and ducks to produce the foie gras, which I suppose it is, but our guide was explaining to us that they are only force fed twice a day for about two weeks and are otherwise free to roam. Compare that to battery hens and I suppose she has a point. Anyway, our foie gras was indeed cooked to perfection, but to be honest, I'm still not keen on it. I don't much like the texture so I doubt I'll be partaking again any time soon!

And finally, my neighbour's moving truck came today and loaded up most (but not all) of what was left in the house. She has worked so incredibly hard these past couple of months to get rid of so much stuff and I think even she was shocked that some stuff had to be left behind. I'm guessing her kids will take what's left to their homes and ferry it over to her as and when they can. She asked me if I'll come and visit (as she was feeling a bit wobbly) and I told her of course I will once she gets herself settled! That being said, seeing what she has just gone through makes me more determined to get rid of as much stuff as possible (something I'm struggling with at the moment) because I never want to have to go through a big move ever again!