Poisson d'Avril. Watch your back!

 

It is believed that the observation of April Fool’s Day began in France, after Charles IX changed the calender in 1564, and New Years Day was changed to 1^st January.

People who still celebrated New Year’s Day on April 1^st became the ‘butt’ of many jokes. They were called ‘Poisson d’Avril’ (April Fish) because at that time of year the sun was in the zodiac sign of Pisces, the fish.

As in England, it has become customary to play tricks on family and friends. French children fool their friends by taping a paper fish to their friends back. When the ‘young fool’ discovers this trick, the prankster yells ‘Poisson d’Avril.

 

Priorité a droite? Apply or ignore?

 Embarrassed. A couple of days after my awful mistake I am still embarrassed.

Last Saturday, I was taking Iona and Joe to a judo competition in Malestroit. The road is quite a long straight fast road. There were cars behind me. I vaguely remember a black Mondeo stopping at a side road wanting to get on to the main road to Malestoit and wondered if it was Emrics' parents as Emric goes to judo as well.

We arrived and whilst Iona and Joe were getting changed, and through the sea of parents I saw Emrics' mother. She didn't look very happy. She approached me.

'Not very nice that, rude in fact, don't you know the FRENCH highway code?, Priorité a droite?

Oh help.

An unknown man behind me, replied to Emrics' mother, 'You must be the only person in Brittany who adheres to the priorité a droite '.

This did not help.

She stomped off.

Should we apply the priorité a droite rule or not?  The overriding rule of the road in France is priorité a droite which basically means that you must give way to traffic coming from your right. It is an archaic law that dates back to the times of the horse and cart and for some unknown reason has never been repealed. It is true to say however that the French have spent thousands of millions of Euros to indicate that it does not apply in most circumstances, but as with any French law there are exceptions !! :-

The Yellow diamond with a white border indicates that the priorité a droite does not apply to the road ahead.

When this exemption ceases then another sign with the yellow diamond with a diagonal black line through it will be displayed.

Dotted and sold white lines. Although technically not a priorité a droite sign, they do in fact indicate that nobody has the right to cross them, and whereas many people have thought that these were just to indicate the side of the road, which of course they do, they also mean that, you have prioity which if you think about it is logical.

The use of white posts with a red band. These is only used in rural situation and indicate firstly that there is a turning to your right and that that road does not have the priorité a droite.

I really don’t think that I am any the wiser, and I do hope that Emrics’ mother will forgive my poor driving!…

French. An impossible language.

I am truly on the verge of giving up, packing my bags, taking the first boat the Portsmouth so the I can speak a logical language!!….. How can I possibly master a language where these two sentences have the same meaning :-

Le gateau que Jean mange est au chocolat.                 The cake that Jean eats is chocolate

Le gateau que mange Jean est au chocolat.                 The cake that eats Jean is chocolate.

I guess I need to get my French Grammaire books out…. It is apparently all to do with Les relatifs…

I am becoming a cider drinker !..

I almost prefer cider to wine.

When we lived in England we never drank cider, the occasional glass of wine but never cider. The French, however drink a lot of cider. It is drank as an aperitif, sometimes mixed with cassis to produce a cider kir, it is often drunk at lunchtimes as it usually has a lower alcohol content than wine and of course it is always drunk with galettes!

I wonder…. Every autumn we press about a tonne of apples, could some of this juice be turned into cider?

I do some research… The apples, not all apples will do, you must try them out. They must be rich in pectin. Need to find out how to test an apple for pectin!

The apples must be ripe. They aren't necessarily ripe when they've fallen off the tree, they can ripen on the floor. To test for ripeness either use the starch test, or check for a strong apple aroma, or the apples should give when squeezed.

Pick and press within a week, throw out any rotten apples. So far so good!

Pressing, only press when the temperature is between 8 and 12ºC, or possibly a little colder. If any warmer, the yeast starts to ferment too quickly before the enzymes can do their business.

Maceration of the pulp for 12-24 hours before pressing will help to increase pectin levels.

Now things get complicated.. to do with pectin esterase enzyme and Calcium Chloride. It appears timings are crucial and there is more skill involved in making cider than I realized. A skill that only comes with experience.

We press our apples at a farm just north of Guer. I wonder whether the farmer would help us transform some of our juice into cider this year…

 

Frosty or Familiarity?, Vous or Tu?

The French either talk to each other formally or informally depending upon whom they are speaking to. There are, of course some rules, always use the ‘tu’ form (informal) when talking to children and members of your family and use the ‘vous’ form when speaking to people in authority (police, lawyers, teachers etc) and people that you don’t know but inevitably there are some grey areas !!...

Until a couple of years ago, just to be on the safe side and so as not to offend anyone, I used the ‘vous’ form with everyone.. that way I could not offend by being over familiar. But I did offend… one day, a woman whom I know quite well said, ‘Why don’t you use the ‘tu’ form… aren’t we friends yet?’

So what to do ?... The text books all say that when the time is right the French person will ask if you are happy to use the ‘tu’ form. Pah.. I never had that conversation; it would certainly make things a lot easier if that was the case.

The only way I have managed to navigate my way through this etiquette minefield is to try and avoid using either form until you figure out whether the person with whom you are talking to is addressing you as ‘tu’ or ‘vous’.

This works most of the time… but not all the time.

When talking to other parents at the school gate the ‘tu’ form is used after a relatively short period of time, but when talking to a teacher the “tu’ form is never used. I now have a problem. Iona’s teacher (of six years) is also the parent of two girls that attend the same school. He now teaches at a different school, so when I see him at school functions as a parent do I refer to him in the ‘tu’ or the ‘vous’ form?

Are wayside crosses disappearing all over France?

Reminiac has a large concrete wayside cross which is located just behind the Marie.

I arrived to pick up Iona and Joe this morning to find that the base had been partly dismantled.

I assumed that it was being removed as part of Frances’ acknowledgement that it is a secular state.

‘Non, non, non Nicole, the mayor wants a bigger office!’ I was told.

Lunchtime. Progress is slow….

This evening. At last.

 

Vide Grenier Preperations about to get a lot more complicated!

Yesterday evening, a meeting was called to allocate tasks to enable the smooth running of the Vide Grenier (car boot sale) to be held in Reminiac on 1^st May.

The presidente, outlined the action plan in the run up to the 1^st May and for the day of the Vide Grenier. It is terribly organized. Posters and leaflets are to be distributed in two tranches, yesterday we were all given posters aimed at those wanting to take a stand and nearer the time different posters will be issued advertising the Vide Grenier to the general public.

In order to make the Vide Grenier a greater attraction the presidente proposed that we have a plant sale, make and sell galettes sauccisse, have a bar selling coffee, alcoholic and soft drinks and a cake stand. Excellent idea !!

Principle agreed for the ‘additional attractions’, so a further meeting was arranged for next week to agree the detail. It is easy to agree principles… the prolems are always in the detail, I have a feeling next weeks’ meeting will be a long one !!

Buying a house in France?… Count the trees!

Caught a glimpse of Lucienne going into the bar for a coffee this morning.

Decided to join her.

‘Ecoute, she say’s, I’ve got a funny story for you. My nephew has just bought a house at Porcaro. A lovely house with a huge garden, a mature orchard and three enormous oak trees. He fell in love with the trees before the house!. He signed the Compromis de Vente last week. Saturday evening he was in the bar at Porcaro and a man approached him and said that he had some wood for sale. Bien sur, my nephew was interested as his new house (like most houses in Brittany) is heated by a wood burning stove. The man asked if he would like oak, the king of woods!. They agreed on a price and the man gave him directions to his new house!!… As soon as the Compromis de Vente had been signed the vendors were busy cutting down all the trees and making money from the wood!!’.

So if you are about to buy a house in France..beware !!

Could this be a good wind up for Mark, Pig Farm at the end of the road?… Ohhh yes, I think so !!…

Spring is on its’ way. Warm sunshine. Tess and I stroll up the road. Tess races off in search of non existent rabbits. I see a new post in the distance. As I walk towards it, I see there is a notice attached to it.

‘Enquette Publique.’ (Public Enquiry).
I read on and the words ‘création d’un atelier porcin, 380 truies(sows), 1176 animaux, does not fill me with confidence.
Will the field at the end of our road be the site of a new pig farm?

Guillaume will know. I walk a bit further and find him splitting huge logs with the help of a mechanical splitter which is attached to a very ancient tractor. Guillaume is very excited with the ‘splitter’ that he has borrowed for the day and gives me a full demonstration.

I ask about the notice.
‘Ne t’inquiéte pas, don’t worry, There is a farm over in Monteneuf, and he points way off and the farmer wants to increase the number of sows but the pig farming regulations are so tight now he has to prove that by increasing the number of animals on his farm will not have an impact on the environment in terns of slurry run off, increased vehicles to and from the farm, etc etc….’ Jean rambles on. ‘The Public Enquiry is part of the new EU rules, don’t worry it won’t affect us.’ He says’ kindly looking at my relieved face.

Mardi Gras, without the Fat Cow.

Yesterday was Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), the day before the beginning of Lent. Mardi Gras also marks the end of the Carnival period.

At the origin of the Carnival there were (of course !!) many old (and odd !!) habits from France. For example, the French took a fat cow around the roads of Paris to tell people not to eat meat during Lent.

 The word “carnival” means in Latin “to take away eating meat”.

Yesterday we celebrated Mardi Gras, and it didn’t have anything to do with a fat cow !!.

The young and the elderly of Reminiac came together. I arrived at the village hall with several other women, all heavily laden with crepes and cakes at about 3.00pm to prepare the hot chocolate for the children and to sugar the crepes.
But, we were beaten to it !!.. Five or six women in their seventies were bustling around the kitchen warming two huge pans of milk and worrying about the hot chocolate powder, was is the right sort ? and should they add some more sugar ?.

In the hall there were four or five bereted men, uncorking ten bottles of wine !.

At 3.30 the children arrived and they all went to have a chat to the elderly men and women, who, of course, complimented them on their costumes !!..

Yesterday afternoon the young and the elderly have come together in a very natural way. The interaction between the generations was just so easy and I really do hope that there will be many more events such like this.

Am reminded of Chicken Run.

Yesterday eight new hens were bought from La Gacilly market.

Wings cut and they were introduced to their new home. One hen is limping, I hope she recovers.

Two hours later, they were all in the field next door!

A new fence was required along one side of their run. I was dispatched to buy thirty fence posts and 50m of fencing.

I bet the hens are now planning their next escape…