Our first social outing in the village this lunchtime (Sunday). We had an invitation through in the postbox and made our reservation at the mairie. It was advertised as starting at 12noon for aperitifs and the meal at 12.30.It was held in the "salle "polyvalente", which is like a village hall in the UK. We arrived at 12.15 and there was only a handful of people there, typical France!!!!!!!!!!! After standing around for a while, no doubt sticking out like sore thumbs, a very pleasant lady came to talk to us. She told us that the meal was organised by the "troisieme age" (the third age) which I suppose is a very nice way of describing we "elderly" people!Soon more people began to drift in and another couple of ladies came to chat to us. The tables in the hall were laid out beautifully, 16 people to a table and about 10 tables. One of the ladies pointed out the mayor to us and explained that he is generally a very popular mayor although some have reservations about him and think he spends too much. I must say that the area around the mairie and village hall is beautifully laid out and landscaped. Shortly an elderly man in a beret came in and we were told that he is one of our neighbours. Opposite the house is a very large vegetable garden and he and his wife arrive daily, on their tractor, to collect the veg. and to work in the garden. He soon came over to speak to us and was very friendly and chatty. Filled us in on our neighbours and told us about the people who had been here before us. Apparently a couple lived here for many years and the land at the back of the house was planted with vines, whilst the whole of the front garden was a veg. plot. I asked about the vines that are here as they look very sick and he has promised to come over and prune them for me. A lovely chap. He also filled us in on the lake we have at the side of the top garden, it belongs to the people who live below us, he is an aneathetist in Mont de Marsan and bought the house a couple of years ago. The previous people bought the house which was a ruin and 3 hectares of land. They renovated the house, landscaped the garden and made the lake. He did tell me how much this all cost but as he was talking in old francs (not the last lot, the lot before) I didn't understand how much it all cost apart from the fact that it was a large amount.
Finally, about 1.30 people started to sit down. After a bit of confusion we realised that names were on the tables so we started to look for our names and eventually found them on one of the first two front tables. Our "neighbours" were a couple from the neighbouring village of Maurrin, Gerard and Helene (in their 60's) and their son Phillippe who was very pleasant but I would think not "all there". They were very chatty and we were soon on first name terms and we were treated like old friends.
The lunch cost 12 euros and included wine.
Consomme aux perles du Japon. A very tasty consomme made no doubt from the liquid from the chicken which was the main course. The Japanese pearls were a bit of a teaser but they turned out to be tapioca.
Tomato salad.
Poule farcie et ses legumes. Chicken and beef simmered together, stuffing made from pork, onions, garlic and herbs, served with a huge bowl of carrots, potatoes and leeks. It was truly delicious and the amount put on our table was certainly on the generous side, enough to feed at least twice as many of us.
Cheese and salad.
Fruit salad and pastis. Pastis not being the liquid kind but a Landaise type of cake which is very popular apparently. I have to say "apparently" as it is very dry and doesn't have a lot of taste. Or perhaps it was just that my tastebuds had given up by this time!!
This was all rounded off with coffee and digestif, the digestif of course, here in Armagnac, was locally produced Armagnac.
I think we eventually said our farewells at about 5pm and managed to stagger out of the hall and come back home.
A feast fit for kings. Certainly didn't need anymore food for the rest of the day!!
Sadly I can't post any photos of the occasion, don't think it would have been appropriate to be rushing around with my camera.
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