Saturday the first of December we set off for St Sever to the annual poultry festival. On the way there it started to rain heavily so we decided to leave the fete until the next day. Before returning home we (well N really) spent a happy hour in a new DIY supermarket in St Sever.
Next day the sun was shining so off we went again to St Sever. St Sever is the centre of the poultry industry in Les Landes and is known, nationally, for its free range, maize fed poultry. The whole of the town centre was closed to traffic and the car parking was very well organised. There were numerous stalls selling chickens, ducks, cheese, wine and various handicrafts. Inside the "halle aux grains" was a display of various breeds of chickens (alive) and also several tables beautifully decorated for Christmas dinner. In the square in the middle of town, outside the abbey, we watched a display of stilt dancing. In years gone by, before Les landes was forested, the shepherds used to guard their flocks on stilts. This gave them a much wider view of their flocks and as the ground was very marshy the made mobility much easier. Postmen too, and indeed anyone who needed to cover long distances used stilts. It is a tradition which is carried on and it was refreshing to see that there were several youngsters in the demonstration. We had lunch in one of the heated marquees lined with trestle tables. For 13 euros we had, garbure (a local soup), salade landaise, coq au vin, sheeps cheese with cherry sauce and apple tart. All accompanied with red wine and coffee to finish. We had a very pleasant couple from St Sever sitting next to us and we had a good chat with them. Very good ambience.
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