Ficaires, Loriot et Mimosa

"C'est le printemps jaune ", said Colette, as she cut a few leaves of pissenlit and mâche in the meadow next to the farm.

She was using her brass-handled penknife, which is always attached to her belt by a length of blue string. The blade was well-worn.

"Ce couteau, j'ai acheté à la foire de Chantonnay en 1949"

I pictured Colette as a teenager after the war, travelling the ten kilometres home with her sister from la foire one Tuesday on Le Petit Train into the village centre. Then walking along the muddy riverside path to Le Breuil after pausing at the crossroads to slip their town-shoed feet into parked wooden sabots.

"Tu as vu les ficaires? Ils sont en retard cette année" She asked, and then paused and said;

"Ecoute."

Loriot. Oriolus (From golden Latin aureolus)

Click on pic for distinctively mainland-Europe call)

There was a silence, then the unmistakable call of the oriole.

"Voilà. Le loriot est arrivé. Ce sera bientôt le coucou"

We walked up from the field together, as she explained how she would make the vinaigrette for the lambs' lettuce and dandelion.

"Dau bon vinaigre d' la barrique à Roger. De l'huile de tournesol. Dau moutarde. Pi' dau sel pi' dau poiv'. O l'è tout"

It sounded even more authentique in patois. [Strewth. We're lapsing into patois now. Ed]

Lexique

Pissenlit Plante sauvage. Les petites feuilles sont excellentes en salade. Attention! Ne pas faire pipi au lit après...

Loriot Oiseau jaune et exotique. C'est un migrant d'Afrique.

Mimosa Arbuste qui fleurit en janvier sur la Côte d'Azur, et en février sur la Côte Atlantique. Symbole floral de L'Australie.

Tournesol Autre fleur jaune qui donne de l'huile. Se cultive en très grandes quantités dans le sud de la France. Devenu symbolique (pour les Britanniques francophiles notamment) des vacances, parce que la floraison est en juillet. En réalité, c'est un symbole de l'agriculture industrielle.

Sera Futur du verbe être. Pensez au Latin Que sera sera. [Doris Jour, 1956. Une bonne année. Ed]

Moutarde Say it out loud and think of Colman's.

Ranunculus Ficaria/Ficaire/Celandine.

"Little Frog plant with bulbs which look like figs?"

Cresson et Crécerelles

Stone-mason Jean-Philippe turned up this morning in his Renault Master. We looked at the four à pain. He said, in the roundabout way that Vendéen artisans have, that he hadn't rebuilt one before.

"Mais je connais une association qui pourra t'aider".

He gave me the address on the back of a Gauloise packet [Actually it was Marlboro. Please forgive the blatent over-gallification here. Ed], then said something off-the-wall for a stonemason. [No comment. Ed]

Cresson des Fontaines/nasturtium officinale

Click on cresson pic to go on a four-minute spring journey to the lavoir de Sigournais

"Je peux demander aux pierres leur âge"

"You can ask the stones their age?"

...enquired your correspondent.

"Oui. C'est de la radiésthésie"

From his pocket, he produced a wooden sphere, the size of a cochonnet, which was attached to a fine, golden chain. Then he placed a hand on the stones and mumbled a phrase in patois.

The pair of kestrels in the field next door screeched mating calls and performed ballet in the spring air.

Mille six-cent quatre-vingt-dix à mille sept-cent. Louis XIV, non?

He said with a smile, slipping his ball back into his trousers.

Faucon Crécerelle/Falco tinnunculus (presumably because of the noise?..Latin specialists please advise.)

That'll be 1690 to 1700, then, I thought. The same estimation that had been given by the Architecte des Bâtiments de France a few years ago.

We shared a few stories about dowsing, divining and doodlebugging over a glass of rosé, and I showed him a video clip of the lavoir in Sigournais from last week's picnic.

"Sigournais. Magnifique. Deux châteaux et de la belle pierre calcaire". He said.

I showed him the watercress from the spring which feeds the lavoir.

After exchanging recipes for soupe au cresson, he bade me farewell, and drove out of the village.

The male crécerelle broke off from his noisy courtship to swoop, silent and low over the Renault.

Lexique

Cochonnet; Petite boule en bois utilisée lors d'une partie de pétanque.

Louis XIV; Roi de France (1643-1715) peu modeste.

Lavoir; Regardez le clip vidéo, vous le verrez.

Cresson; 1. Plante médicinale et délicieuse. 2. Nom de famille de la première femme premier -ministre de France. (mai 1991 à avril 1992. Don't ask...)

Violettes Blanches, Lapin Blanc...

Jannick is a quadragénaire who has a Breton name, and the ruddy complexion of a Normand. The Vikings and the Celts clearly passed this way a thousand years or so ago during a previous episode of La Grande Histoire de l'Immigration en Vendée.

Today he was collecting feuilles de chou for his rabbits, wearing un-Viking un-agriculteur jeans and trainers.

Violette blanche-Viola alba

"J'ai une lapine qui a fait quarante-huit lapins en quatre ans...Je donne des bananes aux petits, et après, des feuilles de chou."

He proceeded to give a detailed gastro-anatomical description of the Easter treat he had in store for the lapine de quatre kilos, which involved:

Gras de porc...sel...poivre...quatre épices...ciboulette...ail...échalote

"Je fais des boules de pâté, et ma femme s'occupe du reste"

For readers of a sensitive nature, we will not go into a detailed description of the soon-to-be ex- Lapine. Mainly because of her white fur and pink eyes. [It might help if we imagine Jannick saving it from a worse fate: appearance on stage with Paul Daniels, during one of his fake French lessons. Ed]

Walking back home, crossing the bridge over the stream, a spring breeze carried the scent of a thousand violettes blanches.

Lexique:

Lapine: Lapin femelle

Banane: Are you kidding?

Ciboulette: Petit oignon, on mange les feuilles.

If you have difficulty guessing the rest, scroll down to the first post, and revise.

Xynthia et les Cigognes

Météo France put out the storm warning on the Wednesday evening.

The next two or three days' weather was strangely calm, and it was only when a pair of storks appeared in the grey skies over the village that we guessed that something was very, very wrong.

"Les cigognes ne viennent pas par ici d'habitude"

Ciconia ciconia

Commented René.

"La météo sur la côte doit être bien mauvais..."

That evening, the wind started to howl. In Sainte-Cécile, thoughts turned to the hurricane of October 1987, and "La Tempête du Siècle" of December 1999.

The electricity went out just after 3am. Each rafale increased in intensity, then at 4 am came a tinkling of glass from the kitchen. Investigation showed a triangular hole in a window. Xynthia sent probing banshee fingers of draught through the house. We gathered the battery radio and torches, then started to prepare a plan in case the roof should peel away. This involved putting on warm clothes, and stowing half a dozen teabags in one pocket, just in case the rescue centres had only coffee.

There was no rain during the darkness. The window-panes made a crackling sound. We found out next morning that they were being peppered with salt. [Come on. Ed].

Over the next hour, the worst of the storm passed over the village. Then came sleep, followed by sunrise in a chaotic sky.

There was no electricity for two days, but we escaped lightly.

On Sunday morning, we listened to radio reports of 30 fatalities due to the tidal surge and resulting floods.

Nicolas Sarkozy, Président de la République would visit La Faute sur Mer with a posse of ministers on Monday morning at 11. There would be hand-on-shoulder and "bon courage" from the incumbent of the Palais de L'Elysée, then a rapid analyse to determine blame. The Président would lose no time in determining potential culprits, and the list would include the Usual Suspects: Property promoteurs, who had built on the flood plains behind the dunes and ageing sea-defences; compliant Maires, who had allowed zoning of low-lying land for new-build; any ennemi politique who needed a warning shot fired across their bows...

Philippe de Villiers, Président du Conseil Général (the Département's ruling council) got in first and gave a considered analysis of the causes of the disaster on France-Inter on Sunday: "Trois éléments: un vent exceptionnel, une marée exceptionnelle, et une pression barométrique exceptionnellement basse". He managed to self-publicize only mildly, hardly mentioning at all in his trademark mildly camp aristo timbre that as "organisateur du Vendée Globe [four-yearly round-the-world yacht race], he knew a thing or two about wind. [ He also knows about hot air and quasi-Front National politics, allegedly. Ed].

These were, after all, exceptional circumstances.

We didn't really need an énarque 3-part analysis to remind us of that. But Monsieur de Villiers' support base in Sainte-Cécile and elsewhere in Vendée would have taken considerable comfort from his reassuringly competent analyse.

Click on the Météo-sat pic for a 3-minute view from the ground. [What? Ed]

Lexique:

Marée; Cycle du mouvement de la mer toutes les 12 heures environ.

Enarque; Une personne qui a fait des études à L'Ecole Nationale d'Administration. Un énarque peut devenir préfet, ministre, etc. Obligation après de faire des analyses en trois points. Regardez Wikipédia, vous verrez bien.

France-Inter; Station de radio nationale "medium/highbrow". Un peu l'équivalent de la BBC Radio 4, mais avec plus de musique avant-garde et/ou rétro par moment. Il n'existe pas de John Humpreys, de Humphrey Littleton, de "disques pour une île déserte" ni de "Show de maintenant"...Si vous préférez le highbrow, écoutez plutôt France Culture, station préférée des professeurs baby-boomers en retraite. (de plus en plus nombreux en France.)

Cigogne; regardez la photo!

Pies et Perces-Neige

Pie (Voleuse). (Pica Pica)

René parked his antique tractor outside the cellar this morning, and the steaming dung in the tray defrosted the icy air.

He pointed to the magpie nest in the top of the ash tree.

"Je t'avais bien dit que l'hiver serait rude. Les pies ont niché haut l'an dernier".

I nodded, and thought about asking him to formulate a sentence which would be easier to transpose to the rudimentary language level of this blog. One without a pluperfect verb or rude pies.

But instead, I remarked on the artfulness of magpies, and we walked past the fading perces-neige, went inside his wine cellar, and discussed the winter's passing.

Perce-neige (Galanthus) Now Click on perce-neige for Last of the Winter Freeze.

Lexique; Nicher-construire un nid (Do not confuse with Nichon, which is rude. Beaux Nichons = Great Tits but not in the ornithological sense. There's another bit of lexis you won't forget.)

Nid-La maison d'un oiseau.

Pie-Oiseau noir, blanc et voleur. (Ne pas confondre avec le plat australien emblématique)

Voler- verbe à double-sens; on vole dans un avion, dans un hélicoptère... un voleur irait peut-être en prison. Une pie vole et vole.

...et un peu de langage familier pour finir; Piquer = voler. To nick. Pica Pica = pie voleuse.

Voilà!

Bangers and Mâche

This post should be read in the voice of Mme Delia Smith speaking French. It will help if you imagine the Reine de la cuisine d'Angleterre in a French maid's uniform, holding a riding crop.

You will be fluent in kitchen French by the end of the article, c'est promis.

Here at SDSC we learned today that our charcutier, Jean-Luc, is retiring.

The news came via the yelling yellow monthly municipal feuille de chou, called Le Trait d'Union.

Just in case you think that we make all of this stuff up at SDSC, here's a bit of the front page. It announces silver long-service gongs for municipal employees Didier, Nano, Philippe and Marie-Thérèse.

People come from far and wide to buy boudins blanc from Jean-Luc. The boudins are a winter speciality, and are particularly délicieux when gently grilled over a bed of braises. As Delia would tell you, the embers should be just hot enough to brown the skins without causing une explosion. See how many ingredients you can spot in this recipe extract:

Les ingrédients du boudin blanc: Le boudin blanc, préparation cuite de charcuterie fine, se présente sous forme d'une pâte très claire à base de viande blanche, maigre de porc, volaille ou veau et d'une enveloppe de menu de porc.

On y ajoute des matières grasses, en général du gras de porc, parfois de la crème, des oeufs ou du lait, par exemple.

On l'aromatise avec oignons, carottes, échalotes, bouquet garni à base de thym, laurier, persil, clous de girofle, parfois même de vanille, fleur d'oranger ou cannelle.

Try them with bilingual pommes Golden Delicious au four, et un bouquet de mâche. Une vinaigrette à l' huile d'olive vierge extra, et au vinaigre de framboise will go down well, too.

Here at Saisons de Sainte-Cécile we wish Jean-Luc and Marie-Luce bonne et heureuse retraite. We hope that they have passed the secret boudin recipe on to Cyril, their apprentis charcutier and successeur. [Nice one, Cyril. Just for les lecteurs anglais. Ed]

Lexique;

Deux légumes aujourd'hui. L'un au sens propre et l'autre au sens figuré...

Feuille de chou: En langage familier, il s'agit d'un petit journal ou brochure local.

Attention, la mâche, ce n'est pas ça:

C'est ça:

En février et mars, ça pousse dans les prairies. Les Anglais l'appellent "Lambs' Lettuce", et on peut en acheter chez Sainsbury, chez Tesco et même chez Aldi ou Lidl de temps en temps. Vous en avez probablement dans votre jardin, aussi.

Voilà. Vous parlez bien le français culinaire désormais. Bon appétit les amis de SDSC et à bientôt!

AB

Pinson et Four à Pain

There's always a day, some time in February in this part of western France, when the chaffinch turns our thoughts to spring.

photo courtesy flickr

Today, in the hushed queue for mid-morning bread at our village's make-do boulangerie counter inside the supérette, I shook hands with the cantonnier.

He confided with a wink that the sap would soon be rising, especially in the hedgerows, so he needed to hurry along with the Renault-orange municipal tractor and hedge-flailer.

We used to have a real boulangerie, with chilled vitrines, vertical stacks of still-crackling baguettes, and the smell of warm croissants at 7a.m. when, for a baker's dozen years we drove our kids to their pre-sunrise winter rendez-vous the school bus.

But a spat two years ago between the ancient, absent, money-grabbing landlady owner and the young, dynamic, financially-challenged tenant boulanger put paid to that. Allegedly. There were, according to several reliable gossips, "frank and heated exchanges about who should pay for maintenance of the wood-fired four à pain bread oven: propriétaire ou locataire?".

The resulting dialogue des sourds (no épées used, just lots of shouting: sourd = deaf . Ed) led to the appearance in the old boulangerie window one October morning of an acrimoniously scrawled note, spitting an infinitive in two grammatically incorrect syllables from the back of a paper cake-plate:

"Fermer"

Confused infinitives and imperatives notwithstanding, the prospect of a breadless French village occasioned an outbreak of apoplexie at all levels. There was much shrugging, and even more shouting, in caves throughout the commune, as citizens conspired to find someone to blame...Preferably some municipal office-holder or other. Preferably the Maire.

This morning, in the bread queue, retentive chatter seemed to indicate that the emergency was over. And it had only taken a year and a half. The Maire would at last be able to sleep a little more easily.

As I walked out of the supérette, baguette in hand, the Pinson sang his line of springtime.

The flourish at the end of the song seemed to say:

"Look over there"...

(Strewth. A bilingual French chaffinch. Call the BBC. Ed)

Next to where the café used to be, a builders' Citroën Jumper van was parked. The occupants were unloading a pallet. The sign on the package proclaimed;

"Four à Pain".

Lexique;

Cantonnier: Il travaille pour la Mairie.

Supérette: Un supermarché en plus petit.

Cave: Là où on stocke le vin. En Vendée les hommes ont leur rendez-vous dans la cave.

Vitrine: Présentoir réfrigéré contenant éclairs, gâteaux au chocolat...

Pinson: Oiseau qui chante en anglais et en français. Comme Sandie Shaw.