01 November 2017

« Férié »

Un jour férié is a day that is celebrated as a holiday. Today, November 1, is the Toussaint holiday in France — All Saints' Day. La Toussaint has been celebrated on this date by the Roman Catholic church, and therefore in France, for more than a thousand years. Tomorrow, by the way, is La Fête des Morts, or The Day of the Dead. That one is not a public holiday in France.

The view from an upstairs window...

Usually in this part of France, the winter rains start about now. This year, the weather is still dry. No rain is predicted before Saturday, and that should be just some mist and drizzle. The first heavier rain won't come for about 10 days, they're saying. On November 1, people take flowers to the cemetery and set them out on the graves of loved ones who have left this life behind. At least they won't have do do that in a cold rain today.

...and from the kitchen window

This morning I'm off to Intermarché, across the river in Noyers, to buy three kilos of raw sauerkraut and some smoke-cured meats and sausages to serve with it. 'Tis the season. I like to buy choucroute (salt-cured, shredded cabbage) that is not pre-cooked and then soak, simmer, and season it myself. I'm glad Intermarché is open today. In Saint-Aignan, SuperU is closed for the holiday.

10 comments:

  1. Choucroute sounds really wintery, even though I'd have choucroute any day of the year, it is so good!

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  2. Intermarché has choucroute crue on sale for 0,60€ (60 cents) a kilogram this week. I bought three kilos of it, including two for the freezer. They also have choucroute cuite au riesling for 99 cents a kilo, but I'd rather cook it myself. We are going to have one kilo of the sauerkraut this weekend with smoked chicken, Frankfurt and Montbéliard sausages, and smoked pork belly poitrine fumée. And some pommes de terre vapeur, of course.

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    Replies
    1. What! No carrots and no white wine? The times they are a-changin'!

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    2. Carrots? Quelle idée! White wine? Not beer?

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  3. I guess it's a sign of the times that a big grocery chain is open on La Toussaint,eh?

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  4. Well, they're only open from 9:00 to 12:30. But yes, the old ways are slowly disappearing. When we first came to live here, the two big supermarkets both closed their doors and noon and didn't re-open until 2:00 or even 2:30. How many times did we rush to the supermarket only to arrive at noon and find it closed? Many.

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  5. Oh, I would so love grocery shopping in France. I get very excited when I find something like cornichons around here. Living in Birmingham will be better, but nothing like what you have there.

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    1. It's definitely a different grocery world over here. I know because I was just in North Carolina. There, the food is good but it's not much like French food. I'm torn between the two, as usual.

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  6. An announcer on France Inter radio this morning called November 1 a "jour fermier". He quickly corrected himself and said "jour férié". That's a little like the American I once had lunch with in Paris and who ordered the "poulet fumier" when what was on the menu was "poulet fermier" but hand-written and hard to read. "Fumier" means manure used as a fertilizer.

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