One day I want to go over to the Saint-Aignan train station, just three or four miles from our house, and take to train to Bourges, a small city with a long history. The ride takes an hour. I've been there before, but I've never spent enough time wandering around in the town's historic district, where there's a fantastic cathedral.

If you take the same train in the opposite direction from Saint-Aignan, you end up in the bigger city of Tours, and that ride also takes an hour. Above is a photo of the train that links us to Bourges and Tours, both of which are worth a visit. The train is a TER, un Train Express Régional.

Un chien dans les vignes

Callie dans le vignoble de la Renaudière, le 27 mars 2008. Notre maison est visible de loin.

Pulled turkey barbecue. I pulled (shredded) the slow-cooked turkey leg and thigh meat with my fingers after it had cooled down. We ate it in a sandwich on (a whole wheat hamburger bun) with lettuce in a cole-slaw dressing. We had a side dish of new potatoes that were browned after a first cooking in boiling water, so were never cooked in oil or butter.

Shredding by pulling

There's not much to say about the term "pulled" in the expressions pulled pork or pulled turkey, etc. Recently I saw a package of "pulled chicken" (in English) at our local Intermarché supermarket here in Saint-Aignan. "Pulling" means, first, pulling the meat off the bones. The first two pictures above show what the two sides of the two cooked turkey leg-and-thigh pieces looked like once I pulled the skin off the meat. Then I pulled the meat off the bones and shredded or pulled it some more (photos tomorrow). No more skin, bones, or fat. A second step in pulling the meat is to shred it as finely as you want using two forks or your fingers. Some BBQ restaurants also chop the meat with a cleaver after it has been shredded/pulled.

Here are some of the spices and herbs I seasoned the turkey legs with as they cooked. Plus salt and black pepper, of course. In Eastern North Carolina, the cooking liquid is vinegar-based. In Western North Carolina, BBQ chefs might add ketchup, tomato paste, and even sugar to the cooking liquid, which in turn flavors the meat and keeps it moist.