11 December 2007

A visit to Barbier's salon

Des champignons poussent un peu partout en ce moment.

I stand corrected on the quince question. Quince trees there are in the U.S. Here's a map from Wikipedia showing the major centers of pear and quince production in the world:


I'm going to see Mme Barbier down in the village this morning. It's time for my semi-annual haircut. Well, it's a coupe semi-semestrielle visit, really. I go about four times a year. Walt went yesterday.

Then it's time to go get some wine. I'll go up to the coop in Saint-Romain-sur-Cher, about 10 km north of Saint-Aignan, to get some Cabernet Franc red, some Chardonnay white, and some rosé made from Gamay and Cab. Franc. Then we will have to bottle all that.

Autumn leaves caught in a temporary
autumn stream through the vineyard


Walt told Mme Barbier all our gossip today, so I'm not sure what she and I will have to talk about. We usually talk about all the English and American people who live around here, or who visit often. Mme Barbier seems to like to keep track of all the comings and goings.

Wet weather means mushrooms growing in the yard

What's for lunch? Biftek et haricots verts. Pan-seared flank steak with a side of green beans. And also a little confit d'oignons. That's slow-cooked onions and could be called stewed onions I think.

It's cold this morning: 1ºC or 34ºF. Walt is taking Callie out. The weather is turning colder and drier. Good.

8 comments:

  1. We are hoping for wetter weather and cooler would seem more natural. We are having days of record breaking highs here.

    I hope you think of something interesting to tell Mme Barbier. You could always tell her that you mentioned her on your blog that is read by people all over the globe;-)

    BTW i like not having to type in letters to post.

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  2. Hi Evelyn, I turned off the letter-typing feature and I'll see if that causes a problem. It's supposed to stop automated message-generating thingies from sending too many comments to the blog. If I don't get too many of those nuisance messages, I'll leave it off.

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  3. when you said you were going to the coop for wine, I almost misunderstood ;) I had just read someone else's blog and she had just mentioned keeping her hens in the coop ;)

    Claude from Blogging in Paris

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  4. From your map on location of quence production, one would assume that it is not native to North America. I would agree that it is not a very popular food item in USA today but then my grandmother who grew quence trees was much closer to European ways than we are today.
    The sign in today was much easier!!!

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  5. I went to the barber today, but the barber is myself. I didn't do as good a job as Mme Barbier did two years ago. May be next year?

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  6. Claudia asks: Those mushrooms, good to eat?

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  7. Claudia, I looked up the mushrooms in my book. It lists French mushrooms as "comestible ; non-comestible ; toxique" etc. Both the ones in my pictures were qualified as "à rejeter." No good. Too bad.

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  8. From Claudia: Well they are worth a picture or two! Beauty does not have to be utilitarian...

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