Busy Sunday

It's not below freezing this morning. That's what had been predicted. Instead, it's about 2.5ºC, which is around 35ºF. I think the temperature might still be dropping.

I just turned on the Chaîne Météo on the télé, and they are saying we should expect wind and a mixture of rain and snow during the day. I need to go to the market in Noyers-sur-Cher to get some food for this evening. Our friends are arriving today, and they might be hungry when they get here, after traveling by plane and train all day.

Going to the market as early as possible sounds like the best plan, since the rain and snow will be starting soon. At the outdoor market you are, of course, standing outdoors in the weather if you have to wait in line. Some stalls have an awning you can stand under, but not all, and if the lines are long, you are, as it were, hosed.

For tomorrow's dinner, I'm going to cook a guinea hen — une pintade — stuffed with sausage meat and herbs and marinated in port wine. I need to get sausage meat, and I think I'll get ground poultry instead of ground pork. I think the vollailler — the poultry seller — over in Noyers, who specializes in pâtés and sausages made from turkey, chicken, and duck, will have what I need.

Alongside the guinea hen, I'm going to have stuffed cabbage leaves. I saved the leaves from the cabbage I cooked last weekend and I have them in the freezer. I'll double or even triple the recipe for stuffing that I'm using for the guinea hen and stuff the cabbage leaves with that. I think I'll add some chicken liver to that part of the stuffing.

Time to take Callie out for her walk. Then off to the market. Then more general house-cleaning and preparations for our friends' arrival. Tonight we'll drive over to Tour to pick them up.

Speaking of driving, I got that mud shield re-attached under the motor of the Peugeot on Wednesday. The mechanic called it a plaque de propreté, a "cleanliness plaque." Walt and I had been discussing what it might be called in French. A déflecteur d'humidité, or plaque de protection, or bouclier anti-boue? Who knew? That's one of the problems living here, even if you speak French. Technical terms are still impossible. Make you feel like an idiot.

Oh, and the mechanic charged me 9.00€ for the job. Not bad.

At the same time, I noticed a nice little Renault 6 for sale, sitting on the mechanic's lot. He wants 1500€ for it. It must be 25 years old. More about that as I think about whether it would be good for us to have a second car. A collector's car, une voiture de collection, in this case.