Balayage

Une nouvelle zone de pluie va balayer la France d'ouest en est... Those are words I hate to hear right now. Another rain front is moving off the Atlantic and sweeping across France today. Oh well, better get used to it. It's only October.

I did enjoy my trip to the "sunnier climes" of Montrichard yesterday morning. LOL. It rained the whole time I was out. I had to go to the bank, and I had to stand in line for 10 minutes or so. I enjoyed observing the people I saw and listening to the conversations around me. It was mostly an older crowd, and I fit right in.

Seen in Paris in sunny July

I went to shop in two different supermarkets, a Netto store (Intermarché's discount outlet) and the SuperU in the Montrichard "suburb" of Chissay-en-Touraine. There weren't many people in the Netto store, but the SuperU was a beehive of activity. People were shopping but also socializing, blocking the aisles with their carts.

I overheard two old men telling each other how old they were (86 both of them). I noticed a younger woman helping her elderly mother (probably) get items down off high shelves. They were accompanied by a man who must have been the husband of the older lady and both of them had to be well into their 80s too.

Spaghetti squash au gratin for lunch

At the checkout line, the man ahead of me was also in his 80s, I'm sure. He and the cashier, a woman my age I'd guess, had a long conversation and I just listened in. Apparently they had a heavy downpour of rain over in Montrichard and Chissay day before yesterday. "It was incredible how hard the rain came down," the cashier said at one point. The showers were localized, and we didn't get that kind of rain in Saint-Aignan at all on Monday.

Back at home, I put together a gratin de courge spaghetti for lunch, along with a salad of mâche with diced beets. Here's a recipe for the simple gratin. I noticed that little spaghetti squashes were selling for 3.89 euros apiece at SuperU. To me, that's expensive, so I appreciate even more the ten that we harvested over the weekend.

Gratin de courge spaghetti

2 to 3 cups of cooked squash pulp

1 egg (or 2)

½ cup or more of crème fraîche

nutmeg, black pepper, and salt

1 cup grated cheese (swiss or cheddar)

butter or olive oil

paprika

Mix together squash, egg, cream, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and top with the grated cheese. Sprinkle on some paprika. Dot with butter, or drizzle with olive oil. Bake in a 190ºC / 375ºF oven for 30 minutes or until the cheese melts and turns golden brown.