As you might already have known, or by now have surmised, Walt and I, coughing and sniffling, have been traveling this week. We have been in the département de l'Allier, a.k.a. le Bourbonnais, where the Bourbon dynasty of French kings, starting with Henri IV in the late 1500s, originated. The Allier is the northern portion of the Auvergne region. We didn't want to broadcast the fact that we were traveling while we were away from our house, which stands empty, in case some burglar was reading this blog and decided the time for mischief was right.
One of the places I wanted to see in the Allier was a village called Jaligny-sur-Besbre, which is a major center of turkey farming in France. I knew that because I saw a documentary about it on TV several years ago, and the name stuck in my memory. La Besbre (the S is silent, AFAIK) is a river that I had never heard of before, and its spelling helps make it memorable. Anyway, turkeys are raised in the Jaligny area, as you can see from the photo above — « Capitale de la dinde » says it all. And since I had a couple of dindes (turkeys) in the freezer at home, I cooked one and we brought the leftovers on the trip to enjoy eating them at the gîte (vacation rental) we had reserved near the small Allier city of Moulins.
Since the sign pictured above says both "the old burg and the château are worth a photo," here's a photo of the "castle." It's not open to the public, and if the photo looks a little blurry it's because I took it through the car windshield from the opposite side of the Besbre.
I didn't find "the old burg" all that interesting but, as a bonus, here (above) is a photo of the old church in Jaligny. I think the time to go to « la capitale de la dinde » would be in December, when they have what is billed as a gigantic market to sell holiday turkeys to buyers from all over France (and perhaps Navarre). Maybe one day I'll get there in the pre-holiday season and experience the magic of it all. Silly me thought I might find somewhere to buy a fresh farm-raised turkey in or around Jaligny in March, but I was disappointed.
Coincidentally, the first place we noticed when we drove into central Jaligny was the establishment above, the café du Beaujolais (the building is for sale). Another goal we set for this week's trip was a quick run over to the Beaujolais wine region, which neither of us had ever seen before. You'll get the significance of this: Beaujolais is in the Rhône département of France, which is department number 69. We did that drive yesterday, and it was fun. Today it will be fun to get back to our home in Saint-Aignan, even though it's raining now and predictions say it will rain for the next two or three days.
You are hipper than me. I had to Google AFAIK, lol.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the turkeys produced there taste different than those in the States, as I assume they not as mass, industrial farmed. The chateau is certainly attractive.
I didn't find out how good a Jaligny turkey might be, unfortunately for me. Maybe next time. Too bad they didn't have a shop in the town where you could buy one.
DeleteThey must all reach maturity "in the season." You random tourists just were not there at the proper time.
DeleteTurkey parts are available year-round in the supermarket, so I thought they might have some spare birds to sell. No luck. It's true that whole turkeys are available only during the end-of-the-year holiday season.
DeleteJust like Diogenes, I had to Google AFAIK! Did you have a chance to go inside Moulins' cathedral and have a look at the triptych by Jean Hey, le Maître de Moulins?
ReplyDeleteRhône this year and Haute-Saône next?
DeleteI used to worry about broadcasting our absence from home on the net, but I don't worry much now. The only precious things at home are photos. The rest can be replaced. Given you write in English and live in rural France, I don't think you have much to worry about. But then I suppose there could be locals who have come to know your blog by the town names. Internet translations are not perfect but adequate enough for simple reading.
DeleteCHM, we didn't get a chance to go into the cathedral. We were in "downtown" Moulins just once, and all the streets were being dug up by construction crews. There were traffic jams, they was nowhere to park, and it was chaos. We would have had to leave the dog in the car in the city, where there is a lot of car and foot traffic, not to mention construction noise, that greatly excites and perturbs the canine. So we decided that discretion was the better part of valor.
DeleteAndrew, people who live in buildings in an urban setting mostly have security systems — digicodes, intercoms, etc., that let occupants/owners keep control of access. Out here in this little hamlet, we have only six neighbors, and the two houses that are closest to ours are empty at this time of year. So we do worry about burglaries. They are very common in France. And local people do read the blog, either because they understand English or use Google Translate.
DeleteLast year, we heard about an English couple's house on the other side of the village that had been burglarized and vandalized. The house stood empty most of the time. And then one day a youngish woman we didn't know came onto our property, even though the front gate was shut, and we saw her peering into the garage windows. She seemed to be casing the joint, and when I confronted her she said that she had been out jogging and had taken shelter inside our gate because a suspicious man kept driving by her as she jogged, turning around and coming back two or three times, frightening her. I told her I was going to call the gendarmes and she got very nervous, protesting that I shouldn't waste the gendarmes' time. I say she was up to no good. She said she lived nearby, or was staying with friends nearby, but she could name a street or hamlet where she was living or staying. I think some good-for-nothings scan the white pages in the telephone directory and target houses that are listed under English names, because so many Brits own houses here but only visit occasionally. Their places are easy pickings.
Break-ins are on the increase apparently, and the insurance insistance that all one's shutters are closed is a dead give away. That's why we had a housesitter when we went to Australia, plus over winter it was good to keep the place above freezing. I hadn't heard about the checking the white pages for English names lurk, but I can believe it. Luckily both Simon and my surnames also appear locally for various French people. (I'm sure some confused locals think I must be married to the local archaeologist, as we are roughly the same age and share a surname.)
ReplyDeleteWe were glad to find our place undisturbed when we got home at noontime. We are really dug in here, and we would be devastated if anything happened while we were away. Betr was obviously very happy to see us when we arrived. BTW, our names are too obviously foreign. Broadhurst is basically indecipherable for francophones, and Streeter, spelled out in French _ ess-tay-ehr-deu-zeu, etc. — stops people cold, because mostly they1t can't get past the « deux oeufs » on a plate image.
DeleteSorry for the typos. It's hard to "type" on a tablet's virtual keyboard when you have a needy and affectionate tomcat on your lap (Bert, not Betr).
DeleteI'm so glad that you two finally got to do a little trip, and it's great that Tasha is fine with traveling. I hope you'll be sharing photos!
ReplyDeleteJudy