Bye-bye ladders

The weather has turned cold, but progress is being made. Yesterday the work crew, headed by Jacques « Coco » Aubin, returned to work as scheduled. We were glad to see them. A week without hammering and sawing was peaceful, but the attic job needs to be finished.

When Coco came in, Walt went to talk to him. "We're putting the staircase in today," Coco announced. We were surprised. We had been operating on the assumption that the stairs would be the last thing put in.

Here's Coco inspecting the staircase work.

But flooring still needs to be put down upstairs. And closet doors. All the taping and mudding of the plasterboard has to be finished.

At the end of the day yesterday,
the stairs were in place.

To protect the stairs for the duration of the travaux, Coco and his crew taped pieces of cardboard to all the steps. That will work, I think, to keep the bare wood from getting too dirty as the crew runs up and down.

Looking down from the attic

At the end of the day yesterday, we were able to walk up the stairs ourselves. Callie came up too, but she didn't like it. I'm sure she'll get used to the staircase. It's pretty steep, and fairly narrow. But it occupies its space unobtrusively. I like it.

Potatoes, finally

I was beginning to think I done something radically wrong. Maybe I planted them too deep. Or upside-down. Maybe that week I waited from the time Jean and Nick gave me the sprouted seed potatoes was too long, and the sprouts had died.

Then this morning I went and inspected the potato patch. Finally, they have come up. I had no idea how long it should take for potatoes to come up. Again, patience is the key.

This is a terrible picture — it's a potato plant — but it's
so gray and dark outside that my camera can't cope.

Unfortunately, the weather has turned carrément froid — downright cold. The weather forecaster used this expression this morning: « Ça caille ! » The verb cailler means "to clabber, curdle, clot."

In other words, it's freezing outside — liquids are starting to gel. It's also gray and windy, and late yesterday afternoon we had sleet, or rain with ice pellets in it. That gives you the idea... We might have to turn the heat back on.

Instead of falling leaves, we have falling flower petals.
Strong winds blew most of the blossoms off the
ornamental prunus tree over the weekend.

Again, on the weather report earlier, they were saying that it feels like we had our summer, and now it's autumn. It's not true, of course, but last week was sunny and hot. As I've noted before, the weather here in the Loire Valley is seldom boring.

Flat beans and Caribbean sausages

Yesterday Walt went to the market in Saint-Aignan. He came back with a bunch of white asparagus, of course, and two trays of local strawberries. In addition, he went to see our favorite charcutière and picked up some boudin antillais — Caribbean-style blood sausage — as well as some good smoked sausages we can have with our springtime collard greens.

By the way, did you know that the origin of the terms charcutier and charcuterie is the expression « chair cuite »? « Chair » means "flesh" or "meat" and « cuite » means "cooked" — the « chair-cuitier » specialized in cooked meats, including pâtés, terrines, and sausages. A charcuterie is a French-style delicatessen.

That was an aside.

Boudin antillais, a spicy Caribbean version of blood sausage

I've looked at a lot of recipes for boudin noir — known as "blood sausage" or "black pudding" in England — and boudin antillais, the version made in places including Martinique and Guadeloupe — the Antilles. The sausage is basically a mixture of bread crumbs, onion or garlic, spices, herbs, and pork blood stuffed into casings and poached until it's cooked through. Here's a recipe in French.

Whether or not that sounds appetizing, let me say that it is delicious when it is correctly prepared. Walt cooked the boudins slowly on our new electric grill, out on the front deck. They just need to be heated through, since they are cooked when you buy them. You can cook them slowly in a pan with a little oil, poach them in simmering water, grill them, or even heat them in the microwave. They're good as a first or main course.

To go with the spicy blood sausage, we had some Italian flat beans. This seems to be their season. Flat beans are also called Romano beans, I read. I don't remember how easy they were to find when we lived in California, but they are plentiful here in the markets in late spring and early summer.

You "top and tail" the beans and then cut them into one-inch pieces before steaming them or cooking them in boiling water for about 10 minutes. They have a good firm texture and a nice sweet beany taste when they are just done. You can season them any way you would season regular haricots verts.

Italian flat beans with oven-roasted potatoes

We wanted to eat them basically plain to go with the spicy sausages, so I just tossed them in some melted butter with salt and pepper. I had some oven-roasted new potatoes left over from the day before, so I cut them in half and heated them up on top of the beans.

The boudins antillais were very spicy, with a good kick. I'm sure they had a lot of cayenne pepper in them, along with cinammon, cloves, and maybe nutmeg. The spiciness makes the Antilles version of blood sausage less gamy and more appealing than the plain French version of boudin noir. Try it if you can find some.

Un papillon qui n'a pas peur

These little butterflies are fearless. They just sit there as you put your camera lens dangerously close to them, and let you take a picture. Further proof of this creature's sang-froid is in a post I did about a year ago.

The pictures above and below are actually the same picture. I just cropped and sized them differently.
Here's one more, from a different angle. It's a little blurry.

Our weather has changed drastically — instead of sunny and warm, it is gray, drizzly, and damp. But that's okay. The plants and the garden need the moisture. It's now May, but so far April was nicer.

Work in the attic starts up again Monday, so the peace and quiet is over along with the nice weather.