Life in a small French village for an old American

[An Ankoù]

One time it took five hours to get there.

Pray for snow. You could get locked in for 5 days.
Get totally bladdered.
And still have a hero's welcome when you "escape" that ordeal safe and sound.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Pray for snow. You could get locked in for 5 days.
Get totally bladdered.
And still have a hero's welcome when you "escape" that ordeal safe and sound.

Five days would be fine, I just hope there's not too many bugs. We'll have lots of food, beer and bourbon.

 

[corkybstewart]

Fouee night in the village. Fouees are pitas baked in a wood fired oven, by Pascal and his wife. You stuff them yourself, choices are blood sausage, tripe, rillette(pork or duck), beans, and garlic butter. Rillette and blood sausage are my favorite, there's watercress to make it healthy. Beer is a euro a glass, wine(red or rose)is 4 euros a bottle, and the local bubbly is 6 euros. The villagePTA does this several times during the year to raise money. The wines are all donated.

 

[An Ankoù]

Sounds like a fun evening. I had never heard of fouées, and, as we're coincidentally watching High Plains Drifter, would have got the wrong end of the stick.
Did Pascal survive the attentions of that giant caterpillar about to attack his right foot in the first photo.

 

[corkybstewart]

Sounds like a fun evening. I had never heard of fouées, and, as we're coincidentally watching High Plains Drifter, would have got the wrong end of the stick.
Did Pascal survive the attentions of that giant caterpillar about to attack his right foot in the first photo.

I think that's the sacrificial first fouee. Last year at the wedding of my nephew and the woman from Rennes, we had fouees the first night of the party, and then her family made Bretagne crepes( I don't remember the official name) with buckwheat for the Sunday lunch.

 

[An Ankoù]

I think that's the sacrificial first fouee. Last year at the wedding of my nephew and the woman from Rennes, we had fouees the first night of the party, and then her family made Bretagne crepes( I don't remember the official name) with buckwheat for the Sunday lunch.

They're called galettes and they form the main course in a crêperie, in Britanny, anyway. Our favourite is in Rochefort en Terre. Well worth a visit if you're in this neck of the woods. https://www.cafebreton-rochefortenterre.com/se-restaurer/
The best in Rennes used to be Ouzh-taol (à table in French) somewhere in the back streets of the historic part, but I haven't been there for nearly 15 years.

If you're staying in Rennes at any time before September, drive down south about half-an-hour to La Gacilly, where they have an annual outdoor photo exhibition. It;s also a very pretty town in it's own right- and a culture quite different to your neck of the woods. In fact this month is the best time to visit, before the schools break up and the grockles infest the place.

 

[corkybstewart]

Today we went to a little pond because someone was grilling steaks and selling oysters to raise money to maintain the park around the pond. This is in another village so we don't know anyone there but the people are still very friendly. After we had finished our steaks we had almost half a baguette left so we gave it to the people at the table next to us. When they finished eating they had half bottle of wine left so they poured it for us.
This is how people should treat others.

 

[corkybstewart]

Heading out to watch the Tour de France pass by our town

 

[corkybstewart]

Food truck night down the road a few kilometers. The stuffed pork tenderloin was excellent-tenderloin wrapped with a pork and liver pate(meatloaf). And too much wine, as usual

 

[corkybstewart]

Moule frite Sunday. 15 kilos of mussels cooked, 12 eaten. 10 kilos of fries cooked, 6 eaten. Too many appetizers before we got to the good stuff, but the appetizers were good. Chopped cod in dough balls, like American hush puppies and cantaloupe in port wine.

 

[BongoYodeler]

Moule frite Sunday. 15 kilos of mussels cooked, 12 eaten. 10 kilos of fries cooked, 6 eaten. Too many appetizers before we got to the good stuff, but the appetizers were good. Chopped cod in dough balls, like American hush puppies and cantaloupe in port wine.View attachment 880361View attachment 880362View attachment 880363View attachment 880365View attachment 880365View attachment 880366

Freaking awesome!!

 

[sibelman]

Did you cook the mussels in a brew kettle? (mostly just kidding)

Looks like quite a feast. No wine evident...?

 

[corkybstewart]

Did you cook the mussels in a brew kettle? (mostly just kidding)

Looks like quite a feast. No wine evident...?

Pascal has a huge aluminum pot, probably 30 inches wide and a foot deep for this. As for wine, we had bubbly for the starters, white wine with the mussels and then red wine to finish the evening. This is a red wine area, so opportunities for white wine are rare. There's a tart white(Muscadet) made west of here on the Loire River that my BILs always serve with seafood.

 

[corkybstewart]

Looks like quite a feast. No wine evident...?

Here's how it worked out. We drank 3 of 4 bottles of bubbly for the appetizer round, half a bottle of port of 2 for the cantaloupe, 3 bottles of white-one for cooking, 2 to drink, and a 10L box of red wine just because.
This morning cleaning up I have 5 bottles of bubbly, 2 full bottles of port, 2 bottles of white, 6 bottles of red, and still 2/3 of the box. Also 4 whole cantaloupes and a salad bowl of chunks, a huge plate of various cheeses, my wife is shelling the last of the mussels to eat or freeze, and a 5L bottle of cooking oil for our fryer that we didn't use.

 

[corkybstewart]

Here's a picture of the wine cave. The large area is for everyday beverages.
There are 3 alcoves on the left with cinder block and concrete slab shelves. The room behind the gate on the right is where we keep wine for long term storage. It's few degrees cooler and the temperature is more stable than in the big entry room. The barrels are empty, they were used as props at a niece's wedding
To the right as you enter there's a small room for stuff like cider, port, rose wine and stuff i know I'm gonna drink very soon

 

[An Ankoù]

Now we're talking. I'd love to have a cave like that.

 

[sibelman]

a cave like that.

Closest I've come was a storage room in a basement - I added an insulated door and kept wine and beer there at a fairly constant 61°F/16°C. Now that I downsized to a one-level home, I must rely on refrigeration.

 

[corkybstewart]

Now we're talking. I'd love to have a cave like that.

Even when we were not going to get the house, we made a deal with the brother who was getting the house that the cave would be ours. He has a huge cave he built beside one of his rentals across the street, but about the time he finished it he had a heart attack and quit drinking.

 

[corkybstewart]

Closest I've come was a storage room in a basement - I added an insulated door and kept wine and beer there at a fairly constant 61°F/16°C. Now that I downsized to a one-level home, I must rely on refrigeration.

In New Mexico that's all we have too, so we drink very little wine. The cave is not good for beer storage, the humidity rusts the caps pretty fast. But it would be perfect for fermenting and lagering kegs if I decide to to brew over here.

 

[sibelman]

The cave is not good for beer storage, the humidity rusts the caps pretty fast.

Swing-tops might fare better in the cave, though I doubt the bails are stainless. Besides, a rusty cap should maintain its seal for years, oui?

perfect for fermenting and lagering

Oui, certainment! However, you seem to be floating (swimming? not sinking, I trust) in a sea of alcohol in La France, alors peut-être brewing there isn't such a great idea anyway?

so we drink very little wine

We're also drinking less wine in recent years, but storage isn't the driver. My wife has been preferring the hard stuff, and I can't drink a bottle of wine myself, so my consumption is almost entirely beer 'cept for the occasional martini or wee dram of single malt.

À votre santé.

 

[corkybstewart]

Swing-tops might fare better in the cave, though I doubt the bails are stainless. Besides, a rusty cap should maintain its seal for years, oui?

Oui, certainment! However, you seem to be floating (swimming? not sinking, I trust) in a sea of alcohol in La France, alors peut-être brewing there isn't such a great idea anyway?

We're also drinking less wine in recent years, but storage isn't the driver. My wife has been preferring the hard stuff, and I can't drink a bottle of wine myself, so my consumption is almost entirely beer 'cept for the occasional martini or wee dram of single malt.

À votre santé.

Years ago we spent a week in Belgium so I decided to experiment with aging Belgian beers, mostly corked 750s. After year 2 or 3, we got to France, I went to the cave to get wine because there were a dozen people here to greet us, and our section of the cave was empty except for a few Orval bottles. Turned out my mother in law, who kept her wine in our alcove, had developed dementia and had given the home health care nurse a bottle of wine every day when he/she came to give my FIL his daily shots. She didn't distinguish between the wine and the 750s of beer. So my brother in law who started his career as a welder built and installed the gate inside, because at that time we didn't understand it was an "inside job".
The Orvals didn't age well, I recently opened the last one, maybe 15 years old, it was flat and tasted like stale port wine.

 

[corkybstewart]

Oui, certainment! However, you seem to be floating (swimming? not sinking, I trust) in a sea of alcohol in La France, alors peut-être brewing there isn't such a great idea anyway?

Alcohol consumption is far more in France than just drinking-it's involved with the functioning of a civil society far more than in the USA. There's a drink for whatever time of day it is. Rose or white wine, in small quantities before lunch. To start lunch, there's usually a Ricard, whiskey or port to be consumed, if you are a guest or have a guest, it will be 2. Beer or rose are consumed between lunch and dinner. If a tradesman is working at your house, you offer him a beer or rose when he quits for lunch, and another(usually 2) when his day is done. We were given access to a quarry in a very restricted area so we could hunt for fossils, the price of admission was 2 bottles of the local wine, a BIL "encourages" the guy who does emissions testing with a carton of 6 bottles because his cars are old and barely hanging on to life. We keep a bottle of almost every known liquor to offer to guests, you need to be able to provide properly according to the rules of hospitality. So I have Scotch, strongly peated Scotch, 3 different American bourbons, 3 different French whiskys, several varieties of gin, tequila, 3 different rums(agricole, dark agricole, white), 1 bottle of vodka, Ricard, Pernod, and non alcoholic versions of Baileys, Malibu, and several NA beers. Sometimes we'll buy NA bubbly and/or wine. I'm sure it's gross but it allows non drinkers to participate in the rituals because the rituals here matter. Nobody even sips from their drink until everyone is present for the starting toast-it's not unusual to have everyone wait 5 minutes for the host/cook to get free for the toast.
My wife will say this is not the same for all of France, and I'm sure she's right, but I don't hang out in all of France so this is the France I know.
Having said all of this, we often go days without drinking more than a couple of late afternoon beers or cocktails, as we rapidly close in on 70 years old, the daily bottle of wine has exited and we usually just drink wine with guests which means not more than 3 or 4 times per week.

 

[An Ankoù]

Closest I've come was a storage room in a basement - I added an insulated door and kept wine and beer there at a fairly constant 61°F/16°C. Now that I downsized to a one-level home, I must rely on refrigeration.

I could never understand why people downsize. Now that in retired I need more space for all the projects I've now got the time to do.

 

[An Ankoù]

Alcohol consumption is far more in France than just drinking-it's involved with the functioning of a civil society far more than in the USA. There's a drink for whatever time of day it is. Rose or white wine, in small quantities before lunch. To start lunch, there's usually a Ricard, whiskey or port to be consumed, if you are a guest or have a guest, it will be 2. Beer or rose are consumed between lunch and dinner. If a tradesman is working at your house, you offer him a beer or rose when he quits for lunch, and another(usually 2) when his day is done. We were given access to a quarry in a very restricted area so we could hunt for fossils, the price of admission was 2 bottles of the local wine, a BIL "encourages" the guy who does emissions testing with a carton of 6 bottles because his cars are old and barely hanging on to life. We keep a bottle of almost every known liquor to offer to guests, you need to be able to provide properly according to the rules of hospitality. So I have Scotch, strongly peated Scotch, 3 different American bourbons, 3 different French whiskys, several varieties of gin, tequila, 3 different rums(agricole, dark agricole, white), 1 bottle of vodka, Ricard, Pernod, and non alcoholic versions of Baileys, Malibu, and several NA beers. Sometimes we'll buy NA bubbly and/or wine. I'm sure it's gross but it allows non drinkers to participate in the rituals because the rituals here matter. Nobody even sips from their drink until everyone is present for the starting toast-it's not unusual to have everyone wait 5 minutes for the host/cook to get free for the toast.
My wife will say this is not the same for all of France, and I'm sure she's right, but I don't hang out in all of France so this is the France I know.
Having said all of this, we often go days without drinking more than a couple of late afternoon beers or cocktails, as we rapidly close in on 70 years old, the daily bottle of wine has exited and we usually just drink wine with guests which means not more than 3 or 4 times per week.

You're better equipped than the average bar, then. What do you do for beer in your parts? I find the beer either very-uninteresting-to-horrible or far too strong when it's of the Belgian persuasion. There are some decent beers in the North East, around Lille, but I don't get up there all that often.
One or two exceptions: Lancelot do a couple of well crafted and very drinkable beers, but others from the same stable fall into the dégueulasse category.

 

[corkybstewart]

You're better equipped than the average bar, then. What do you do for beer in your parts? I find the beer either very-uninteresting-to-horrible or far too strong when it's of the Belgian persuasion. There are some decent beers in the North East, around Lille, but I don't get up there all that often.
One or two exceptions: Lancelot do a couple of well crafted and very drinkable beers, but others from the same stable fall into the dégueulasse category.

Not meant as an insult, but not coming from the British tradition I like my beer stronger, and in many cases very, very hoppy. Currently my daily drinkers are Grimbergen Triple Hop and La Goudale. But I also have a couple of Erdinger wheat beers and a half dozen assorted Trappist ales. 6-7.5 % ABV is my comfort zone, but I'd rather go higher than lower.

 

[sibelman]

why people downsize

In my case the story is boring and complicated, and I wasn't really ready for the change. But one-level living may be more sustainable for us - an "exit toes up" strategy as a cousin put it. Also, I got to build a brewery in the new garage - way better than my laundry room was. So, yeah, space limitations suck, but there are up sides too.

 

[An Ankoù]

Not meant as an insult, but not coming from the British tradition I like my beer stronger, and in many cases very, very hoppy. Currently my daily drinkers are Grimbergen Triple Hop and La Goudale. But I also have a couple of Erdinger wheat beers and a half dozen assorted Trappist ales. 6-7.5 % ABV is my comfort zone, but I'd rather go higher than lower.

No offence taken, @corkybstewart . The English tradition is to down around 8 pints (of 20 oz, not 16) or more at an all-evening session. This goes a long way in explaining the appalling reputation of "Brits abroad". I suspect that as English beers have grown stronger, the kids are drinking smaller quantities, but it's not the way I was raised.
I'm surprised you like Grimbergen Triple Hop, I don't think it's anything like an AIPA, La Goudale is perhaps my favourite industrial beer, not surprisingly it's from the North East, and Trappiste beers, especially Westmalle is a treat to knock the last nail into the coffin of a merry evening. That said, I don't like Chimay, especially the weaker one, at all.
But these are old breweries and on the franco-belgian border area of Flamande. It's the attempts of French breweries in other parts that continue to disappoint. I really don't think that most French people "get" beer; it has to be a fashion statement or something to feel chic about. Looking at some of the brand names like Kekette (sic), Gold-n Show-r and F--k Baby, doesn't do much to change my mind. But that's my impression. Maybe I'm being over harsh.

 

[An Ankoù]

I'd like to add that some of the hops grown in the Alsace region are delicious. Aramis is like a hop from an English bitter, but also unique. Triskel, Strisselspalt, Barbe Rouge and the rest are lovely to brew with. But they're not really IPA hop bomb hops.

 

[corkybstewart]

No offence taken, @corkybstewart . The English tradition is to down around 8 pints (of 20 oz, not 16) or more at an all-evening session. This goes a long way in explaining the appalling reputation of "Brits abroad". I suspect that as English beers have grown stronger, the kids are drinking smaller quantities, but it's not the way I was raised.
I'm surprised you like Grimbergen Triple Hop, I don't think it's anything like an AIPA, La Goudale is perhaps my favourite industrial beer, not surprisingly it's from the North East, and Trappiste beers, especially Westmalle is a treat to knock the last nail into the coffin of a merry evening. That said, I don't like Chimay, especially the weaker one, at all.
But these are old breweries and on the franco-belgian border area of Flamande. It's the attempts of French breweries in other parts that continue to disappoint. I really don't think that most French people "get" beer; it has to be a fashion statement or something to feel chic about. Looking at some of the brand names like Kekette (sic), Gold-n Show-r and F--k Baby, doesn't do much to change my mind. But that's my impression. Maybe I'm being over harsh.

You are correct about the French not getting beer, BUT. This is the first generation of nationwide beer drinkers so they have a lot of evolution ahead. Unfortunately you and I may not be around to see how they evolve.
We were invited to a hop farm near Nantes a couple of years ago for a day long visit, They are growing mostly very strong American hops like Chinook, Cascade and Columbus I think. The good news is that their crop is sold out ahead of time, so somebody, somewhere in France is making beer like I drink in the US but I don't know who it is.
Westmalle Dubbel is my favorite, next would be Rochforte 10. I can drink Orval all day, I love the brett. But I do enjoy the Chimay Red and Blue, not so much the others.

 

[Snuffy]

La Chouffe Blonde is my current favorite Belgian beer. Belgians are where I get the most variety within style. Interesting flavors built from yeast and bugs and process in addition to hops. I would rather have 1 or 2 strong, interesting beers than half a dozen predictable mild beers whose variation comes from hops alone. The only Belgian beer I have had that I am not a fan of is De Ranke XXX Bitter. For obvious reasons. My old favorite was Straffe Hendrik Tripel but I haven't seen it around in a couple of years in my area. I would buy their tshirt if I could get it on my side of the creek. Saison Dupont is hard to beat and pretty much the standard of saisons IMO.