Frost

 Now it really feels like winter.

Here in the Lot et Garonne, it's getting down to minus six degrees at night and not getting much above five or six during the day.

A freezing fog blankets everything and the sun struggles to break through.

But break through it did ... today.

A pale-blue sky made a perfect backdrop to the ice covered leaf-tips of pines, frosted as if with icing sugar.

Particles of ice fell like snow from the branches, coating the ground in patches of white, not yielding to the weak sun, not melting.

Inside, it's time to use home-grown potatoes and leeks ... to make a warming, winter soup.

With the wood-burner going at full tilt, we are happy to stay indoors. 

NYE gourmet marathon

 

We were invited to the town of Jouy-en-Josas, near Versailles, to experience a typical French New Year's Eve party.

It was held in a large, well-equipped room at the friends of our friends.

We were told to prepare ourselves for a gourmet marathon.

But nothing we did, including an afternoon nap, could prepare us for what was in store.

Françis, Micheline, Cliona and I took the Rapid Antigen Test an hour before we departed. A negative result was a condition of attending the party.

We didn't arrive til 9.30pm.

Aperos, hors d'ouevres and lively conversation followed ... until midnight.

Then it was à table!

Out came the seafood ... oysters (Pacific and native), prawns, langoustines, huge crab claws and sea snails.

Then came foie gras, steak and potatoes, salad, cheese and dessert.

All this was washed down with copious quantities of excellent French wine.

And there was dancing and karioke. 

We got home at 7am ... exhausted.

I'd never been up this late in my entire life ... neither had Cliona. But wait! There was more! We fronted up the next day to continue this Bacchalian extravagance.

After seafood and snails, we were treated to a gorgeous cassoulet, over which the President of the Ile de France Rugby Association had slaved for four hours.

I complemented Arnaud on his delicious dish and tried to enveigle him into giving me first dibs at tickets to the upcoming World Cup. But alas, the wily old codger was having none of it!