gooseberries...

sorry for the delay in posting my nightly blathering - the network was down last night - but hopefully the internet is still out there somewhere...

bong sewer! (as hagrid says) -

so a VERY busy and productif jour today, especially considering it's our day off, my goodness. started off w/ a run at 7:30 (i did not pick a good road today - i tried the road out to bressuire, the next p'tit village over, and you wouldn't think that between one sleepy little rural hamlet and an even sleepier little hamlet there would be so many enormous 18 wheelers with huge scary rattly bits on them, to say nothing of the much more terrifying middle aged french women in SUVs who have no qualms about trying to run you off the road (or in this case the 2 inch shoulder) because after all, c'est un road, hein, qu'est-ce que tu fais in the road quand je suis driving mon SUV a mon urgent hairdressers appointement, hein, puf, les americains, ils sont toujours in the way - all this magically communicated, of course, without actual words or even eye contact. it's the mysterious thing that happens to french women between the ages of 35 and 55 that they emit some sort of imperiousness pheromone without even trying, and then they mellow out again when they get old. i was in the coffee shop later in the morning, and all the booths were full of sexagenarians, crammed 6-8 to a booth like teenagers, drinking their coffees and aperitifs and having a grand old time and looking like they wouldn't stare down a fly.

speaking of old people, i have identified another mystery which requires resolution: there seem to be an abnormal number of shops around here devoted to pompes funebres, which btw i think is a terrific word. much better than tombstones. i definitely want a pompe funebre when i pop my clogs rather than a tombstone - it sounds like it automatically comes with a team of six black horses decked out in purple plumes and a brass band, doesn't it? anyway. what i can't figure out is whether the population curve is simply extremely skewed towards the elderly in this particular region of the loire (doesn't seem to be, but perhaps each family has an extensive collection of moribund senior citizens hidden away in the attic, 'not quite dead yet' a la monty python, and they only bring them out when it's time to bury them); whether it is indicative of some gruesome public health problem that is about to come to light (syphilis in the water, west nile virus in the beer on tap at the pub, etc, that is killing off even young healthy people), or whether AC is simply _the_ Place to Shop for your pompe funebre needs, like going to paris for high end clothes, milan for leather goods, belleville and environs for methamphetamine, etc. if anyone knows the answer, callers are standing by.

apres le run, a petit group of us went to thouars for the farmers' market - i don't know what was going on, but it was an extra fancy extended farmers'-and-then-some market today. as well as the usual meat, dairy, produce, fish, bread, you could also purchase today:
- a cross-stich kit (tapestry needle and embroidery thread included) to make your very own 3 foot x 6 foot cross-stitch sampler of a naked woman reclining on pink satin sheets (in a very boudoiry sort of way, just in case that's not clear). i sort of wanted to lurk to see what sort of person buys something like that. but not really. i do however want to reiterate that this thing was 3 FEET by six FEET. take a moment to imagine it .
- biodegradable socks (what will those crazy EU people come up with next)
- several persian rugs that very definitely had the look of having fallen off the back of a van
- several stalls of clothes (mainly fun because the 'changing room' was the guy's truck - you just climbed in the back of the truck, he strung a couple of pieces of muslin up, and you hoped noone was looking)

i resisted everything but food items, you'll all be pleased to hear - no persian rugs or soft-porn cross-stitch samplers for me - and i am still holding strong to my goal of shopi-avoidance. i got some lait cru from the dairy lady (does that mean unpasteurized? or just without whatever they put in milk here so it can survive a nuclear winter at room temperature? i am hoping the latter. if i miss more than a couple of days of blogging, perhaps someone would be kind enough to call around to the GI units of the local hospitals...) as well as a petit pot of creme fraiche oh my god my arteries were hardening just looking at it, but it is REALLY REALLY good, and some free range biologique eggies. i love the way organic stuff is called 'biologique' here - both languages need to come up with a more accurate term, i think.

i also bought more mystery meat at the butchers' stall - there was a lady ahead of me in the queue (of the crucial magic imperiousness-pheromone-emitting age range) ordering all kinds of peculiar things that i hadn't a clue what they were, much less how you would possibly prepare them in such a way as to make them edible, but when it was my turn, i thought, what the fuck, i'm 34, if i were french i would almost be old enough to be bossing around enormous men with meat cleavers, i'm going to go for it, so i asked for some things i recognized (poulet and saucisses aux herbes, since they were so yummy last week, some jambon sec for my lunchtime sammy) and then a couple of things that i don't even know what sort of animal they come from just to feel the frisson of bossy-french-lady power, as if i knew exactly what one does with un filet dinde agneau bistek du porc. it feels very odd to be buying meat, i have to say; i realized i can count on one hand the number of times i have bought meat to cook at home in the last 2-3 years, but the meat is all so much yummier and healthy-looking here, it is much more appealing. and besides, i am not going to let some bossy french lady show me up. no madame.

in the afternoon i worked on king charles, who is looking a bit less drag-queen like than he did in the photo i posted this morning, (but not much; he's got a little bit of the eyeliner look in the original, actually, and his hat is full-on silly. i don't know what he was thinking that day). then L (who was foiled in her plan to go landscape painting by the fact that it bucketed down rain all afternoon) suggested that we do poster studies of each other, which was kind of fun - we just did little mini-heads.

impromptu dinner party tonight; borscht, with garlic toast and blob of creme fraiche, and for pudding, a veritable TREASURE that i found at the bakery stall: a gooseberry tart. i have such a nostalgia thing for gooseberries, as they are peculiarly associated for me with the summer i spent in northumberland when i was seven (i had never had them before, and i think have had them maybe twice since) and wow it was good. i didn't even stop to look to see what they are called in french - i saw the tart from 20 feet away (it was the only one left in the case), and was so excited all i could do was point, say 'ca, s'il vous plait,' and hand over the cash.

ok, c'est time for bed; love to all and particular thanks to those who emailed!