Saturday, Lalinde and St. Emilion, June 27

So Sharon, Art and I went in to Lalinde this morning to the (very small) Saturday market. Didn't do much damage, bought some potatoes and parsley and walnut oil (from the farmer who made in, in a juice jar) and some walnuts (same lady). Some of that wonderful pate de canard en croute from my favorite charcuterie (butcher, etc.), also rillettes d'oie (goose rillettes, which is what you get when you cook the rest of the bits of meat from the goose (or duck or pork, in which case it would be rillettes de canard or just rillettes in the case of porc, unless it is only porc and then they call it rillettes de porc) in some kind of fat for a LONG time until it sort of melts and makes wonderful stuff to put on a big chunk of a baguette along with some mustard or something and call it a sandwich. Smooth pate is almost as good as really good rillettes. The pate en croute (in a crust, or basically wrapped and baked in pastry) has duck, pistachios, chips of truffles and Lord only knows what else with a cylinder of foie gras down the middle. Consomme or meat jelly of some sort filling up the cracks. It is SO good. A slice of this stuff maybe with some Dijon mustard if you like it, a couple of cornichons (tiny tiny pickles), a glass of wine, a piece of fruit, and a torn off chunk of French bread makes a wonderful lunch. I doubt that many Frenchmen eat it this way, but it's one of those meals that makes you feel sorry for anybody who's never tried it.

Sharon and Art Jistel are here. They live in Austin, Texas. Sharon is two days younger than I am, grew up in Goliad County, and we went to high school together. She's the only person in my h.s. class that I still keep track of. She looks a lot better than I do forty-odd years later. How in the world did I get to be this old?!? We had a lot of fun today, though. Took the key to their rental car back to Bergerac, visited the (minimal) Saturday market in Lalinde and bought some "provisions", some discussed above. Also some bread and some of those wonderful almond craquants (almost burnt almond cookies, basically, mostly sugar and butter, I'm certain) sold at this bakery on the square in Lalinde. They are basically to die for, and will stick in your teeth.

After we dealt with their car (Art has this phobia about driving over here--I told him it is mostly just like driving a car...), and a lunch "al fresco" on our terrace--bread, cheese, olives, a bit of wine--the three of us took off to St. Emilion, which is a trek, but a nice one. I'm not sure they had ever heard of it. When I told them, however, that (a) it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and (b) that you can do serious wine tasting FOR FREE, they perked up.

St. Emilion was a lot of fun, although we didn't stay all that long. I managed to find a parking place up on top of the hill/mountain, which meant I didn't have to do a lot of climbing to get to the main streets up at the top. I did, however, have to go down that steep road of VERY SMOOTH, SLICK rocks to get to the big amphitheatre like area that is partly old church (I think), partly open area with restaurants and shops, and is surrounded by astonishing views of the center of St. Emilion. I managed to slip and (almost) fall going down, despite my cane, but did no harm. We had a ball at Ets. Martin I think it was tasting wines and buying a few that are serious St. Emilion vintages (the ones I bought were "cheap" by their standards...). Sharon and Art bought a case and are having it shipped home to Texas. It was fun.

Came back to Couze and got in late...it may have been almost 8:00 p.m. Had a bottle of Bergerac Rose, the local summer drink over here, while we made dinner. Confit de canard (duck legs and gizzards--hey, Art likes them, gizzards, that is, and so do I, and I had two cans, so I did the only honorable thing and opened one of them), which is duck legs seasoned and cooked very slowly for a very long time in duck fat. These were canned but OMG they were good. Pommes de terre sarladaises, e.g., very good new potatoes sliced thin but not too thin, sauteed in duck fat, salted, sprinkled with finely chopped garlic (from NEW garlic) and flat leaf parsley, chopped. With it we had a salad, one of my concoctions--arugula, walnuts, Roquefort, dressed with wine vinegar and walnut oil. Would have been better with Balsamic instead of wine vinegar, but the walnuts and walnut oil were from the old Gascon lady at the market who raises the walnuts and makes the oil. And a bottle of red wine. Nobody wanted cheese or dessert after.

Tomorrow I THINK we're off to Issigeac to the market in the morning and Beynac the English castle from the Hundred Years' War up the Dordogne, in the afternoon...

Bon appetit!