Le Boudin

The town of Fontaine Fourches has a population of about 500.


La Bonne Etoile is the name of Kippy's and Jerome's home.













My bedroom window.







Not much to do today; things will pick up once my students arrive on Sunday. I took a walk in the town with my camera. Fontaine Fourches is very small, just a few blocks of homes, several hundred years old, very close to the street, each with their gates shut tight. If you peek behind the gate, you're likely to see gardens and children's plastic toys, geraniums on windowsills and lace curtains in windows.

After an afternoon of working in the studio with Kippy, she on her pastel, me on mine, we went to dinner at Chantel's and Paul's home a few blocks away. As it has been at every meal so far, the hostess appointed seats for each of us, making sure never, or almost never, to seat husband and wife together.















Another French lesson: what we Americans call the entree is le plat principal (main course) in France. The salad, at every meal so far, has been served after le plat principal. After the salad, usually a platter of cheese is brought out.

Le plat principal this evening was le boudin. I picked up enough in conversation to know not to ask what I was eating. In fact, twice Jerome knowingly shook his head when I started to ask. It was a very black sausage, very sweet and absolutely yummy, with a side dish of baked apples and sauteed onions. Bread on the table. And of course wine. Then a salad with cheese was served; strawberries for desert. We played with French/English flash cards, figuring out the translations to such sentences as, "The pig is cold in the winter." Back to Kippy's and Jerome's in the cool dark night, with a full moon hiding behind the clowds.

Boudin, wikipedia and Kippy told me later, is blood sausage. No meat. Just blood. But the consistency of very soft meat. It crumbled when I sliced the sausage. And it was delicious. I would have had thirds, but didn't want to look crass.

Merci beaucoup, Chantel and Paul, d'un dîner délicieux!

Tomorrow morning we go to market to buy vegetables. A photo op for me!

Boudin photo from www.lacuisinecorrezienne.com