Self-serving aperitif table (improvised cocktail mix)Summer story, relax...
This post is dedicated to all
the country folks who organize festive lunches for a special family gathering or a village thing. There are plenty of these multi-generational feasts in the French provinces and that's where you see that in the real country, people let themsemselves have fun and don't pay too much attention to the rules, be it about political correctness (less self-censorship here) or sobriety mores. There's a line between the countryside and the city in terms of letting the steam off without bothering about one's image. While city folks in Japan for example have no problem turning (during the same day) from serious salarymen and executives into wild partyers and
shochu drinkers, we French people don't show the same spontaneity. In the cities, at least, because having personally attended quite a number of these village gatherings, I can testify that this Gallic tradition is safe and sound there...
I keep get invited all the time and it's fun to know everyone in a village, I have a new family...And as they usually prepare the meal collectively (but under the guidance of a main improvised chef), I've learned a few recipes or techniques like
blood sausage preparation or the art of grilling meat on the barbecue. I think that there's an intense social life behind these food & drink activities that we miss in town because of overstretched lives, outrageously long commutes and individualism (and I'm an individualist).
Intergenerational symbiosisWhat makes me optimistic is that children, youths, parents and grandparents attend together these lunches and dinners, and it will bound these generations together and pass on a certain way of life and of living together. These children probably like to eat in fastfood restaurants like all the kids, but in the countryside they keep the contact with real food : where in town would you routinely roast a whole pig and have it on the plate minutes later ? Most of the people I know in the Loire grow their own vegetables, and/or raise farm animals, they also hunt in winter, and while it's also very valuable economically, it keeps them in contact with real food, something which in the city needs you spend more money. Watching adults fill glasses adds another positive touch of understanding for children : happy drinking is part of life. People are not natural-wine conscious here, mostly because of prices. The wines in Touraine are very cheap, something like 4 Euro a bottle (reds and whites alike, sparkling being barely more) and natural wines are viewed as more expensive. The wine in these lunches and dinners is usually bought in bulk, meaning even cheaper, at 1,5 to 2 Euro a liter, and natural wine can't compete.
Pouring the soupe de Champagne apéritifWhere in town would I find expertise like that ? They know everything here,
I mean important things, real things : how to make cheese, or Boudin Noir (blood sausage) or ham, or wine (even if often on the conventional way...). They do it at home for themselves and the family and could almost live in autarcy if needed. The grass looks greener on the other side of the fence and they tend to overvalue our city lives, an outer world that they idealize. Our techie and virtual jobs don't create much real, down-to-earth value when you look from close up, but the city lights create an illusion. They serve new drinks for these parties, this one (picture above) is a
Soupe de Champagne, made not with Champagne but with a local
Méthode Traditionelle. These are sparklings made in the non-Champagne French wine regions but using the same vinification method as real Champagne as you probably know. These are good-value alternatives to Champagne when you need many bottles for a private party, and for example such a Méthode Traditionelle cost about 5 euro in Touraine.
Here is this
soupe de Champagne recipe (can be adjusted of course) : Take one bottle of sparkling (
Méthode), a ladle (20cl) of Cointreau, a ladle of liquid cane sugar and another ladle of
Pulco "Orange Sanguine", and you have this nicely-colored drink. A bit sugary for my taste but it lets itself drink and pleases everybody.
Adults playing like kidsSomeone had found bra-shaped cardboard protections with which the melons of the lunch were packaged and that was enough to make these teenager jokes on one of the attendees. No bad feelings here, don't wory, everyone knows everyone and this's been this way since childhood. That's a big difference with the city where first we hardly know our neighboors and even less share a meal with them, and where we tend to take ourselves way too much seriously....
The children's corner (well-behaved like adults should be)Now, we're serious people in the country side, and children have their own table even though in full sight of the unruly adults. Some of them must be thinking that's we're a bunch of fools and that we behave on a more childish way than themselves....Drinks consist of juice or plain water on this side of the horseshoe-shaped table, and even teenagers seem quite sober. And if this subject has been adressed now and then, inclulding on wineterroirs, it's good to remind that a gentle introduction (including on the mere visual level in the early years) to wine consumption is the best way to make sure that this element of life doesn't become an addiction.
Another children's corner...Now, here are grownup babies who are thirsty...this was at a wedding 
party late in the evening. 
The guy in charge of the sketches chose three couples and the woman with of the man had to dress him as a baby, complete with the bib and diapers, and then feed him with a baby bottle containing some dark beverage. To avoid arousing the sobriety leagues, we'll say it was Coca Cola...
Now this other sketch [pictures on left and right] was another good one (involving a "baby" again) : you take two guys, dress one of them like a baby with the baby sitting on the laps of the other, but with the sleeves being inverted so that you have the illusion that the baby feeds himself when his supposed arms and hands are actually the "adult" ones, the adult being blindfolded of course to make things worse. The result is hilarious (yes I know, I'm easy to please), the spoon, the banana or the baby bottle having trouble to finds their way to the mouth, and the baby noisily protesting the erring spoon. The whole things ended up with the content of the bucket being splashed on the baby, the adult taking a safe refuge behind him...
Assembling plastic Champagne glassesThere's a collective sense of responsability in these family- and village reunions, and people help here and there at the different stages of the party. Most villages in France have a local non-profit group usually named Comité des Fêtes, which is in charge to organize the festive events and dinner parties in the village. This works quite like real-life school to teach organization skills and restaurant trade, and having seen how they set up the tables, prepare the food and serve the plates, it's neat and very professional.
A local Fire Department meetingA last word must be said about the prominent role of the firemen (pompiers) in these community gatherings. Almost each French
village has its corps of voluntary firemen with a facility and vehicules. These people give lots of their time for the cause and play also a central role in the community activities. they are only paid for the time spent on their interventions (accidents, fires, inundations). Having been the "official" photographer for the village's fire department, I've taken part to many of their gatherings and dinners like this one and this is an important part of the village life that bounds the individuals and families. Wine is always there and is purchased from local nearby wineries. It allowed me several times to discover wineries and go there buy wine...
The firemen (some of them being women) play also a central role in local activities like the annual "randonnée pedestre" (featured in my "walk the wine" post), the july-14th fireworks and many other non-fire-related events. They show the same professionalism as the Comité des Fêtes volunteers in the organization and details of their dinners and lunches. Spouses and elders, former firemen are usually invited and that's a good way to learn about the history of a particular village.
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