Christmas in October

Today we are to visit Patrice’s parents. We started today like we start all Saturdays, slowly. We headed out around 11 and got to his parents’ house around 12. His grandmother was sitting there, she is about 86 and super cute. During lunch I found out she had 13 siblings, thirteen!! They decided to try and name them, that was quite amusing to see. Unfortunately only about 9 or 10 were named after renaming for about 10 minutes. The rest were forgotten with time. Only about 7 are still living and they all live in the southwest (she is in the southeast). Anyway…. We started with our apertifs. I took mint syrup and water while homemade lemon wine, grapefruit wine and then of course pastis were had by others.

We had a conversation about olive oil and how the south of France has amazing Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I was given a try of some that was made from the olives of Patrice’s parents. It was not my cup of tea, it tasted like…olives! Apparently this was made with green olives so it was very strong. The best olive oil comes from black olives though. I never did make it to the olive oil plant but I have learned a lot about olives and olive oil. After munching on provincial olives and crackers we then headed to the table. It was again like Christmas…a meal with truffles! We had an omelet with truffles. I had read about it in one of my books and it made me happy to say that I had tried it; kind of a round about with where I started. Anyway, it was so good! I asked what else was in the omelet as it tasted like more then just egg and mushrooms, but that was the flavor of the mushroom, it was good.

We then had fresh spinach with olive oil, pepper, salt and truffles. That was yummy too. I tried to really taste the food but it was so hard to find a good way to describe the flavor of it. It was unique but good for sure…a special treat. We had very old wine, the sweetest and the strongest that you could find. I decided to be polite and take the sweetest as I did not want to go near the strongest. It was sweet, but still very strong. It burned when it went down (it was white). I did not mention that they should try Manachevitz if they want some sweet wine but it mentioned it in my head to them.

Next was the main dish. We had veal with Paris mushroom (similar to button). They were served in puffed pastry and had green olives in it. It was the first time that I have ever had green olives and said they were acceptable. I do not know about having this dish with the olives more than twice a year, but the dish was superb. Now it was time for the cheese. There were about four different types of cheese. I decided to take a little piece of each to say that I had tried them. Patrice was watching me like a hawk to see my expressions after each one. I saved the strongest for last to try and sneak it past him. I tried some blue cheese, goat cheese and some others (sorry don’t remember the names). The last cheese that I had was round and looked like it was melted Brie. I was assured that it was not Brie and is strong. Sometimes after you go skiing you get this cheese melted on pasta and it fills you up. It was so disgusting I cannot even tell you. In fact, even the Compte tasted horrible tonight, just way too strong, all of them! All I could do was think of my mom and how she would be in heaven. The stinkier the better in her book and believe you me, these were stinky! I told Patrice, I do not know how you can talk to Julie after she eats the melted Brie looking cheese and he said that he does not. He tells her that she can buy it and eat it but she has to eat it outside, humorous Patrice.

I was full but needed to get the taste of those feet cheeses out of my mouth. I was brought some honey and given some wine, both which I turned down. The bread helped but then desert sealed the deal. I enjoyed a Pignoli pastry and was filled with delight.

After lunch we headed out. The girls (Patrice’s sister who joined us for desert and Julie) brought their purses so I brought my book bag. They said that I could leave it, but I had no idea where we were going, I might need some money or my ID, so I brought it. We walked around town, stopping at some apartments that Patrice owns and is fixing up and getting ready to rent out. Then we went to the castle and the mill…the oil mill that is. Apparently Patrice’s parents are friends with the owners and they prepared a special tour for me. The brought me into the cave and showed me all of the equipment. With Julie’s translations and the guy’s hand movements I was able to follow along. It was super cool and at the end the guy gave me a bottle of his olive oil! It was so nice of him! When I got back Patrice’s parents offered to give me a liter of their olive oil as well but I turned it down. I have no idea how I will make the weight at the airport with all of my goodies. We bubble wrapped the olive oil and then Patrice got some containers of gasoline for his car as St. Remy is all out of gas and the strikes are not done yet.

We stopped at two other towns and at Patrice’s friend’s house for drinks. His friend was in Florida for 3 months and told me I was not an American when I turned down alcohol and said that I did not smoke cigarettes or weed. He explained how American girls are blood with big boobs and can outdrink him easily. He was surprised that Americans were not fat and out of shape like the news makes it seem. He shared his pictures with us and then we headed home. Dinner at 10 and then bed.