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Thanksgiving in La France “profonde”
By Ann | December 1, 2008
They call it la France profonde, meaning “deep France,” and indeed being in Aveyron is a bit like stepping deep into another world, or maybe another time. The weekly village market at Espalion is like a party — everyone knows each other and exchanges three-cheeked kisses before defrosting over a glass of vin chaud. Butterscotch-colored cows winter in low-level pastures before making their spring trek up the mountain as they’ve done since the Middle Ages. Terraced rows of vines twine themselves along the sunny sides of hills, in a wine-making tradition that dates back a thousand years. It would be easy to get lost here, but luckily for us, we had the best of guides in Didier and Alain, owners of Paris’s Le Mistral cafe and life-long friends of CK.
As you may remember, Aveyron is located in the Midi-Pyrenées, a hard-to-reach area of SW France that’s over a five-hour journey (by train and car) from Paris. But when Didier and Alain invited us for an Aveyronais Thanksgiving in a French farmhouse, we didn’t hesitate. After all, Didier and Alain are like CK’s French family. And — come on! — I was dying of curiosity about the food.
Our feast was held at Les Bessades, a humble farm-restaurant that locavores would love: 85% of our meal was grown on the farm, and the remaining 15% came from within a 50-mile radius. In the dining room, an ingenious banner (photo above) greeted us.
About 35 of us gathered for farm-wife Kathy’s country repast. We started with soup, called simply La Soupe, or sometimes La Soupe Traditionnelle, a deeply meaty stock laced with winter vegetables — cabbage, leeks, carrots — and topped with crusts of stale bread. “This soup has nourished generations of Aveyronnais,” my neighbor, Sylvie, told me.
Next: charcuterie, which Kathy cures herself from her very own pigs. On the left, a fatty, salty, peppery bacon-like cured meat, in the center saucisson sec, which had a deep, porky, almost gamey flavor, and to the right, jambon traditionnel, with lard that melts on the tongue (so I hear — I didn’t try it).
Next: farcous fritters. Farçous are generally pan-fried in a flat galette form, but Kathy turned her batter into fritters (easier and speedier to make in quantity, no doubt). These were light and crisp, the tender interior flecked with parsley. We ate them with jam.
La dinde, or turkey was raised by someone’s uncle and — I don’t want to be disloyal to any turkeys I’ve eaten in the past — but this may have been the best. It was incredibly moist, juicy, tender, simply roasted but with a haunting, almost wild, turkey-ness. By the way, Kathy and I later commiserated over the difficulty of turkey-roasting — “It’s so hard to keep it moist!” she said, echoing Thanksgiving cooks across America.
My photos end here, but as the evening progressed, there was cheese (Cantal and Roquefort, both from the region) and then apple tart, which featured the crispest and lightest of crusts. And then there was accordion music and country dancing, and more wine and some Champagne. My neighbors and I discussed the best ways to cook rabbit (marinated for 24 hours in beer, according to the Belgian), and I described America’s traditional Thanksgiving repast of sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, and stuffing to much general fascination. CK and I felt a little like pilgrims to this new (old) world, welcomed by the Aveyronnais/Indians with a feast of native foods. Except, of course, we have no plans to kill anyone for their land, nor did we give any gifts of smallpox-infested blankets.
Topics: Dining Out and About |
5 Responses to “Thanksgiving in La France “profonde””
Comments
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December 1st, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Interesting to run into this post — I keep up a blog about life in Aveyron called, suitably enough, La France Profonde.
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:34 am
Thanks for the visit to Aveyron and the vicarious eating experience. I noted the appetizing chunky cuts of turkey which were served … as opposed to my usual sterile presentation of deboned slices of turkey breast and thigh meat This year, Trader Joe’s had koshered fresh turkey which produced a really flavorful moist meat enjoyed by all. Otherwise, the method of choice around these parts is dry-salting a la Judy Rodgers of Zuni Cafe.
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:33 am
Aveyron is a complete gem and worth a visit, especially on the culinary front. And you always discover something new. Despite my dozen or so trips to the area, this visit afforded me my first stop at the Abbaye de Bonneval, where a group of trappist nuns produce DELICIOUS chocolate (with cocoa they get from a monastery in Cameroon!). We had stringy succulent aligot in Laguiole and all kinds of yummy cheeses along the way. In addition, Didier and the Thanksgiving crew also gave me and CtB matching couteaux de Laguiole, the distinctive and elegant jack knives with horn handles produced in the windy cattlecentric town of Laguiole.
December 8th, 2008 at 2:24 am
Aveyron looks so lovely. The weather looks very like winter weather there. Nice…Hmm,yum, yum!
January 18th, 2009 at 8:47 am
Hi Ann. I’m glad I found your blog. would like the address of your friends’ restaurant in the 20th. I’ll call you.
xxx Judy
p.s. the chocolates are delicious
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