Fortunately my diet does include sea food of which there is plenty in this part of France. Moules (mussels) from just down the road in Barfleur and even nearer, huitres (oysters) from the bay behind our campsite. These oysters are, apparently, the only ones in Europe that live all their lives in deep water and are not subjected to the rise and fall of the tide. This makes them, apparently again, taste strongly of iodine and a bit more oystery.
In St Piere l'Eglise, a village near us, Monsieur Lamache runs a Boucherie, Charcuterie et Rotiserrie au Feu de Bois - a butcher's shop and every Sunday he fires up a wood burning rotisserie and sells roasted chickens and various cuts of lamb. Last week I went in on the Friday and orderd a chicken for Sunday.
~ "Oui. Monsieur", he said and didn't ask my name as he wrote down the order. When I went to collect the chicken that Sunday the serving girl asked my name and I said I don't know what he wrote, probably "ancient cycliste".
~ "Is it John?" she asked - he had remembered my name from when we where here last year!
For our last Sunday in Fermanville we ordered some leg of lamb and a couple of cutlets for our Sunday lunch. It was delicious and we would never have cooked it at home so it was a treat to have something different.
French people take a great interest in their food and where it comes from. In the bar where I go to wifi the govenor makes his own rabbit stew in either wine or beer and sells it in his little shop. We tried the beer variety - lapinalicious!
To complete our gourmet extravaganza I found a 90% coco-solids bar of chocolate in the local Carfour supermarket. Some time ago I started buying 72% chocolate, then moved to 85%, now it's 90% - "Prodigiously Black" as it says on the label.
In St Piere l'Eglise, a village near us, Monsieur Lamache runs a Boucherie, Charcuterie et Rotiserrie au Feu de Bois - a butcher's shop and every Sunday he fires up a wood burning rotisserie and sells roasted chickens and various cuts of lamb. Last week I went in on the Friday and orderd a chicken for Sunday.
~ "Oui. Monsieur", he said and didn't ask my name as he wrote down the order. When I went to collect the chicken that Sunday the serving girl asked my name and I said I don't know what he wrote, probably "ancient cycliste".
~ "Is it John?" she asked - he had remembered my name from when we where here last year!
For our last Sunday in Fermanville we ordered some leg of lamb and a couple of cutlets for our Sunday lunch. It was delicious and we would never have cooked it at home so it was a treat to have something different.
French people take a great interest in their food and where it comes from. In the bar where I go to wifi the govenor makes his own rabbit stew in either wine or beer and sells it in his little shop. We tried the beer variety - lapinalicious!
To complete our gourmet extravaganza I found a 90% coco-solids bar of chocolate in the local Carfour supermarket. Some time ago I started buying 72% chocolate, then moved to 85%, now it's 90% - "Prodigiously Black" as it says on the label.
