Monday 27th October

I may well have written about this before; I have probably written about everything before anyway.   In France they have a festival for everything; last week (which we missed boohoo) was the Chestnut and Prune festival but this Sunday was the Foire des Potirons, where the humble squash is celebrated.  It is held in Issigeac, which has a large market full of local produce every Sunday.  As well as the jams, wines and all manner of plum, nut and charcuterie you could ever imagine there is also a veritable cornucopia of vegetables and there are pumpkins of every shape and size.  There was a cart with mammoth pumpkins at least three feet in circumference and stalls selling pretty painted baby gourds (three for a euro); there was pumpkin soup, there were little sweet pumpkin cakes deep fried in batter and delicious, there was squash being sold by the kilo and whole.  There were two mighty tethered bulls in the market square, although quite why they were there I don’t know, there was the usual banquet with tickets sold out well in advance, there was a stall selling burro – a rough once fermented raw wine, half grape juice and half a cider like murky potent brew for two euro a bottle.  We bought one and it should last a week or so in the fridge, it has a vertically sliced half a cork in to allow the gases to escape.  I just hope the gases that will escape when we drink it will dissipate as easily.  And there was early autumn sunshine and loads and loads of people, both French and tourists, all buying everything pumpkin related.

We had a lovely cafe au lait and I nipped into the best little patisserie and boulangerie in town and bought a sloppy croissant amande and a jalousie (another regional variation on apple in pastry)

Home and unpacking all our treasures and a bit of painting.  Tonight we are out with friends to a little restaurant in Seyches, so another wonderful day in the land of the potirons.