When we asked about joining, there was no problem, but they asked what we collected. Anyone who knows me well knows that I collect anything and everything - some things I have in the past bought because I reckoned someone had to save them for the nation, so they were never really for my personal collection of whatever. (I do collect ceramics, particularly Scandinavian, also wooden figures and trinkets.) Harry has in the past collected stamps and there's a large cardboard box to prove it, then in recent years - maybe the past 10 years - he has collected pressed glass, and there was an awful lot of that in the North East.
So we joined the Collectionneurs and every few weeks in the summer we hold what are called 'Bourses' which are a bit like mini car boot sales, with members selling, buying and exchanging from their collections. The bourses are held in the middle of Treignac in the 14th century Halle, which is an outdoor covered market hall (like the one in Hexham but much bigger). There are collections of old postcards from every region in France, stamps, beer mats, badges (known as pin's), miniature cars, boxes of matches, books, old papers of every description, keyrings and the most popular - champagne capsules. These are the little metal caps under the wire on a bottle of champagne. Like stamp collectors, capsule collectors - which seems to be everybody except us - bring along and pore over catalogues. These are probably the only things exchanged at the bourse and their popularity is phenomenal. They don't change hands for much - usually 50 cents, unless very rare. You can buy special flock covered trays to store them in and most people seem to have lots of trays.
The bourse morning ends at about midday, when everything is cleared away. Then all the tables are put into a line for the repas. The meal is usually brought in from La Brasserie, a small hotel and restaurant and is always excellent, costing about 10 euros per person. Before the meal, however, one must have the apéritif. Bottles are produced from a battered cardboard box and always on offer is whisky (a favourite), pastis, port, rosé wine and to accompany the rosé a favourite is grapefruit syrup. The apéritif is essential and can last up to half an hour, then the meal is served. Starter, main course, cheese, dessert, then coffee - all for around 10 euros, and we haven't been disappointed yet. There's always plenty of wine with the meal - usually red, and the whole event is always very convivial and noisy, and finishes around 3 o'clock when everyone helps to clear away and to do the dishes.
Two months ago, as the only non-French members, we were asked would we cook an English meal for the last session this year on 23 August. We laughed and agreed and said we could cook toad in the hole for them. This was a great joke. As the time approached we reconsidered the menu as we would have to cook here in our kitchen on our standard size cooker for about 20 people - French people at that, for whom food is a serious part of life, worthy of lots of discussion, comparison and analysis. Then we would have to transport whatever we cooked to Treignac to be ready and hot for about 12.30. Ah - logistics! (I should say that an English couple we met recently who live just near the Halle offered the use of their cooker in their kitchen, but in all the worry and concentration as the time approached, we forgot all about it!)
We eventually decided on the menu, with soup as a starter as the weather has turned autumnal and the forecast for the 23 August, even a week before, forecast a cool, rainy Saturday. The main course would be Cornish pasties, with mushy peas and carrots and onions, then two traditional steamed puddings and custard - sauce anglaise, with tea to follow for those interested. Our friend Marion (see her blog Tres calme in the Correze on AngloInfo Limousin at http://blogs.angloinfo.com/tres-calme-in-the-correze/) offered to do her world famous cheesecake, and Chantal, one of the French collectionneurs said she would make a cake and a tart.
Two weeks before, Bernard, the president of the association, said he thought the maximum number would be 20 - ha! As the week went on he phoned to confirm: 21, 24, 25, 26, 29! Each time this caused us some consternation - one of the reasons being the size of our oven - would it accommodate 29 Cornish pasties in one go? Harry was making the pasties (his idea), so he put his artistic skills to the test, making a paper model of a pasty to ensure we could cook all 29 in one go!
Stress mounted in the week in the lead-up to the meal and Jess, our daughter, even considered coming over for Bank Holiday weekend to help out. A very tempting offer, especially since we haven't seen each other since Christmas - but we decided that it would be nicer to see her for a longer stay, at a less stressful time, and a trip back and forward to Limoges airport would put extra strain on the cooking timetable!
So, on Thursday 21 August, we went shopping at Uzerche, which is a smallish town with the choice of two large supermarkets and a smaller Netto, and is about 18 miles away. We decided to look in Netto's first and there we bought some quality beef and vegetables for the pasties. Over the road at SuperU we got the rest of the ingredients, including about three tons of turnips/swedes, known here as rutabaga. Harry had said 'I love swedes' - thus the choice of the Cornish pasties.
Friday was spent peeling, and cooking, mainly the three tons of swedes. Our choice of soup was from Delia Smith's early cookery book which we still refer to, and was called 'Punchknep soup' being based on a Scottish dish, punchknep, where turnips and potatoes are cooked and creamed separately and combined. It did cross both our minds, mine certainly, that the starter and main course were heavily turnip or swede based, so if anyone didn't like them, we might come in for a bit of criticism. It also crossed my mind that turnips are used as winter feed for sheep in England and Scotland, and it might be the same here which would not go down well. We decided that we would say that the pasty contents were meat and vegetables if asked!
So cooking began and continued for most of Friday. Marion and her husband Peter arrived with the raspberry cheesecakes and we laughed about my version of a project management chart - at this point we had numerous lists and charts hanging from the metal shelves fixed in place via Harry's patent recycled wire clips. The raspberry cheesecakes had also been transported in a coolbag on ingenious wire racks and the cheesecakes looked amazing - so tempting!
Cooking on Saturday began at 8.30, with me making the two steamed puddings - one with raspberry jam and the other with a few raisins - and checking the soup which had been made the day before. Harry made his pastry and chopped the meat which had been cooked in the slow cooker and combined it with the cooked and cubed potatoes and turnips. I forgot to mention that we had also had to borrow extra large pans from friends to accommodate the cooking of the huge quantities of soup and veg, also a large camping stove, as there are no cooking facilities at the little kitchen next to the Halle. As we all know, or at least what I have for a long time believed, based on my experience, is that everything always takes longer than you think, and so it did on this occasion.
So as well as there being lots and lots of steam, there was also lots of stress. Bernard called to ask about progress, so we decided to ask him to come and collect the large pans of soup, and various dishes and tureens. He was given instructions to reheat the soup very slowly and not to add anything to it. The turnip and potato ingredients had been blended and resembled porridge or maybe a baby's pureed meal, even after large quantities of milk and water had been added. We said we'd be down in about an hour (12.30), which eventually was the time that the puddings would definitely have finished steaming and the pasties could all be removed from the oven.
Harry had come up with another food transport method to keep the pasties reasonably warm and intact, inside a rigid cool box we have, and the puddings and cheesecakes were all loaded up into various coolbags and off we set at about quarter to one.
On the way to Treignac (about 10 minutes away) the heavens opened with torrential rain, the STOP light came on the dashboard, and the temperature gauge soared way off the scale. We carried on and eventually the STOP light went off.
When we arrived at the Halle, everyone was sitting with their jackets and coats on, finishing what turned out to be their third apéritif, We were immediately applauded, and congratulated then the serving of the food began. I got quite emotional at our reception - partly relief as it had been so stressful, the fact that we had managed to do the meal without being too late, but also the continuing concern that they hadn't actually tasted anything yet and might not like what they tasted!
So, the meal got underway - first of all Bernard made sure that we had an apéritif of choice, then there were questions about the soup and whether it should be so thick. I explained that it was a Scottish recipe, destined to warm you up in Scottish climes, and ideal for the day as it turned out as it was pretty cold by this time. The Cornish pasties were served with our French version of mushy peas, plus the carrots and onions. Everything was eaten, again with lots of questions about what was in the pasties, what was it called, etc. Harry had made gravy, transported in a flask, and there was more than enough to go around - something else that I had been concerned about - that there wouldn't be enough to go on everyone's pasty or veg.
Then I made custard (Bird's of course) which turned out really thick as I had kept adding more custard powder when it wouldn't thicken. Because I was busy making the custard, I was concerned that I might miss out on the cheesecake as it looked so tempting and delicious, bu someone had kindly made sure Harry and I had a slice. It was a great success and much appreciated by all, except one unfortunate member who can't have dairy products. There had been questions when we were planning the menu about the cheese course and Harry had explained that it was not traditional for us to have a cheese course, thus the cheesecake would fill that gap! The other puddings and custard also went down well, plus Chantal's delicious lemon cake and apple tart.
We then had champagne - provided by the association as it was the last bourse of the year - followed by tea or coffee. I had four takers for the tea which went down well - no pun intended - Yorkshire Tea which we can buy here and which is far superior to any French teas you can buy.
Harry had planned to do produce a printed menu, but that had gone by the board with so many other things to do, so at the very end I decided to give an explanation of what they had eaten and why we had chosen that particular menu. I also explained that normally, you wouldn't eat five different desserts, including a steamed pudding and custard. Everyone listened attentively, then we were applauded and thanked again. Individually people were thanking us as we moved around and chatted so at the end of the day, after all the stress, it was very gratifying that it had all worked out so well and that it was so appreciated - especially, dare I say it, by French diners!
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PS - The car. I mentioned to Bernard when we were chatting at the end about the STOP light coming on in the car. He immediately walked us over to the car and started checking under the bonnet (he used to be an aeronautical engineer). To our embarrassment the problem turned out to be not one drop of oil left in the engine! I usually check the oil regularly when I check and top up the windscreen washers, but the pump hasn't worked for months, so I hadn't bothered checking for screenwash and had completely forgotten to check the oil. They insisted on one of the members driving Harry straightaway to the supermarket about a kilometre away to get some oil, then filled up to beyond the max to ensure we got home safely. Could have been a very, very expensive and regrettable mistake and an even more memorable cooking experience!
© Marie Tyler, 2014.
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