There are 3 cows to every person living in the Cantal, and lots and lots of beautiful horses. Despite being told by one of our friends that the pasture is not good enough for them (!) there are sheep, and there are goats and actually there are lots of donkeys too.
One particularly bad moment since arriving came on the eve of a drive to Lyon to pick up a friend for a short stay. I decided to have a look at Lyon Cuisine on the web, knowing as I did that Andouillette is something I never ever want to taste – in fact its something that I never want to be sitting near anyone else as they indulge. I digress. Andouiellette will have to wait as I share with you the abomination that I uncovered. Salade de groin d’ane au lardons. Now I know that an Ane is a donkey and I looked up groin d’ane …. I nearly fainted in horror as I read the words ‘donkey snout’.
Those are just a few examples. Interestingly there is little trouble with mice and rats in the houses and barns. I have a theory …. I’ll share it one day.
Birds flourish – we have Pie (pronounce it Pee) which mean that I have to silently utter greeting them to self in case I am struck down – very supersticious me … I blame Granny, who if there wasn’t an existing superstition was quite capable of inventing one, the problem with superstition being that if you do it once you are shackled for life – just in case. We have Jays. I asked Philippe, a true mountain man, local and absolutely at one with the flora and fauna in the region (he will be introduced as a major character when I get that far. He is quite wonderful.) what the French for Jay is – ‘Ghay’ he replied. ‘Oh – pareil en anglais – nous appelons Jay’. He refused, entirely refused, to accept that it is the same word. He has no English at all, Philippe, and to him our pronunciation being different made it a different word altogether. I adore the Jays – their lovely rose-brown plumage and that ostentatious flash of blue make them birds I would watch for hours. After a couple of months here, I instantly recognise their metallic call that slices the air as a knife slices flesh. There are also pheasant and a large variety of other game birds. We have buzzards soaring above us. They sit in the fields their expression sage, missing nothing as they scan for voles and mice and dead things to feast on. They are carion predomenently.
And there are pigs apparantly – there must be … charcuterie abounds but so far I have not seen a single one. I’ve seen plenty of fowl … ducks, geese, turkey, hens and cockerels and capon.