Tournefeuille

Wednesday 24 July

Tournefeuille

Today  was a rest day, well kind of, we went over to the supermarket in the morning, it's just the local Carrefour (like New World).  Looking round at the vegetables I guess the prominent display which caught my eye were the artichokes, I have never seen such big ones, also the range of mushrooms, we have big field mushrooms, but what was new was a giant button mushroom, it probably has a proper name, but it looked big and meaty.  The spring onions had a big white bulb at the end as against the long slim end I am used to seeing.  So a big range of veg and fruit, not dissimilar to ours

Moving on to the cheese, well, what can I say,

I could have spent the day at this stall, beautiful bries, blues, hard cheeses in a range of colours, huge rounds cut into wedges, mozzarella in white balls dotted over the display, most of it reasonably priced, I will endeavour to work my way through it!  Then came the cold cuts, salamis of every hue and shape, hams, bacon, cured meats, chorizo varieties, all too numerous to remember I'm going to be working my way through this selection as well.  

The sausage selection looked so tempting, big fat ones rolled up, pale ones, maybe chicken, thin spicy ones, all with French names, we had some for dinner last night and they were delicious.  Can't wait to work my way through these!

The meat department was similar to ours, except most of the cuts seemed to be a little more fatty, which I guess helps tenderise the meat and make it more tasty.  Lamb, beef, pork as you would expect, chicken, decidedly more yellow, probably corn fed, and of course duck (le canard) yum, mostly duck breast and perfectly presented, ready for cooking.   There was a butcher working at breaking down a carcass close to the counter, and I am sure he would have been able to cut any piece of meat to order.

Similarly with the fish, so tempting.....

Then onto the grocery shelves, all a bit of a blur really!  We managed to get what we wanted and I think we will get quicker as time goes on, but the language barrier is quite daunting when nothing is familiar, except of course Gordon's Gin and Schweppes Tonic water!  That should keep us going for a while.

As the temperature was soaring into the mid 30's, Rachel decided to take us on an orienteering walk after lunch. Most of the locals would be having a siesta, quite sensible!  It was, however good to see the countryside on foot, we walked around the houses and across the fields to the lake where there is a large sporting complex,

 

back down through the fields and through the suburb back to where they live, which is a 'gated community' with lovely houses and a swimming pool just across the road from their house.   They have a beautiful house, on two levels, the ground floor comprises a living area with large lounge, dining room/kitchen and lovely outdoor flow onto the patio and large grassed garden with mature fruit trees.  There is also the master bedroom with huge wardrobe room, Penelope's room which has its own en suite, then the main bathroom and a study.  Upstairs are four large bedrooms, and big bathroom, where there are Jasper, Hannah and us. 

And so we arrived back, the kids were gasping to get to the pool, as my ankles looked like they were about to explode they were so swollen, I went to have a lie down with my feet up the wall and a cold flannel on my face.  All in all a satisfactory day!