Montluçon

Hello all,

I realised that I had completely forgotten to write about my experience of Montluçon. The French town is located south of Paris, about a 4 hour drive away. My uncle and his wife own a house in the quaint little town and invited me and a friend to stay with them for the weekend. On Friday night we did little but sleep in the car drive although we did make a stop in the centre of France for obligatory photos by a nondescript monument marking the place's centrality to the country! Saturday morning we took a walk through the town's local food market, in which individual stalls are set up selling fresh and locally produced meat, vegetables, fish and of course cheese. The smell alone of the cheese stall was enough to put my friend Stephanie and me on guard, but we ended up buying something from there and it was pretty nice. It pains me to say that I rather dislike goat's cheese (Le fromage de chevre) which is somewhat of a bother in a country where this type of cheese is adored for its strong flavour - the smellier and mouldier the better. There was an elderly lady who sold fresh chickens and other animals (freshly dead, I should say)from the back of a farmer's van and having sampled the chicken later that evening I have to say it was delicious.

Montluçon Market

Oysters from a fish stall served as that day's lunch. It was the first time I had tried the sea creatures and the fact that you eat them raw (that is to say, alive) made me squirm, as did the squeezing of lemon on them to watch them wriggle. However it's safe to say that I was converted to the idea of eating them and enjoyed them a lot! I will be definitely be eating them again.

Oysters!

That evening my aunt and uncle invited some friends over for dinner. Stephanie and I proceeded to get tipsy with plenty of champagne, followed by red wine over the three course meal (four if you count the cheese). The guests spoke French only, which gave us a chance to experiment with what we've learned so far. For the most part I think it went well although my aunt had to interject translations several times as we apparently did not always come across as coherent (this may also have been due to the amount of alcohol consumed).

As you can see the weekend was filled with indulgences, but the highpoint came when my uncle surprised us with a private flight in a jet-plane (I want to say jet plane but I'm sure this is wrong, in any case it was a very small plane). It was both terrifying and amazing. Our terror was enhanced by the conversation between my uncle and his friend, who was flying, which appeared to announce that the headphones generally needed to monitor air traffic i.e. not crash into other planes, had been lost and were therefore not needed. This laissez-faire attitude is oh so French and at times (such as this one) oh so worrying. But all turned out well and we returned to Le Vesinet the next day. Merci encore a ma tante et mon oncle!

Our Private Plane