Boue !

Anyone who has spent any time in rural France will have encountered the triangular temporary roadside warning signs saying 'Boue !', especially at this time of year. The feast of Toussaints (today) is notorious for being wet, and this photo, taken on this day last year, showing the entrance to the laneway past our orchard, demonstrates the weather conditions perfectly. It was in fact raining when I took the picture and the track has been turned into a rutted muddy slippery slide by farm machinery and nearby ditch clearing work. Boue means 'mud', by the way, or often, more euphemistically, 'deposit' (think dairy cows being herded across the road). Boue is, of course, pronounced 'boo!'

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Curry Night: Last night we went to Tim and Gaynor's curry night. This event is one that the local British expats look forward to eagerly -- real curry! One of the guests said to me that she had boasted to the school mums about where she was off to after the Halloween trick or treating and she had to repeat it 3 times there was such lack of comprehension and incredulity amongst even quite trendy young French mums. Halloween has been adopted by the French, but sadly, not proper curry. Tim and Gaynor put an enormous amount of effort into the evening's entertainment, bringing authentic British Asian curry ingredients and serving up samosas and bharjees with relishes before half a dozen different main dishes with poppadums and most importantly, naan bread, which you just can't get here. The guests supplied an equally wide variety of desserts (not Indian, it has to be said). Everyone enjoyed the annual get together and we all really appreciate Tim and Gaynor's willingness to host it. Hopefully, we have converted a couple of Belgians to curry, even if the French remain dubious.