The Annual Pot-au-Feu Celebration

 The annual "Pot-au-Feu" celebration was held on Saturday, March 24. Citizens from the Le Puy area were all invited by the Super U grocery store to attend.

Pot-au-feu is a French country tradition that literally means "pot to the fire." The dish has been around at least since the 11th century where it was cooked in a big pot over a fire. 

According to Chef Raymond Blanc, pot-au-feu is "the quintessence of French family cuisine; it is the most celebrated dish in France. It honours the tables of the rich and poor alike." 

The main ingredients of pot-au-feu are some kind of cartilaginous meat (oxtail or marrowbone), carrots, turnips, leeks, celery, and onions. The spices used are bouquet Garni, salt, black pepper and cloves. 

The pot-au-feu in Le Puy took place in some nippy weather with overcast skies, but the hundreds of people who attended the annual event were not dissuaded. The wait in line wasn't very long either.  



Servers from the Super U staff as well as members of the Le Puy community joyfully and efficiently dished out this fine repast. 

The pot-au-feu followed a regular French déjeuner format, which also included an entree of saucisson, a generous wedge of cheese, baguette, eclair, wine, water, and coffee. 

The pot-au-feu celebration was held courtesy of the Super U, which prepared and offered the meal for free (gratuit) as a community service project. It seemed that all of the people of Le Puy were there and Eluiza and I joined in on the fun!

Le Puy is basically rural mountain country, so local farmers brought their animals to proudly display them. The Super U contracts with these farmers to stock their meat counters. It also seemed that through the presence of these animals, farmers were trying to help people recognize the farm-to-table connection.

French cows are usually white or white with brown spots.

The butcher who processes beef is called a boucher and his shop is the boucherie. 

These huge cows (about 5 feet high) were lined up. There was a contest going on for people to guess the weight of 25 cows and win a prize. Below is their front side.

Pork is an important and widely-used meat in France. Regular cuts are popular as well as various prepared foods like bacon, ham, sausage, terrines, galatines, ballotins  pâtes, and confit. 

The butcher who processes pork meat is called a charcutereur and his shop is the charcuterie. 







These porkers seemed cozy with one another, but one didn't hesitate to  strut his stuff or let the others know who was tops in the pecking order.

Sheep producers brought their black sheep, which are unique to the Haut-Loire area. The males are used for meat while the females are used for wool and for milk that will be turned into a delicious cheese called fromage de brebis. 

The animals were pretty mellow, but one seemed willing to communicate with onlookers.

Farmers are greatly revered in France. News outlets frequently feature stories about them and French agriculture throughout the year to tout the quality of French food. A couple weeks ago there was a huge agriculture exhibition in Paris. President Macron was there to observe and support farmers. It is also important to note that the French local food movement is alive and well, although it continually struggles with industrial agriculture. 

Also on hand at the pot-au-feu event were dancers who demonstrated some pretty good line dancing accompanied by American country music. Although they seemed a bit out of place in France, it was yet another example of  how American culture is imitated around the world. After all, who wouldn't want to be a cow poke? Just hearing the music transported me back to the USA for a while.

Spring Has Sprung at the International Centre

  

It's only March and already the flowers are peeking up from the ground as buds on the trees and rose bushes are emerging. The grass is also getting greener at the International Centre. The days are getting longer, and it's getting a little warmer (except for this week). Soon we will plant our garden!

Neighborhood gardeners are readying themselves for spring by tilling the soil and planting cold crops.

The Borne River is gradually waking up from its slumber as the riverside trail prepares itself for the walkers, runners, hikers, pilgrims, and cyclists. 

Yes, indeed, spring in Le Puy has sprung at the International Centre.

Happy St Joseph Day -- March 19 2018

Bonne fête de Saint Joseph!

Dia feliz de São José

Buon San Giuseppe

Feliz día de San José

Happy St Joseph Day

The College of St. Rose Choir Sings for Le Puy

Forty-eight students from the College of St. Rose in Albany, New York, came to Le Puy for the weekend of March 3-5 to perform a concert at our local parish: Paroisse des Carmes. The International Centre was among the sponsors for the event.

Dressed in formal black concert attire, the students sang  a cappella selections from the Renaissance, Scottish folk music, American folk songs, African-American spirituals, Billy Joel, and some songs in in French.

The choir added several special features including student soloists and conductors. Paul Evoskevich, a saxophonist and professor at the College, played an improvised jazz piece to the choir's accompaniment. 

Aiken Drum, a Scottish folk song, provided a snare drum accompaniment that delighted the audience.  





Women vocalists sang a piece called Four Short Epitaphs, while the men sang The Mermaid, a British maritime song.


One of the choir's more moving pieces was Abide with Me. The Christian hymn started out as a poem written by Scottish Anglican priest, Henry Francis Lyte in 1847. He set it to music as he lay dying from tuberculosis. The hymn is a prayer for God to remain present to us throughout our lives and trials and even through death. Its more familiar melody was written by English composer William Henry Monk in a piece entitled Eventide (1861). 

The concert ended with the Shaker song, The Gift to Be Simple. However, the vocalists performed it not in the front of the church, but in long lines on the two side aisles. The effect came off as an "embracing" of the audience. The choir also sang their various parts to the song in sign language. It was a stunning display of showmanship, and the audience loved it and clapped for an encore. The choir obliged with the piece, The Drinking Gourd.

Before the concert, Monsieur Bernard of the Paroisse des Carmes who helped make arrangements for the choir's visit, thanked the students for coming. He also reminded them that they were on "precious land both historically and religiously." The pilgrimages of the Middles Ages and the visits of French kings took place here as well as the founding of the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1650.

"It is this congregation which gave birth to the College of Saint Rose," he said. 

Le Puy has another connection with the United States through the Marquis of Lafayette, said Monsieur Bernard. The Marquis lived near here in a village called Chavaniac. President George Washington gave Lafayette an American flag in 1781 in thanks for his help in the American Revolution. The city keeps the flag in the regional Prefecture.  


Sunday Afternoon at the Nursing Homes


Small groups of students performed an informal 45-minute "mini-concert" for nursing home residents in Le Puy. The men sang some jazz tunes and were later joined by four women. All the pieces were sung a cappella. 

In the morning, some students went to the Cathedral du Puy of Notre Dame.





Friday Night Arrival in Le Puy 

The choir arrived on Friday after a long journey of 12 hours that included a snowy trek from Albany to the Newark airport, a lost passport, and a 300-truck traffic jam in the Alps due to the snowstorms and a cold wave that had pounded France over the week. However, everyone was very excited to be in France for the next 9 days and showed no signs of weariness. 

The leaders of the Paroisse des Carmes held a reception of welcome for the choir in a 12th century building that was originally a stable for spiritual pilgrims' horses. (Le Puy has long been one of the starting points for the Camino de  Santiago Compostela pilgrimage that ends in Spain.) The choir obliged their hosts by singing two songs from their repertory.

Michael Levi, professor of music at the College since 1998 has taken the choir on international singing trips in Austria and Ireland as well as France. He is the choir's conductor as well as a pianist, composer, and arranger.   

The choir goes on to Lyon and Geneva to perform for audiences in those cities before they head back to New York.

The students are mostly music majors pursuing careers in teaching, performance, or the business side of the music industry. The blending of their sweet voices in the Medieval buildings of Le Puy connected them to their French audiences in time, space, and language. 

The College of Saint Rose is a private, independent, co-educational, not-for-profit college in Albany, New York, United States, founded in 1920 by the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet. It is one of six colleges in the United States sponsored by the Sisters of Saint Joseph. The College enrolls a total of 4,863 students from 34 states and 51 countries. It offers 45 undergraduate programs, 29 master’s degree programs, and 19 advanced certificates available to new students (2,931 undergraduates and 1,932 postgraduates).

Promotion of the Saturday night free concert at Paroisse des Carmes was extensive in Le Puy, and townspeople responded well with a near-capacity crowd. Posters were up in storefronts all over the city as radio stations announced the event. Fr. Paul Chamaly, pastor at the parish, also encouraged parishioners from the pulpit to attend the concert, which was held after the parish's Saturday night Mass.