France - Day 3

We slept in a bit and then Jen and I got up to walk around a bit. Out back behind the house in the courtyard in front of the church a group of the local men had gathered to start setting up the tables for the festival that night, so I joined them. (The women were off making the beignet-like bread desserts). I was very happy to hear some British English from John, an Scottish ex-pat who now permanently lives in Urval with his wife Joan.

Afterward, Joe, Raeph and Jen went off on another hike. I decided to stay back and relax - besides, the bread was going to be sold at noon out of the communal bread oven and somebody had to be there to procure our bread for the festival that night.

Around noon, John poked his head in the front door and told me there were getting the bread out up behind the church - right behind the house.

I made my way up the hill between the house and the church and found a boisterous scene of men passing around some drinks and speaking a lot of French quite loudly. John served as a quasi-translator for me, but in a scene like that, mannerisms and body language speak more than words. I did procure a couple of loaves of bread out of the 800-year-old oven, shared a drink with the townsfolk and even grabbed a couple of pieces of pizza that they had made in the oven (since it was fired up anyway).









We then headed to the village of Lemeuil to meet up with Monsieur Lefoix (I'm sure I'm spelling that one wrong) who owns quite a bit of farmland in the village and lives in a gorgeous, large old house atop a very, very high hill. We parked the car and walked all the way up the hill and knocked on his door. The Monsieur met us and, after weaving our way through a garden of plants underneath an arbor, welcomed us into his house, where we met his wife and very elderly father (or father-in-law) in their kitchen. The Monsieur then provided Joe and Raeph with the goods they had traveled for (in exchange for a bottle of whiskey) - fertilized eggs of a colorful, french chicken breed for their own farm.

We then headed back to Urval and relaxed for a bit, getting ready for the village festival. Before the festival, we headed to the Taylor's home (between Joe and Raeph's and Thomas') for a drink. The Taylors are a British couple with two adorable girls of 5 and 4 and a young baby boy of several months. Their family home is gorgeous - particularly their garden. John and Joan and Thomas and Vera also joined us.





We then headed over the village festival, which was starting to get crowded.



The servers were hurriedly preparing the various courses, while a giant cauldron of the garlic soup boiled over a fire.

















After a couple of courses into the meal, the Lu Cordillou d'ol Buguo (including Monsieur Lefoix) began performing 15th-16th century folkloric dances, as per the tradition of the countryside's medieval festivals. As recently as 1989, the Urval festival required all attendees to wear authentic medieval clothing, which the village's women would spend all winter making after taking each person's measurements in the fall. The music of Lu Cordillou included an interesting form of bagpipe that used a billows in lieu of the player's exhalation.