Formal

Louise and I took a bike ride along the path to Sarlat through misty weather and alongside healthy trees. At the end of the trail we sampled some bacon paste filled crackers (not so great) and cold water (great).

Once we got back home the sun came out and we sat down for duck meat kebabs on the grill. This was accompanied by rillete, hazelnut bread, and cheese.

After a quick siesta we biked to the Dordogne river and spent the afternoon reading and watching local kids leap off a rock ledge. The larger jump was near 20 meters and only one of the kids was brave enough to huck it. His two counterparts shimmied down to a lower jump where one of them stood staring at the leap for an hour before deciding it wasn’t for him.

Florence left for Bordeaux this afternoon leaving only four people in the house. We ate dinner and played canesta before falling asleep around midnight.

There is a definite air of formality and exactness present in Louise’s family. In the two weeks since we arrived, we haven’t had a casual meal. Everything involves at least an hour of preparation and typically more than an hour of sitting and savoring the food. We eat at a clean, well set table. It seems it would be a taboo to recommend “throwing together a sandwich” in order to get out the door.