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 We spent Christmas with the whole clan at a familiy property in Sologne which is 100 miles south of Paris. In France this region is well known for hunting. My brother's family, my sister's family, Alain and I, our children and grandchildren were all part of this year’s season. We always invite guests along as well, in the end we were altogether 50 of us. Apart from the family, all around the chateau, there were animals in the park, like deer, roebuck, pheasants, peacocks, roosters and Altesse.
Perhaps you want to know the menu, which (of course) is typically French:
Foie Gras on toast, with a (sweet) Muscat de Frontignan Dinde à la farce fine et marron grillé. (Yes, we eat turkey in France! With a fine-grained stuffing and grilled chestnuts)
Salade, just some greens
Fromages assortis, cheese from the Savoie, Bresse and Auvergne regions of France
Gâteau à l'ananas avec crème anglaise. (Pineapple cake with custard)
We also shared a Christmas Pudding, an English recipe we have had in the family for more than 150 years, with a bit of a French twist, because the pudding is hot and we flame it with rum and serve with a cool buttered-powdered-sugar sauce, just great and so Christmas. With the pudding, we drank a Crémant de Bourgogne from Chateau de Pierreclos.
Over all a huge success — if you didn’t mind at all:
The slicing noises of three four knives going together to cut carrots and onions on wooden planks (!) for about 4,5 kilos or so – no modern kitchen instruments were to be found in the chateau.
That the beautiful Christmas candles I had brought especially we weren’t able to light within the castle for safety reasons - an enormous alarm sound would last a full 5 minutes with all doors swung wide open automatically! However, as true Lyonnais with our traditional "Fête des Lumières" (Light day), we developed an alternative plan: All candles were lit outside on the balconies.
“Taptaptaptap and tappppttapppaapa and more tapppttaapp” on the wood floor created by “Altesse", William's dog who slept on the wooden landing. We found out just how loud dog paws can sound on wooden floors. Who can blame Altesse who was happy to greet everyone who passed by him in the morning. So we all awoke to his continuous cheerful “taptaptaptap”.
No sleep in’s really: Between Altesse “tapptapp” and the roosters’ welcome-to-the-new day message “krikri”; or in French “koreqiou”….
My message to you: If you spend a long week-end with all the family, consider it "L'auberge Espagnole". It basically means: "It will be what you want it to be!” “Bring with you: happiness; joy; a positive attitude, a big smile and you all will enjoy a jolly grand old time.”
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