What is your major dislikey of France ?

[Noisette]

That is a truly perspicacious and accurate post 😁 Well done!  Perhaps we're both in mourning for France as we knew it. You can't stop 'progress', though.

I used to buy whole ducks from the farm and do confit, dry magrets, make terrine de foie gras, rillettes etc.  This will be the first year that we'll be doing without foie gras for the fêtes.  €96 / kg???? They're out of their minds!  Which is a shame, 'cos I've got about 40 jars of home-made confit d'oignon and confit de figue stashed away 🤣

Bon dimanche  x

[betise]

2 hours ago, Noisette said:

That is a truly perspicacious and accurate post 😁 Well done!  Perhaps we're both in mourning for France as we knew it. You can't stop 'progress', though.

I used to buy whole ducks from the farm and do confit, dry magrets, make terrine de foie gras, rillettes etc.  This will be the first year that we'll be doing without foie gras for the fêtes.  €96 / kg???? They're out of their minds!  Which is a shame, 'cos I've got about 40 jars of home-made confit d'oignon and confit de figue stashed away 🤣

Bon dimanche  x

Agree with nearly all of that Noisette.

I still buy whole ducks to process into magrets etc, but the price has rocketed. Our friend is a medium sized producer and seller of duck products, and says that avian flu has forced him to up his prices, due to the problems of sourcing duck when he was prohibited from using his own.

Your confits would be good with cheese though, go on, surprise those Frenchies!

[betise]

5 hours ago, alittlebitfrench said:

...Which makes the French citizen test quite pointless now IMHO. Most French kids these days would not be able to answer the questions. Likewise with the English one. 
 

The questions don’t relate to life today. Even the language.
 

 

Try passing your driving test here.  No one could correctly answer enough of the questions to pass, unless they had studied the code beforehand.

[alittlebitfrench]

21 minutes ago, betise said:

Try passing your driving test here.  No one could correctly answer enough of the questions to pass, unless they had studied the code beforehand.

Do they have a driving test in France ? 😀

Not sure what the test involves but that one will be answered next year when my daughter takes her test.

I would not pass the French driving test and I like think I am the safest and most respectful driver around here.

 

[alittlebitfrench]

30 minutes ago, betise said:

Agree with nearly all of that Noisette.

I still buy whole ducks to process into magrets etc, but the price has rocketed. Our friend is a medium sized producer and seller of duck products, and says that avian flu has forced him to up his prices, due to the problems of sourcing duck when he was prohibited from using his own.

Your confits would be good with cheese though, go on, surprise those Frenchies!

Please don’t eat ducks.

Ducks are such lovely birds and don’t deserve that abuse.

[anotherbanana]

So are chickens but if we didnt eat those the world would starve. Duck for me at Xmas. Though I would never eat an animal that I had raised.

[Noisette]

5 hours ago, alittlebitfrench said:

Please don’t eat ducks.

Ducks are such lovely birds and don’t deserve that abuse.

Hein?  If the beef here was properly matured and edible when cooked, we'd probably eat less duck, but it isn't so we do. Have you ever visited a proper, small,  French elevage, ALBF?  The birds are not abused.  Chickens are more cute and much more fun than ducks, though. 

[ko12x2]

Our 'big city' (Rodez) is 25-30km away but there my fvourite butcher matures their côte de boeuf for 60 days. Not cheap(!!) but magnificent.

[Noisette]

Our local Intermarché introduced a 'maturation cabinet' for côtes de boeuf, some time ago. 20, 30 or 40 days au choix. I didn't even look at the price, just asked for a modest 2-rib piece. Got to the tills and it came in at €85, which at the time was only slightly less than our meat budget for the month 🤣  It was very good but why should the French have to pay such an exorbitant price for something that's been available in the UK since forever?  Sadly, the answer is that the country 'with the finest food in the world' isn't.  It's all down to profit, protectionism and self-publicity.

[ssomon]

I think the reputation for fine food arose when many skilled cooks in the grand chateaux lost their jobs after the revolution and opened restaurants to make a living.

Many restaurants still seem to be run by people who lost their jobs.

[DaveLister]

31 minutes ago, ssomon said:

Many restaurants still seem to be run by people who lost their jobs

Oh how true!!

[Lehaut]

18 hours ago, anotherbanana said:

Though I would never eat an animal that I had raised.

Chickens, rabbits, ducks, and turkeys.  Raised, slaughtered and eaten them all.  Lambs too, but the butcher came to the house and we did them together in the courtyard.  Limited stress compared to shipping them in lorries.  Now we live in a town, its surprising how many "french townies" are either shocked or fascinated by such a way of life.

If people cannot kill them, perhaps people should not eat them?

[alittlebitfrench]

15 hours ago, Noisette said:

Hein?  If the beef here was properly matured and edible when cooked, we'd probably eat less duck, but it isn't so we do. Have you ever visited a proper, small,  French elevage, ALBF?  The birds are not abused.  Chickens are more cute and much more fun than ducks, though. 

OH and I are both ornithologists so we like ducks with there feathers on. No I would not eat a duck. 
 

When we went on our famous 2 day trip to the Dordogne some years back Duck pizza was on every restaurant menu. Needless to say I will never go back to that area of France. Not my thing at all.
 

We are all about 80% vegetarian. Not that bothered about eating meat unless it is to make a meal that needs meat. Chilli con carnie for example. But, it is mostly overloaded with vegies.

Never shop at butchers in France. Far too expensive. They will die out eventually. They are only kept in business by rich pensioners. And rich pensioners are a dying breed.

Never go to French restaurants either. Been there done that…got the postcard. We have been to them all. The last one was a Michelin star restaurant in Nantes. You pay 100 euros + for a meal and leave hungry.

I am the chef at home and can do wonders with potatoes and cheese.

 

[Hectorsdad]

1 hour ago, alittlebitfrench said:

 

We are all about 80% vegetarian. Not that bothered about eating meat unless it is to make a meal that needs meat. Chilli con carnie for example. But, it is mostly overloaded with vegies.

 

I think our Christmas dinner is also 80% vegetarian comprising roast potatoes, sprouts, carrots, roast parsnips, stuffing, bread sauce, cranberry sauce, plenty of gravy, sloe (from garden in France) gin aperitif, top quality (at least 6€ from Super U) wine, Christmas pudding flaming with best cognac(from Cognac via Super U), maybe finished off with a small glass of something very strong together with freshly ground and percolated coffee.

Oh, I forgot the other 20%…….a carefully carved (my contribution), generous helping of fresh, free range turkey. Only a week to go!

NB Our vegetarian daughter will join us substituting my wife’s special recipe veggie roast for the turkey.

Edited December 18, 2023 by Hectorsdad

[alittlebitfrench]

1 hour ago, Hectorsdad said:

I think our Christmas dinner is also 80% vegetarian comprising roast potatoes, sprouts, carrots, roast parsnips, stuffing, bread sauce, cranberry sauce, plenty of gravy, sloe (from garden in France) gin aperitif, top quality (at least 6€ from Super U) wine, Christmas pudding flaming with best cognac(from Cognac via Super U), maybe finished off with a small glass of something very strong together with freshly ground and percolated coffee.

Oh, I forgot the other 20%…….a carefully carved (my contribution), generous helping of fresh, free range turkey. Only a week to go!

NB Our vegetarian daughter will join us substituting my wife’s special recipe veggie roast for the turkey.

That is my kinda meal. Sounds delicious. All that veg. Yum yum.

Those who want the meat can eat the meat….those who don’t…don’t.

Edited December 18, 2023 by alittlebitfrench

[Le martin-pêcheur]

Just to add our two centimes worth to the French meat thread. We too are 80% vegetarian and have been for many years. Maybe we have been unlucky, but we have, over the years, found not just inedible gristle in sausages, mince and other such products, but a noticeable amount of shards of bone!!! In a sausage many years ago - not touched French sausages since - in beef mince just this week and although a certain supermarket sells corned beef under the name of Hereford (misleading) again this week, another small portion of bone. This has to be bad preparation at some point I guess. Rant over😉

We often do the same as you Hectorsdad.

I have to say when we lived in North Wales before coming over here some 20 years ago, the local butcher was beyond reproach and his sausages were just incredible, particularly the tomato and herb variety amongst many others.

We wouldn't want return to UK shores of course under any circumstances, but if the French could take a leaf from some UK produce, happy days! Apart from that, still very happy here😉

[menthe]

Only 2 days ago, I was with some English and French friends and the subject of variety of vegetables came up.

So, I am wondering whether anyone has ever seen those long stem broccoli anywhere in France?  Just wondering because it's one of my favourite vegetables.

[anotherbanana]

Bloody vicious union strikes designed to blackmail whoever; unexpected strike TODAY at Channel Tunnel, my little Oiseau is stuck!

Do I turn my delicious, slow cooked beef stew off or not?

🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬😡🤬😡🤬😡

[DaveLister]

Eurostar have canceled all trains until 9pm so I wouldn't expect much movement today.

This one came out of the blue didn't it ?

[alittlebitfrench]

You have to be a complete and utter w**ker to go on strike this close to xmas.

They want a triple bonus or something.

I hope AI eventually solves their bonus problem.

Edited December 21, 2023 by DaveLister
language

[betise]

Yes, that was one thing I forgot to add to my dislikey list, transport strikes! I feel for everyone who was stuck, or had loved ones stuck, due to the strike yesterday.

And, if French air traffic controllers find a reason to strike over the New Year, I shall be incandescent with rage!

[Henry100]

On 14/12/2023 at 16:44, alittlebitfrench said:

I don’t think this question has been asked on French forums before 🤔

The things that bug me the most at the moment.

1) Right hand priority….I reckon it should be left hand priority. Or maybe have both at the same time to spice life up a bit. You can’t have one without the other. It racist against ambidextrous trans who have no arms.

2) Lorries that indicate left at a roundabout but they want to go straight on. Or people in general that just can’t be arsẽd to indicate at all. You just have to guess where they are going.

3) The new woman on TF1 lunchtime news. She does my head in. 

4) French Schooling….it is crãp and dangerous.

5) I wanted to say Napoleon…but he is from Italien decency and was born in Corsica. Not sure where the French bit comes from. Bit like Johney Halliday. 

And you ?

Hunters,

We live very much in the open spaces of the countryside and find that weekends and bank holidays (even Christmas day that hunters are shooting anything that they feel is hunt worthy, ie Birds/cats / rabbits etc etc , I have found for a while now it really is safer not to take the chance of walking down the lanes during these times, All you have to do is read the amount of people killed by so called hunters in the past five years and you will be amazed, from one woman hanging her washing out / A young man in his own garden chopping fire wood / And a couple driving their car not more than 20 km from our home on a "B" road, all these people died and this is just a few i have mentioned, Time the French laws we're changed.

[menthe]

I agree about the hunters though, over the years, hunting is now increasingly rare where I live.  Even at the height of the season, there are no sounds of guns going off.

Still, they must hunt somewhere as the annual Hunt Dinner still takes place.  That is one village event that we have NEVER attended.

[Henry100]

In my past life I was in HM Army and trained as an weapons Instructor, So I do understand weapons and i have seen the end result,

If you really want to use weapons and be good at it "Then why not go to a range and prove your worth ?

You"ll find you need a lot of skill understanding of weather (wind direction) breathing and to hit the target center some miles away will give you that satisfaction of knowing your good And not one animal killed or even worst left to escape having been shot and left in pain and only time left to die,

Animals have so much to give and if you treat them with love care and understanding they'll never back stab you or do you harm,