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It's a really old congregation

At the end of the service this morning I asked if I could see and maybe play the piano--it's actually a little electric organ.  I really can't play, but I can pick out the melody well enough to sing to.  Earlier, by the time we had  finished the last verse of O Come O Come Emmanuel, the pitch had dropped so low that even I was having trouble singing.  Music is such an important part of the church experience for me; if it's lousy, I can't get past it.  I took the hymnal and played the piece, and was even able to play with both hands--a very simple arrangement, obviously. I think it might have been the first time in months, maybe even years, that live music echoed in that sanctuary.  But some old crow came over to me and said that it was "too high."  I felt like it was a case of "No Good Deed Goes Uncriticized."  I apologized ( Lordy, I do a lot of THAT) and explained that those were the notes that were written. The woman in charge has asked me to play the carols next Sunday, but I am going to decline.  I am not a good enough musician to transpose on the fly and I couldn't find a feature on the organ that will do it automatically.  The last thing in the world I want to do is make other people uncomfortable. I didn't know four of the five hymns this morning, but fortunately I learned to read music, so not only was I reading the French for the first time, I was also sight-reading the melody.  That isn't always easy when the tonality keeps shifting. Some very nice gentleman came over and asked me if I knew the hymns.  I told him no, but I can read music.  Thank you Jim Fisher, Dean Reindollar, and Thomas Fugate, my elementary school music teachers.

I think there's quite a bit of $$ here

After leaving church I strolled over to the Dome where vendors were presenting products of the area.  The local "region" extends from the Mediterranean to the foothills of the Pyrenees.  The Aude is the largest wine producing region of France and is also the second largest agriculture-based region of France.  The vendors were inside the convention "hall" as well as in booths set up all around the perimeter.  Today's features were fresh foie gras, and fresh truffles.  Neither of which I can afford.

Fresh foie gras

Fresh foie gras is banned in the US, I think.  I have to confess that I love it, but have absolutely no idea how to prepare it.  I usually leave that to the professional chef.  And I also love truffles, but again, really don't know how to cook with them, other than shaving them onto and into dishes like potato puree, or risotto.

Mussels and fresh oysters

No matter, it was fun to look.  There were cheeses from the Pyrenees, but I'd bought some yesterday already.  And seafood, fresh as could be, from the Mediterranean.  I am not used to seeing shrimp with their heads still attached and looking at me, but I have no problem decapitating them.  Growing up in a household that killed its own chickens took the squeamishness right out of me.

Ham.anyone?

I saw local hazelnuts, noisettes, and walnuts, les noix.  I remember that we always had a bowl of nuts and a nutcracker out on the table during the holidays. People still do that here.  Breads, oils, wonderful dry ham--I love Serrano ham, thinly sliced.  It felt like a festival just by itself.  And people were forking out tidy sums for the nougat, the meats and cheeses.  It's a fete, and the best one can afford is what one puts on the table, for family and for guests.