Slow food

Nancy spotted this big guy speeding across our driveway this afternoon ...

Hungry?

Journée de la forêt

Last Sunday I attended the "Journée de la forêt", in a field just outside a pretty little town called Ajat, a dozen or so kilometers from our place.

Organized according to an ad hoc calendar by a local association, the fair brings together, in a different location every time, working farmers and hobbyists who all share a passion for draught horses - with a pair of oxen and a donkey thrown into the mix. They raise and train them to perform in the old ways various tasks that have been taken over now by tractors and other machines. On that day, the animals are led on a circular track, pulling logs out of the woods, dragging them to a cutting and stacking station, and heading back to the woods for more, all for the enjoyment of the crowd.

The Journée is really a family affair, an occasion for local folks to get together, and while it was men exclusively who led the animals, the small crowd of no more than a hundred spectators attending the event included many women of all ages, children, grand parents.

Sunday started out overcast and drizzly, but by lunch time, sunshine had broken through and stuck around for the rest of the day, to everyone's delight. Nevertheless, the ground remained very muddy after the constant rain of the last three weeks, and I was glad that I had tossed my rubber boots in the truck, almost as an afterthought, just before heading out.

Lunch was served in a nearby barn, on trestle tables. It was simple and hearty fare, in the local style. And there was even live music - all the standard accordion tunes performed by a very talented young woman. I was invited to join the table occupied by our neighbour, one of the organizers, and his family. I enjoyed their company over the next three hours. They asked many questions about Canada, and how life there compares to life here. In turn, I asked them if they had been or might visit one day. They just smiled and said "oh no, it's too far away." From what they told me, it seems that they and their families are happy living exactly where their parents had lived before them, within a radius of ten to fifteen kilometers from where we were sitting.


Scroll down for a selection of pictures of the Journée de la Forêt.

Rubber boots were the de rigueur footwear.