Jazz, Moules and Frites

We had a really lovely night out on Saturday going to what I think is a quite typical French "Do" It was held at a small village about 4-5 miles from where we live called Locmaria-Berrien in the local village hall.

For a very reasonable €12 a head we had a glass of Kir ( white wine and cassis ) to start with then followed by a huge amount of Moules (mussels) and frites. There was also a basket of French bread.

We bought a couple of bottles of Rose, again good value at €5 a bottle.

After the main course we had a cheese course of Brie and more French bread and butter. When that was over we had an ice cream for dessert.

However what really made the evening was the Jazz group that played all night from around 7pm to nearly midnight.
They were called the "Ragamuffins" who we have seen before. Here is a short "Youtube" clip that I took to give you an idea.

There was also a solo guitarist who's name I didn't catch who played during the interval that the group had a break. All in all a truly lovely evening, one of which I am sure we will have many more of!

Potager progress

I though I would share a few photos of the vegetable garden, things have been pretty slow getting going here in Brittany and I think in retrospect that I was far to keen to get stuff into the ground and growing. I have talked to a number of people in this area and it seems like It's not worth starting planting until late April. So next year I shall take notice.

However things are moving at last and the potatoes at least are looking pretty good, just had a few of them touched by the frost, I've planted 7 rows of them mostly Charlotte so I'm hopeful for a good crop.

The broad beans that we started off in pots indoors and planted out in March have been overtaken by the beans that I planted directly into the ground soon after so that's a mistake that I won't make again in the future.

In addition, I have also planted out turnips, peas, garlic, carrots, shallots and broccoli which are all up now and beetroot, parsnip and cabbage.