Livraison

Olives are available everywhere in France.  Not that there are olive trees growing everywhere, but the wonderful fruit of those trees is available at every market and every supermarché in the country.  It is not unusual to find markets with an array of over 20 kinds of olives on display, many enhanced with herbs and spices.

We particularly like the olives from L'Oulibo, in the Languedoc region, a more southern part of France.  Since we'll be here for 2.5 months, we felt we had lots of time to put in an order.  It arrived today!

The delivery truck actually arrived on Wednesday when we weren't home, so a note was left advising that we could pick up the package in Cholet.  The driver, Martin, was back yesterday to assure us that we wouldn't have to go pick it up and that he'd bring the package from Cholet to St. Clémentin.

True to his word, Martin arrived today with a big friendly smile and our much anticipated package of olives.

 

These guys don't cut corners!  The jars were so well wrapped there's no danger of them breaking.  And they came with their very own little wooden pallet, too!

Feels like Christmas, doesn't it?

Oh, the anticipation!

Four small jars of Picholine, three large jars of Lucques, and 3 little jars of tapenade.

Wonder if there'll be any left to bring back to Canada...

Winners of the gold medal so many years in a row!

Tapenade in three flavours: green olives, black olives, and one with tomatoes and peppers.  We will be feasting for a while!

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Another thing that arrived today were little visitors in the bathtub.  (We haven't used this tub yet, preferring to use the shower in our ensuite exclusively).  You have to remember that it's been raining for a whole week, so these little guys were looking for some shelter.  By the time I gave them their eviction orders, they had already woven well-established webs.

Maybe they weren't that small after all...

 

 

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Looking outside the dining room window, I noticed this huge holly plant growing inside a pine.  I'd call that "Christmas in July"!  Very à propos when receiving our gift of olives on this very day.

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"There is an endless net of threads throughout the universe.  The horizontal threads are in space.    The vertical threads are in time.  At every crossing of the threads, there is an individual, and every individual is a crystal bead.  And every crystal bead reflects not only the light from every crystal in the net, but also every other reflection throughout the entire universe."

 

~  Rig Veda