Spring

In the warm sunshine of early spring the landscape was still wintry. Later the vines became green with buds and the fruit trees came into blossom. We ate traditional pancakes and sweets at Mardi gras and a paschal lamb at Easter. With the spring vegetables came the first trout, the first wild mushrooms, and snails which we caught at night and grilled on the kitchen fire.

THE FIRST HOLIDAY of the year was the seven or eight days we had in February for Mardi gras; the second was the fortnight we had for Easter, which usually fell in April. For Marcel and Camille February was still a wintry time, even if the weather was bright and warm, a month when the work on the farm still consisted of distant preparations for haymaking and harvest yet to come. There might be some crops still to be sown on land which had been first ploughed in September; machines and tools had to be seen to; the trunks of the vines were sprayed with insecticide; and it was a good period in which to carry out any necessary building work. For us children, this first holiday of the year was a time when we sat round the open wood fire of the farm kitchen, ate Camille’s various confits and conserves, and looked forward to the festivities of Mardi gras.