Le Souper

On sunny afternoons the women may collect wild vegetables-mushrooms to bottle with olive oil & bunches of herbs that will hang from the rafters to dry and scent the air when the mistral blows-or they may fill earthenware jars with homemade thrush pâté to supplement the meagre supply of meat. The evening meal is prepared in the morning: eggs, still warm from the hens, are cooked in a big omelette, to be covered in cheese & reheated over the fire later; gratins of vegetables are salted with a few anchovies; Lou Cachat is dug, protesting, out of its deep jar; a bowl of local cherries cooked in lavender honey is spooned over soft fromage frais.