Lunch

Lunch

Lunch is Department 66 is invariably the picnic. “Jambon Blanc”, cheese, pate. Large red sweet tomatoes. Tomatoes that actually taste of….tomatoe. Onion and salad. Tabele, and grated carrot all washed down by a cold beer.

The picnic is ubiquitous in Department 66. Even without a watch you can tell its is lunch time since the road empties of traffic and every piece of shade and spare ground is turned into an ad hoc picnic place. Blankets are spread; each car boot delivers several chairs and the odd table. The family gathers and interrupts it’s squabbling for a social meal.

Lunchtime in the village is as quite as the early morning. At about 1200 the few shops, the Petit Casino, the boulangeries, the charculaterie, shut up shop for the afternoon. The offices of the insurance, bank and estate agents, which appear to be shut most of the time, become imperceptibly quiet. Lunchtime at home is a picnic indoors really.

You have to remember to take lunch slowly. To enjoy the crustiness of the bread, the chunkiness of the pate. I just love rilliard. I don’t know why perhaps it’s just the name which slides off the tongue so smoothly, indeed almost an onomatopoeic foodstuff.

To sip slowly at the cold beer is a lunchtime delight. Delicious but very cold. If you sup some wine only take a little. After years of red wine I have recently discovered the delights of Rose. Taken chilled it is light and clean when at its best. Cold red is equally as pleasant. Be cautious though because many an afternoon has been lost to a chilled wine, in my experience.

The wise, and the French in particular are notable here I notice take plenty of cold water. I prefer the fizziness of ice-cold sparkling water. Perrier offers the cache of its name and its deep green bottles that somehow add to the cold refreshment. It is often more expensive. We buy the salty sulphurous waters because our children who hate them use them less quickly. Like beer you can learn to like them. As when I was first introduced to the earthy refreshment of Carrot juice there is something inherently healthy about these waters. A warm healthy feeling grows from the pit of your stomach as you quaff the liquid and tolerate the sulphur smell and salty taste.