A French 'street dinner'

We are 'toodling down the canal' and it is just beautiful. We are in a little village called Damazen. Last night, they had a 'street dinner' which is held every Tuesday night during summer. (In fact, many of the villages have street dinners on different nights.) A street dinner is a village 'party' which they hold in the centre square. Most of the restaurants in the village close for the night and set up a stall in the square where you can buy dinner. Long tables with chairs are set up and there is a stage with live music where people can sing and dance. Hundreds of people turn out.

In Damazen, the choice of meals included 'moules', a traditional clam dish; a huge paella cooking over a fire; kabobs or steaks done on a grill; chicken roasting over a coal fire, duck dishes in whatever way you wished them, i.e. duck sausages, duck breast, foie gras, duck kabobs; a cheese stall with 'farm made' cheese, a crepe stand; a pizza stand; and a 'patisserie' for cakes and tarts... and a 'frits' stall that did nothing but cook French fries all night. And beside each stall, you could buy fresh produce, i.e. potatoes, duck, beef, cakes, cheese, etc. to take home. It was a wonderful night!

What a day!!

We did a 14 km. (4 hours with picnic lunch) 'bisse' walk today in the alps. A 'bisse' is a man-made water course that catches the snow melt from the high mountain tops, and directs the water 'around' the mountain rather than 'down'. The water courses are either made of wood, steel, or are trenches dug in the ground, with small gates at various points which are opened when the farmer needs to water his fields.

What is so great about a Bisse walk, is that they are gentle walks, as they go around the mountain on a gentle slope rather than severe up or down. And alongside every bisse is a path. There are thousands of kilometres of 'bisses' in the canton of Valais where we have our apartment.

Well the 'Bisse de Claveaux' goes through forests, fields, vineyards... goes slightly up, down, and along. It goes through caves and alongside the mountain canyons. Vistas of the alps are magnificent. And best of all, it has picnic tables along the way, and a café/restaurant near one of the ends. Twelve of us set out at the higher end of the bisse and walked for 1 1/2 hrs, then had a picnic, and then walked another 2 hours to the café for coffee, then another 1/2 hour down to the road where we caught a bus to take us back up the mountain. Weather was a perfect 20° C.

We had a wonderful day!