Thanksgiving on the road – Port-Ste-Marie (3rd in a series of 4)

We were invited for Thanksgiving dinner Judy Logsdon Dubois, a Canton, MO, high school classmate of Pat's, and her husband Francois, whom she met in the Peace Corps.

Judy and Francois live in an old farmhouse named Tremisat set in fields and orchards on a bluff north of the Garonne River between Toulouse and Bordeaux with fine views over the valley.




Their four children are grown, but the house is hardly empty, with their 3 cats, 2 birds, and a dog, Kribi. I only got a picture of Kribi.









For Thanksgiving (which we celebrated on the following Sunday), they had invited their 3 daughters who live in Bordeaux, grandchildren, friends and neighbors (their son was too far away, in Brittany); altogether we were a cosy gathering of about 20.

Finding a Thanksgiving turkey is a challenge; the French think November is too early for turkey. Turkey should be for Christmas. But Judy has located a local who raises turkeys and is willing to slaughter one early for her each year. She and Pat drove to the outdoor market at a nearby town to pick it up. Unfortunately, my picture fails to show the head and feet, still attached.

Thanksgiving dinner had all the traditional elements, with a few nice French variations. Everyone pitched in. Pat and Judy prepared pumpkin pie (with filling Pat shipped from the US). In the absence of shortening for the crust they sacrificed and made do with good French beurre (butter).

Judy’s daughters, two of whom have cooking blogs, prepared pumpkin tarte (no canned filling here), mashed potatoes, corn bread, and wonderful cranberry-pear relish.









Francois helped as needed and brought some pomegranates in from the tree in the yard to show the children.






Soon dinner was being put on the table, with the guests waiting for the signal to begin.


Also waiting nearby was a hopeful Kribi.














Dinner served, we sat down to eat -- the children at their own table in the kitchen.










All in all, a fine family Thanksgiving dinner with old and good friends - an American tradition transplanted to and enriched by France.

We stayed on in Port-Ste-Marie, visiting and enjoyed some nearby villages, including Clermont Dessous, a nearby small town with a 13th century Romanesque church on a hilltop above the Gironne .