We started this day slowly slowly and enjoyed our morning at Le Peinore. Then we went into town for a few ingredients for tonight's meal....no polenta needed!
We accidentally got to the van on time, which gave us an opportunity to hide from the last of our tour group. Alice is the look-out.
One van stops at the local ski mountain and hikes up the "bunny slope". This had a fairly steep grade and I believe we were near 4000 meters (or was it feet) above sea level.
The view from the top was splendid. Here are Bill and Rose Marie.
Driving down through the mountain. The ground between the trees was pristine. There were many areas when these were predominantly chestnuts and cars were pulled over gathering chestnuts. These are used as is, in various prepared methods (i.e. - liquor) and also made into a specialty flour, only available certain times of year. Antonio used this in his pasta one night.
And now it's dinner preparation time. The polenta is coming out for round two, and proves to be very enjoyable topped and baked. Jean is helping out with the bread.
Everybody gets into the act as we are serving our 17 tour members and 10 others including the singers.
Fresh melon is part of our evening fare. Look at how colorful the polenta turned out.
Nobody can figure out why Mimi wants to come in so much.....we've narrowed it down to wine, women and song!
The singers are in the house!
Notice the plates are empty....the crew starts off and sings a song or two and then the first course is served.
The full shot with the extended table....wow!
The first course is completed and back into song they go. There are the equivalent of canters that sing that particular song, and then accompaniment rolls....baritones, altos, yodelers and chorus singers combined into a medley that is phenomenal.
It is great that this is a mix of young and more mature singers, and the group as a whole has been in existance for 50 years.
This was how entertainment took place prior to television! The "tales" that are in the songs were translated for us by Antonio and Elena and some fell into a "risky" category involving priests and chamber maids!
Of course between songs, another course was required! This was the soup that Elena worked on much of the afternoon. Delicious.
An appropriate applause after an excellent song.
This is the main course for the evening...another delightful meal after Elena's and Antonio's guidance.
A good time again was had by all!
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