The Grapevine is the place where you'll find all the snippets of information, useful or otherwise that don't really have a place in the main site. Not a blog or newsletter, more an informal account of our French country life & what goes on behind the scenes at Les Crouquets in the Perigord Noir!
Website designed & built by Elena Djelil,
Les Crouquets, 24590 Jayac, France Tel 00 33 5 53 59 58 45
Les Crouquets, 24590 Jayac, France Tel 00 33 5 53 59 58 45
DOMAINE des CROUQUETS
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Most communities have their own customs & traditions and
one held in this region is the "MAI". It was first started to
celebrate the election of the new mayor & council candidates and consisted of erecting a tree trunk outside the council offices & decorating it with French flags.
Times have moved on now though and nowadays a MAI is erected for all sorts of life events - moving house, a significant birthday, retirement and so on.
A wedding MAI will have two bottles of wine buried at its base - a red and a white- to be dug up and drunk on the birth of the first son & daughter respectively!
Also, now instead of just having French flags, the MAI will be decorated with personal items which are "borrowed" from the recipient by means foul or fair!
Along with the Mai, there is also the Tourain. We have yet to find out the true meaning of this custom but it basically involves getting into the recipient's house, again by foul means or fair & most importantly when they don't expect it, usually around 3am.
They usually ask someone for a spare key but they stop at nothing to get in, including slithering through skylight windows, dismantling shutters & doors or sending small children through big cat flaps to open the door! (All taken in good spirit I hasten to add!!)
Once in,the lucky person is wakened up by banging pot lids together. They are then presented with the Tourain - a huge pot of steaming hot garlic & onion soup with big chunks of country bread in it! Everyone gets up and the soup gets eaten!!
We have managed to avoid getting our own Mai, but Amar did get the Tourain on his birthday - at a very respectable 10pm!! My Mum was visiting at the time and I think our friends were a bit wary as to how she would react if she got up in the night and found 6 families tiptoeing upstairs with a pot of hot soup!!
As they say in Britain, "There's nowt funnier than folk!"
one held in this region is the "MAI". It was first started to
celebrate the election of the new mayor & council candidates and consisted of erecting a tree trunk outside the council offices & decorating it with French flags.
Times have moved on now though and nowadays a MAI is erected for all sorts of life events - moving house, a significant birthday, retirement and so on.
A wedding MAI will have two bottles of wine buried at its base - a red and a white- to be dug up and drunk on the birth of the first son & daughter respectively!
Also, now instead of just having French flags, the MAI will be decorated with personal items which are "borrowed" from the recipient by means foul or fair!
Along with the Mai, there is also the Tourain. We have yet to find out the true meaning of this custom but it basically involves getting into the recipient's house, again by foul means or fair & most importantly when they don't expect it, usually around 3am.
They usually ask someone for a spare key but they stop at nothing to get in, including slithering through skylight windows, dismantling shutters & doors or sending small children through big cat flaps to open the door! (All taken in good spirit I hasten to add!!)
Once in,the lucky person is wakened up by banging pot lids together. They are then presented with the Tourain - a huge pot of steaming hot garlic & onion soup with big chunks of country bread in it! Everyone gets up and the soup gets eaten!!
We have managed to avoid getting our own Mai, but Amar did get the Tourain on his birthday - at a very respectable 10pm!! My Mum was visiting at the time and I think our friends were a bit wary as to how she would react if she got up in the night and found 6 families tiptoeing upstairs with a pot of hot soup!!
As they say in Britain, "There's nowt funnier than folk!"
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People go to great lengths to erect the extra
tall trunks some of which can be up to 40m long.
tall trunks some of which can be up to 40m long.
A new house Mai
To surprise this family everyone turned up outside their new house at 11pm!
To surprise this family everyone turned up outside their new house at 11pm!
A wedding anniversary Mai
The recipient of this Mai is a keen cyclist & they actually managed to hang one of his old bikes from the
trunk!
The recipient of this Mai is a keen cyclist & they actually managed to hang one of his old bikes from the
trunk!
