First light. Sophie is waiting outside the front door. She gives Angus a look that makes it absolutely clear that he should get a move on.Two squirrels on the lawn delay our departure. Sophie hurtles after them at high speed. She's still hurtling round the garden in hot pursuit long after the squirrels have clambered high into a tree for safety. 10/10 for effort. 0/10 for observation.
Our dutiful morning tour of the village. Goats, geese, horses and donkeys all checked. The horses are at the far end of their field so there's no need for Sophie to position herself, bravely, behind my legs. It's rained overnight so there are plenty of puddles to slurp from. Stopping at puddles makes our progress along the lane slow.
On our way home we make a detour to the general store. It is the only place I know where whisky is sold from a glass container. A very Victorian way of selling things. We're prosaically looking for some bayonet clip light bulbs . These seem to have suddenly disappeared from the supermarket shelves.
Weird and wonderful French fruit flavoured spirits are also dispensed in the general store. The older members of the local farming community stop by to fill up their hip flasks before a long day on a tractor or out hunting. A little rum and ginger flavoured armagnac an economical way to keep the inner fires burning when the mountain winds blow.
Timely insight and amazing bookstores : http://www.sixthtone.com/news/1005252
7 comments:
All the best to those wonderful Chinese bookshops.
When I was a student in Bristol my flatmates and I used, on occasion, to walk with empty bottles to a back street shop about a mile away (in a dodgy part of the city) where we could fill the bottles up wth incredibly cheap sherry purchased direct from the barrel. In retrospect, the 'sherry' would have been better used as paint stripper, but we did actually drink it. Happy days... Cheers, Gail.
Can't think that I've ever seen alcohol dispensed in anything other than bottles. Maybe somewhere along Leith Walk might still do it ?
Would love to spend time in the general store! The bookshops are a great example of necessity is the mother of (innovation)
Writing this from a Speyside whisky village (4 distilleries), and having worked in two Speyside distilleries and pretty au fait with the industry, I have to say that the "Speyside Dun Loch" is - how can I put this kindly? not one I'm familiar with.
Deoch and Doris was the one that reminded me what a sheltered life I've lived.
We were in Costellet in 2012. There was a shop with hoses attached to large vats of wine. It was a gravity feed system that one could use to fill up your liter sized containers. We thought that was pretty cool, one would never see that in the US.
FYI: the ampoule à baïonnette is more common in the UK vs. France, according to this: https://zoneled.fr/ampoulebaionnette/
Your general store looks wonderful.
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