Issue No. 28

This time of the year in my little French village, the fields are filled with cows.
There are certainly more cows than people – this is farming country.
My favourite cow-keepers are Monsieur and Madame Pepperpot. Not their
real names of course but they are very petite and ancient. Lifelong farmers,
they are too old to keep a large herd but like to keep their hand in, and have
just three very spoiled, much loved black and white creatures called Marie-
Antoinette, Blanche and Marguerite – all named after famous Queens of
France.
I met them by accident as they live in a rather hidden part of the village,
down a woodland pathway off the beaten track, though since there are just
150 residents, it’s hardly beaten anywhere around here. One early spring
morning, a damp sort of day, mist hanging over the village like giant cobwebs,
the dogs, instead of going our usual walking route, ran off down the wooded
pathway and didn’t return when we called them. Following in their footsteps
we encountered a very large cow eating the flowers in a tiny cottage garden.
Our dogs loud barking did nothing to move the cow but out of the cottage
came a tiny old lady with white hair tied in a bun. Together we heaved the
cow back to its field at the back of their home.
Since then, we’ve become firm friends. Madame Pepperpot loves to cook –
robust stews, pies, tarts and flammekueches – the local pizza. Eaten straight
out of the oven, it burns your fingers a little but, she says that’s how it should
be enjoyed. She is famous for her rice puddings made with milk from her
queenly cows.
We often walk past her cottage these days and wave to her as she stands
at her kitchen sink at the window which overlooks her little front garden.
Always she has a big smile and will laugh as she watches our dogs run about,
excited at the prospect of finding another cow. It makes me think of a quote
by Victor Hugo “laughter is sunshine, it chases winter from the human face”.
Wishing you well from a tiny village in the middle of nowhere, rural northern
France,
Janine
Janine Marsh is the author of My Good Life in France: In Pursuit of the Rural
Dream and My Four Seasons in France: A Year of the Good Life, available on
Amazon.