Many years ago while we were living in Germany, some friends
told us of a place in the Southwest of France where they had gone for a “Foie
Gras weekend.” It was a B&B and you
learned all about how the geese were raised; how their livers were harvested,
cooked and preserved; and you got to do a lot of eating and drinking as well as
cooking and helping with the process of making foie gras. They also went on a truffle hunt. Years after the recommendation from the
friends, Cindy found the card with the contact information and started dialing
(email and Websites were very rare in those days). After several tries, the phone was answered
by a French woman who was happy to switch to English after some pleasantries
and questions in French.
It turned out that she had stopped doing the “Foie Gras
weekends” some years ago – this was 1991 and Cindy had had the card since about
1984, so no wonder - but she had just
recently returned to her home and had opened again as a B&B. She was amazed at how long Cindy had hung
onto her card and simply said, “We must meet.”
So meet we did, about 3 weeks later – our friends Brent and Kari joined
us in Bordeaux and we drove 2+ hours and found “La Borderie” in the tiny
village of Chavagnac.
We were greeted by the loveliest woman, Daniéle Delpeuch,
who welcomed us to her home. We had a
wonderful weekend with her - she cooked,
Brent and I cleaned, we all shopped, and the food was grand. Over the many
years we have known her we have helped her start a movement in France called
Cuisinières du Monde (women cooks of the world), and we have met her all over
the place in the intervening twenty-five years.
It was rather mindboggling this morning when Cindy jumped up
from the table with her New York Times saying Daniéle, Daniéle - and showed me this article. We are so excited for her and hope that the movie
will have lots of play in the USA. It
might even give us a chance to see her once again. Thought you might enjoy this. Cindy and William
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