Aperitif at Jean-Claude and Regine's

One of the neighbors about two miles away is also a good friend to our hosts; Jean-Claude Ayer is a dedicated horse man and he has two of his own and boards nine others for neighbors. He comes by the house a couple times a week to check on our equine charges. Last night he came over, helped clean Aleesha's hooves since she stomps around a bit for Walt, and then we went with him back to his house for an aperitif. Walt also asked him about the lime rendering he'd done on the stable, which looks great but is worrying Walt because it takes him so long to apply it. Apparently it is a very difficult thing to do and Jean-Claude never tries it himself. So that was sort of reassuring in a way. The sections on the side of the stable that he's done look absolutely fantastic so I hope he'll have the patience to keep going.

Jean-Claude and Regine have two daughters of their own and 4 foster daughters, one of whom is special needs. Reed played with the 3 littlest girls in the sandpile while we settled down for drinks and snacks with the rest of the family at their huge dining table - it must have been 18 feet long. The Ayers house and stable have been in reconstruction mode for quite a while; apparently two years ago it was so dry and hot that the lime mortar in the stonework dried out completely (it's supposed to stay slightly damp from rain) and the walls started crumbling. The house has been shored up and is being reinforced but the old stone stable attached to the house is completely gone. Jean-Claude used all the old stones and tiles to create a well-drained area below the stable where he'll have a sand paddock. The new stable is in the process of being built, they'd just poured one of the big concrete foundation walls yesterday. Huge pallets of concrete blocks are waiting in the yard. The horses live in a temporary tent-like stable which looks quite clean and cozy.

Jean-Claude is Swiss and Regine is from Charente-Maritime out west, near where we'll be going in about a month. Both are willowy but strong; Jean-Claude looks almost completely pale skinned and Regine is darker complected with short black hair and intellectual looking glasses. I liked her right away. She was wearing a drapey, clingy flowered red dress over red pants with black heels - as if their entire yard wasn't a construction zone and she was in the city instead of on a horse farm. Their oldest daughter just finished her first year of University, studying literature, and she had enough English to do some translating for us when we got into a pinch. It was quite amusing at times because Jean-Claude is from Switzerland he'd tell us one thing about pronunciation or usage and Emilie or Regine would roll their eyes and tell us another way. We also learned a bit about the difference between formal/written usage vs. common/oral usage. French verb tenses are many and there are lots of nuances that I hope I'll learn eventually. Right now just being able to say "We have been" and "we will" instead of just "we are" is a major breakthrough.

The Ayers are wonderful people, the hour and a half just flew by while we drank rose' mixed with grapefruit syrup, champagne with creme de cassis, ate sausage and cheese and bread and quiche, and talked and listened in French, relaxed by our hosts encouraging attitude and good humor. What had been kind of a difficult day - Reed acted up after breakfast in such a bad way that I had to ground him to his room for most of the day and Walt was in a snit about the lime rendering - was completely rescued by Jean-Claude and Regine and their family.

Regine served us two quiches, one with bacon and one with leeks, which she had used in a quiche for the very first time. Coincidentally, I, too, made a leek quiche the other day for the very first time, with some of the leeks we harvested from the garden. Last year's crop had to make way for planting this year's crop.

I made the quiche the usual way, preparing a pie crust and fitting it in a big tart dish. Then I finely sliced the white parts of the leeks and sauteed them in a pan with some olive oil and sliced mushrooms, putting them in the pie crust and pouring the egg and creme fraiche mixture (about 8 eggs and a cup of creme fraiche) over the top. Salt and pepper the top, and bake at 350 until set. It was a great combination, highly recommended.