NewsletterMay 2008

What is this?

It’s a Tartiflette géante made by a company called Tarti-Fête. That’s a play on words as Tartiflette and Tarti-Fête sound alike, Fête means party in French. The main ingredients were, 90 kilos of potatoes and 110 Reblochon cheeses. This Tartiflette served about 420 people at our recent town fair. You can see other fair photos I took, including the Tartiflette géante.
Tartiflette is a traditional dish from the Savoie region. It’s made with potatoes, bacon, onion, Reblochon cheese, cream and white wine (if possible from Savoie). The word Tartiflette I’m told comes from Tartifle, which means potatoes in Patois (local dialect).
Reblochon is a rather smelly, soft cheese. Note: Don’t forget it overnight in a car as we once did! It’s sold in small rounds of about six inches in diameter. The word Reblochon has an interesting origin; it comes from the word reblocher meaning to milk again. The story I was told, goes something like this. Once upon a time people in Savoie paid their taxes in milk and had to give what ever their cows could produce. As no one likes to pay taxes, the people in Savoie would fool the tax collector, claming that their cows had given all the milk they could produce. Once the tax collector left, the cows would be milked again or reblocher, and the cheese made became what we now call Reblochon.

French Accent Magazine

I was recently interview by French Accent Magazine; my interview is in the April-May 08 issue. Interestingly enough there is an American on staff that lives not to far from me, who I met not long ago. French Accent Magazine is an online English-French audio magazine filled with information about France. The majority of the articles are in both languages. So, not only can you learn about France you can also learn French at the same time. There are downloadable mp3 files that teach French for daily events, vocabulary and even songs.

War Monuments

I recently added a few more photos I’ve taken of War Monuments in France. They can be seen here - Monument aux Morts. Some are from a few years ago but I also recently visited a local village, Saint-Laurent. The War Monument is somewhat unique with photos of those that died. I’ve never seen this before on a War Monument in such a small village.

Municipal Elections II Update

It turns out that the person who hacked into our mayor’s web site during the recent Municipal Elections does in fact live in La Roche and did work in Geneva. Notice the use of the past tense, as he lost his job, because he used a work computer. So now, along with being under criminal investigation in both France and Switzerland he is also out of a job. It’s unclear why the hacker attacked the mayor’s web site. An article I read left me with the impression the attack was random.