A little bit of everything

Interesting start to our weekend - Thursday night R and I attended Cuba Si, le spectacle. I wasn't sure what to expect but I was happily surprised. We were told to arrive early so we'd get seats, so we arrived early and were entertained by students from the local piano school who ranged from age 5 to 18 or so. They played everything from classic to modern and contemporary. My favorite piece was played beautiful by an 18 year old - it is Yann Tiersen's Comptine D'Un Autre Ete-L'Apres Midi If you've ever seen Amelie, you'll recognize that it's from the soundtrack and is beautifully melancholic.




This week is National Mushroom week in France! Friday I went to my second mushroom outing with the mushroom club and learned a few interesting things and saw many interesting mushrooms.

Roger Fillion, the mushroom expert who goes with us is THE mushroom expert of the region and everyone in the mushroom world here knows about him. And another guy Jacques and his wife are both long-time science teachers. Both of these guys started the SEPNS club in 1972 before I was even born to study, document, and help educate others on nature and mushrooms (in order to better preserve it for future generations).

We went up Le Retord again (the mountain near my house) and found hundreds of varieties of mushrooms. Out of all of them, the edible ones I picked after some helpful identification from Roger, Daniel, and Marie-Christiane were these 5. And also 1 snake!




1. Latin: Laccaire amethystea
Dusty purple on the top and on the lamelles. Gorgeous!

2. Tete de moines (Roger gifted 8 of these yummy mushrooms to me at the end of the outing as we were all parting when he saw that I had only found a few mushrooms. What a sweetheart!)
Latin: Clitocybe Geotrope

3. Pied de mouton (Daniel gave these to me after he found a patch. They are really meaty, sweet and yummy).
Latin: Hydnum repandum

4. Chanterelles-en-tube
Latin: Craterellus tubaeformis

5. Tricholome prétentieux
Latin: Tricholoma portentosum

Plus this also: Latin: Pseudohydnum_gelatinosum
Even those these were edible, I didn't pick them..they were so weird looking!

Sunday R and I went to a mushroom/nature/bees/butterfly/beetle expo in Oyonnax. The mushroom world is a small one - we bumped into one of the guys from the first mushroom outing and also met madame le club president both of whom know Roger and Jacques. We spent hours there ogling the hundreds of fresh mushrooms; reading the different recipes; looking at several hundred mounted specimens of butterflies, spiders, beetles and other creepy crawly creatures. The president gifted me a little mushroom recipe booklet and confirmed the Helvella Crispas I found last week are edible. Upon returning to the meadows nearby, I didn't find any Helvella Crispas but I did find tons of coprinus comatus. Julia has picked these before in Germany where they are known as schopftintlinge!