A Tribute to Older French Women

Older French women invite you to Sunday lunch. Plan on sitting at the table at least five hours. They serve course after course passing the bread pouring the wine.  In between bites, conversation about everything and nothing fills the room.  As memory begins to fail,  much gets repeated. I usually don't mind. It makes for an

authentic French lesson. Older French women serves dishes like the ones pictured below. Nothing comes ready made out of a box. Everything is fresh and fresh tasting.

Pea and bean salad

Charlotte aux fraises

Very sadly this summer something weird  is going on with my digestive system, and I can't eat with my usual abandon.  Amazingly these older French women who are in their late seventies and early eighties can.

My sweet neighbor Marie-Therese who is 86 years old told me yesterday that she drinks a cup of coffee before bedtime every night and sleeps like a baby. What is her secret???  I love living next door to her, and although I  often don't understand half of what she says due to a very thick regional accent, I always file away a tip for how to age with grace.  We often meet spontaneously around 9:30 P.M.  I tend to water my potted plants at that hour. She goes for a short stroll at the end of the lane to look at the sky and see what the weather holds for us  tomorrow. No Google weather  forecasts for her.

So many older French women live alone in the village. I can easily think of a dozen.  They keep up with their friends and families and continue to invite people for the traditional Sunday lunch. And even if I can no longer partake as I used to, I admire their  unfailing tenacity in preserving this very old and honored French tradition.