Festival de la viande

Eggs come from chickens, vegetables grow in the ground, cereal comes from grain, and bacon comes from pigs.  I remember quite distinctly being shocked as a kid when it finally dawned on me that you have to kill the cute little piggy to get the bacon.  This undoubted cousin to the Three Littles who so bravely defied Mr BigBad the wolf, met his end to provide me with my breakfast.

They don't take any prisoners in the Mayenne.  I played with the Evron Harmonie recently at the opening of the "Festival de la Viande", the meat festival.  It's basically an agricultural show, like I used to visit with my parents on Southampton common.

I went in to have a look at the show, and to get the free drink for having played.   There were all sorts of things on display, more or less related to farming; tractors, fencing, dodgy-looking veterinary tools, plus wine, double glazing, and the inevitable bank or two.   And of course, animals.

The cow in the picture below, having won the big prize, is announced as having been sold to SOCOPA (the local abattoire, and (possibly) the biggest single employer in Evron), to be made available in meal-sized bits via Super-U, a local supermarket.  And this notice in the Super-U itself announces the availability, in affordable packages at the meat counter, of the female Rouge de Près breed, Ermintrude, another prizewinner, whose preferred meal was daisies and grass, who liked running around and preferred Bach to Mozart.

I must try to find out if mayenne children are as naïve these days as I was then.  I kind of doubt it.