Les canards and other things that fly

First, I must apologize to all of you who are vegetarians or who find it objectionable that the French feed their ducks the way some Americans feed themselves (I was horrified to learn today that some baseball parks now offer all you can eat seats! All you can eat of what? Does that stuff even qualify to be labeled food? Are they increasing the size of the seats?). Thankfully, we cannot get enough seats into Fenway for the demand--although they did just add new seating in the Coke sign area, I hope there are no all you can drink Coke seats! Hopefully, Boston will never have to rely on offering all you can eat nachos covered with something called cheese that was invented in a chemical plant along the Jersey Turnpike! Go Sox!
Back to the ducks.....and the famous foie gras and confit du canard. Our trip from Lyon with Jacqueline and Philippe had a purpose and being that this is France, it had a food related purpose. Our destination was Toulouse where we would make preserved duck-confit du canard and preserved foie gras with instruction and demonstration by their friend Virginie. The southwest of France is famous for their ducks. And these are healthy and large ducks.....
In order to make the confit, we had to get the ducks. We drove to the town of Gimont on Wednesday morning to arrive there by 9:30am so we would be there when the ducks went on sale. Please be assured that these are not live ducks, but poultry like you buy at a butcher, but with more parts still attached. This sale happens on Wednesday and Sunday mornings only. Promptly at 9:30, the man guarding the door blew his whistle and this crowd of about 30 people rushed in to buy the ducks laid out on tables for purchase. It is important to know that you rarely buy a duck with its liver --le foie-- as the livers are the most valuable part of the duck and thus sold separately --at 10:30 with the whistle again!
Virginie led us all in to the table of a producer who had the type of duck she wanted. We purchased the 4 that he had. We left with our 18 plus kilos of duck and waited for the sale of the livers. At 10:30 we joined that happy throng in a rush to buy the livers and snagged 4 good ones --we let Virginie make the choices-- they all looked like big gobs of modeling clay to me. Let me reassure you, this is an incredibly clean and antiseptic process --no blood, no smells, no gory details. Actually it is like that 6th grade science project, dissecting a chicken leg (you know the one that made you never eat recognizable pieces of chicken again).

Toulouse is an interesting place that must have been Spanish in an earlier life. However, it is the home of the pride of the EU --and France. It is the home of Airbus. Driving back with our four dead ducks and the livers of four other dead ducks, we got to see pieces of the Airbus 380 which were in transit to Toulouse for assembly. These pieces, the nose, the tail section and the wings are loaded on trucks labeled "Convoi Exceptionnel" and are driven at night to Airbus. They must close the roads to take them. They were parked in a fenced off area along the road that was built to accommodate these shipments. And there was a place to stop so you could get out and see the pieces--and many people did! You can get an idea of how big they are as they need to close the road to move them. My favorite sign on one of the trucks read:
"The seat-transport jig may only be operated by persons that were properly instructed and are familiar with the documentation especially the operating instruction." Considering what these sections must cost, I would hope that no cowboy would decide to move them!
We did take a ride to the Airbus facility and did manage to see a 380 on the tarmac. One large airplane! As you might imagine, this installation has been a huge economic boost to Toulouse and the surrounding area and the ability of the French government to get the assembly plant for Airbus is a source of great pride in the area --and for that matter all of France.
We returned to Toulouse and set up our own assembly plant to make our jars of confit and foie gras. Before we get started, let me answer the obvious question. Neither David nor I love foie gras. However, we prefer foie gras to the offerings at all baseball parks or other arenas of haute sports cuisine. We are in France and foie gras is cuisine exceptionnelle and we want to treat our guests well. Please do not be shy, we are happy to share our bounty with you! We are happy to eat the baguettes!
There is a French pun on the sign for the ducks --"Le dimanche matin, faites la grasse matinee a Gimont" the translation is "Sunday mornings, sleep-in at Gimont." "Grasse" is the adjective (in the feminine form, gras is the masculine form) for fat --which the ducks are, and they sell them on Sunday mornings--so get the fat (ducks) on Sunday mornings at Gimont!