this little lantern was the closest we came to pumpkin carving this halloween. in fact we had forgotten all about halloween until a group of village kids rang our doorbell last night, and sang for candy. because we hadn’t bought any candy to hand out, we looked at each other, and, like good americans representing a grand tradition in our home country, hid in an upstairs bedroom until the kids moved on to the next house.

physalis alkekengi (chinese lantern)

auitgnac, france

the grape harvest is behind us. hunting season is well underway. mushroom season is just beginning. and the chestnuts are falling everywhere. they have waited their turn very politely, and are now quite insistent about their place at the front of the line.

chestnut tree limb with leaves

lamalou-les-bains, languedoc, france

today the three americans from autignac blundered up to the forêt des écrivains combattants. that translates as “the forest of the writer-soldiers.” a whole forest dedicated to poets and authors who fought for france. there is perhaps a pertinent lesson contained therein about which members of a society should properly be remembered. writers and soldiers. not a bad group to honor. also, it so happens that somewhere near the highest point of the forest of writer-soldiers, there are a few paths lined with mixed firs and chestnut trees, and that scattered along these paths are occasional colonies of chanterelle mushrooms. we were surrounded all day by the sounds of native french mushroom hunters calling to each other, while we amateur americans silently pinched off the stems of a basketful of chanterelles. please don’t tell our neighbors. we don’t want to hurt their feelings.

chanterelle

fôret des ecrivants, lamalou-les-bains, languedoc, france

the latest exhibit in the “everything here is prickly” museum. the châtaigniers (chestnut trees) are ripe right now, and their fruit is falling everywhere up in the hills behind us, where the vines of the coastal plains give way to the oaks, chestnuts and beech trees of the foothills. the chestnut husk looks just like a sea urchin, except maybe 10 times sharper. that sounds like an exaggeration, but you literally cannot pick one up with your hands. inside the husk are the chestnuts, looking like flattened hazelnuts. fortunately, a lot of the time, the nuts fall out of the husk first, before the husk falls from the tree. but of course, it’s much more photogenic when the whole thing falls, and the beautifully smooth woodgrained nut sits inside the savagely armed carapace. bring leather gloves.

châtaigne, chestnut

lamalou-les-bains, languedoc, france

there are craggy dark misshapen almond trees along country roads and fencerows here, and they look intimidatingly spiky and black. even the outer shells of the almonds are black and forbidding. but then you remove the outer shell, and the inner shell is a warm, speckled golden, and then you crack the inner shell and the almond itself is sweet and delicious. the people here are much the same. a little crusty. and sweet at the core.

almond branch and almonds

autignac, languedoc, france