Je LOVE Olive Oil Anne
It’s the new year and everyone writes about new beginnings and new promises and habits and goals but I haven’t even thought of what to do for any of that yet aside from less wine and phones which is also a big cliché, so I’m going to write about finding Olive Oil Anne thanks to Peter Mayle and his cliché stories.
We aren’t the only ones who have read Peter Mayle’s books about Provence. I read them again when we moved to France and am now startled about how true all the stereotypes of the French countryside are. People DO tailgate nonstop and are truly aggressive behind the wheel. They DO talk about their next meal while sopping up their dressing with a last crust of bread. Everything DOES close for lunch and the sun DOES always shine…mostly. Anyway, Peter Mayle mentions an olive oil company in one of his books and it happened to be in Mane, which is right down the road from us. My husband looked it up to find that it was still open after thirty years! We decided to make an outing of it and were almost giddy with impatience to sample the local oils and to taste our surroundings in them.
We put the new address into the GPS. We weren’t too surprised to see that it had moved from the centre ville but we were a little surprised to see that it had moved to a commercial center outside of town. It was a long road with warehouses built on it. They overlooked the valley but any hint of French charm was far from sight and where we pulled into the olive oil shop felt more like pulling up to one of the many Cabela’s lining I-90 back in the states. There was a sign in the parking lot directing us to the tasting room. A bistro set sat in front of the door and inside the boutique was tiny. The tininess was a comfort. It was a little wing of their bottling factory. It was stuffed with different olive oil products and jars of tapenade and aubergine spreads and colourful aprons. A lady in one of those aprons greeted us and sang us her olive oil serenade and we had spoons in our mouths before she finished. They only had one oil from our region, the rest were from Italy and Spain. I would have tried them all, but she said that after three tastes, your tastebuds are exhausted and won’t work well. I thought that was a little funny and wondered if she wasn’t trying to save some oil for the next guests but she seemed sincere with her cheeks plumping and rosing with enthusiasm.
After our three tastes she asked where we lived and we told her and we asked where she lived and she lives in our village. We described our houses and we live across the street from each other and for some reason that was the best news. We all smiled so big like we just found out we were related or something like it. She told us about buying the house three years ago and how she has a big, walled garden and how she rents half of her house out during the summer, but it’s really separate from her house and I thought how I wish we could do that. Then I told her I was surprised I had never seen her before in the village and she replied that now that we know each other by visage or face we’ll surely run into each other more often.
We went home with oil and an oil pourer as she didn’t want us to have a messy tin. We didn’t think the oil was that great—that some oil from the supermarkets is better, but it was oil from close by so we decided to like it and use it anyway. It’s been a couple months and I still haven’t seen Olive Oil Anne in our village but it’s nice to know we have that connection of vicinity and oil and I love her cheeks. Maybe she uses olive oil for her cheeks because I know it’s good for that regardless where it’s from. In fact, olive oil is good for many things other than food. I’ve learned from friends and experience that all the following is true…just in case you don’t like the taste of your olive oil.
moisturizer/conditioner for hair and skin
massage oil
unstick most things like zippers or gum in your kid’s hair or old stickers on car windows
balm for sunburns
stop the squeaks in door hinges
polish wood furniture or revive wooden spoons and cutting boards
heal cracked lips and heels
lubricant for frisky business
acne helper
leather conditioner
rust remover
getting leftover wax off your body
fire starter
people connector (merci, Olive Oil Anne)