Barquette de beurre (barkett de ber = tub of butter)
We've all had quirky neighbors. Maybe we've even been those neighbors once or twice. My neighbors take the proverbial cake, though, in the category of "strangest butter tub usage". Our neighbors are sweet gentle people, but you see, Monsieur fancies that he's a bit of a DIY specialist. He's been patching and re-patching his house since it was built in the late 70's. I take it he took the "semi-built" option in which the builder left him to level the land, put up fencing/walls, finish off the garage . . . Don't ask me why I know this but it might have to do with a few electric posts used as structural support in our own garage. Apparently, "semi-built" was the way to go at the time. To hear him describe the camaraderie of the first home-owners in the area you'd think they had founded a kibbutz.
Anyways, back to the butter tubs. One day, after hearing him putz around in his yard for about a week we were surprised to see that an odd brick wall had been erected behind and around the hedges on their property (literally around individual branches). Being neighborly, we inquired about his health and his latest project and were quite astounded to hear that he'd made his bricks himself using the butter tubs as a mold. In fact, he lamented the fact that he'd had to tear up the driveway, also done in bricks. Why, you ask? Because he had to fix the drainage pipes . . .again. Why? Because the land had been leveled down towards the garage. Why? Because they enjoyed the yearly flash-floods. OK, ok, I'm kidding about that last one. Maybe he's trying to rival this other quirky Frenchman who built his house out of stones collected in his pockets.
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| photo credit to the one who went out at night and took the pic . . . |
