Party Time In Cormatin

After two weeks away, we waded though our mail and found a slip from Madame La Poste telling us to collect a letter from the post office. Visiting the Post Office in Cormatin is a traumatic experience. Anyone who has ever had the misfortune to do this will back me up on this one. The person who runs the show is rude, offensive, speaks at 750 km per hour in a high squeaky voice, intimidates even the most weathered Post Office goer and the woman in grossly inefficient to boot. I have long given up using the Post Office in Cormatin and I go to either Saint Gengoux le National or Cluny instead. But of course, letters and parcels are left at the nearest Post Office and so needs must.

After breakfast on Friday, I plucked up the courage to go and what did I find when I got there? The Post Office was closed. On closer inspection it was in fact closed FOR EVER ! Oh joy, at last, the long promised Post Agency was to arrive to be manned (or womanned) by the super efficient and very, very nice Fréderique, who worked in the Town Hall when Virginie was ill. Yippee! The minor inconvenience of having to go to Saint Gengoux to get my letter or wait until Monday paled into insignificance in comparison to this news.

On Sunday there was big party in Cormatin. We were treated to the following meal:
Pastry puffs of chicken with a mustard à l’ancinene sauce, followed by coquilles Saint Jacques with shallot cream, apple sorbet covered in Calvados, veal steaks with walnut sauce along with bundles of bacon wrapped haricot-verts and duchess potatoes, we continued with a plate of three cheeses and a light cake with cassis flavoured mousse, topped off with coffee and liqueurs. The white wine was Clos de Montrachet from the Vignerons de Buxy and the red from Domaine de Thalie in Bray (just down the road) and dessert was served with crément de Bourgogne. Not to forget the delicious nibbles Bernard made for the aperitif which was white wine with red fruit juice.

OK so maybe I am fantasising that this meal was to celebrate the closure of the Post Office, it was in fact the Old People’s annual dinner to which Cees is invited, now that he is over a “certain age” and I can go too (as a paying guest) but it did seem to be a very happy coincidence.

Monday morning came and we just had to go to visit our new Post Agency. Even though they had spent all day Friday and Saturday making alterations to the inside of the building, we didn’t notice any difference when we went in. But the smile and welcome we received were really refreshing. On top of that, Fréderique did her utmost to help us and everyone else that we saw in there. Even though she couldn’t help everyone to their satisfaction (the main computer had locked out and she was waiting for a new code to get access) she did it all with charm and friendliness. What a breath of fresh air. This will certainly save me some petrol, because I will be doing all my transactions in Cormatin from now on.

La Tuilerie Website