How Sweet It Is...... by Honey B. Bingham

 Mid August:

Upon returning from town one afternoon, I was trying to parallel park the car in a spot which was partially taken up by a very old, well used Russian Lada 4 x 4. When I got out of the car I noticed my next door neighbor, a man of a certain age (that means older than I), is opening the back door of said Lada and releasing a considerable number of bees. He begins to unload numerous boxes containing about 26 honey combs. I approach him and  he tells me he has visited his beehives in the Montagne Noire and this is today's haul which he will process and offer for sale in a day or so. Since I am a honey fan and I expressed interest, the next afternoon he delivers to our door one honeycomb and one jar of pure honey. 

I thought I could suspend the honey over a container and it would drip in but being the impatient fellow I am I decided to squeeze it and ended up with some morsels of the comb mixed with the honey.

http://www.picnik.com/show/id/15818030242_P7BGJ

 Click above link to watch Brian and his honey 

Later that afternoon I sat with a fresh baguette, some Brittany butter and the honey. My taste buds were convinced they were in heaven.  So taken am I by this feast, that I sleep well that night firm in the knowledge that any bees which died in the production of this ambrosia have gone to "les abeilles" heaven and are being fed copious amounts of nectar by 50 virgin stalks of lavender.  This is one of those simple memories of France I will never forget. It warms the cockles of my heart that these industrious little nectar convertors remain blissfully unaware of the French government's mandated 36 hour work week! 
Long may that prevail! 
It is no wonder that Napoleon the 1st Empereur des Francais' used the bee as his symbol.

Quelle plaisir!