Février: Introduction to le canard gras

While la Belle Garonne jumps out of her winter bed, and farms and roads are flooded all along the valley, including the ditch at the foot of my garden, I sing the sunnier minutes that February offers. In February, we see the first daffodils, feel a warming breeze to thaw the fat buds, have pancakes for dinner on Chandeleur, savor a promise of a chocolate or two mid-month, and revel
in both Mardi Gras as well as the presence of le Canard Gras, the Fat Duck, in all of its forms. Here, in our second volume, A Gascon Year: Février, I also look at the month ‘tween Winter and Spring with a greedy eye for fattening all of my senses…