DON'T READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU ARE A VEGETARIAN!
That is the best I can do as a content warning! If you go further and are offended, that is your problem.
One of the key features of rural summer French festivals is the pig roast. We were impressed enough at seeing four done for our village summer dinner festival, but the Comice is on a totally different scale. That was a 21 pig salvo!
Naturally the pig roast supervision was done by the same chap - Jacky. When we first met him, we thought he lived a fine outdoor life and that was why he had such a deeply tanned skin. Having seen him around a few places this summer, we actually realise that the colour of his skin is due to the fact that he has been hot smoked during the summer!
Each pig has many cloves of garlic pierced through the skin, and is kept moist by being swabbed at regular intervals with a mix of oil, garlic, harissa and herbs. This makes the crackling inedible according to the French, but we find it is strong and tasty, but does induce rather odd dreams!
For a dinner starting at about 8pm, the pigs go over the fires at about midday and turn slowly on their spits while the fire pits are kept going with a fine pile of firewood (realistically enough to keep us going for a whole winter in the case of the Comice 21). As each is required, it is removed from its fire-pit, then from its spit and chopped into delicious portions.
When we lived in Worcester, it seemed they thought themselves kings of the pig roast - sorry guys, but that is Jacky of the Baugeois!
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