Ma Cousine Pot-Au-Feu

The story opens with a sharp‑tongued young narrator recalling his upbringing in the austere, Jesuit‑run college of Poitiers and the sprawling family estate of Vaudelnay. He sketches a house ruled by an elaborate hierarchy, where grandparents, a council of aging relatives, and a handful of servants all perform their prescribed roles. Through wry humor he reveals how duty, ceremony, and a lingering sense of aristocratic decline shape his early world.

Within this micro‑monarchy, he navigates the tense rule of his grandparents, the whispered reverence for a grandmother who survived the Terror, and the covert power held by the cook and gardener, the only ones truly free from protocol. His observations turn everyday chores—sneaking into the kitchen, plotting in the garden—into miniature adventures that expose the absurdities of rank and the yearning for autonomy. Listeners are drawn into a richly painted 19th‑century world where family, tradition, and a child's restless curiosity clash gently.