National Escargot Day

This advance notice appeared outside the Cafe Rouge in Farnham, Surrey, in May this year. Did any members encounter National Escargot Day activities? I was in Cornwall on National Escargot Day so did not line up for my free sample. In France some years ago I escaped escargot-eating with relief on two occasions and on the third, when there was no escape, I did try a couple, but gave the rest away to a French friend who really liked them. Visit the website www.caferouge.co.uk/ned to find out about this annual event and see their video of snails being served and cooked. There are two crawling snails on the home page, both Cepaea hortensis. They are probably both the same snail as one was sinistral and so a reversed image of the same film sequence. Another live snail on screen was Cornu aspersum the Common Garden Snail. This is eaten by people in France as “le petit gris” but it is Helix pomatia, the Roman Snail, that is the much esteemed escargot.