There are conflicting stories on the origin of the word "barbecue." The one I like, but seems to be false, is that it comes from the French "de la barbe à la queue," or from the beard to the tail, which gels well with the French habit of eating pretty much every part of an animal.
I've had three different barbecue events during my short stay in Picardie. The French have a slightly different idea of "barbecue" than folks back home. Here, a typical barbecue includes les merguez et les chipolatas. The merguez is strong evidence of the north African influence in France. Pierre said that before the 1960s, you didn't see any in France but now, it's an important part of French cuisine.
Now that I think about it, we had Moroccan tagine (lamb, almonds, honey...) with couscous on Saturday, and merguez and chipis on Sunday. A culinary trip from northern France to northern Africa!
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