Confinement three

Today our department of the Aube went back into lockdown. It isn’t much different for us, except we need to take an attestation out with us again when we go out, and we cannot travel out of our region or further than 10 kms from home. This will be in place for four weeks before being reviewed. That said, we have plenty to keep us occupied over the coming month both indoors and outside.

Yesterday we nipped to our local Intermarche in Bar-sur-Seine to stock up on a few supplies. There is no panic buying in France, everyone just does things as they normally do. There would also have to be some dramatic buying to reduce the huge choice of yoghurts - natural, fruit, bio, local, regional, alternative to milk etc. And since being in France, Brian has got a real taste for a vanilla yoghurt, so that’s a good thing.

We also visited the market, and bought some beautiful looking veg, and pleurotte mushrooms, we will have these simply fried on toast. A couple of chocolate eclairs, filled with a chocolate crème pâte also made their way home, they are nicely packaged ready to be carefully unwrapped and enjoyed with a cup of Earl grey tea.

Colour all around

The day started very well, we enjoyed a very pleasant relaxed breakfast in the garden. The sun was warming the courtyard nicely and we were sheltered from any breeze. Brian had put my window boxes out on the window sills at the front of the house, and seeing the ping of colour peer through the kitchen window at me whilst I was preparing our breakfast tray made me smile.

We sat overlooking the lawn which is dotted with hundreds of cowslips. Their delicate, yellow flowers seemed to have appeared overnight. I’m thinking the mowing will have to wait a few days more.

The little tête-à-tête daffodils that Mum and I had planted a couple of years ago were flourishing. I hadn’t got to see them last year due to lockdown, but it was so good to see them flowering now - a bright citrus yellow compared to the softer, paler yellow of the cowslips. The daffodils are looking beautiful next to the barn wall.

Dotted amongst the stones of the courtyard are tiny little blue anemones. I’m not sure where these came from. I did have some in Kent but thought they had died back, I’m wondering now if some seeds made their way here amongst the gardening tools. I do love them, such a delicate little flower, I want to try and get them to seed up the slope under the plum tree. I’ll have to see if I can collect some seeds and scatter them there.

Bedding in

We woke to a beautiful blue sky this morning, the air was chilly as the night temperature had still been quite low, bobbing around zero degrees, but with the sun now up the air was starting to warm.

I’d bought some plants yesterday so was keen to get out and plant them, but first I needed to paint the bedroom doors. Once I got started it didn’t take too long to finish the three doors that were left. The day was so beautiful we decided to have our first lunch of the year outside, so whilst Brian got the garden furniture out I went and prepared our lunch - quiche Lorraine and quiche poireaux (leeks)

I wanted to prepare three window boxes for the front of the house, and had chosen a real assortment of colour, so fortified by lunch I got stuck in. Plants here are not cheap, however they are good quality with well developed roots, so I’m hoping with a little TLC this year they will do well.

Tomorrow we can put them in position, but for now I will ensure they are well watered and bedded in.

Going bananas

I thought the bananas were going to be a bit too far gone for me, but actually they were just right, still firm but sweet. So I made three banana breads. I’ve put two in the freezer and we are enjoying one with our coffees.

Then we had banana pancakes for breakfast, which were yummy. All you do is mash up two bananas, mix in two eggs, then add self raising flour, just until it thickens up. Then simply fry them until golden. You can use GF self raising flour if preferred. We had them with a sliced banana, fresh strawberries, lemon and sugar. Brian prefers maple syrup.

Lastly, I sliced up the apples for Brian to make an apple tart. We used a roll of pastry that we had in the freezer, covered it with the apple slices, then brushed with apricot jam. So simple, but effective. It makes a great dessert. The remainder I have just sliced and popped in the freezer. These will be made into an apple crumble next week.

I’m pretty impressed with all the tasty things we made with the fruit and veg box, nothing has been wasted. I have one banana left which I will have on my muesli tomorrow - oh, I nearly forgot, the lettuce we had was an accompaniment to our steak last night.

Pickled

The strawberries were probably the most delicate of the items in my fruit and veg box, so I needed to do something with them first. I love the intensity of strawberry coulis, but wouldn’t normally make it as I’d want to eat the strawberries fresh. However, these being a bit past that fresh stage meant they were great to boil up and make a sugary sweet, bright red strawberry sauce - I’ve popped this in the freezer. The coulis will be ideal to use on some ice cream in the warmer weather, or on top of a cheesecake.

I then decided to pickle the radishes and the carrot. It’s a really simple thing to do and will be a tasty addition to cold meats, fish or in a salad. I made two jars from the bunch I had.

The recipe is a cup of vinegar (I had cider vinegar so used that), 1/2 cup of water, 1 cup of sugar, a dessert spoon of salt, some mustard seeds, black pepper and a bay leaf for each jar. Slice the radish and carrot (or any veg you have) and place in a sterilised jar. Boil the vinegar and other ingredients, then pour onto the radishes that you’ve already put in the jars. The key is to ensure you have super sterilised your jars and lids, and any equipment you are using. You need to store the pickles for a week minimum before opening, but they can be kept for up to four months.

One euro per kilo

In France the supermarkets don’t like to throw fruit and veg away that is past it’s best. So they box it up with various items in the box, a bit of a lucky dip, then sell it off for one euro per kilo. I bought this box for €3.74. It’s the first time I’ve done it, but thought I’d see what I could make from it. I wanted to think of recipes that I could use other ingredients I had in the cupboard, rather than buying more. Just a personal challenge more than anything else.

Late finish

I don’t think I could say we are enjoying our wallpapering, but completing the wall in the second bedroom, the Jeroboam, is extremely satisfying, and once again I think we’ve done a pretty good job. This wall was split into three, as it is the wall where there are two large windows overlooking the courtyard - it made it a little more tricky to do. We had wanted to get the job completed, but as it was a bit fiddly it ended up being a bit of a late finish for us.

The light floods into this bedroom, through the tall elegant windows and makes it a beautiful light airy room. I still have these windows and doors to paint but plan to get that done next week, when the weather warms slightly and we can open them up. It is nice to see this room very nearly complete though.

They’ve arrived

Excitement was in the air today, quarantine was coming to an end!

We were going to set off for our Covid-19 tests to allow us to be free to roam again, but on reflection, and asking a french friend for their view, we decided to leave going until tomorrow, which will be day 8. We will then have self isolated for 7 full days.

As fate would have it we needed to be here to sign for our Carte de Sejours. We can now officially live in France. Hoorah!

Time for beds

We still have a few things to do in this room, but we were keen to see how it looked once we put the beds back in there. So we spent some time fitting them back together, and making them up. It’s such a pretty little room and I love how the peacock wall has framed the beds together.

I still want to paint the doors and find some material for some little curtains on the bathroom door. I also need to clean the radiator, plus put the curtains up on the main windows. But these curtains are still in Kent so that won’t happen for a while yet. I bought a chair, some time back, which needs recovering, so I need to find some fabric for that and see what I can achieve, it’s not the easiest of styles, but I’m up for the challenge. But first we need to finish off the Jeroboam, which is the double room adjoining this. Have a look at the video below.

003

In January we were invited to the prefecture in Troyes to complete some formalities for our registration to live in France. In the build up to this we had received emails asking for more information and some clarification on what we had sent. We supplied everything that was asked for, including professional translations of key documents and certificates. As we had received the invite to attend the prefecture we hoped that meant they had all they needed and we could progress to the next stage. We had to take our passports, birth certificates and, for me, our marriage certificate. It’s tricky in France, as in my experience the French systems tend to refer to my maiden name as opposed to my married name for legal documents. So proof of marriage is required.

On arrival we waited in line outside until our names were called, then we were invited in and both given a numbered ticket and asked to wait in the waiting area for our numbers to be called. As there were COVID restrictions Brian and I had to sit apart.

There were three booths being used. I had ticket 003 and it wasn’t long before my number came up. We were obviously both anxious as this was an important day for us and our French still isn’t as good as we would like it to be. However, the interviewer was very patient, and spoke slowly and clearly. We just needed to provide our ID, and a passport sized photo along with our fingerprints, which they took digitally. 

We are now just waiting for our identity cards to arrive in the post, which does seem to be taking a long while, however the comforting thing is that the confirmation email they sent to us inviting us to visit the prefecture is what I used to confirm I was registered to live in France when I returned recently, so we think all is well - we just need to be patient.

Wall paper

Neither of us has ever wallpapered before so the task ahead was a little daunting, but as we’d said to each other many times before ‘what is the worse that could happen?’

We’d checked out a YouTube video on ‘how to hang paper’ so we understood the gist of what we needed to do. Brian started us off by marking a straight line on the wall using a plumb bob he had made.

Then time just flew by.

3 hours later… we love the result and can’t wait now to put it back as a bedroom.

Bread

I love visiting a French boulangerie, I always come out with something delicious, however as we are quarantined for seven days Brian is practicing his bread making skills and making us some. Which is similarly delicious.

It’s a very simple standard recipe, where all the ingredients get mixed together. Care not to put the salt and yeast right next to each other as the salt can stop the yeast from working. Once the ingredients are blended he then spends about ten minutes slapping it against the worktop. Apparently this is stretching the glutens. This is very therapeutic.

500g strong white flour
10g yeast
350ml of water
10g salt

Once the texture appears smooth and elastic to the touch he pops it in an oiled bowl, covers it with a tea towel and leaves it to prove somewhere warm. Once it’s doubled in size he scoops it out ready to cook.

It needs to bake in a 180°c oven for about 30 minutes. The result is a very tasty loaf of bread.

Picture Perfect

Brian had made me a beautiful coming home present. We had bought a painting together some years ago whilst we were in Cuba and it’s always needed a frame. Brian found an old frame in the barn, rubbed it down, cut it to size, treated it, then lacquered it. He also needed to strengthen it, so added a back to the frame before fitting it to the painting. I love it, the colour of the frame works so well with the colours in the painting. And it’s so good to finally get the painting framed. 

We’ve hung it in the hallway.

Tea in bed

First thing in the morning I really enjoy a cup of tea in bed, it starts my day. Without it everything seems to be more difficult. so this morning when we woke up to a power outage, Brians thoughts went to ‘how are we going to boil the water for tea?’ ‘Hmmm’, he thought, ‘I know, I’ll go and find the camping stove.’ So before I’d hardly woken up he had gone and found our portable camping stove to make the tea. I have to say I was impressed he knew where to find it, let alone think about using it for such an emergency. The tea was delicious. It wasn’t long before the electricity was back on again and we could get on with our very lazy Saturday.

Coming home

I’ve been in the UK for five weeks now, and although I don’t like leaving dad I am glad to be going home to Brian. This is a short video of my journey home. If it wasn’t stressful enough traveling during a pandemic, and having to ensure I had completed all the relevant forms and had all my supporting documentation, the weather decided to conspire against me, so the trip was not as easy as it could have been.

Vineyard Tractors

Some of the vines in the valleys are around 60–70 years old, the care and attention that they receive all year round continues to impress me, it really is a labour of love to keep getting the most out of them. The season for pruning is coming to an end, and what follows is a series of maintenance operations to try and ensure all is good for when harvest returns in August or September. The pruning is a completely manual operation, and one that’s frankly staggering in scale. There are just rows and rows and rows of vines, all needing a little bit of personal attention. Many of the other tasks however can be mechanised, and that’s where Brian’s favourite piece of machinery comes in – the vineyard tractor.

These insect-like machines are designed to stand above the vines, and are adjustable to fit the different spacing widths of vine rows that are found in AOCs all over France. They also have a multitude of uses, aided by more machinery that can be attached to the main tractor. At this time of year they can be used for ploughing between the vines, to help reduce the growth of unwanted weeds. As the year progresses though they will be used for spraying, trimming, canopy control and, finally, harvest. In Champagne though they will only be used to transport the grapes collected in boxes, as the AOC of Champagne doesn’t allow for machine picking.

Precious time

Later this week I will be heading home. I’ve bought my tickets and booked my COVID-19 test, which I need to take within 72 hours before travel. It will be hard leaving dad, but I am so looking forward to seeing Brian and being back home, it will be 5 weeks since we have been together. We have never been apart that long before. It has been a tough time, not just for me but for Brian as-well, not being together at such a time has been very difficult. Restrictions have meant he was not allowed to travel to the UK with me, but I was grateful I was able to be here, and share precious time with dad. Dad loves his home, it’s full of warmth and love and he is very comfortable here. So with help from friends and family and some assisted technology he will remain in his home safe and settled.

After my COVID test I need to take before I travel, which must be done via a private test centre, I need to complete a travel declaration form. This is for me to declare my reason for travel, and that it is valid according to the UK Government rules. I then need to complete an attestation to enter France on the validity of my trip, along with supporting documentation and a sworn statement that I have not been in contact with anyone who has COVID symptoms.

Once home, I will need to take another COVID test following seven days of quarantine. I’m just loving the supplies Brian has chosen, seven days will fly by.

What a difference a year makes

This time last year we had taken a few days off work to do a trip to France, in readiness for our move we were hoping to do later in the year. We hired a van as we wanted to take the old cupboards we had bought to repurpose as our kitchen, we also packed in anything else we could fill the gaps with, ably assisted by a number of little helpers along the way - Sabrina, Shaz and Pam. All packed up, we headed off with great excitement, and some trepidation, to begin to set the scene for our new chapter in France. We had always used the tunnel, and got used to their flexiplus boarding which gave us a stress free, fast journey. How easy that all sounds now! In hindsight it really was ridiculously easy.

7th March 2020

Over the past few weeks the builders had been in and reworked the ground floor bathroom. Previously this could only be reached via a tiny door under the stairs - it had now been split into two.

One half of it became a shower room and toilet, accessed via the library (which had been dismantled for now), and the other half became a pantry area accessed via an archway in the kitchen. What we needed to do was get the two rooms painted ready for Brian to start fitting the kitchen swiftly once we moved.

Oh how our plans changed, and oh how we had no idea what was going to happen.

Kitchen being painted

Dismantled library, new recycled door to the new cloakroom, painted kitchen

Local charging

We were asked recently, “Are there any car charging points near you?” To be perfectly honest, I thought no chance! Then last week when Brian visited Mussy-sur-Seine he took a picture of one situated in the centre of the village. I was pleasantly surprised, so decided to do a bit more research to see where else there may be one.

I took a look on the internet and found the ‘chargemap’ website. When I searched for charging points local to our house, I found there is one in the village right next door to us - Landreville . I can’t believe I doubted it now!

https://chargemap.com/parking-78.html

This is situated in the car park behind the Vival ‘corner shop’.

Back to school

Definitely one of the things that has always kept us both mentally lively is learning new skills. We have spoken about our French lessons, and of course we have our favourite hobbies, like cooking, DIY, gardening and the like, but we also like to try different and new things.

With limited interaction, how do you learn new stuff in a lockdown? Late last year, those active followers of our blog will have seen we signed up for a Christmas wreath making class, which was not only really interesting, but it took us out foraging for supplies and finished with us having two beautiful wreaths to hang outside. We enjoyed it so much, we started looking for more online learning, and that’s when we found MasterClass.

The first thing that got us interested was an advert for a course by Gordon Ramsey (we know he divides the audience, but he really does know how to get amazing flavours from food). So we took a look and realised that within the ‘Masterclass’ offering there are literally hundreds of online video courses by all kinds of experts in all different fields; food, wine, photography, writing, music, negotiation and so much more. And what’s more, they are all available for the one price.

Don’t worry, I’m not getting paid for this, just can’t stop myself, and I have to say the content is fabulous, beautifully filmed, bitesize lessons and experts brimming with excitement to freely discuss what they love and know.

Brian’s already watched lessons on writing/reading and wine appreciation. His favourite take-away so far is a simple description of how one expert builds a 100 point ranking for his tastings.

Apparently the rest of the lesson described how these four areas were to be approached – he loves that kind of thing. Me I’m looking forward to putting the learnings into practice.

Most of all though, I’m really looking forward to trying some different cooking with experts from all over the world, and being inspired to try something new.

if you are interested, you can find them at MasterClass.com