Golden hour

Monday ended with a beautiful golden sun set. The vines are starting to change colour, and are highlighted yellow in the last hour of the days sunlight as it sets across the valley. It’s still warm at this time of day, although the idea of lighting the fire is creeping into our thoughts and will no doubt soon be a reality.

We had a really wonderful surprise this morning, as some friends had contacted us over the weekend to say they were passing and could drop in for breakfast if that was okay. ‘Of course’. It was so lovely to see them and catch up on all the news, although the time went too quickly. Next time, fingers crossed, they will be coming to stay for a few days, and we can catch up proper.

Good form

Thought I’d share a before and after shot of one of the dormers. It’s not that easy to see, but the builder was happy with the way the job went, and they are a good team of builders who we have used many times before. Not that I want it to rain, but it will be good to see how it performs.

Whilst all the work was going on outside, and in between fitting out my cupboard, Brian put a new shelf up for me in the kitchen. I love how he has cut it to fit above the stone, it really looks integrated.

Whilst Brian is doing his little jobs, and following on from the course I took last week, there are various forms I need to complete. One needs to go to our mairie, which I dropped off last night. We are actually getting to really like how the local maire gets involved in so much local stuff. I’m sure at some point we will not think that, but for now it’s useful being able to walk up the road and get things done.

Gurgle

It was a red wine kind of night, and we decided we’d like to try the wine we had taken to the tasting we had gone to earlier in the summer. It was a Ladoix premier cru, and we had bought three bottles (just in case). We knew it probably needed a bit of time to breathe, but we had not thought ahead and were not particularly in the mood to wait. So Brian said, ‘let’s try the aerator that Jerome had bought for us. We can test it out, and do a before and after taste’.

We first tried a glass that had not been aerated, and we both found it a little closed. We thought it had more to give, which usually comes either with age or decanting. Brian then poured a second glass, slowly and steadily, through the aerator. It gurgled and slurped it’s way through the funnel, emerging slightly bubbled into the glass.

We were both pleasantly surprised, the wine was definitely far more open and ready to be drunk. What could have been a lack-lustre experience was in fact a pleasant evening with a rich and fruity wine.

Friday lunch

We woke up to a misty, chilly morning, but by the time I’d drunk my tea in bed the mist had cleared and the sky was clear and a brilliant blue. I suggested to Brian that we went and had lunch at the brasserie in the market place.

It was a vibrant and bustling market day, and we were lucky to get a table outside. We decided we would go à la carte, and both ordered steaks. Mine was an entrecôte and Brian’s was a bavette. Our steaks and chips were delicious and we finished off the lunch with a very chocolatey mousse. A simple lunch but very enjoyable.

A bit edgy

Whilst in Bar-Sur-Seine last week we popped into a favourite little shop of ours, a Brocante. It is situated just behind the church, and on sunny days the owner sprawls his secondhand ‘bric a brac’ out across the front of his shop, just waiting for someone to discover their very own treasure. As we were perusing his wares, we spotted some garden edging tiles, which I obviously never knew I wanted until I saw them. So when Brian questioned “I didn’t know you wanted some of them Jo? “ I commented “neither did I, but I love them, and they will look great by the front door”.

Brian asked the price, and he was told he had 600 of them and they were 6 euros each. I’m not certain when the translation got mixed up, but we told him we wanted them and that, and we would be back soon with the car and some cash. I’m not sure if at that point he knew how many we wanted. So when we came back and said we wanted 18, there was a lot of repeating - ‘Dix huit’ . I’m thinking why does he not understand us, “yes, Dix huit “ I interjected with meaning. A lot of mumbling and grumbling and we soon had our ‘dix huit’ loaded into the car.

Brian got straight onto laying them next to the front door, and I have to say they look great.

It’s been shelved!

I have a cupboard under the dresser in the salle à manger that had always felt like it had never been quite finished off. And it was looking a bit messy. Earlier in the year it was used to hide some pipework that came into the house for the hot water.

So I asked Brian if he could tidy it up for me and add a shelf.

It wasn’t long before he had boarded it out and installed a shelf, he suggested I paint it all white so it looked more purposeful. It was a good idea, and didn’t take me long to complete.

I now have a really useful cupboard, where all my glasses and breakfast dishes are stored for the chambre d’hôte.

Top of the house

On Friday afternoon, M. Humbert came by to put up some scaffolding in readiness for some work we need doing around the dormer windows. We have found, with strong rainfall, that the zinc around the windows is inadequate, and we are experiencing some water ingress around the windows on the top floor. So as not to cause any major damage we are having them re-zinced.

They were back early this morning to progress with the work. They started with the one at the front, but they also need to do the two facing into the courtyard.

It will be great to get it completed as it’s hopefully the last major job we need doing.

Pottering

We were out doing a few bits in the garden yesterday, mainly I want to get the lavender cut. I just cut the flower heads off to dry them and gather some seeds. I’d like to make some lavender bags with it this year, so will be good to see how much I can collect.

Whilst we were out there a very brave praying mantis came and sat himself on Brian’s shoulder. He was a friendly little chap, and seemed very happy to just sit there and be walked around the garden.

I planted a butternut squash plant some while ago, I think a little late, but it has started to bare some fruit, so I’m excited to see if they ripen up. I just love butternut squash, so it will be great to have a small crop.

Vendanges 2021

Vendanges seems to have happened really quick this year. It hasn’t had the same busy excitement we have experienced in other years though. I think it’s because it has been such a tough year. They have tended the vines through harsh frosts, and then through the summer with weeks of rain, spattered with hot sunny days, making it ideal weather for mildew to develop. Not good for champagne growers.

The picking has been at it’s usual efficient pace, with teams of pickers working in an orderly fashion across the vineyards, diligently ensuring not to miss any of the precious grapes.

Unlike last year, when the vignerons were having to leave grapes on the vines as they had exceeded their quotas, this year they are being left bare. Many will probably need to tap into their reserve wines to make up the deficit in quantity.

Some growers have finished picking already. Some, who left it a few more days before starting, are still out there. Even this week the weather hasn’t been totally kind to them, with some days of rain making for a very cold, damp and muddy harvest. But today we have sunshine, and we’ve just had a final dip in the pool for this year. Let’s hope 2022 is a better year for them.

Friday market

There’s a stall at the market that sells locally grown flowers, along with all locally grown vegetables. Some I’m not certain I know how to cook, but I know over time I will discover some recipes. This week there was a ‘radis noir’. It looked a bit like salsify, but fatter than I’d seen them before, so not quite sure if you treat them the same. This week though I wanted to buy baby turnips, beetroot, some bright shiny green peppers, a few leeks and the last of the sunflowers. I got these for all less than 10 euros. Oh, and I/2 kilo of garlic, which was 3 euros.

The peppers will be fried off with lots of olive oil to accompany a piece of faux fillet (sirloin), and the turnips and beetroot will be roasted with our farm fresh, organic chicken on Sunday. What we don’t eat I will make into a delicious soup.

Lunch was fresh bread and cheese, and dinner was leek risotto

The sunflowers bring a flush of colour and sunshine into the salle à manger. We’re hanging on to summer for another week yet!

Who mentioned training!

To be able to serve alcohol in the chambre d’hôte we need a permis d’exploitation. It’s effectively an alcohol license. To obtain it one of us needs to complete some training. We decided, as I think my attention span is probably longer, that I would take it. Fortunately though, it was not going to be in French, as Brian had found a company called Aventum who provide the training in English, and better still it is delivered via Zoom. It’s a total of 8 hours of training, delivered in one day, which I have to say was a bit of a shock to my system! I had forgotten what it was like to sit in front of a laptop for 8 hours. My back was killing me at the end of it, through just lack of activity, I had forgotten what that was like. To think just a year ago I would probably sit and work for longer than that every day.

That said, it was a really interesting course, and we learnt lots of useful information. As it was a Zoom session Brian was also able to sit and listen to the presentations, which were well considered and made relevant to each persons type of business. I have come away with a few actions, a couple more forms to complete and a test I need to complete tomorrow online. Once I’ve done this, our permis will be submitted and will take 15 days to be sanctioned. The permis is actually for the premises and is valid for ten years. I think the idea of providing relevant industry training for people, either taking on new businesses, or starting up a new business, is a great support function and ensures a minimum level of knowledge is understood by the people working in that industry. We both certainly feel more confident that we know what is required of us from the French authorities in running a Chambre d’hôte and being authorised to serve alcohol.

Gougères

On Saturday evening we had some friends over for apéro (drinks and nibbles). I’d decided I was going to make some sausage rolls and some cheesy gougères, a kind of Anglo/french mix.

It was a really enjoyable evening chatting in both French and English, helping each other out when we got stuck on our vocabulary and pronunciation. It’s great though when you learn some new words and hear first hand how they are pronounced. And I have to say, the gougères were a great success, even though I think they were a little big, as were my sausage rolls. To drink, Brian served some very nice red Burgundy.

Below I’ve included a short video on the making of the gougères. Hope you give it a go, they are very moorish.

The dentist

It has been nearly two years since we visited the dentist, so you can imagine I was a little anxious for our appointment yesterday with our dentist in France. Similar to the UK, it is not easy to find a dentist who is taking on patients. The best way here is to ask friends or neighbours if they know of one, but that can be a long wait. Fortunately for us though a friend of ours living in Châtillon had heard about a new young dentist who was taking on patients. We didn’t waste any time in travelling to Châtillon and trying to convince the receptionist to adopt us as patients. It really wasn’t a totally straight forward conversation – but that’s another story – however we came away with an appointment. This happened in July, and yesterday the day had finally come for our checkups.

There was of course still the worry that our French is still not great, and dentists, like all healthcare professionals, have a language all of their own. I didn’t really have anything to be concerned about though, he was a really nice young chap, who was very calm and gentle, and between us we managed to understand what was required. Best of all, all was good with both Brian’s and my check ups. He also gave us both a clean, which felt so good after such a long time. All for less than 30 euros each, which I think we will be able to claim back via our health insurance. All in all, a very painless trip to the dentist. We will go back again in 12 months time.

Sweet and juicy

Vendange (harvest) has begun for some growers already, others are waiting just a few more days. We decided to make our own vendange and go blackberry picking, as we had been given a top tip by our local Champagne producer on where to go and pick some murs (blackberries) . So this afternoon we headed up to where he had suggested and sure enough, tucked away behind the vines, there were some very prickly brambles with some sweet and juicy blackberries.

We picked around 1.8kg, which is a good quantity to make some jam and a crumble for dinner. I have mixed 1.5kg of fruit with 1kg of sugar and one lemon, and that is now in the fridge. I’m letting the sugar dissolve into the juice which helps cut down on the cooking time. Blackberries have quite a high pectin content, and are generally quite sweet, hence why I am not using quite as much sugar as I would for some other fruits. Tomorrow I will cook the fruit and sugar mixture for about 10 minutes before filling some jars. Blackberry jam is such a delicious topping on fresh crusty bread, it really does conjure up beautiful memories of blackberry picking with my mum and nan when I was little. I have definitely inherited my love of jam and jam making from my mum.

The blackberry crumble I made for pudding tonight was oozing with delicious sweet juice, just breaking through the topping to give it a sticky chewy edge. What better way to enjoy a Sunday. Oh, and don’t forget the dollop of fresh cold thick cream - delicious.

Finally, shutter up!

Exactly 12 months ago today we started on the shutters, and today we put the final pair back up. It does feel good to know they are all done, and all the windows on the first floor are painted. I can see Brian just needs to put a pull on the wire that connects to the latch at the top of the shutter, that’s a 5 minute job tomorrow. But for now, that’s a really good job completed and we can finally tick it off the list.

“êtes-vous intéressé?”

This morning we went to the market in Bar-sur-Seine, the fresh fruit and vegetables all looked so delicious. To help me decide what to get I like to see what the local ladies are buying, and this morning it was bunches of onions, €2 for the red onions and €1.50 for the white. I’m thinking I may make some caramelised onions with the white ones, which is great as an easy onion tart topping.

The same stall had a few tomatoes left kicking around in a very big wooden box, they had also been very popular, I was taking a look at them, when he said “êtes-vous intéressé par les tomates, un euro pour tous”, he asked. “Ah, Merci monsiour, oui s'il vous plaît”. He passed me a bag and I gathered up my tomatoes, thinking I know I will make a ratatouille to have with our lamb tonight.

As we were leaving, there was a stall selling just mirabelle, tiny yellow plums - €7.80 for 2 kg. ‘Perfect’ I thought, I will get a couple of kilos to make some jam with, and maybe we could have a nice juicy plum crumble for dinner on Sunday.

I think I may have mentioned before, but fresh chillis in France are often not very hot, so I thought I would try and grow the seeds when we have one that is hot. This is my early first attempt, they have just started to poke through. Another few days and I will pick them out and split them into more pots. Very excited to see how this works out, but for now I just need some patience - not one of my greatest virtues.

A little jar of sunshine

Because of the warm start to the year, then harsh frosts, all our blossom on the plum trees was destroyed, so this year we have not had any plums. The problem affected a lot of fruit growing regions throughout France and hence prices have reflected that. As I haven’t any plums to make jam, I thought I’d look to make some from a different fruit. At the market they had some reasonably priced peaches, so I thought I’d give them a go.

After washing the peaches, I needed to remove the skins. You do this by cutting a cross in the opposite end to where the stalk would be, dropping them into boiling water for about 5 minutes, then scooping them out straight into ice cold water. The skin can then be easily pealed off. I must admit I did have some that didn’t come off that easy so I’ve left it on.

They then need slicing. That’s easy to do, cut around 8 slices, by cutting into the stone into the middle and carefully pulling the fleshy slice off. You need equal amounts of sugar to fruit. So 2 kg of fruit equals 2 kg of sugar. I used jam sugar, which has additional pectin in it, that will help the jam to set. I then used a method to help the sugar to dissolve into the fruit juices, you do this by layering the fruit with the sugar in a bowl, until it’s all used up, then squeeze the juice of a lemon over it, and cover. Keep it in the fridge for at least a few hours, I actually left it 2 days as I wasn’t ready to make it straight away. But it’s good to get this part done.

Not all the sugar was dissolved but the fruit starts to release its juice so it does also help reduce the boiling time of the jam. Next, boil the mixture in a large flat bottomed pan. It only needs about 10–15 minutes on a rolling boil. Check it by dropping a bit of jam on a cold saucer, I normally put a couple in the freezer to cool down ready for the testing.

You need to have already prepared your jars. Thouroughly wash them, then place in an oven for 15 minutes at 100°c. Careful when taking them out, they do keep their heat well. Once you have boiled the jam, and you are satisfied with the set test, you can carefully pour it into the jars. I have a ladle and jam funnel, which works very well to get the hot syrupy jam into the jars. The tops then need sealing as quickly as you can, as it’s the vacuum from the cooling jam that helps the seal and allows you to store it. I use some jam pots with the rubber seals, and some jam jars with the jam pot lids, which you can buy from most supermarkets now. If one of them doesn’t seal so well, then pop that in the fridge and eat that one first.

Mine haven’t all got lots of fruit in them, some are just peach jelly, but it will be good to use over fruit tarts or swirled in yoghurt or on porridge.

They look like a little jar of sunshine, a glow of pinky orange. I can’t wait to try it on some fresh crusty bread.

Brush stroke or breast stroke

It’s a very comfortable 30°c today. We thought we would get a few small jobs finished, one of those being ‘the case of the leaky tap’ - which I have to say, I thought would run and run. But once Brian had uncovered the clues, he was soon able to solve the case. Another visit to Weldom to buy a new tap which he soon fitted and the leak was solved. Very satisfying.

This afternoon it was a decision between going to the pool or finishing off the last set of shutters. The pool won.

Katydid

Yesterday we saw one of these little fellas balancing on the lavender. Apparently otherwise known as a bush cricket, the ‘katydid’ got it’s more informal name by the noise it makes, which sounds like ‘katy-did, Katy-didn’t’.

He looked quite prehistoric up close, with his hard shell and armour-like exterior.

My meadow is still in flower, and we were lucky enough yesterday to also see a peacock butterfly, such a stunning little thing. Brian had never thought he would get to see them as a child, as they are very rare in the UK, so it’s nice we have made a little haven for them to visit in the garden.

Sky’s the limit

What an amazing day out.

I’d mentioned to Brian that I’d seen an advert for a ‘gathering of cars and planes‘ at the aerodrome in Celles-sur-Ource on Sunday, and that it may be worth a visit. So on Sunday we headed off to Celles-sur-Ource to take a look. The aerodrome is situated on the top of a plateau just outside the village and up through the vineyards. Cars were parked all along the approach road with people picnicking wherever they could find a bit of shade. I say ‘road’, but many of these less used routes are just rocky, dusty tracks that do add to the feeling of being on an adventure. As we approached a man beckoned us up the hill, and directed us to a car park they had set up in a newly cut cornfield. They never seem to be short of a temporary car park in Champagne!

‘WOW’, I exclaimed to Brian as we started to walk toward the airfield. There were probably 100 old vintage cars there, along with old army vehicles, motorbikes and aeroplanes. It was an amazing site, and the whole event was free to wander round, the only thing you had to do to enter was to show your pass sanitaire.

We wandered around, admiring the rusty old camper vans first, which were parked up with whole families enjoying the day out. ‘We had one like that when I was a kid’, I delightedly pointed out to Brian.

Car of choice

There was all sorts of cars, French, English, German, Italian, American in all states of renovation. Owners proudly displaying their treasured cars whether it was a stunning E-type Jag, or a rusty old 2CV, they were all prized cars, and appreciated by the onlookers.

We then strolled over to the area where the planes were standing on the airfield. When I say airfield, I obviously mean a long, flat stretch of grass. This is very much an enthusiasts aerodrome, but very well organised. For 40 euros you could take a 30 minute flight up, but we were happy to just take a look. We were amazed at the variety of aircraft, and pleased to be allowed to admire them up close. This really was an open event.

There was also a good sized eating area where they were serving lunch for 13 euros, main, cheese, dessert and wine plus coffee. Or if you wanted something lighter you could buy sausages and chips, or crepes and, of course, Champagne.

All-in-all a great day out.