My name is Jo, and in 2020 I moved to France with my husband, Brian. From our move to France, to running our B&B, my blog, which you can read below, is a diary of ‘Our French Adventure’. I share short stories about the Champagne region, and its people, and the life we have embraced here.
Grand frais
This week we had driven in early to Troyes to visit the CPAM office, as my temporary social security number will expire in June. Brian is okay, as although he still doesn’t have his ‘carte vitale’ (health service card) his Social Security number is not a temporary one. We had arrived around 9.30 and joined the queue of early arrivers. I have not worked out how to make an appointment yet, otherwise I would do. There is no email address, or contact number for CPAM, it’s just a case of turning up and queuing. I think we will qualify for an appointment later. Miraculously though we were invited in at 10am and followed a lady to a small interview room. She was very helpful and confirmed there was nothing for us to do, and all was well, just to wait, ‘Tout est bien…’ she began, and told us it can take up to two years to receive your carte vitale. So in the meantime, she renewed my attestation with my temporary number for a further twelve months. I think that’s a sign that we need to be patient.
A friend had mentioned to me that I would like the store ‘Grand frais’. That it sold a wide variety of quality fruit and veg, pulses, meats, cheese, spices etc. and that it also sells imported produce, which is not always available in french supermarkets, as they like to retain a seasonal offering - which I do love. I’d seen the shop a few times when we had visited the E. Leclerc hyper market in Troyes, but we had yet to try it out.
It’s not much to look at from the outside, but inside it was foodie heaven.
The produce was beautifully displayed with limited packaging, and was so fresh.
I did have to restrain myself from buying more than we could eat, so restricted my choice this time to fruit and veg, well mainly.
We came away with a wonderful collection of goodies.
Shades of grey
It wasn’t long before we were back finishing the salon cupboard doors. Brian had finished filling the first pair and was now working on the second pair. They were taking a lot of work filling, sanding and more filling, but they’re starting to look really solid once more.
I gave the first pair an undercoat of white, just to flatten out all the various shades of grey. Once that had dried I was able to paint them with ‘blackened’, the same Farrow and Ball paint we had used on the walls. I can’t wait to get them up, the plan is they will be finished in the next few days.
The cheese shop
We woke to a beautiful sunny morning, Brian suggested we wander into town for a coffee and croissant, before visiting the well known cheese shop ‘Alain Hess’.
The Alain Hess cheese shop faces onto the small park area in the centre of the town. It has an amazing selection of cheese ranging from local cheeses to french regional cheeses and imported cheeses. We bought some Cîteaux, Brilat-Savarin, Bouton de coulotte and Fourme d’Ambert. It is such a beautiful old shop front, with a cheese counter that reaches into the shop about eight metres long. It also sells wine and other delicious delicatessen delights.
We enjoyed a final little wander around town, popping into our favourite bookshop ‘the Atheneum’ and soaking in some of the beautiful sunshine whilst admiring the typical Burgundian architecture which Beaune has an abundance of.
We strolled back to the car feeling rested from our few days in Beaune. It’s such a delightful town, but I love the calm of our beautiful home and am happy to be heading back.
Indulgence
Whilst in Beaune we stayed at l’hôtel de la cloche. We have stayed there many times before, and have seen them make many renovations over that time. It is really nice to see investment into a hotel business. The rooms are very comfortable, always clean and we like the fact they have a small car park around the back. Although the entrance is very narrow, so beware!
I just love the trompe-l’œil they have painted across two faux windows at the front of the hotel.
The first night we enjoyed a gorgeous dinner at L’Ardoise. It’s a small relaxed restaurant just along from the hotel. Really friendly service, and a brilliant chef producing local, seasonal dishes. The second evening we went to L’Eccusson, again not far from the hotel. The food was very stylish and again seasonal with a distinctive french flair.
Apéro in Beaune
We made our way back to Beaune for an apéro before dinner. It had been a wonderful day, and we thought we’d enjoy a glass in the evening sun.
However the very changeable weather had other ideas. When we sat down the only table available outside was tucked in the corner under the canopy. That was fine with us as the sun was getting quite hot. Within about ten minutes of sitting down though there was a sharp, cool wind, a brisk shower of rain, and then an empty terrace. We were very comfortable though supping our glass of Rully under our cover.
Côte de Beaune
We hopped into the car and headed south of Beaune along the D973, which is the ‘route des grands crus’. The villages of Mersault, Puligny Montrachet and Chassagne Montrachet are all in this area. This is the view of Mersault from Monthelie.
Before visiting these villages though we wanted to drive up to Saint Romain, a small, quiet little village tucked in at the back of the côte de Beaune. They produce both red and white wines here. We had tasted and bought some whites the previous day and were interested to see the area. I have to say it’s a beautiful little village, and one I’d love to come back to and stay in. I suggested to Brian it would be wonderful to really immerse ourselves in tasting the wines from this small village, and what a better way to do it than stay here a couple of days, but that’s for another trip.
We found a nice little spot to enjoy our ‘jambon beurres’ (it’s a baguette, cut in half and slathered with butter, a bit of mustard and a good slice of ham). I’d made them up following our trip to the market in the morning.
We then headed down to Mersault for a wander around this beautiful Burgundian village, full of white stone houses, and majestic buildings. Mersault is an important village in this extremely wealthy wine growing region, and it’s buildings reflect that.
This is the church in the main square of Mersault, which has a very distinctive steeple that can be seen from miles around.
We then drove to Chassagne Montrachet via the village of Puligny. When we first visited this little village, some 15 years ago, it had a local brasserie and a couple of pleasant hotels. There are now probably 6 or so large 4* plus hotels, and a number of restaurants.
We were planning to do some tastings at a cooperative we knew in Chassagne Montrachet, but unfortunately when we arrived there they would only sell us wine, we could not do a dégustation. It became apparent that due to the very bad years of 2020/21, and their damaging frosts and then mildew, a lot of producers were conserving their stocks and not offering tastings.
There was concern again this year that the extremely low temperatures in the April dawns were going to be detrimental to the vines. We saw a lot of burners and mechanical windmills strategically placed throughout the vineyards, especially the clos of the Grand and Premier Cru’s. They are investing and working hard to protect their crops this year. Thankfully though it looks like a cooler March has meant the buds were not as advanced this year and the crop is mostly safe, for now.
Wet start
It started off as a bit of a drizzly day in Beaune. We wanted to visit the weekly brocante market which took place on Saturday morning in the square behind the market place, so we popped our macs on and headed off. There were only about ten stalls, but they had a good collection of bric à brac and I think that as the weather was a bit iffy, and not many people were out browsing, I managed to haggle for a couple of good bargains. I bought a pretty little crystal dish with two silver bows on the rim, to use for jewellery on my dressing table, and also a round wooden board, that will be useful as a serving platter.
We then wandered round to the food market to buy our picnic lunch, which we had planned to eat in the vineyards, fingers crossed it would dry up enough. It’s such a gorgeous market, the produce is so fresh and very tempting, it really inspires me to want to cook more. Asparagus has come into season, and I do love asparagus, so I’m planning to try out some new recipes I’ve acquired.
Before we headed back, to pick up the car and drive up into the vineyards around the côte de Beaune, we decided to stop off for coffee.
Côte de Nuits
It takes us about two hours to drive to the town of Beaune, the bustling Burgundian wine town at the centre of the Côte d’Or. It’s an area we love, and first visited about 15 years ago. We decided it would make a great place for a short trip for a couple of nights.
Our first destination was the town of Nuits St George’s. A place extremely well known for its Burgundy reds. There is a rather large producer which we wanted to visit called Moillard, they have been producing wines since 1850, and make some beautiful strong reds, which we were looking for. We did a really good tasting here of 7 wines. We then took a detour to the small village nearby of Vosne-Romanée, to take a look in a small cooperative that operates from a shop in the centre of the village. We tried just 2 wines here, which were both very pleasant. All in all a couple of successful tastings.
Barn doors
It’s been a very blustery couple of days. We have wanted to get the cupboard doors finished but it’s proved difficult to work on them outside, so Brian, not to be beaten, has set himself up in the wood barn to fill and repair both sets of doors. I had already sanded them down, but they need a lot more work. I’m hoping they will be ready for me to paint very soon, as it seems like he has been out there for ages.
Brighten up
I picked all these little spring flowers from the garden, they are popping up all over at the moment, it’s such a lovely time of year. The beautiful little pottery vase was given to me by a friend in the village who made it himself. He and his wife had come for lunch one day and he had filled it with tiny snow drops, it was really delightful. I’ve since planted those bulbs in the garden for next year. Now I think it’s looking gorgeous again, filling the hallway with spring colour to brighten up a cold and blustery day.
Coffee and cake
Coffee and cake this morning, with friends, went down very well. I really appreciate times like this where we can sit and relax and chatter to friends, they are very welcome moments.
The cake was a combination of a few recipes as I didn’t have all the ingredients for one. It was very tasty and I will definitely do a similar one again. It’s such a simple recipe and doesn’t have any fat in it. For a Gluten Free version just use GF flour. And for a vegan option use an egg substitute, easy.
Spiced apple tea loaF
Start by lining a 1kg loaf tin, then make your fruit mix.
fruit mix
You need 460g of mixed fruit.
I used a combination of chopped apple, plums (destoned and cut in half) and sultanas.
For the dried fruit in the mix, make up 300ml of strong black tea (I used Earl grey, but you can use anything), add 1/2 teaspoon of spice (I used cinnamon), and soak your dried fruit for a minimum of 2 hours in the tea/spice mixture.
Once the 2 hours have passed, mix together, in a bowl:
140g Light brown sugar
250g Self raising flour
Add all the fruit to the bowl, reserving the tea at this stage. Ensure that the tea mixture is still 300 ml, if not make it up with more tea. Then beat one egg into the tea mixture. Once beaten, add this to the dry ingredients in the bowl and mix thoroughly.
Spoon into the tin and bake for about 90 minutes at 150°c until cooked (I left mine in a little bit longer). You can check whether it’s cooked by pushing a skewer into the centre of the cake, if it comes out wet it still needs a bit more cooking. If the top is already quite brown, cover it to prevent it burning.
You can decorate the cake if you like, I served mine with a drizzle of icing. Yummy.
Hand wash
It was a cold wet start to the day this morning, so we were not up to going outside to work on the cupboard doors. However, as the glass cupboard had got full of dust during the decorating of the salon, we needed to clean it thoroughly.
It was a slow steady process of removing the glasses by tray to the kitchen and then either loading the dishwasher or, mainly, washing them by hand.
I’m pleased to say we now have a clean cupboard, once again full of gleaming glasses.
Vitrificateur
We were not quite certain on how to approach the floor in the salon. It’s a hard wood parquet floor, and had become a bit battered looking over time. We had polished it a few times, and used a mechanical polisher to buff it, but it is quite time consuming and I never feel it looks as good as the amount of effort we put into getting it to that point. So we were thinking of using a hard-wax oil, a product we have used before on the floor in the attic area. It’s quite easy to apply, but does need to be reapplied every few years, especially where it gets a lot of wear and tear. We decided we would make a visit to Weldom (our local DIY store) to see what they had.
We thought we’d not waste time looking, but instead practice our french and ask the lady assistant if they had ‘hard wax oil’…they didn’t. However, the lady we spoke to was very helpful and patient. She proposed us two other products, an oil similar to what we had asked for, but not hard wax oil, or something completely new to us called ‘vitrificateur’.
We showed her some photos of the floor Brian had on his phone, and after a lot of reconfirming what we thought she had said, we decided the vitrificateur was the product for us.
It is a varnish like product, but is ceramic based, so is very hard wearing. Before we started on the whole floor we did a test on a small area of floor under where the radiators will be fixed. We wanted to be certain it would work. All went well.
We then worked out our plan of approach on the whole floor. First of all we needed to do a light sanding of the floor. We did this by hand using a 120 sandpaper.
Then we needed to clean down all the dust ready to coat it with the vitrificateur. The first coat needed three hours of drying time, whilst the second coat needs to be left for 24 hours.
It has been a really simple product to use, the application is very straight forward. Brian brushed it on around the edge of the room, and I used a roller to cover the bulk of the floor. The end result is way beyond what I’d hoped for, so glad we took the plunge to talk to the lady at Weldom, and trust in her knowledge of their products.
Newsletter
Today we emailed out our fifth newsletter.
Brian started writing the newsletters to share information around what’s happening in the champagne region. He includes information about what’s coming, what’s on, or what’s on offer. Mainly to help our guests who are visiting our Chambre d’hôte to plan their trip.
This edition features some events that are happening throughout the summer. As we learn of more we will update you, but for now this will give you a flavour of what’s coming up.
If you’d like to subscribe directly for the newsletter please click here.
Nearly there
Our aim yesterday was to complete all the painting in the salon. It’s been a full-on two days, but we are both really pleased with the result.
Here is a little video of us over the last couple of days working to get it finished.
I do still need to paint the window frames but it’s too cold at the moment to be leaving the windows open to dry. We also still have the cupboard doors to work on, but again we need some warmer temperatures to work on them outside. I can’t believe it’s gone from 22°c to 4°c in a week. Hopefully it will warm up a bit and we can do them later this week.
Next job to tackle indoors is the salon floor, which has got a bit scuffed over time.
Bit chilly
It was a very chilly start to the day. We had a few hail showers, which are really not good this time of year, as they can damage the buds on the fruit trees and vines. The lower temperatures also can be harmful, so it will be a bit of a tense time over the coming few days for the vignerons as temperatures are forecast to drop to -4°c at night.
Today was a day of pushing ahead to get the painting in the salon finished. I was cutting in around the skirting, whilst Brian did the fireplace and around the coving. I also worked on emptying the left hand cupboard, cleaning everything down as it had got covered in a fine dust when we had sanded, and painting the inside before putting it all back. It will give me a chance to re-organise the cupboard as well.
Changing area
As our work goes on it’s sometimes hard to remember the beginnings, so it’s nice to remind ourselves of what we’re achieving. This, for instance, is how the area below the windows has changed. This area was originally blocked in with radiator covers. When Brian decided to just remove the covers one evening it exposed a rag-tag mess of wood. The work we have done to repair that has really tidied it up, but without losing its character.
Filling, Filling and doors
The panelling is really starting to tighten up with all the filling Brian has been doing. It’s interesting looking back through our photos and seeing how specific areas are changing. This is near the window, where the radiators will go back. Brian is adding a piece of detail to this edge, which will have more work done to it. It will be the completion of the frame for the return of the radiators.
Whilst all this is going on indoors, we took the very large and heavy doors off the cupboards, and I’ve been sanding them down outside.
It’s tricky
I had considered, for a moment, using our compressor to spray paint the radiators, but I knew that was going to be very messy and I imagined also quite difficult. It’s not something I’d done before, so I decided to paint them using a brush, or two.
There are four layers of cast iron channels to them, and it is really difficult to reach the backs and fronts of them all. I started by just doing what I could with a big 1½ inch brush. I then asked Brian for one of his old artist brushes to reach into the more tricky areas. That worked, but I still had to try hard to get all the inner surfaces, and the brush was very small.
It’s taken me three days to paint two radiators. I have to say that it really has not been the easiest paint job, but what better place to be doing it than in such glorious sunshine and listening to my audio book - The Newcomer by Fern Britton.
