Home delivery

We had just finished supper, when Brian received a text from our neighbour. Translated it said ‘Would you like some courgettes?’ He sent us a photograph of 5–6 courgettes, which on first look, just seemed like ordinary courgettes. ‘Ooh’ I said, ‘yes please’. Within 5 minutes of Brian texting him back, he was pulled up in front of his gate opposite us, in his van. He jumped out, opened the back of his van and said, “Voila, livré à la maison”, which roughly translated is ‘Delivered to your house’.

I joined Brian at the back of the van, and saw them for the first time, ‘Wow’ I exclaimed, ‘they are huge’, thinking that we will just take one or two. They were more the size of marrows…award winning marrows! ‘Please, you can have all of them’ , our neighbour said, at which point they started to share some ideas for recipes for them. They had been grown in his mother’s garden, and I think they had plenty still for themselves. I have already used one to make sixteen portions of Ratatouille, and I’m thinking of pickling some, and wondering how I can use the rest. I have to say the one I have used was very delicious.

The award worthy courgettes with a potato for scale

The list

Brian has been doing lots of little jobs that were on his list. The list that never really seems to get any shorter though. It’s one of those things, it doesn’t matter how well you plan the jobs that need doing, new important things get added to the top of the list, and the less important things slide further and further down. But every now and then, Brian ignores the top of the list and does the things that are on his mind, and that he wants to do.

One of the things he did this week was to fix a lock to his workshop. The locking bar swivels on a central pin, then he bolts it at one end. Very clever device I thought.

He also fitted an old enamel table to the wall in the barn. It’s a table for me, which I can use for potting plants, or for flower arranging. I will organise it with some pots over it, and my compost etc. all to hand. I’ve no doubt though that it will need some shelves above it, so more for the ‘not so urgent’ list.

He has also been finishing off putting the last couple of bits of wood in the gap at the end, to complete his wall.

14 Juillet

The 14th of July is a major celebration for all of France. Around the rest of the world it is often called ‘Bastille day’, but in France it is called, simply, 14 Juillet. It refers to the storming of the Bastille on that day in 1789, a mostly symbolic day, as many of the prisoners held there were released prior to the event. Every village in France celebrates it, including ours, which, we have learnt, doesn’t seem to need such an auspicious event to celebrate at all!

It all starts with a flyer from the Mairie, outlining the days events and calling us all to action. So not being ones to miss an opportunity to get involved, we walked down to the Hotel de Ville to pay for our dinner tickets. It was quite busy when we arrived, and there were plenty of greetings to make.

On the day of the 14th, we arrived at the Mairie’s promptly at 5pm (well, 10 minutes late maybe), just in time to see the beginning of the ‘Jeu de Quilles’, or skittles. We quickly learned that this was not so much like English skittles, but was more akin to a mix between pétanque (boules) and cricket, with the large wooden balls being lobbed, with some force, at the widely spaced skittles. The children were obviously much lighter handed, but no less committed. I got off to a flying start with just 1 skittle knocked over from my three throws, but Brian did a little better with 4. It was all great fun, and at the finish we concluded that Brian had come 5th in the mens contest, but our French didn’t stretch to how well I had done, so I’ll assume I won, or at least came close to winning.

After this we all sat for a drink before dinner, buying drinks from the bar set up in the Mairie’s kitchen. Of course the main fare was the local Champagne from Robert Grandpierre.

As dinner approached, our Mairie made a short speech in which he announced the commune would be providing an aperitif to all at dinner. We then enjoyed a glass of Laurent Perrier…as you do at such a delightful event.

Céline serving up the Laurent Perrier

Dinner was a buffet of charcuterie, coleslaws, salads and quiches. All very tasty, and followed promptly by a selection of local cheeses and a dessert of tarte aux pommes...yummy. We all chatted away, mostly in our broken French, but sometimes in English, to those that could speak a little and wanted to practice with us.

At the end of the night, we all walked to the other end of the village under lamp light, to enjoy a firework display set up in the vineyards. It was a spectacular end to a wonderful evening.

The trip

As it’s a national holiday tomorrow and the ‘déchèterie’ (tip) will be closed at the end of this week, we wanted to make a quick trip to get rid of a lot of garden trimmings. So we had a quick brekkie and set off. It is such an easy experience and delightful drive, I thought I’d share our return trip with you - click on the picture below for the video.

Semur-en-Auxois

It was a gorgeous day yesterday. Actually everyday is gorgeous at the moment, the forecast over the coming weeks is sun, sun and more sun. It does mean we have to balance being out and enjoying it, against staying sensibly cool, but we will definitely be enjoying the pool when we can, and outings will be selected carefully.

There was a ‘marché des puces’ (flea market) happening in Semur-en-Auxois, which seemed like a suitable outing, so we decided to head down there. It’s about an 80 minute drive south from us, through beautiful Burgundian countryside.

Semur-en-Auxois is such a beautiful, old medieval town, set above a very picturesque valley, with a pretty river flowing at the base of the rocks which the ramparts are built on. There are lots of quaint old cottages built all along its banks. It really is very beautiful.

We parked up on the other side of town from the marché des puces and walked through the weekly Sunday morning market, which is set up around the church, to get there.

The flea market is situated under an avenue of trees, providing well needed dappled shade for the stall holders and visitors.

As always, we enjoyed just strolling along, chatting about some of the strange objects, and pointing out things of interest to each other.

The quality of items was very high, and we could have bought a lot more. I was laden down with a few bags of fragile objects, whilst Brian was carrying a heavy oak shelf and some interesting charcoal sketches, which were very old and delicate.

We were very happy with everything we bought, and really excited about seeing our purchases back home and in situ.

Makes me smile

On my drive home from yoga last night, I couldn’t resist stopping to take a photograph of them harvesting the wheat. The fields on the plateaus around the vineyards are quite small in comparison to the huge fields found across the predominately agricultural areas of France. It’s wonderful to see the rewards of all the hard work put in over the previous months now coming to fruition. It’s such a positive feeling of summer, and always makes me smile.

When I got home Brian had a surprise for me. He had located all the pieces, and put together, my sun-lounger which I’d had in Kent. I had asked if he could set it up for me in the walled garden, as I thought it would be an ideal spot to enjoy a quiet cup of tea, or a little nap between jobs. But he’d kept telling me it was broken and some bits were missing, and that he needed to find some bolts for it.

He managed to locate all the major parts, and in the end he found some bolts that were the right diameter, but the wrong length. He needed them to be screw thread at both ends, so he sawed the heads off and filed them smooth.

There were a few more repairs, but now I have my sun-lounger back. I will be testing it out later this week.

Ratatouille

The market was full of locally grown courgettes, tomatoes, aubergines, onions, garlic and peppers. So it was giving me a lot of inspiration, and I decided I’m going to be making some ratatouille this week - once made it can be really versatile, either eaten as a dish on its own with crusty bread or add some cheese or sausage to it. But I think it’s delicious served with roasted or grilled fish. I also bought some French grown peaches and raspberries - I will enjoy the raspberries on my yoghurt in the morning.

For dinner we enjoyed some of the fresh plum tomatoes with a beautiful mozzarella, cured ham and fresh basil from the garden. All washed down with a bottle of Saint Romain, which we’d bought on our recent visit to Burgundy.

Grey matter

A few years back we bought this beautiful little french metal seat for two. It folds up, so it’s ideal for storing over winter. It is, however, a little bit rusty. Only surface rust, but it is in need of some attention. First though, Brian needed to fix a couple of broken joints, which he has done with some stronghold metal glue. We shall have to see how that holds up.

Before I started the painting I rubbed it down with a wire brush, then painted on some rust remover. Once this had dried, I then started painting it. I used the same grey I had used on the railings.

It is not an easy thing to paint, due to all the little holes between the ironwork. But it’s starting to look rather good, and it’s given me some time to listen to a talking book I had, ‘Daughters of Cornwall’ by Fern Britton. I wasn’t sure about it when I first started, but I’m now half way through and loving it.

I’m now looking forward to getting the bench painted and making some cushions for it.

No snacking!

Last night we went to the cinema. That’s probably a little bit exaggerated, but it’s the closest we’ve come to a cinema in a few years.

There is an old disused train station, l’Aiguillage, in a small village near us called Polisot, and it has been recently converted into an events venue. They hold lots of different genres of music, dance and theatre, with something on most weekends. It’s all very relaxed, but nicely organised, with a home-made bar serving drinks and a small menu of food.

It was our first time there, and a film called ‘Champagne’ had enticed us to visit. During the summer they have been able to expand outside, but the cinema was in a smallish room out the back. We were a little early, so settled ourselves in with a couple of cold beers and a packet of rather tasty locally produced crisps.

It was always going to be difficult for us, as it was in French with no subtitles. Normally, at home, we would watch a French movie with french subtitles switched on, but we did not have that luxury here.

The room was soon quite packed, and as the film started, the door was closed and the blackout curtains pulled. It did not take long for the room to start warming up. Our beers were finished all too quickly, and we realised the crisps were just too noisy to eat. We were the only ones there with snacks!

I’m not saying I understood the film, as I didn’t, but we could follow the not very complicated story, and came away wondering how we’d survived in such a hot room, watching something we could not understand, but it was an interesting experience, and I’m sure we learnt something, even if it was just ‘don’t take snacks’.

Pot of gold

We woke early to another beautiful sunny day. We had a few things on our job list we wanted to get done, as well as having our last french lesson until September. Our diary has got quite full with guests and visitors through July and August, which is wonderful, so we are both looking forward to a busy few months.

First though, I have a tray of apricots I need to make some jam from, and pop some in the freezer for an apricot tart or two in the winter.

I haven’t made apricot jam before, but I love to eat it, and it’s really versatile when cooking, such as for use over a fruit tart as a glaze or in an apricot danish pastry. It was so easy to make, I just washed the apricots, halved them and removed the stones. I sorted them and put half in freezer bags and put them straight into the freezer then the other half into my jam pot on the stove – about 1.5 kg. I added the juice of 1.5 lemons, and 3 tablespoons of water. I brought this to the boil on the stove, then added 1.3kg of jam sugar and simmered it for about 15 minutes.

I then tested it to see how it was setting. You do this by dropping a bit on a cold plate. It was good. I had already sterilised my jars, so I poured in the jam and sealed them up.

Another gorgeous pot of gold sunshine for the chambre d’hôte breakfast table.

Déballe tout

Today we went to a déballe tout (unpack everything), in Loches sur Ource. Loche is a small, pretty village about a ten minute drive from us. The villagers come together and organise themselves to open their houses and offer a number of ‘vide maisons’ (garage sales) around the village.

It’s similar to a vide grenier (car boot) except you walk around to each of the houses, which are marked on a map so you know where you are going, and view their stuff for sale. There were 24 houses that participated.

We had quite a successful morning. Many items were really cheap, as the people had no stall costs, and I think they were really keen to get rid of stuff. It was a wonderful way to spend a sleepy Sunday morning, getting to wander around a different village exploring all the little streets and alleyways.

This is what we spent our €22.50 on. Lots of treasure for Brian!

Market day

I just love all the fresh fruit and vegetables available at this time of year. I bought a tray of apricots as I’d like to make some apricot jam, and also I would like to make an apricot tart. I think that what I need to do is research how I can store some of the apricots for tarts later in the year.

The raspberries are to go with the chocolate mousse I made yesterday for dessert tonight. And the courgettes I will include in a salad with a delicious fresh lemony, herb dressing. This will accompany the bavette steak that we bought from our local butcher. I’ve come to really enjoy a bavette, it has so much flavour. The beef we buy is from the Limousin, renowned for its beef cattle.

I’m so looking forward to dinner.

Tarte aux fruits

All year round the patisserie shops are filled with seasonal fruit tarts. I’ve been practicing making my own, and particularly like the strawberry and kiwi one. Brian has more patience than me to display the fruit, so I make the pastry and creme patisserie, chop up the fruit and then let Brian assemble it. I have to say it did taste rather yummy.

Mission accomplished

In between guests and other little jobs Brian has continued to work on his work shop. Today he finished getting the outer boards up, and I just love the eclectic look he has created with the wood he has found and used.

He needed to remove a steel post which he had originally thought could stay, but it needed to go, so out came the grinder and off came the steel post.

We then needed to nip out and buy some sheets of chip board to panel out the inside of the wall, as he will use this to store all his tools. It was a well planned mission, as I like to get to Weldom (DIY store) just before it closes for lunch at noon, as the car park is then often empty so I don’t have many obstacles to avoid with the trailer. Mission accomplished, the panels fitted in the trailer diagonally…just!

The next job was to fit them, and attach a worktop he had also bought to create additional workspace. At one end, he is using an old set of drawers we removed from the kitchen. These are great to lay out more tools, and store boxes of screws and nails, all the stuff that just gets buried normally at the bottom of a box.

He also fitted a trough at the back of the worktop, to throw screws and bits into if he is working on something. Helps him not to lose or mislay things.

Musee des beaux arts

We looked at the sky and realised we needed to head into the museum of fine arts, although it wasn’t just to get out of the impending rain. I do love the ambiance of a good art museum, and this one did not disappoint.

To the left as you walk in is an amazing sweeping marble staircase, which takes you up to the 1st and 2nd floors. They suggest starting at the 1st floor, but we felt starting at the top and working down made more sense.

We took our time enjoying the artworks. Chatting about which ones we liked, which ones we didn’t, and having a chuckle at some of the very strange characters portrayed, especially the drunks in the bacchanales.

As we descended down the building the artworks became more modern. On the ground floor there were some present day installations, one was a box that you entered on a small bridge which was surrounded by water, mirrors, and tiny coloured lights hanging from the ceiling. It was quite disorienting.

One very interesting piece was an illusion painted on a slope that went between two floors. As you walked down it, and turned the corner, the shape came together. Very cleverly done across a number of angled walls.

We had really enjoyed our overnight trip to Nancy, and we had packed a lot in, but left enough to return for one day. As we set off on the drive home, wine gums ready to while away the journey, we could see the rain clouds in the distance.

Ecole de Nancy

In 1901, Emile Gallé and a group of friends, mainly fellow-artists, founded the ‘Alliance provincial des industries d’art’, better known as the ‘Ecole de Nancy’ (School of Nancy). The boldness and strength of the artists that came to Nancy meant that it has enjoyed a place in history for art nouveau design.

The Ecole de Nancy museum is situated in the former house of one of the patrons and promoters Eugène Corbin. It’s a short ride outside of the centre of Nancy, but well worth taking the time to visit. They have recreated several rooms fully furnished with period furniture, which are simply amazing. The elegant lines of the carved wood, objets d’arts, and delicate glass are just exquisite.

The Masson dining room, designed by Eugène Vallin, is displayed almost in its entirety.

Nancy is now part of the international ‘Art Nouveau Network’ of art nouveau cities, created in 1999 to promote this remarkable heritage, and is one of the cities on the Art Nouveau Cultural Route.

This bedroom looks so comfortable with its soft curved lines, warm wood and softly patterned wall coverings. The lighting is subtle and incorporated within the design.

The stained glass windows were truly gorgeous. I just love this one, looking like an enchanted garden on a summers day.

The house has a small garden at the front and side of the building, which has been recreated using plants typical from that period, which would have helped provide the artists with inspiration for their work.

We did not manage to get to Villa Majorelle, which was one of the first and influential houses of the period. Definitely another reason to return to Nancy.

Nancy - Day 2

We woke to our second day in Nancy. We rose and showered, after a cup of tea in bed, and then we went out to explore the gorgeous city a bit more. First though, a stop for coffee and a chocolate croissant in the place Stanislas.

The sky was looking a little threatening, so the plan was to visit the musée des beaux arts. However, I had wanted to wander round the vielle ville (old town) first. You can approach it via the rather elegant pedestrianised road that leads to the Arc de Triomphe, just off the place Stanislas.

As you emerge from the other side of the arch the similarly impressive place de La Carrière appears, with the majestic government palace situated at the end of the manicured avenue of trees.

We took some time soaking in our surroundings and deciding on whether to go on further or should we head back to the museum now, as the clouds were looking rather threatening. We decided to head back, but as we turned a bunch of policemen rode up on their bicycles, we think they were practicing riding in formation, as when they approached the end they turned round and rode back again. I have to say they were very smart looking.

Something nouveau

We had arrived in Nancy after midday, and spent the afternoon leisurely strolling around the streets near to place Stanislas, soaking up the abundance of art nouveau architecture.

The reason Nancy is full of beautiful art nouveau examples is that in 1871 a number of patrons of the arts, industrialists and investors fled the areas annexed by the Germans after the Franco-Prussian war. They joined likeminded locals in Nancy to form and promote talented groups of artists, architects and designers. These included Emile Gallé, Louis Majorelle, Victor Prouvé, the Daum brothers, Jacques Gruber, Emile André, Lucien Weissenburger and many more, too numerous to list here. They produced original, extremely creative work using motifs inspired by their love of nature.

This photo is from the ‘ecole de Nancy’ - school of Nancy. I will share more on that later.

There was a beautiful blue sky, with quite a hot sun, as we approached the wide open doors of a very statuesque and quite intimidating looking church. We were cooled by the air spilling out through the doors. If it wasn’t for the huge doors being open we may not have gone in, but the blast of coolness enticed us in.

I took a quiet moment resting and absorbing the interior architecture and amazing carvings around the alter, whilst Brian wandered round enjoying taking some photographs.

As we headed back to the hotel to change for dinner we came across the place d’Alliance, a beautiful square of trees surrounding an ornate fountain. It was an area of calm, where people sat under the shade of the trees to shelter from the heat of the sun.

Stanislas

We have just taken time out for an overnight visit to Nancy, which is about a two hour drive for us. It is such a beautiful city, set in the historical region of Lorraine. The main square, called ‘Place Stanislas’, is a large pedestrianised space surrounded by beautiful, stately buildings. The Hôtel de Ville - a large, grand building - stretches the whole of one side of the square.

When we arrived they were holding a rather spectacular pole vaulting competition in front of it, and the square was filled with various other sporting activities like volleyball, rowing and running.

By the time we strolled back for our apéro before dinner, it had all been cleared away and you would never had known they had been there.

We had a beautiful meal at a nearby restaurant, just along the side of the park, as usual we were one of the last leaving the restaurant. We like to take our time enjoying the food and wine. We finished the evening strolling back through the square which was now beautifully lit.

There are two rather ornate gates situated in two corners of the square, both have stone carved fountains in them and look rather fabulous.

Stake out

With the recent high temperatures the lavender has started to flower, and although I have a couple of bushes that will need replacing next year, they are looking rather spectacular for this year. We know summer is really here when the lavender comes out and the hummingbird moths return.

My tomato and chilli plants seem to have got a bit unruly. I think I should have staked them a bit earlier. I need to try and remember that next year. However, they are all bearing fruit, so I’m so excited we might be eating something from the garden very soon.

I couldn’t help but share this photograph, of a gorgeously scented rose that is in full bloom. It is just so delicate and smells so sweet.