Colour pots

I love colour, and I love fresh flowers which includes winter bulbs, so when we were out earlier today I nipped into the garden centre to buy a few more hyacinths and some cyclamens. I wanted to pot them into some containers to have around the house.

For the first potting I used a soup tureen that I’d bought at a marché des puces. I’d never intended to use it for soup, as it was too crackled, but it makes a great bowl for bulbs.

I then put the cyclamens into a copper fish kettle, and used some of the moss I had left over from my Christmas foliage to cover the tops of them both. It really finished them off well.

A bit drippy

We woke to a very misty village this morning. The sun had risen, but there was a gloomy light from a cloak of mist swathed across the village. As I peered out of the bathroom window I could see the little brick chimneys all puffing out smoke, warming the houses below, from the chilly night air.

We were both feeling a bit stiff after our relaxing Christmas break, so I suggested we get back to doing our morning stretches. It only takes 15 minutes, and it’s a great way to start the day. We rolled out our mats and after quite a few groans we were both feeling much better for it.

What do you want to do today then?” I asked. “I’d like to get the kitchen tap fixed”. The tap at the vegetable sink had started dripping way before Christmas, so I’d stopped using it. “Shall I do it?” Brian asked “Hmm, that would be good” I replied. I think he’d been putting it off, as it’s not something he’s used to doing. I had lots of little jobs to be pottering around doing, so could easy keep myself busy, whilst he tackled the sink.

Out came the various tools, and washers - surely one would do the job. Unfortunately they were all a little bit too big. But not to be beaten by this, Brian took a scalpel to the rubber washer and trimmed it down. It needed a little bit of pushing in, but it finally fitted, and the tap was back working and no longer a bit drippy!

That’s a cracker

Boxing Day is not a holiday celebrated in France, however it’s so in our tradition of Christmas holidays it would be hard not to celebrate it. So, as an English couple living in France, we still enjoy the last holiday of the year - 26th December.

Boxing Day came about in Queen Victoria’s reign, when the gentry would wrap up presents for their staff, or those in need, and hand them out. People would be seen across the country carrying boxed up items to share with others. So it was called Boxing Day.

Another tradition, which France doesn’t experience, is the Christmas cracker. Our friend made us some beautiful personalised crackers…

…filled with very appropriate gifts for us.

The jokes inside are just as bad as they ever were, but a little more modern. “What did Santa do when he went speed dating?”

“He pulled a cracker.”

Little collections

The house is looking gorgeous this year, we’ve really been enjoying our rather large tree, and I’ve made little collections of colour around the rooms.

In the entrance hall, I’ve included some green foliage and hung a beautiful moss Christmas crown that I was given, it’s such a vibrant green and very welcoming.

We bought a little china reindeer as a memory of our trip to Dijon, and it’s now placed on a beautiful round, mirrored charger plate with my collection of vintage glass decanter stoppers.

We were also sent a darling little Christmas tree cut out of card, with tiny red hearts on it. It looks wonderful on the tree spinning around to its own tune, it’s a perfect addition to the Christmas feel.

Tasty start

We had bought a beautiful langoustine from the market the day before Christmas Eve in Bar-sur-Seine. Brian had prepared it, and chosen a gorgeous bottle of Chablis Grand cru by Julian Brocard, ‘les Preuses’, to have with dinner. I’d steamed off some new potatoes, and made a tasty salad, accompanied by a home-made avocado mayonnaise.

It was an easy, but a really tasty start to our Christmas.

Foxy

We woke a little late today, on Christmas Eve, such a glorious day. After our cup of tea in bed, delicately lit by the fairy lights that we had draped over the beams above our bed, we made our way downstairs to greet the day.

A friend had visited for drinks last night, and after our celebratory glass or two of Champagne, Brian mixed us some rather delightful gin and tonics. He used the gin we’d bought at the gin tasting we’d been to at L’instant Gourmet, in Bar-sur-Seine earlier in the year.

He’d mixed it with some Schweppes low calorie tonics, added a slice of lemon and lots of ice. It had a wonderful citrus flavour with floral notes coming through, really subtle and very refreshing. It was a lovely evening just spent catching up.

First things first though this morning, it was the last day of my advent gifts. I have enjoyed opening some beautiful little gifts each day, little treasures bought with thought and lots of love, it’s brought us both real joy.

The final one was wrapped in a little white box with raffia tied around it. What could it be?

Inside, delicately wrapped in white tissue, was a little pottery brooch in the shape of a foxes head - a crafty little woodland creature. I will thoroughly enjoy wearing him.

Printen

We had been given some biscuits from a German family who had stayed during the summer. They are made locally to them, in Aachen, and they thought we’d be interested to try them, which was such a generous gesture. We had decided to keep them for Christmas as they are full of rich, spicy Christmas flavours, including base ingredients of honey and hazelnuts.

They are not a hard biscuit, although I understand you can get a hard variety, these are soft, a bit like a soft cookie. They are going down very well, and absolutely delicious with our morning coffee.

What, no popcorn?

Our movie day was going well. W’ed already enjoyed the Muppet Christmas Carol and a tasty brekkie. We decided on a change of pace for our next movie, and chose a classic black and white film ‘it’s a wonderful life’.

It has been a while since I’d seen it and I’d certainly forgotten quite how hard hitting I found it in places. That said, it is a beautiful film with some beautiful messages, and one I will still watch again.

Our friends last week brought us some bagels over, something I haven’t been able to buy locally here. I do love a smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel, so we had bought some smoked salmon from the market on Friday especially. Brian made up the bagels for lunch, accompanied, of course, a bottle of bubbly.

He chose a bottle of Devaux (Cuvee D) from a local producer in Bar-sur-Seine.

For our next viewing, we decided that we would choose a James Bond movie, as it is so typically Christmas for us. We both remember sitting down on Christmas afternoon to watch the James Bond movies on TV. The difficult thing though, was which one.

I’m thinking there will be a few of you out there who can guess which movie it was from the photograph (top left), so before I say, we’ll see if anyone guesses it.

We had thought we’d get to watch 4 movies, but the day had just flown by - we hadn’t even eaten our popcorn. Instead of choosing a movie for our final selection of the day, we put on a Christmas episode of ‘Gordon, Gino and Fred’ from 2017. I know they are a bit ‘Marmite’, you either love them or hate them, but we think they are hilarious.

The day ended on a delicious dessert from ‘Maison Caffet’. Yum!

Xmas lights

Today is ‘movie day’. That’s a pre Christmas Day of relaxation, a spectacular day watching Christmas films and eating yummy nibbles.

I just love coming downstairs and switching the Christmas tree lights on ready to enjoy the day, it really sets the day up.

Whilst Brian brought some logs in and got the fire ready, I prepared us some breakfast which we enjoyed in the salon.

We started off the day with the Muppets version of a Christmas Carol. A light hearted start to our day, accompanied with a sausage roll and little tipple.

Mini Advent(ure)

I nipped across to my little buanderie, laundry room, to pop some washing on before we sat down for breakfast. It is positively balmy outside today. What a difference a night makes. I get my petit chores out of the way first, because I know I have a surprise waiting.

This year Brian had made me a personalised advent calendar. He bought an undecorated wooden box some months ago, which has 24 little drawers in it. Somehow he found the time to paint it, decorate it, and buy lots of little presents to go into it… all for me!

I have felt thoroughly spoilt, as each morning before brekkie I’ve visited the appropriate drawer and enjoyed opening some darling little presents.

Some days though, the drawer has just a note, as the present he’d bought didn’t quite fit. The note tells me to look for the Christmas pudding.

The Christmas pudding is a red cloth bag, which he hides somewhere in the salle à manger.

I’ve had some amazing gifts - bracelets, tiny vases, a couple of dishes (which I will use for rings and things on my dressing table), socks, gloves, and some tasty sweet treats. And it’s still only the 19th!

Marché de Noël

It’s been an absolute delight visiting all the different Christmas events around the local villages this year.

We visited one in Loches-sur-Ource on Sunday morning, which was a delightful community event. There was a little pony ride and face painting for the children, and Santa was there handing out chocolates and having his photograph taken with the children and adults. There were a few stalls selling crafts, and they had set a stall up, just inside the church selling beer, Champagne and, of course, vin chaud. We bought a couple of vin chauds and stood by the brazier, keeping warm and chatting to one of our neighbours from Vivier.

We then headed into Les Riceys, as I’d heard from a friend that there was a market there in the square. They had decorated the parking area, turning it into a wonderful, winter Christmas scene.

It was all so delightful, I just love the creativity and all the effort that goes into making such darling displays.

Just Snowing

We woke this morning to a sprinkling of snow. The view from our top floor bathroom window was delightful, looking out over the village towards the church and up into the vineyards. It looked like they had been dusted with icing sugar.

It was Friday morning and I wanted to nip to the market, so we dressed for the weather in big jumpers and boots.

It was good to see that the cold weather had not put the stall holders off, although they had closed one of the entrances to the main indoor part of the market.

Santa had found himself a good spot selling vin chaud as a sideline.

Troyes -4°c

Whilst our friends were here we made a trip into Troyes. It was extremely cold, at -4°c, so strolling around the historic streets doing a little bit of sightseeing and Christmas shopping was a little nippy. We did discover though that all but one of the museums in Troyes are currently free to enter, and as it was so cold we decided to visit one to help warm ourselves up. We chose the Musee Vauluisant.

The building of the Vauluisant Museum dates from the 16th century and currently houses the Museum of Troyan Art and the Museum of Hosiery.

At the start of the 16th century, Troyes had an exceptional school of painting, sculpture and stained glass. Many of the masterpieces can be seen in the churches around Troyes and southern Champagne, along with some exhibits that can be seen in this museum.

The Hosiery Museum, which was first created in 1948 shows the history of a flourishing textile industry which had major importance in this region. There are some superb collections of looms and knitting machines, alongside more up to date exhibits of the clothing icons that were created in Troyes, such as Lacoste and Le Coq Sportif.

It was an excellent little distraction, such a beautiful old building being used to display some very exquisite pieces. Well worth a visit.

Even though it had been a tad chilly we had a wonderful day, supping hot chocolate in warm cosy cafés, buying Christmas presents in beautiful, unique boutiques and exploring the historic streets, buildings and museums of Troyes.

A Chilly Walk

We had some friends visit this week, and we spent a wonderful few days together, catching up on what’s been happening, cooking and eating yummy food, and enjoying some delicious local wines.

We also found time in this busy schedule to enjoy a rather chilly walk through the vineyards and forests that surround us. We walked up into the woods at the back of the village and then across the fields, which were full of winter vegetables.

It was delightful just to enjoy some quiet time together and talk about all the little things in life.

Winter foliage

I had wanted us to get our winter door decorations made. I could only find one of my wreath rings, so Brian decided he would make a swag for the gate, and I would make a wreath, or crown as it’s known in France, for the door.

I still had the old dried moss attached to the ring, and I thought I’d leave this in place to give more body to it, but I think after this year I will need to remove it. It didn’t take long to cover it in fresh moss and start to attach the foliage we’d collected before we went to Dijon.

Although we hadn’t found any Holly, we had found some red rose hips, which we used for colour. I tied a beautiful gold ribbon onto it, and we fixed it to the front door.

Brian made a swag for the front gate, which I think looks gorgeous. It’s more natural, and looks great against the peeling paintwork of the gate.

I think that paint job needs to go on the list for spring!

Dijon market

In the morning, as if we hadn’t eaten enough, we headed to the marché des halles for breakfast. I bought us a couple of pain aux raisins, and we went and found a pleasant little café to enjoy them, whilst sitting outside with a grand crème (milky coffee). Our view was of the spectacular iron and glass structure of the market. The building was inspired by the Eiffel company, but it was the plans of engineer Louis-Clément Weinberger that were used for the building, which took 5 years to build. It was opened in 1875, and is now a listed Historical Monument.

It started our day very well.

The market in Dijon is open most days, but on a Friday they also have additional local stalls around the outside. The place was full, and bustling with all sorts of people looking for something tasty to eat.

We came away rather laden with bags of delicious delights.

Cibo

The restaurant we had come to try in Dijon was literally 5 minutes from the hotel, so - all wrapped up - we headed there for our 7.30pm reservation.

We had a very friendly greeting, and were their first customers of the evening to arrive, so they asked us if we wanted to sit at the ‘counter’ or take one of the tables for two. We thought the counter, or ‘chefs table’ as we would call it, looked the prime spot.

We settled in for our ten course tasting menu, starting with 2 small dishes of canapés, which we enjoyed with an absinthe based cocktail. Not something I would usually choose, however it went really well with the first dishes, being both very refreshing and a little savoury.

The restaurant was starting to fill up, although our attention was all on the three chefs, working calmly and diligently together in the compact kitchen.

We had chosen our wine, a red Burgundy of course, and were now being served our various courses. Each one was presented with care and consideration, and with an explanation of what we were about to taste. The evening was relaxed and everything we hoped it would be. I love discovering a little jewel like this.

Dijon all lit up

As early evening came we wandered along the cobbled streets and through the stalls of the Christmas market. They were spread out all along the Rue de La Liberté. As we walked, we discovered little pockets of festivity, with carousels, market stalls or people selling sweet treats to enjoy.

The smell of vin chaud kept drifting on the rather chilly evening air. Brian had put his thermals on, and was feeling rather toasty and pleased with himself. I had my thermal coat and my red beret, so we were both very cosy from the cold.

The street and its decorations were looking rather delightful, such care and thought displayed. The main tree, in the Place de La Libération, was made up of lots of smaller trees, all arranged to create the effect of a much larger, natural tree. There was a sign nearby describing that after the festive season, the trees would be chipped and put onto the green open spaces to help protect the gardens.

As we wandered very slowly back to the hotel, to get ready for our dinner, we couldn’t help but muse over the window displays.

A chocolate shop with its darling little egg-like figures on skis, and egg shaped cable cars stretching across the scene. Hundreds of little cotton balls were hung on wire to depict the snow. Truly adorable.

The Musée des Beaux-Arts - Dijon

The Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dijon is a wonderful museum and has some excellent works of fine art. It was actually opened in 1787, making it one of the oldest museums in France. It is located in the beautiful historic city centre of Dijon and is situated in the former ducal palace, which was the headquarters of the Burgundy State in the 15th century. It is also possible to visit the palace, but we have saved this for next time.

François Pompon was born in the town of Saulieu in Burgundy, not far from Dijon in 1855. He became a sculptor, famous for his animal figures. One of his most notable ones is of the ‘Ours Blanc’, or White bear . Their are examples in the museum, and also one in the park in Dijon.

We also got to see works by Rodin, Degas and Pissarro, to name a few.

And I particularly enjoyed seeing some art nouveau vases in glass and metal, exquisite.

Arriving in Dijon

We planned a brief trip to Dijon this week. I had wanted to visit the Christmas market, and there was a restaurant I’d read about which I had also wanted us to try. So we decided we’d have our ‘Christmas outing’ there. It’s just an 80 minute drive from us, but we thought an overnight would give us a relaxed couple of days to explore. Dijon is such an attractive city, and there is plenty to do.

We arrived around lunchtime, so nipped into a little café for a croque monsieur and a very decadent hot drink.

Our afternoon soon flew by, as we wandered around the beautifully decorated streets, enjoying all the wonderful window displays and street decorations. We decided, whilst it was still daylight, that we would visit the Musée des Beaux Arts before visiting the Christmas market, as we knew the streets would look even more magical when the lights were switched on at dusk. Even so, the shop window displays were wonderful.