Hearts of gold

Most years the fields are filled with beautiful sunflowers, and we have always wondered how they were harvested. Today we found out.

Some days ago at an apple festival Brian had asked Olivier, a local farmer, when he was planning on harvesting his sunflower crop, as we’d like to come and take some photos. ‘Tomorrow afternoon’, he told us, in French obviously. Perfect, we could free up our afternoon, and knew roughly where his fields were. So come the afternoon we headed off in that direction. It was a hot, still day, and even from a distance we could see the tall, golden pillar of cloud, and it was not too long before we found him, and another farmer helping, combining through the dark, dry, shrivelled flowers.

The massive combine thrashed its way across the expanse of the field, creating the dust cloud as it went. In the far distance were the tell tale clouds of other farmers all harvesting their sunflower crops.

After watching the machine sweep back and forth a few more times we headed back to Olivier’s farm to see the fruit of his labour. As we arrived he was bringing a trailer full of seed back. It was a slick turnaround, and he was off again, returning around every 10–15 minutes. It was a fast moving operation.

The barn was soon filling up with the tiny seeds. A huge mound, piled high, ready to be pressed by Olivier and Dominique into their golden sunflower oil. You can’t get fresher than that.

Little dark seeds with a heart of gold.

Great finish

We’d had our little break from painting, but needed to get back to finish the job. We had taken the last set of windows down, and had started preparing them.

Brian went back up to clean down the frame, and put the aquatech undercoat on, whilst I carried on with the main windows.

It wasn’t long before we were carrying the last of the windows back up the stairs and fitting them back in place. I have to say, they really are very heavy by the time you have taken the fourth one back up two flights of stairs and carefully lifted them into place. It was a great feeling though once we had finished them all, and so much quicker than we’d anticipated…thankfully!

What a great job finished.

Tea, chips and sunshine

We nipped out to do a bit of shopping in Châtillon today. I must say that it’s such a pleasure being able to choose to go when they are not busy. Big, sweeping isles with barely a soul around, it certainly makes things easier.

On the way home we stopped off for lunch at Sparky’s friterie, in Brion-sur-Ource, it’s a small chip shop run by a Belgium lady. She is very friendly and serves everything up with a little bit of unique style.

What’s not to love? Tea, chips and sunshine.

It is so wonderful to delight in life’s simple pleasures.

Roasted ratatouille

I’d read about a quick and easy recipe for a roasted ratatouille, so thought I would use the last of my peppers from the garden, and a couple of tomatoes I’d picked earlier, and give it a try.

It’s strange, but my tomato crop really hasn’t been that good this year. Last year I had loads, but when I did get tomatoes this year they often didn’t make it to maturity. Talking to friends here, I found they have not had great crops either, so I’m not feeling that I’d done anything particularly wrong, it was just not a great year for tomatoes.

Back in the kitchen I chopped all of my crop of red peppers, my two tomatoes (along with some more I’d been given) along with a mixture of chopped onions, garlic, courgettes and aubergine. It’s best to chop them into similar sizes, as it looks better and they cook more evenly.

They all went into a large roasting pan with lots of glugs of olive oil, plenty of salt, pepper and thyme. I then mixed it together, and popped it into the oven at 180°c, to roast off slowly. It needs to cook for about 90 mins, but be sure to stir it every 30 minutes or so to mix in all the crispy roasted bits. These make the juices really sweet and tasty.

I found this such an easy way to cook ratatouille, a slow, no fuss approach. The recipe does add balsamic to it at the end, but I didn’t do that, I prefer the freshness of the vegetables. It was way too much for the two of us to eat in one meal, so I’ve frozen some of it in bags for later. I’m thinking it will make a great base sauce for pasta, maybe add a tin of tomatoes or I may make a vegetable lasagne. Delicious!

Window lean

With the windows painted, I now needed to paint the window frames. It’s not my favourite job, being so high up and leaning out of a window. Best just not to look down. The bonus is that it meant I didn’t hang around, and got on with the job quickly.

Meanwhile, on a safer part of the job, Brian was cleaning up the panes where some of my paint had splashed over. It’s easier to clean them after than it is for me to paint a straight line!

At this rate we’ll be finished tomorrow.

Flaky paint

So we had finally dived into repainting our windows, and it wasn’t long before we had the first two rubbed down, filled and ready to paint. There really is no point in taking them all the way back to the wood when what we want to do is protect them from the weather as much as we can, so we sanded them only as far as was needed, to get rid of all the loose flaking paint.

I know windows can be a bit fiddly to paint, but I was very happy to spend the day on them, as it’s a job I’ve wanted to get done for a while. First of all I painted a base coat of aquatech onto the bare wood areas. This is a Dulux weather shield product that’s perfect for wood that gets a beating from the elements. I then used the weathershield top coat, which is fast drying.

Brian went up to our bedroom to prepare the window frame that he had removed the windows from. It was a hot job up there, with sun beating down, no wonder they take a bit of a battering.

7 years on

We need to start rubbing down and repainting our windows from the top floor today.

The great thing is, although they may be really heavy, you can lift them off. Something we didn’t know 7 years ago when we painted them the first time.

We carried the first two down the two floors, and we soon had ourselves set up in the courtyard with some workbenches to start cleaning them up and getting them ready for painting.

This is the first set of 4 pairs. So a bit of a task.

Autumn fete

We headed over to the little village of Villemorien today, where they were hosting their autumn fete. However, it was beautifully warm, and more like a summers day.

We immediately found a stall selling apple fritters, which looked totally delicious with a little sugar sprinkled on the top. We sat and enjoyed a plateful each listening to the live band, what a wonderful Sunday afternoon.

I so love these events, they’re always a great opportunity to enjoy some local produce, and on that note, I couldn’t resist buying some flour from my friend Dominique from La Ferme des blés d’or. I love her ‘de petit epautre’, it makes great biscuits, as it is lower in glutens. We also made a donation for the freshly squeezed apple juice the village had produced to raise funds for the community, it will be delicious for breakfast this week. Just before we left the fete I bought some gourds for some decoration in the house, the lady selling them wanted to be certain I knew they were not for eating.

Delicious

What a wonderful way to start the day. Although it’s not that warm or bright outside, that didn’t dampen my spirits, as one of my friends kindly brought me a copy of Delicious magazine from the UK. He knows I like a cookery magazine, and what better one to get me than a French issue of Delicious, which apparently won food magazine of the year.

There’s some really interesting articles and recipes included in this edition, so I’m going to enjoy reading and discovering.

Although the day was a bit overcast, it ended up as a glorious evening. I’ve popped upstairs to enjoy a relax in the bath, and the view across to Le Prieuré from the window is exceptional in the early evening sun.

Quite interesting

Some friends arrived yesterday, stopping off on their way south. It was great to see them all, and hear their news.

The weather unfortunately wasn’t particularly good, so they escaped the list of jobs I had for them, and instead we all enjoyed a crazy game of QI. An afternoon of useless questions and lots of laughter.

For dinner we headed out to ‘Le Marius’, which is a delightful, traditional and stylish restaurant in Ricey Bas.

It sits in an old cellar, beautifully lit and very comfortable. They have a rather interesting menu, with some great combinations. I had ‘un œuf parfait’ for a starter, which had been perfectly poached and served on a caramelised onion compote. I followed that with kidneys in a mustard sauce. The food and wine was all rather delicious.

Full & creamy

We had one final pressoir visit we wanted to make. We drove up to Balnot sur Laignes, which is where Gremillet produces 500,000 bottles of Champagne each year. Surprisingly though, even at such a scale, this remains a family run business.

Just a few of the bottles resting in pallets

We enjoyed a wonderful tasting overlooking the vineyards, such an amazing view.

We tried their tradition, which is 70% Pinot noir and 30% Chardonnay, a beautiful, rich deep tasting Champagne. Then we tried their Blanc de Blanc, 100% chardonnay. We enjoyed this one even more, it’s an exceptional Blanc de Blanc. We learnt that it had spent time during its production in oak barrels, which gives it a full flavour, with a creamy vanilla finish, but still with all the flowery freshness of Chardonnay. Everything I love in a wine. We will definitely be returning to make a purchase.

When the harvest ends

Vendanges is coming to an end, the pickers are leaving, and our beautiful region is falling quiet again.

The presses (pressoir) are falling silent. These enormous 12,000 kg pneumatic presses at Champagne Bonet will be completely cleaned and shut down until next year.

But the process isn’t finished, as the juice extracted from the grapes must now be turned into wine, the first stage of its transformation into Champagne. The juice is rich and sugary, bursting with fruit, but it’s sensible not to drink too much of it, because it’s not very friendly on your tummy!

Champagne bonet produce juice on an industrial scale, to be shipped to one of the big houses in Épernay, and the scale is truly magnificent.

But they also make their own, more artisan Champagnes, and some wines in another part of their domaine.

This smaller production begins with a focus on quality, with a selection process that allows only the best grapes through.

Small, temperature controlled vats see the first fermentation begin, whilst new oak casks will carry a small proportion of the wine for careful blending later into their fine champagne range.

It’s an amazing sight to see, and we never turn down an opportunity to visit a Champagne house. There’s still so much to learn.

A grand Day out

After three years in France I still don’t have my permanent social security number, so some French friends of ours kindly offered to support us on another visit to the CPAM office, where my paperwork is being processed.

We decided to get there early, and luckily did not have to wait too long before we were able to see someone. This someone though immediately tried to send us away, as we had not made an appointment. For the last 3 years, that has never been an issue, but next week they are changing the system and appointments (RDV) are required. Our friend JM carefully explained our situation in French, and advised the lady of the name of the gentleman who had been dealing with our case previously. Although she wasn’t keen to pursue it, she kindly went into the back offices to see if there was anything that could be done. Thankfully, the chap was there and he agreed to meet with us.

We were now further than we’d ever been before, as we were invited into a room around the back of the reception desks. After a lot of chatter, and tapping on the keyboard, he said he may have good news. Apparently it was my birth certificate that was the problem, as it is one of the long versions, larger than A4, and it had not all been scanned. It seemed this was what had held up my application. I’m sure that was one of many reasons, but it was perhaps the last one…maybe. There was a lot more tapping of computer keys, and then he stated, in almost perfect English, “You now have your permanent number”. Wow! Such a small thing you would think, but it’s taken three years to get this far

He printed off the confirmation and explained what would happen next. We needed to be patient for a few weeks more, when he would call us to tell me my code to access the Ameli.fr website so that I can set up my actual carte vitale. So let’s be patient and see what happens. Hoorah for JM!

It was such a gorgeous day, and now we were also all relieved that things were moving ahead, so we headed into Troyes city centre for a wander around the shops, have a delicious coffee and a super delicious lunch to celebrate.

All in all a grand day out.

Apple pie

I was given some more apples this week from a friend. I shared some of my plums and plum jam for quite a lot of apples, about three bags of them.

I’ve been able to cut some up to freeze them uncooked, to make some apple pie or tarte tatin another time. I’ve also made some plum and apple jam, which is a gorgeous red colour. Hilda, my mother in law, gave me this idea. The apples give it a tartness, which I love and also some structure. I used equal quantities of plum to apples.

I’ve also cooked some apples down and frozen them, ready for some winter apple crumbles.

The last thing I’d like to make is some apple jelly, which I shall try and do tomorrow. It’s not something I’ve done before, so we’ll have to see how it turns out.

Well oiled

We took a walk around the village this afternoon, where vendanges is in full swing and it’s great to see the activity.

There is a pressoir in the centre of the village, and we were invited in to see the two new presses which had been installed. The grapes are loaded from a platform into the top of each of the pneumatic presses. A balloon inside carefully expands and presses the juice from the grapes.

The juice is first rested in tanks, to get rid of any initial, settling sediment, then pumped into the vats to ferment.

The grape skins and stalks are collected in hoppers, and then sent away to be made into alcohol for other uses, such as medicines or cosmetics.

The boxes, used to collect the grapes and to fill the presses, all get washed and stacked, ready to be taken back up to the vineyard.

It’s all a very well oiled machine.

Planting

We’d been out for lunch, and when we got home Brian suggested we plant the plants I’d bought recently, and also a couple I’d been given. It was due to rain later, so an ideal time to get them in.

I knew where I needed them to go. I want to create a border, or bed of plants, to the left of the path as you walk up to the pool. I’d like to include some aromatics, as I thought this would be lovely as you brush past them.

We laid them out, giving them plenty of room for growth. At this stage I’m leaving the grass in place, I will see how this goes over the next 6 months. At the top of the slope I’ve included a curry plant, which apparently loves a dry sandy soil. Fingers crossed this will like where I’ve put it.

As we’d had lunch out, we didn’t need a big meal for supper, so enjoyed a nice glass of Rully with some delicious cheeses.

Lavender

If you’ve visited our home, you will definitely have noticed the sweet smell of lavender as you arrive in the garden, it thrives in our dry, hot courtyard.

I always like to leave it until the very last moment to cut the flowers, getting the most out of them before they go to seed at the end of summer. With the onset of some rain forecast though, I encouraged Brian to help me cut some of it.

I like to use the hand shears to cut big bunches, which I then lay into a plastic tray. In a week or two most of the seeds will have already dropped off, making it easier to finish off removing them, before collecting them all to use in lavender bags.

Relaxing

I often get asked about blogging every day, ‘Is it difficult to find something to write about?’, ‘How do you find time?’, ‘Who takes the photographs?’. Well I have to say the last few days have been a bit difficult, I think I’d just got a bit tired. We’ve had the end of the canicule (heatwave), which I think actually took it out of both Brian and I.

So we decided to take a few days out of the calendar, relaxing at home, peppered with some glorious days out and meals with friends. We’ve also managed to enjoy the experience of vendanges, with invitations to some of the pressoirs where we’ve been able to see first hand how different producers have honed slightly different methods and processes to harvest and press their grapes. We’ve experienced the amazing atmosphere’s amongst the owners and workers, and how they keep each other motivated, all wanting to pick good grapes, and beat their daily bests. Then sharing their meals together, tired and exhausted, but clean after a refreshing dip in the river or a hot shower and, still jovial, ready to start it all again tomorrow.

It’s such a beautiful time of year.

I’m now feeling more refreshed and motivated to finish off the posts I’ve been writing the last few days. I will be posting them over the weekend.

One of the reasons, very early on, as to why I chose to write a daily blog was to capture our story of moving to France and setting up the chambre d’hôte, along with capturing our daily life. When taking a moment to take stock, and look back at what we’ve achieved, and what our daily life is now like, it makes us realise how far we have come.

Keep your cool

We were trying to stay cool today, as temperatures are starting to peak again. Our guests had all left, so we stripped the rooms, I popped the washing on, and then made us a couple of jambon beurres to have for a late lunch before heading up to the pool.

The Jambon beurre is one of the wonderful staples of France, available almost everywhere, and easy to make, it certainly goes down well in the shade in the garden on a hot day.

Simply red

I’d managed to buy some dahlias today at the market. I chose a beautiful bouquet of mixed colours, although I actually arranged them in their individual colours, as it seemed less fussy. I put the orange ones upstairs, and kept the pinks and reds downstairs.

They look gorgeous arranged in a selection of different little vases around the house.

I cut a few vine leaves to add to the vase on the table, along with a few late lavender flowers.

I’d also popped a few in the hallway. This jug is an old one from Brian’s mum, I love the straight shape and the little emblem on the front.

I find keeping the colours the same works well, although sometimes I’m daring and will go for a clash of colours.

I’ve kept things very simple for the red dahlias, and placed them as single stems in 3 separate vases, which are themselves an eclectic mix. The red on the bottles helps to pull the colourings together.

I did think about growing dahlias next year, but I was told they are very water thirsty, which goes against my plan, so I don’t think I will.