All aboard

We were up very early this morning as we are heading across the channel and all the way up to Scotland to visit some friends. I hadn’t slept particularly well, obviously thinking about the journey. Our plan is to drive to Kent, then catch the train into London to catch the overnight sleeper train ‘the Caledonian Sleeper’ to Stonehaven. All very exciting.

We arrived at Euston, where our train began its journey, in plenty of time. It was quite surreal, as for many years we had both commuted to London for work, but now we felt like outsiders looking in, watching people going about their own London lives. People were rushing for trains, meeting up with friends, munching on rushed snacks to fill a hole left by a long day. Oh, I remember it well. In between the people watching we were keeping an eye on our train status on the board. Ooh, ready to go.

We grabbed our bags and went to find the platform.

There were plenty of staff to help us board and find our compartment. Which was very compact I must say, but clean and comfortable. We settled ourselves in before heading towards the restaurant car.

We ambled down the train carriage towards the club restaurant, and were soon enjoying an early taste of Scotland - Haggis neeps and tatties, all surprisingly tasty for a train meal.

We were now feeling well and truly on our journey.

We decided it was time to head to bed. Getting into the bunks was all a bit tricky, and although I’d had great intentions to take the top bunk, it was not to be. Settled and comfy we were both soon drifting off to sleep.

Night all.

Chocolate Moelleux cake

You may have realised by now that I do love a bit of chocolate, and I find chocolate desserts to be particularly delicious. This soft and squidgy moelleux cake is one of those particularly yummy desserts I love, and for anyone with a gluten allergy, hoorah, it’s also gluten free.

Here are the ingredients and method:

200g of dark chocolate (70% cocoa).

I use the nestlé brand, but any good quality dark chocolate is good. Break it into small pieces. It helps the chocolate melt quicker.

Add 200g unsalted butter.

Melt the butter and chocolate together in a bain mairie, and once melted let it cool for about 10 minutes.

Separate 6 eggs.

Whisk 100g of castor sugar with the egg yolks. They will go a much lighter colour and a bit fluffy.

You can now pour the melted butter and chocolate into the egg yolks, slowly, continuing to whisk. Then whisk in one tablespoon of cornflour and a good pinch of salt.

Work quickly to whisk your 6 egg whites with another 100g of sugar, these need to reach soft peaks. Once done, they can be folded into the chocolate with a metal spoon. I normally fold half into the chocolate, then fold the chocolate back into the remaining half of egg whites.

Once all this is folded together pour into a prepared cake tin. I used a 9” spring form tin, which I’d buttered, dusted with cocoa powder and lined with a piece of baking parchment.

Bake in a 180°c fan oven for 30-35 mins. It will be soft to the touch when you take it out, and will deflate as it cools. I served mine with a simple, cold crème fraiche.

You can keep it in the fridge for a few days, if it lasts that long.

You can ring my bell

The bell outside our gate was looking a little loose on its screws. It’s a sweet little bell, although we can’t always hear it from inside the house unless it’s rung quite loudly, and I guess it doesn’t get rung loudly if it’s in danger of falling off!

So Brian unscrewed the top two screws that weren’t doing their job properly anymore, and replaced the worn rawl plugs. Two nice new screws later and the bell is all ready for visitors again.

It's not all Champagne...

As winter approaches there are some jobs that are a bit less glamorous than others that need doing. One of those is to close off the outside water. It’s one of those cold, wet jobs, that needs a good cup of coffee to look forward to at the end.

It was a drizzly day, so I was quite cheered when Brian said he didn’t need my help this year, as he could remember what needed to happen and what order it needed to happen in.

It all starts with the water in the pool room, which comes from the well at the bottom of the hill, pushed up there by a pump in the well room. It also serves some taps in the garden, which we use to water many of our plants. Anyway, Brian starts the job by turning off the pump and then going up to the pool to open all the taps and drain the pipes up there. Having done that he then comes back down the hill and opens the lower taps, letting the water held in the underground pipe that runs up the hill drain away. This takes a bit of time, as it’s a fair distance up the hill and the pipe holds a lot of water. Once the taps stop running it’s time to drain the pump.

A couple of years ago we forgot to empty the old pump we had, and the water froze inside, cracking the shell, and forcing us to replace it. So we really understand the importance of draining the pump correctly. Once that’s done the job is finished, and all the taps are left open to stop potential damage later in the year .

Just one quick job after that, which is to close off the flow to the outside tap from the mains. This is hidden under a metal plate in the driveway, and surrounded by cobwebs. It certainly keeps him fit doing this job.

All done now, despite the rain making it a bit harder than it should have been. Well, it can’t be all Champagne all the time!

Our famous chocolatier

Beautiful chocolates are a much prized delicacy in France, where the look of the chocolate, and its packaging, are almost as important as its taste. They are given as gifts to friends, family and loved ones.

This love of chocolate is not lost on us, and we were quite excited when we recently discovered that a very famous chocolatier, Alexandre Gyé-Jacquot, had taken up residence in our part of the Aube in Champagne. He is famous as the previous chef of production at Maison Caffet, a highly celebrated confectionery, where he spent 36 years learning and perfecting his skills.

Our area has truly embraced him, and his chocolates have quickly became the centre of all the displays in the best little food and wine shops. Today, we visited a favourite one of ours, ‘L’Instant Gourmet’ in Bar-sur-Seine, where they have commissioned a beautiful chocolate sculpture from M. Gyé-Jacquot celebrating one of their other great loves and produce, freshly roasted coffee beans.

It is a truly amazing piece of work, and did its job also, as we couldn’t resist coming away with a box.

Every cloud...

Autumn is well and truly upon us in Champagne, the temperature has dropped and this year it has so far meant alot more rain. We often have the most beautiful, clear blue skies at this time of year, but the forecasts suggest it’s going to persist with more cloud and rain for a few weeks.

But every cloud, as they say, has a silver lining, and the upside can be the most stunning sunsets. A clear, cloud free sky makes for a pretty sunset, but one with clouds really lets the setting sunlight display its full, glorious palette.

Reviving the gate

We had found some wood reviver in the barn leftover from when Brian was renovating the floorboards, so Brian slapped a couple of coats onto the bare wood to help add some moisture and goodness back into the dry areas. He then screwed some pieces of wood, that had fallen off, back into place and started to fill some of the gaps.

This is going to be a slow and careful job of filling and sanding, trying to recreate the original pattern where the wood has cracked and become weather damaged.

More chic than shabby

We chose an oil based metal paint for the front door. It’s the same colour as the gate, but provides a more classic satin finish.

It’s coverage was very good, and I soon could see how the door was going to look with its new paint job.

A couple of coats later and we were extremely pleased with the results, and so glad we had pushed ahead to do it. Although, come the spring, I will need to rub the edges down and just repaint them where the paint got stuck when we closed it at the end of the day. Ideally I needed to leave it a good 8 hours to dry.

The rain has come though, and we are so glad we got it done when we did.

Missing side

Whilst I was painting the door, Brian decided he would start on the side gate. It was the last of our good sunny days, and I was very concious he might not get as far with it as he hoped, and would have to leave it in an even less stable condition than he started. However it really was in quite a bad state, and he felt he needed to do something before winter set in.

He started by wire brushing off all the old flaky paint. There was a lot of it!

Once he had done this he could start to see the size of the problem. There were some pretty big gaps and some missing pieces of wood that would need replacing, and it all needed treating before anything else could happen. My worries that it would need too much work might have been justified.

Well rested

You may remember, about a week ago, I’d wanted the mint from our garden to go with our lamb dinner. We’d bought a leg of lamb from the butcher, and asked him to bone it and butterfly it for us. I’d never tried this method, or indeed this recipe before, but it used goats cheese, which was exciting because I could use a local product which would add another element to the dish, and a creamy texture to the meat.

I wanted to get it prepared early, so that when we came back on the Saturday afternoon all I needed to do was pop it in the oven to cook.

So here’s the recipe:

First we seasoned the inside thoroughly, and drizzled with a good glug of olive oil. Brian then laid out the mint leaves, covering the whole of the inside. He then grated a piece of local goats cheese over the mint, we chose a medium dry cheese that grated easily. A little bit more seasoning, then he rolled it up, tucking in the edges to give us a neat rolled joint to tie up with string. We tied it around the middle, then from front to back. A tidy little parcel.

Before roasting, we drizzled over a good quantity of olive oil – this helps stop the string from burning – and then seasoned it well. It was cooked at 180°c for 45 mins, and checked with our meat thermometer, to ensure it had reached 170°c inside. We then rested it well before carving.

It was rather scrumptious, and I would definitely cook this again.

Bottom lip

Before I started the painting, I asked Brian if he could look at the bottom lip of the door. Although, we’d cleaned off the rust, it was still looking like it may not last another winter, so he asked me to hold off on the painting until he’d taken time to think about it.

I couldn’t resist putting a first coat on, just to see what it was going to look like, but I avoided the area in which he was going to work. He had made a plan that included adding something on, and was soon shaping a piece of metal to fix to the bottom of the door.

He glued it in place with a lot of metal epoxy glue, and clamped it into place whilst it dried. It wasn’t looking great yet, but I knew he still had quite a bit of work to do on it.

He then had the tricky task of smoothing the joins with a metal bodywork filler, and rubbing it down to form the new lip.

It took a while, and I wasn’t sure what it would look like, but what a transformation.

Too shabby

After spending so much time preparing and painting the front gate, we noticed that the front door was looking a bit shabby. I’d like to say shabby chic, but in reality it really was looking too shabby.

So while we were in the flow, Brian made a start by first painting some rust remover on the areas that needed a bit of attention.

He then painted over them to seal them in, with a coat of hammerite, before sanding the whole door down and cleaning away a few cobwebs from the corners. After that he needed to do a little bit of metal filling and sanding to prep the surface.

He’d got it started, but it wasn’t looking particularly chic yet! it now needed me to come along and paint it.

Something old, something new

Brian has had his cordless screwdriver/drill for seven years or so, and although I think it still looks okay, he tells me the batteries just aren’t taking a charge anymore, so he decided he needed a new one. I thought that was it and it would be a simple case of him popping to the local brico and buying one, but it was anything but. He started researching them on the internet, and it wasn’t long before he had too many things to consider - a bad situation for Brian, so I joined in to help, but only managed to find out things that made the choice even harder such as 2 AH vs 4 AH (we’d never even heard of AH before last week).

As we were going to Troyes this week we decided we would pop into the Black and Decker shop, which sold a few good brands. Hey presto, with the extra knowledge we had gained in our research working for us he soon chose one he liked, and with the chance to try it in the shop he soon decided that some things, including AH, weren’t as big an issue as we had thought. SOLD!

I must say it’s a lot sturdier than his old one, and he’s very pleased with it. After charging the batteries overnight, he put it to very good use putting up the kitchen shelf I’ve wanted for a while now.

It looks great. Hoorah for new drills.

Preserving figs

I was given some figs at the weekend by a visiting guest. They are gorgeously fresh and sweet. Rather than eat them all now, I’ve been thinking of how to preserve them to eat through the winter.

I started by washing them and sorting out the best ones to enjoy fresh. I then cut in half any that were either split or slightly marked. I will make them into a fig compote, to enjoy as a dessert with some natural yoghurt and honey, or with some gooey cheese.

I have frozen the remaining whole ones. I’m interested to see how well they freeze whole, and will hopefully be able to make them into a fig tart or cake if all goes well.

I will share more on this over the coming months.

Champagne day

27th October, it’s Champagne Day!

I’m not sure we ever need an excuse, but what a great day to visit a local champagne producer to buy some champers. Today they were disgorging – removing the settled yeasts from the bottles – so had plenty of corks ready to plug the bottles after.

Good news that there are new bottles coming through, as we brought a few of the previous vintage home!

Happy champagne day everyone 🥂.

Chablis wine festival

On Sunday morning we headed to Chablis, a small town about an hour from us. We arrived in time for their rather splendid market, a popular destination for locals on a Sunday morning.

Our real reason to be here though, was for the Chablis wine festival. This was held along a road that ran parallel to the market, and had 46 producers offering tastings. Our tasting glass for the event was just 6 euros, so excellent value for money, as each producer probably had 6 or more wines to taste.

Much was learned that will help steer our future Chablis purchases, and a lot of fun was had by all. It’s definitely an event we shall be returning to.

A beautiful location

We had been out for the day to Bar-sur-Seine and Celles-sur-Ource, and we were almost all ready to head back home, but I had seen that there was an autumn fair at Chateau de Taisne in les Riceys, and I thought it might be worth a visit. So I suggested we go and take a look before heading home.

As we arrived, a group of costumed horn players welcomed us in with a bracing ceremonial ditty. Inside the marquee were a few stalls selling local produce, a recreated wildlife scene with animal recordings and a beautiful exhibition of handmade quilts. There was also a table set up to carve pumpkins, very popular amongst the children and some adults.

After a bit of a look around inside we went for a walk around the Chateau and its gardens. Whatever fair or exposition that is going on at the Chateau, it’s the building and its surrounding land that really steal the show. It’s such a beautiful location, and has a very fine example of an historic pigeonnier.

Quelle surprise

After a trip to Bar-sur-Seine, and a relaxing morning coffee in the café, we came home for a spot of lunch before heading out to Andre Fays et fils, a wonderful little producer in the nearby village of Celles-sur-Ource. What my friend Sara didn’t know, was that her husband Chris had arranged for some other friends to join us for the rest of the weekend. It was a great surprise and a lovely little reunion.

Lots of chatter, and a welcome glass of bubbly, we were soon all ready for a light lunch before heading off to our tasting.

We were greeted at Andre Faye et fils by Marie, who took us into their cellars to see their maturing stock and to discuss their production methods. Marie is a great guide, and her descriptions of the process are very enlightening. We learn something new every time we visit.

The visit ends with a tasting of several of their Champagnes, made on site, which are all delicious. It is all so well done, the only difficult thing is, what should we buy? Suffice to say, the boot of the car was quite full by the time we had all made our purchases.

Minted

I needed some mint for a lamb dish we were cooking for some friends arriving from the UK, so I nipped into the garden to pick plenty before they arrived for a dish I’ve been making for them.

They were staying a few nights and we had planned a few things to help celebrate one of their birthdays. Tonight the four of us were heading out to the little restaurant in Essoyes, called ‘L’Union’. The menu changes daily depending on what is available, and always has some interesting dishes. The apéro and entrés make for good sharing plates, a convivial way to start your meal.

The wine menu offers some interesting choices as well. One of the young owners though is very knowledgeable on his wines and great to ask for a recommendation.

It’s fast becoming a favourite of ours.

What are you doing in there?

We received an email from Everblue, the company that opens and closes our pool. They wanted to know what the temperature of the water was, to see if it was ready to be closed for winter. So Brian popped up to the pool and rolled back the cover to put the thermometer in. Whilst he was waiting, he started to clean out the skimmers. That’s when he bumped into this little fella.

It obviously liked the water, but with the chlorine, and getting trapped in the skimmer, he would have had a difficult time, so Brian took him out and dropped him in a damp part of the garden.

The temperature showed the pool was almost down to 12°, the magic number for wintering. We contacted the company back and they arranged to come to us on Friday.

Hoorah! The pool is closed again, and safe for another winter.