The sky at night

Last night we had a beautiful, clear sky. Brian had nipped out to bring some wood in for the fire, and got very excited when he returned, and quickly checked online to see if his new phone could take night shots, only to find a whole website on night sky photography with the iPhone. He promptly rushed back outside, and didn’t return for some minutes. When he did he was even more excited than before. Here’s why.

He believes both shots have captured the Milky Way, and even a spiral galaxy. He’s now looking forward to more clear nights this week to try some other shots.

A good experience

Earlier this week HSBC finalised on the sale of their French retail banking business to CCF. I have to admit, being on the business side of two bank platform migrations, when I worked in banking, I was not looking forward to the change, because these things never go smoothly.

We were told that we would lose our access to electronic banking through HSBC from 29th December, and not gain our CCF access until a week later, on Thursday 4th January.

The day came, and as I began the task of moving to the new app I was quickly very pleasantly surprised, just ten minutes into the process and I was registered with CCF and the app was working perfectly…in English! I don’t envy them behind the scenes as I’m sure not everything went so well, and there is probably a lot of work still to be done, but my customer experience has been very good.

One of the reasons for using HSBC France was that they had English speaking relationship managers, and the great thing is CCF are continuing to offer a named, English speaking relationship manager, which is great to have. Although our French is continuing to improve, on some subjects, like finance, it’s good to be certain that we understand what’s being said.

I’m hoping that we will enjoy the CCF service, as we did the HSBC France service. It’s been a good start.

Press two for

My first job for today was to ring the HMRC tax office. There is lots of information online, but it never quite answers the question you have, so I patiently waited on the line for over an hour to have my call answered. The wait was eased by coffee and toast served by Brian, an addition I’ve realised is very important when you are waiting to talk to the tax man.

Finally I got through, and spoke to a very helpful lady who told me that she couldn’t help me but I needed to speak to a different help desk, the pensionwise help desk. I was not despondent, I just took the number, thanked her for her help, and then redialled, after all it wasn’t her fault that I’d phoned the wrong help desk number. Luckily this help desk answered pretty much straight away, and the advisor knew her subject thoroughly. She was able to answer my questions quickly and efficiently so I felt that my efforts had paid off, as I was confident I had my answer.

Nativity

I treated myself to a rather tasty bacon sandwich for breakfast, enjoyed with a frothy coffee, such a great start to the day. Brian just wanted toast, and yoghurt, he is so easy to please.

We decided to take the Christmas decorations down today, I have to admit I was getting a bit fidgety with them being up. I absolutely love Christmas and the festive season, but I also love to get tidied up afterwards, and start planning for our year ahead.

We started by trimming the tree! We chop it all up and pop it into bags, ready to take it to the déchetterie (tip). It then didn’t take too long to clean everything up and pack away the decorations. I’d kept a sturdy box for my nativity scene that Brian had bought me, which he’d given to me throughout advent in my advent calendar. It is from Santons, the small village in the south of France famous for their nativity characters. I’ve always wanted one, so it was such a delight to open a new little character every day. The backdrop I’d used for it was a hand carved wooden scene that I had bought from a craft market in Kent many years ago. I love the natural colours of the little figures.

New Years Day

I love New Year’s Day, it feels like the last day of the festive period, when you can totally relax, and pretty much do nothing. We just had a little clearing up from the night before, but that didn’t take long before we were settling into our day. I suggested we make ourselves some apricot pastries for morning coffee, which went down a treat. The apricots were lovely and sharp, delicious.

Brian wanted to send his newsletter out, which he’d been working on over the Christmas period, so we sat down together to finish it off. I helped him on the agenda of events. We like to give our potential guests ideas of what’s happening through the year. Anyone that reads my blog gets to see the ones we visit, but not all the newsletter recipients read the blog. Our local tourist office also issues a seasonal agenda ‘what’s on’, which provides lots of details of what’s coming locally.

If you don’t receive the newsletter, the link is here, and if you would like them sent automatically you can subscribe here. It includes a mini series of articles titled ‘Sip of Champagne’ which helps our readers enhance their knowledge of Champagne and our region. This edition is focusing on bottle sizes.

Little donkeys

The sun was trying to poke its head out, so we decided we’d take a little New Year’s Eve walk up to the point de vue. It took us past two little donkeys, who enjoy a wonderful field overlooking the vineyards, they share it with a couple of horses, who came to say hello.

I have to say my legs were feeling a little weary, probably because we haven’t exactly done a lot of walking lately. We definitely need to get out and enjoy some early New Year walks.

Soup and nibbles

We needed to nip into Troyes last week on a few errands. Brian had bought me some gorgeous slippers, but I needed the next size up. The Ekyog shop, where Brian bought them, changed them with ease for me.

It wasn’t a great day weather wise, so we enjoyed a coffee and sandwich at a small boulangerie for lunch then headed over to the Leclerc at Saint Parres aux Tertres. It’s a very large supermarket which was well stocked with lots of tasty new year treats. I was mostly after some beef to make a slow cooked casserole. Their meat counter was packed full of choice, and the butcher was helpful in sharing his thoughts on the best cut of meat. I chose 3, rather large, slices of beef shank, that included the bone and bone marrow. I wanted this to help make the gravy thick and rich with flavour to go with some delicious dauphinois potatoes. I was planning to cook it for an easy supper with friends.

We were not too late home, and a simple supper of soup and nibbles was in order, sitting in front of the fire with a spicy Bloody Mary, a perfect end to our day

The year that was

2023 started cold in Viviers-sur-Artaut, and although the weather soon warmed up the frosts descended on the vineyards, and the annual spraying of the vines was soon seen.

A glorious sight to see and experience.

As summer arrived the local lakes were a favourite spot to visit, so tranquil and calm.

Cathedrals and museums are always on our list of visits, with tradition and modernity often fusing.

The end of summer brought beautiful landscapes.

Harvests were good for all.

Autumn soon turned the landscape striking shades of red. A beautiful year in Champagne.

Banana pancakes

I had a couple of bananas that were past their best, so what better way to use them than in some pancakes. I’d mixed a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda into the mix to make them lighter than normal.

Brian enjoyed his with maple syrup, I prefer fresh lemon and sugar on mine. Such a delicious way to start the day.

We were spending the day at home, just sorting a few things out, cutting some wood, going to the bottle bank, watering my bulbs that were looking stunning, and generally having a tidy up before new year.

Tarte Tatin

I’ve wanted to make a tarte tatin for a while, but I’d never had a suitable dish to make it in, however I recently found one online. it’s a metal, nonstick pan with a thick bottom and a rim to be able to hold onto when turning it out. With my new tin ready I thought I’d give it a go and try it out on some friends for Christmas. Here’s how to make it.

I bought 6 large, juicy, eating apples from the market. Any apples, like golden delicious, pink lady or gala are all suitable, even a tart Granny Smith can work.

Peel and core them, and chop into quarters. Leave in some water with a splash of lemon juice added.

Melt 125g butter and 125g of sugar in the pan, add some vanilla (essence or from a pod). Once it’s all melted carefully add in the apples and cook covered for about 20 minutes. I put some tin foil over them. They need to be just tender, and to keep them succulent keep basting them in the syrupy liquid.

Then take the apples out, and simmer the liquid to reduce it to a thick syrup. Once done remove from the heat, and carefully place the apples back into the pan, coating them once again in the syrup. I did round side up.

You then need to lay the ready rolled flaky pastry over the top and tuck the edges in. It is then baked for about 30 minutes at 180°c

Remove from the oven, and leave for about 5 minutes, but not much longer, as the syrup will start to firm up.

You now need to very carefully tip it out by placing a plate over it, and tipping it upside down. Careful as the syrup is hot.

Serve with some cold creme fraiche, it’s absolutely delicious. I will definitely be cooking this for our guests table d’hôte next year.

A different viewpoint

Although there was a light breeze, and the air was a little bit chilly, we decided to take a walk along to Landreville, the little village next to ours. I had brought a flask of coffee, which we enjoyed as we sat at the viewpoint overlooking the village. It was some very welcome quiet time, and simply beautiful.

The walk back took us along the line of trees that edge the vineyards, which are all dormant now, and look very lean. Most of the vines have been pruned back, so they are ready to sit out the winter.

As we returned, our village was looking still, although there were a couple of farmers working in their fields in the valley below. We’d been out for a couple of hours, and as the village came into sight we started looking forward to getting home lighting the fire and settling down for a relaxing evening.

This view is looking back towards Viviers-sur-Artaut with the point de vue in the distance.

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas everyone. Thank you for supporting us this year by reading our blog, and a special thank you to everyone that visited us at our chambre d’hôte. We wish you all fun, laughter, and happiness for 2024.

It’s been a fabulous year making new acquaintances, new friends and beautiful memories.

Joyeux Noël, Jo and Brian.

Sweetly scented

I bought some little hyacinths yesterday to make a couple of table decorations. I just love hyacinths at this time of year, they not only look good, but their scent is very sweet.

I had bought a couple of old terrines earlier in the year from vide greniers and this was a perfect way to use them.

I potted them into some compost, then covered the top with moss. To add a seasonal element I cut some short pieces of pine to use with some dried white flowers I had, and positioned them around the edge.

I’d bought a battery powered candle from ikea last week, so I’ve added this to the centre of one, along with some rosemary for added scent.

All rather beautiful and very festive, it will look lovely on the Christmas table.

Somewhat cheesy

We nipped to the market yesterday to buy some vegetables and visit the cheese stall. Oh decisions decisions, there’s such a gorgeous array of tasty cheeses, it’s so hard to choose. We plumped for a goats milk Tomme, a bleu des Causses (a creamy blue from the French Pyrenees), some moelleux du Revard, and a slice of saint Paulin, which is similar to a port salut. There’s a few there that we have not tried before, so definitely looking forward to tasting them over the festive period.

Whilst we were there, a group of schoolchildren came and sang some Christmas songs, with their very enthusiastic music teacher who was playing the guitar.

As we stood and watched them, more kids seemed to come from all across the market to join in, it was a fabulous atmosphere.

Perfect action

The fire is burning well, drinks are poured, and the chocolates are out ready to be chosen. Looks like a few have already been nibbled. It’s the last film of the day, so we feel an action movie would be a good choice.

What better one than lethal weapon. I’d forgotten how much I liked Mel Gibson in this. Him and Danny Glover work so well alongside each other, and it has great pace. A perfect way to finish off movie day 2023.

Hotdog!

We couldn’t have a movie day without hotdogs, so I cooked some chipolatas and we enjoyed them in some baguette with HP sauce. Sometimes it’s the simple things that work perfectly.

Our next film we had chosen was a James Bond movie. We both have fond memories of sitting down on a Christmas Day afternoon and enjoying the recently ‘released to TV’ Bond movie.

Any guesses on which one we chose?

Home Alone

Strangely enough we have never watched home alone, and as it’s one of the most popular Christmas movies we chose to watch it next.

So popcorn ready, we’ve settled in for a bit of Christmas slapstick comedy.

Snowballs

We feel it’s time for a little Christmas drink, something warming but refreshing.

I absolutely love an advocaat at this time of year, so Brian went and made a couple to accompany our hot sausage rolls which I’d just taken out of the oven.

I’ve got no idea about what this movie is about, but we just got a monthly subscription to Disney for €5,99, and Brian chose this to watch. Exciting.

Movie day, morning

We headed downstairs this morning excited that today is movie day. A bit of a tradition in the Simpson household at this time of year. I think it’s come from previously living very hectic lives, so what we do each Christmas is chose a day when we do nothing but watch Christmas movies. It really makes us stop and completely switch off.

The day has started with a beautiful old black and white movie. I love the fashion from this era so it’s a great choice for me.

Toast and coffee ready, we are all set to start our day.

Anyone home?

We woke to a crispy morning. The lawn was glistening with a thick, white frost. I suggested we had brekkie first and then head up to the point de vue for a bit of a stretch, and to get us moving.

At the top, as we sat overlooking the village, I said to Brian “I wonder what everyone is doing?”. I’m always fascinated when the village is so quiet, I ponder whether the villagers are at home doing homely things, or out and about.

We could see at least four chimneys puffing out smoke, so we knew some of them were settling in the warm.

My pondering over, we headed back home to start our day. I had a beef casserole I wanted to make, it’s a Flemish recipe which uses a dark ale to help make the gravy, rich and flavoursome - so I set about that.