Au p’tit goûter

We were not staying in Sancerre, but were instead booked into a family run hotel in Chavignol, a small village about five minutes outside of Sancerre.

I’d found a little restaurant in the village which I’d booked for us on our first night there. I was a little unsure of it, as some of the reviews on the internet complained about slow service, but we were in no hurry, so all happy to enjoy our evening in ‘au p’tit goûter’.

It was owned by a father and son, just a small local bistro, that was very nicely rustic. The son welcomed us in and showed us to our table. He was very chatty, so I could see why the service may be slow, although there was only about 6 or 7 tables, so it couldn’t be that bad.

I ordered as a starter – the egg cocotte – which was baked with ham and local Chavignol cheese, the others had the house terrine. We all enjoyed bavette steak for main, which Lan and I chose with leeks, whilst the others had fries. It was all happily washed down with a bottle of the local red.

It was a very delicious, simple meal, and made for a delightful evening.

Wine flight

Our afternoon started with a little stroll through the cobbled streets of Sancerre. It was still a bit drizzly so we headed towards the Maison de Sancerre. Which was actually a small museum dedicated to the region and its key products, red, white and rosé wine.

The tour of the museum led us downstairs into a little cave, which had a 3D model of the region in the centre, which had a little movie projected onto it, describing how the land around Sancerre had been formed, and, importantly, what differing soil types are in place now.

Although quite a small area, the wine region of Sancerre is pretty complex, and is responsible for a wide variety of flavours in their wines. The main soil types are chalk, flint, clay and limestone.

After a few further exhibits, including an interactive quiz, we settled in for a ‘4D’ experience about wine production. It was rather hilarious, as seconds into the video, the 4D kicked in and we were sprayed with water, mimicking juice squirting from the grapes. Our chairs then started rolling and rattling as we were suddenly flying over the vineyards. Five hilarious minutes later we came out laughing our heads off.

After the tour we headed up for our first proper tasting. We were handed a credit card, charged with enough credits that we could each choose three different wines to taste, which between us gave us a good selection to try, and to then discuss which ones we preferred.

When we emerged from the musée our view down the street was stunning.

The trip

Well this morning we woke to another storm! We had organised a little trip to Sancerre, a beautiful hilltop town and wine region situated about two and a half hours from us. We were going with a couple of friends from our village, who were picking us up at 9.45am, meaning we’d arrive around lunchtime in the town of Sancerre.

We decided to take the scenic route, via Chaource and Auxerre. The roads were quiet and clear, however it was a bit wet, in fact it chucked it down all the way there!

We were soon crossing the Loire river, over a very majestic looking bridge, and we were all determined not to let the rain dampen our spirits. We arrived in Sancerre, as planned, and found a nice little bistro in the centre of town, where we settled down and ordered a simple chilled bottle of white Sancerre to enjoy with lunch.

We had arrived.

Idyllic

Yesterday I found some time to tidy up some of the borders in the walled garden. I had a few flowers I wanted to get planted, to give them chance to take root before the weather warms up.

I definitely feel that the garden is my happy place, just pottering about in it is delightful, so calm and peaceful.

I have formulated more of a plan now for some changes in the garden, although I’ve not committed it to paper or made a drawing, I will need to get Brian to help me with that. We can start to put into place some of the ideas in my head, as the rest I don’t see happening too quickly.

Last night we had a huge thunderstorm, so I was really glad that we got the plants in, as they got really well watered.

This morning the sun is shining through dappled cloud against a blue sky, and the air has warmed, but it is humid from the storm, almost tropical. As I write we are sitting in the garden, enjoying a coffee, and listening to a cuckoo, our blackbird and a multitude of other birds which I don’t recognise, but sound idyllic just chirping away. I think they must be loving the freshness of the earth, and how the recent storm has brought all the grubs and worms out.

Garden refresh

It was a day of two halves today. This morning we were planting some shrubs and perennials I’d bought recently. I want to create a bed of plants on the left of the path as you walk up to the pool, but I don’t have a definite plan, It’s very much an organic creation. As I see plants that I like I buy them, find a spot, cut away the grass and plant them. I’m not sure if this is a good way to do it, but we’ll see. What I love is that by keeping some wild flowers and long grasses the good butterflies are encouraged to make a visit.

The second part of our day was less enjoyable, as we had to start removing the box bushes from the pool area. It was actually much tougher than we thought it would be, as there are multiple stems with well established, fibrous roots. It’s a little sad to see them go, but I’m already getting excited about what their replacement will be.

Monster party!

Well, it was a bit of a shock yesterday when I went to check on the box trees at the pool. Gosh! Those little critters had munched their way through pretty much every one of our trees, in just a week!

This is the little monster! He didn’t do it single handedly, he had some mates round to help.

Now we have a few options, we could hard prune them and give them a chance to grow back. But it means constantly spraying them with pesticides, which we don’t really like doing, especially up at the pool. So I think we are both feeling that this is a battle the army of caterpillars have won.

Now the decision has been made, we need to take them out, take them to the déchetterie and plant something not so susceptible to a pest like the box tree caterpillar.

Fortunately, the box plants in the walled garden are hanging in there, so we will do what we can to keep them healthy, let’s hope we continue to win that battle.

Our welcome

We had some last minute preparations before our guests arrived today. They are booked in for a few nights, and I believe have quite a busy schedule of tastings to go to.

One of the things that I like to do is make a few biscuits. Depending on their arrival time, it’s nice to have a few homemade biscuits to have with a cup of tea or coffee after a long journey.

Brian was cleaning out the fireplace. It’s probably too warm now to light a fire, but he’ll set it ready, as it looks prettier and more inviting like that.

Lastly, I like to prepare some vases of flowers. I freshened up the ones I’d picked last weekend with a few new blooms from the garden. I love to see fresh flowers around the house.

Tour de France 2024

When we first moved to France we decided not to have a big TV. I’m not sure it was a conscious decision, or just something that came into being. Our summer evenings are enjoyed relaxing in the garden, chatting, reading, sipping on a glass or two, whilst the darker cooler evenings we will often look to enjoy a movie from one of the streaming providers on our laptop.

Last year one of our guests recommended that we watch ‘Tour de France unchained’, a documentary on Netflix. It’s about 8 episodes long, and since starting it we’ve been hooked. I really had no idea of the risks the riders take, and how epic it all is.

The really exciting thing is that the race will be whizzing past just a stones throw from our house this year. On 7th July the riders will be tearing through Landreville then heading up the ‘chemin de Loches-sur-Ource’ towards Chaceney. They will be passing through vineyards and farmland across some very stoney tracks on their journey from the centre of Troyes back to Saint-Parres-aux-Tertres, on the outskirts of Troyes. This stage is going to be a bit hilly for them and definitely bumpy. From being not really interested, I’m now super excited about seeing it.

This is the map of stage 9, that starts and ends in Troyes. If you are interested to learn more, there’s lots of useful information on the official Tour de France app, which is free to download.

Wild about garlic

We popped to see a friend earlier this week, for a quick catch up. She was working in her garden, so we didn’t stay long. She has a beautiful little cottage garden and potager, nestled underneath some fruit trees - a peach, plum and apple - in a quiet oasis in the middle of Essoyes. If you didn’t know it was there, you wouldn’t give it a second glance, but we were passing, and her gate was open, so we popped our heads in to say ‘bonjour’.

It was lovely to see her, and as we were leaving she asked “Would you like some salad?”. Never one to say no, I nodded appreciatively, “Oui, merci”. She headed off to her little greenhouse on the side to cut me a couple of lettuces. “How about some parsley?” She asked, “Yes please”. “And sorrel, you can have it with fish, I also have some wild garlic, it makes a great pesto”. She quickly gathered me up a bag of delicious freshly grown goodies. My mind was now working overtime on what could I make with them.

We were having pan fried salmon for dinner, so I decided to make a salsa verde, as the ingredients were just perfect.

Wild garlic (150g)

12 leaves of sorrel

2 handfuls of parsley

1 jar of capers (drained)

1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard

a good few glugs of olive oil, and

Salt to taste.

I whizzed it all together, and put half in the freezer (I want to see if it will freeze), the rest I will serve tonight for our guests. I will add a bit of lemon zest before serving for an extra little zing.

It went very well with the poached salmon and fresh asparagus.

Chilly

We woke to a very chilly morning. The night skies have been really clear of late, which is great for star spotting, but does mean the risk of an early morning frost. It is very challenging for the vignerons at this time of year, when the vines are just starting to come into bud and are especially sensitive to frost and ice. There are many ways they can deal with the problem, including icing the vines, windmills with burners to move the cold air, setting small controlled fires, and just hoping for the best.

If you’d like to learn more about how the wine growers can help defend their crops against frost, you may enjoy reading a short article Brian wrote in our ‘Champagne knowledge’ section on our website, it also has a magnificent video, that he produced, that’s well worth a watch.

Box or not?

The garden is looking especially lush. We seem to be swaying between a sunny day and then a rainy day, which makes for great growing conditions in the garden, but does mean we need to cut the grass in the walled garden at least once a week. I like to leave the slope a bit longer, and I’m leaving part of it again this year to create a meadow. Having the wildflowers popping up is a colourful attraction for the butterflies.

We’ve got lots of little, and a few big, jobs we’d like to do in the garden this year, we just need to start to prioritise them. One thing we do have on our mind is the box topiary trees. I love the structure they bring to the garden, but they are terribly hard to protect against the dreaded box tree caterpillars. This year they seem to have started earlier, and are quite prolific. We know we could replace the box with Ilex, but these would take some years to establish themselves. So we need to think about our options.

Dimanche à la campagne

I love ‘Sunday in the country’, it’s an event we discovered when we first arrived in France, and have supported it every year since.

This year there were 45 sites with 3 new ones to try. I’d picked out seven to visit, although we ran out of time and only got to five.

The first one was at Marolles-les-Bailly, it was a small farm called ‘Malice & fromage blanc’ with some beautiful cows and goats. They make their cheese products on site and sell via a small shop on the farm. They produce excellent fromage frais, faisselle and also, which I was interested in, mozzarella and scamorza. Scamorza is a smoked cheese usually made in Italy.

From there we headed to a picking farm ‘Cueillette de Troyes l’Espérance’. Currently they just have flowers available for cutting, but later in the year they will have all sorts of fruit and vegetables, we will definitely go back there.

I then wanted to pop back to the pottery at Amance, I was interested to see the cost of their garden pots, they are so gorgeous.

We then visited Jerome Cothias, where we enjoyed a coupe of his blanc de blanc, and I bought some honey and grape jelly. They had laid on some country dancing, which everyone was joining in with. Next time I’ll take my hat!

Finally we headed towards home, stopping at Verpillières-sur-Ource, where there is a small farm that rears highland cattle. They have a beautiful heard at the back of the castle.

It had been a very chilly day, with smatterings of rain, but also glorious sunshine. We’d managed to stay dry though and, as usual, had an excellent little outing, coming home with some wonderful goodies. Quite an eventful Sunday.

Sparkling

As I slowly woke this morning I could hear the cooing of our pigeons. I say our pigeons, as we think they may have set up their nest again with us, but this year we think they are in one of the fir trees on the slope at the back of the house. It’s such a familiar sound, I soon drift back to sleep.

The plan for today was to get up early and try and catch up on our deep clean following the ‘unexpected journey’ to Troyes. It wasn’t long before I could hear Brian shuffling around making tea, and getting us moving.

Firstly I asked Brian to help me take the curtains down in the salle à manger so I could get them washed. He then started on cleaning the inside of the windows, whilst I finished a few bits off in the kitchen. I then set us up with some hot soapy water to clean the dresser and its contents. A fiddly job, but a very satisfying one.

By the end of the day we were putting back up the freshly laundered curtains, the paintwork was washed down, the inside of the windows cleaned, and the dresser and the fireplace were looking sparkling. However, It did make us both realise this room will need to be redecorated next winter, and a few areas need addressing.

But for now we were very happy with how it is looking.

An unexpected journey

I’d just woken up, and my mind was whirring with thoughts of what we needed to get done today. ‘Let’s start by finishing off the kitchen, then move into the salle à manger’ I thought. The dresser and everything on it was probably the biggest job there, all the windows and curtains would also take some time to wash and clean.

Brian started to stir, and asked if I was ready for tea, ‘Ooh yes please I said’, thinking that I’ll share the plan over a cuppa. As he brought my tea in, he showed me an email that he’d received from Ameli (the French health organisation) advising that he hadn’t submitted the documents they had asked for to prove he was living in France. This was frustrating, because we’d sent them all by recorded delivery over a month ago. The email also said that if they didn’t receive them they would close his health account. In fact, he would have to return his carte vitale, which had taken us three years to get! Trying to stay calm, “don’t worry” I exclaimed, “We’ll sort it all out when we get up”.

I could tell he was really concerned, and that we needed to get on it straight away. We bounced out of bed, quickly dressed, and went downstairs to see what we needed to do. I retrieved the file from the cupboard and checked what we’d previously sent. I didn’t understand it at all, what we’d sent all looked right. “We’ll ring the English speaking help desk, and see what they say”. However, that wasn’t very successful. The recorded message advised us that “We are exceptionally closed today”. I have to say that this happens a lot. We nearly always check when things are open, because everywhere seems to keep its own timings, but even after we check we’ll get somewhere and there will be a sign saying ‘Exceptionally closed’. “Come on”, I said enthusiastically, “We’ll ring the French helpline, we can do it”. After several attempts, we got through the vetting process by selecting the right numbers to choose. But then another recorded message “We are exceptionally closed”. Even I was now getting frustrated. “Okay, I know, we’ll write a letter explaining what we’ve done, and resend everything again”. So we spent the next hour refreshing the documents and writing a detailed letter on our situation. It was now lunchtime, so I suggested we’d go and post it after lunch. Most post offices close for lunch in France, so there was no point in rushing out.

Brian made us some tea whilst I prepared the envelope. “Hun, I have a change of plan” I said, “Let’s hand deliver it, I have checked, they are open until 16h30. We’ll drive to Troyes”. Despite being worried that the office would also be ‘exceptionally closed’ he was so upset by the whole thing that he agreed we should go. I just wasn’t prepared to leave it over the weekend and not to have spoken to anyone, it would have been awful.

A quick shower and change, and by 13h30 we were on the road to Troyes. We arrived at their offices about 45 minutes later and were relieved to see that they were open. I then instigated the next part of my plan. Because we were unable to ring through we didn’t then have an appointment, and the new rules are by appointment only. So, before getting out of the car, I wrote on the front of the envelope, ‘par main’ (by hand) and ‘urgente’ in big blue letters. Okay, not a great plan, but one that was to prove surprisingly effective. I said to Brian, who had his doubts, “Let’s just be confident”. We strode up to the security guard, “Bonjour” I said with a big smile. “Bonjour monsieur dame” came his friendly response. I explained in my best French that we needed to deliver a letter, to this department. He suggested we put it in the letter box outside. “Oh no, it’s urgent” I continued in French. I showed him the front of the envelope with the underlined copy. “Okay, wait here” he said, and whizzed off. Believe me, I was as surprised as you are. Soon a lady approached, “Can I help you?”. Brian stepped in and started to explain in French. He got a little flustered, and couldn’t find the right words, and it looked like we might be in bother, but then the security guard came back and said someone was coming who spoke really good English. This was going better than expected, now we seemed to have an English speaker to share our story with. When the man arrived, we explained the situation, showed him the letter we had written, added how stressed we were for good measure and gave him the documents. “Wait here please, I will go and check”. When he returned he said “The email you received was sent in error, we have received all your previous documents and everything is good, nothing is cancelled. But to be certain I will also add the new documents to the system”. “Thank you so much” we said together, and then said our goodbyes.

We left feeling relieved and happy. Okay, the day was not as we’d planned it, and in one way the trip to Troyes was unnecessary, but we’d resolved an issue that could have been worrying us both all weekend and beyond. French bureaucracy and paperwork can be very challenging, but in some ways it makes any successes a lot more satisfying, and this one was very satisfying.

We were now in desperate need of a coffee!

100% natural

Since moving to France I’ve discovered using white vinegar for cleaning all sorts of surfaces. I obviously cannot use it on my stone worktops, but I find it’s really great for glass, mirrors and especially windows.

French windows generally open inwards, so they are easy to clean from inside, however it was a bit chilly to be flinging them open yesterday and cleaning all the outsides and the frames as well, so I started by cleaning the inside and getting the curtains washed for the kitchen window.

It’s a start and hopefully next week we’ll have a good day to finish off the outside.

Nice job

Brian started up high this morning, getting straight on with cleaning the cooker hood. The inside needs the filter and its housing taken apart and cleaned, whilst the outside needs a jolly good scrub.

I’d taken the trays and side covers out of the oven and took them to the buanderie to clean them with some strong oven cleaner. When I came back Brian had already started cleaning inside the oven. Never a nice job, but it’s easier when there’s two of you doing it.

Our focus for the day was to get the oven and hood finished, although I did also manage to do the shelves in the pantry. A great days work, we are really pleased with how it’s looking. I think one more day and we’ll have the kitchen finished.

Deep clean begins

The house was eerily quiet this morning. I could hear the birds singing, happily tweeting away as the sun was rising and warming the air from the chilly night.

Our guests had left yesterday, so there was no urgency to get up this morning and begin our day, except we were both actually quite keen to start our deep clean of the kitchen and ground floor.

We started by clearing our big wooden bench. I love this piece of furniture, on the lower shelf I store all the day to day crockery, tea towels, baskets etc. Whilst the work area is used for a tea and coffee station or a serving area as needed.

When we first had it we were so keen to start using it we hadn’t fixed the top on properly, so we took the time for Brian to do a few little repairs. He fixed the drawers, which needed a couple of stoppers at the back of them, and screwed the top on. He then oiled the top, with food safe oil, and waxed the lower shelf. It’s looking very healthy, all clean and moisturised.

I then started on my open larder area, sorting out my herbs and spices, organising my homemade jams, chutneys and marmalade, ready to serve to our guests through the season. I get great feedback on my jams etc, so it’s always nice to have something new to share with returning guests, I definitely need to make some more apricot jam as I’ve only got one small jar left.

A surprising weekend

Once I’d got over the shock of seeing four of our friends standing outside the front of our house, my mind started going into overdrive - have they eaten, what can we have for lunch, let’s go out for dinner, are the rooms ready? But then there came lots of “Jo it’s all under control”, “You don’t need to do anything”, “We have it all, go and sit down”, and the one that got me most, “Stay out of the kitchen”. Yikes, what was that, ‘Stay out of my kitchen’?

I think they all knew that would be a difficult one for me, but gradually, as the weekend unfurled I became more of a willing passenger.

They did have everything under control, and it made for a fabulous few days together.

Brian had organised a whole weekend full of activities, a Champagne tour and tasting at Gremillet, picnic and boule in Essoyes, a tasting and vineyard walk in Celles-sur-Ource, and a fun but revealing game of ‘Would I lie to you?’

He had also booked a couple of dinners out, and organised with Sam and Sara to make a couple of home cooked meals. Sara’s was a 1920’s themed evening party meal, which was spectacular. I’d been given a spa set to luxuriate in the bath whilst they set the room up and prepared the meal. I’d also been given the accessories to transform a simple black evening dress I had into a 1920’s, very elegant, outfit.

For their meal Sam and Alan gave us a deliciously comforting fish pie and a marvellous sticky toffee pudding on Sunday evening. Just what we needed after a real weekend of excitement. All washed down with rather a lot of Champagne.

Amazon man

I’m really not sure how Brian achieved this, obviously with a lot of help from our friends, but yesterday, as I was pottering around in the garden, after tidying up from my birthday celebrations, I was told to listen out for the Amazon man as I was due a delivery. That was all very exciting I wonder what it could be, although I’d really thought I’ve already had so many gorgeous things.

Around lunchtime I heard the familiar sound of a car horn, as the driver pulled up to warn us he’d arrived and to come and get your parcel.

I ran over to the gate calling ‘j’arrive’, holding a little plant in my hand that I was just about to plant. Hopefully the box wasn’t going to be too big! As I pulled the gate open, I noticed someone familiar, who? What? I scanned the other people, not understanding who I was seeing, 4 of our friends from the UK were standing at our gate. I just couldn’t quite understand what was going on! Had I missed something?

Must we?

We had been introduced to a rather interesting vigneron located just on the outskirts of Le Montsaugeonnais. We visited them last year, on our trip to Burgundy with friends, but didn’t buy too much as we were conscious of filling the car up before we’d arrived at our destination. We had introduced our guests to the wines last year and had some excellent feedback, so we wanted to pop back and buy some more, as it’s only just over an hour from us.

We enjoyed an excellent tasting of both their white and red wines, and were very pleased with our selection.

These are great local wines to serve with our table d’hôte dinners for our guests through the summer.