Snowballs

When we visited Bruges recently we bought some farm produced advokaat. The lady who had produced it was describing lots of different recipes and ways to use it, which all sounded rather scrumptious, especially as we both love advokaat.

Last night we decided we’d try some in one of our typical festive tipples — a Snowball. This is typically equal quantities of advocaat to lemonade. It was super delicious and we will definitely be looking to try and buy more of this artisan bottling in the future.

We do have a little idea to use it in a dessert, so I should hopefully be able to blog that shortly, so ‘croiser les doigts’.

Icy morning

We woke to a very frosty garden this morning, the temperature was down to -6°c overnight, brrrrh chilly. However the garden was looking gorgeous, all sprinkled with a white dusting of frost.

We needed to nip out to pick up some meat from the butchers, for dinner tomorrow night, so we wrapped up and headed into Bar-sur-Seine. Brian couldn’t resist but take a few photographs of the icy landscape on the way.

When we returned home, the sun was shining and it was still very chilly, but I suggested we popped on our walking boots and headed out for a short walk. I thought it would be good to take a left at the end of the village, the opposite direction to the point de vue, this Would take us up behind our house. The scenery was spectacular. The sun did not reach this part of the forest and the frosty spikes growing from the trees were looking quite fierce, but we knew that they would just vanish if the sun could reach them.

We were so glad we’d headed out for our chilly walk.

Master of milk

For many months now we have been looking for a metal jug with a pointed spout, which will enable Brian to master his art of milk decoration.

I recently found this one, which is 620ml, enough for 2 cappuccino’s, and thought it would be a great stocking filler for him. However I was a little concerned it may not be what he wanted, but I thought I’d take a chance.

Well, his excitement when he opened it convinced me that it was the right one. He’s been trying it out, and has started to discover, by having the right jug, how much better he can be with the art of milk.

These are his first two attempts, I’m sure they’ll get better.

Boxing Day, or is it?

Boxing Day is a very British Christmas holiday. It is not a public holiday across the rest of Europe, and I don’t think the rest of the world. Although maybe someone will tell me it is in Australia and New Zealand. For us though, we still treat it as a holiday.

The sun was shining when we woke, with a beautiful, cloudless, blue sky. However we could see the mist, forming from the damp of the night, being burnt off by the sun. It was about 1°C outside, so we needed to wrap up for our walk.

What a gorgeous day though. We sat for a while looking over the village, admiring the collection of houses, all higgledy-piggledy. We could see how the oldest houses of the village all seem to have been built along the little river Artaut.

We do so enjoy living here.

Christmas Day, a relaxed event

Christmas Day was a delightfully relaxed event for us. We woke gently to a greyish day, and eventually sat down in front of the tree, ready to unwrap our presents; of which there seemed quite a few this year. We’d brought quite a few back from our trip to the UK this year, from friends and family.

It was so lovely to get to open these in front of the fire sipping a glass of champagne.

After we’d cooked, and enjoyed, our delicious roast chicken dinner, paired with a gorgeous bottle of red burgundy, we sat and nibbled our way through a box of ‘Le French Kiss’. I think these may be my new favourite chocolates.

Christmas Eve preparations

We nipped out to the butchers yesterday morning to collect our farm chicken and some sliced meats for apéro later in the week. There was a small market open, which was great to see for those last minute purchases. We were heading to the boulangerie though, as I wanted to get some baguettes and something to have with coffee when we got home — as a friend was dropping by. The cakes were looking delicious.

We opted though for a creme patisserie galette, which was light and creamy. An ideal treat to enjoy with our morning coffee.

To build up an appetite for dinner, we decided to make a little walk up to the point de vue — always a delight. Such a peaceful little stroll past Le Prieuré, up through the vineyards, and through the little forest at the top of the hill.

We sat for a short while enjoying the view, and soaking up the scene, before wandering back home for a warming cup of Christmas tea.

We’d bought a whole turbot from the market, and were looking forward to having it for dinner. Brian had chosen a rather nice bottle of white Burgundy to enjoy with it.

I’d read that roasting it whole is a good way to cook it, so after Brian had trimmed and cleaned it for me, I drizzled on some olive oil and popped it in the oven. It would take about 10 minutes per inch of thickness. So we determined ours would be about 15 minutes. I think it could have probably gone about another minute or two, but being our first time of cooking turbot we were really pleased.

I served it by lifting the fillets off the bone and removing the skin. I’d boiled some new potatoes, fried some Jerusalem artichokes, to make little crisps, and fried off some mushrooms in butter. The butter from the mushrooms I served over the fish.

It was all rather delicious, something we’ll definitely be doing again.

Movie day

It’s that time of year again, when we sit back, relax and watch Christmas time movies. We’ve done this for so many years now that it’s hard to find new films that are completely Christmas themed, so we also include movies that seem right for Christmas.

Our first watch was ‘The Holdovers’. I have to say that I thought it was something like home alone for a bunch of school kids, but it turned out to be something quite different. A really nice watch with a chunk of toast and a cappuccino.

The second film was a Brian choice — ‘Trading places’. He remembered it from when he was young, and wanted to see it again. It’s not a Christmas movie as such, but it definitely takes place around the festive period. I think we were both a bit surprised at how un-PC it was, times have clearly changed. It was a fun watch though, I love seeing all the 80’s fashions, such a great decade. And what better way to enjoy it than with a minced pie and sherry, which was delightful.

Our third offering was ‘Wonka’, a new musical film featuring a young Willy Wonka trying to make his way in a competitive world. Very much a musical theatre styled movie, and perfect for the west end or broadway. A couple of bloody Mary’s and some nuts, followed by a couple of hotdogs, got us through this one.

Our first three movies were quite long, so we only had time for a short one as our fourth choice before bed. So ‘Shaun the sheep, the Flight before Christmas’, was a perfect pick for our final movie of the day. Quite silly, but definitely Christmassy, it was a good end to a lovely day.

Wishing you all a merry Christmas

Brian and I would like to wish you all a fabulous festive few days, and a fantastic new year.

It’s been great having your support throughout the year, it really does help us with spreading the word of our Chambre d’hôte, thank you. I love reading your comments and emails, and will hopefully get to meet more of you over the coming year, or see familiar faces again, which we so delight in.

Happy Christmas to you all, best wishes from Jo and Brian.

Christmas quiz 2024

Every year Brian puts together a Champagne quiz. He sees it as another pleasurable way to share his knowledge.

Why not give it a go here, and see how much you know about Champagne.

If you have any friends or family that you think would also like to give it a go please feel free to share this blog or the link.

Home for Christmas

After a trip away, it’s always a delight to return home. The smells, the sounds — all the familiarity that makes it such a comfort. It was a perfect Christmas present to be with family and friends, but sitting in front of the tree with the fire roaring has a sense of calm that’s hard to match.

Travel can be so exciting, and I love discovering new places and tasty treats to enjoy, but I think our local boulangerie and café is still high on my list of favourite places to visit.

Visiting family and friends

From Bruges we drove down the coast to Calais to catch Le Shuttle to the UK. We’d planned a short trip to visit our families and friends. We headed to Norfolk first, visiting Dad and staying with my brother Jon and his family. Then we headed down to Kent, where we had the opportunity to visit, what I believe is, one of Kent’s most beautiful houses, at Ightham Moat. I have to say, apart from its obvious splendour, it gave me lots of ideas for Christmas decorations. It’s great getting inspiration from places you visit.

We then caught the train into London, and spent some time with Brian’s family. It was so lovely to catch up with everyone.

Whilst there we took a wander into Marylebone. It’s a great area of London peppered with small boutique shops. One that we visited was Daunt books. It offers their customers a different way of finding new books, by categorising and presenting them in collections based on the country they represent. For example, the French section includes books on travel, fiction, non-fiction, cookery, history, wine, and so much more, almost anything that has a French connection. It’s great as you switch from travel to cookery to fiction, an ideal way to inspire a purchase or two.

Finally, after a lot of walking, supping coffee and enjoying a little tipple in an unusually quiet west end pub, we found ourselves outside of Fortnum & Mason. One of my favourite shops in London.

Our day and trip ended with a wonderful family meal in Dishoom, and a stroll through Covent Garden, admiring the spectacular Christmas lights London offered.

Inspiring displays

I adore a beautiful shop display at Christmas, it’s always lovely to see a street dressed in a seasonal flourish, and although this display was not very Christmassy, it was certainly inspiring and the colours were gorgeous.

There were plenty of doorways and windows surrounded by beautiful swags, wreaths and canopies. All made with such creativity, and amazing work in design and construction.

It’s certainly got me thinking for next year’s door display at our maison. I’m thinking of so many wonderful things that we could achieve, I just need to ensure we have lots of time to do it, and maybe I should tell Brian as well.

Aux Merveilleux de Fred

Walking around a city on a cold and frosty December morning can really build up an appetite, and what better way to sate that appetite than a visit to a cosy little patisserie.

They don’t have many seats, so we were extremely lucky to get there as a few became available.

We found out that the pâtisserie was founded by Frédéric Vaucamps, a pastry chef from the North of France. He adapted the recipe of his favourite cake to make it extremely light, and it became a marvellous success, so much so that in 1997 he named his Lille pâtisserie after it, and so ‘Aux Merveilleux de Fred’ was born. Since then, Aux Merveilleux de Fred has grown, and opened pâtisseries all over the world, including Toronto, London, Lille and Bruges.

They sell these gorgeous little soft centred, light as anything, meringues coated in flaked chocolate. With a warming cup of coffee, it certainly made for a relaxing break.

It wasn’t just the delicate pâtisseries that caught our eye though, they also had the most dramatic crystal chandelier. Not sure I’ve seen one of that size and quality outside of a chateau…amazing.

Boat ride

Despite the chilly weather, we wrapped up and headed to one of the many piers where you can board a little tourist boat to be whizzed along the canals to view the city from the water.

The boat driver doubles up as your guide, and we’d managed to pick a particularly humorous one, not only talking about the history of the buildings we were seeing, but also telling anecdotes and having a little fun with some of the passengers, it was all in good taste and made for a very enjoyable ride, which lasted about 30 minutes.

It’s a great way to see Bruges, definitely worth doing.

In the evening the waterway’s become still, and there’s a calm as you wander along their banks. They are just as magical by night as they are during the day.

Sparkling Bruges

Bruges is a very pretty city of old cobbled streets, and beautiful, tall, narrow buildings, often with many ornate features. It has old stone bridges, crossing sparkling little waterways, and open plazas full to the brim with cafés and restaurants with a hubbub of people enjoying their day.

The Christmas market was in the main square, and one of the smaller side plazas, but they were quite close together. Each market was full with little wooden chalets, with many selling scrumptious things to eat, either to take home or snack on now. Others selling a range of little homemade crafts, toys, lots of Christmas decorations and plenty of warm things to wear if you needed an extra layer. After a little bit of brunch to set ourselves up for the day, we were soon enjoying wandering around and soaking up the atmosphere.

It really is a very beautiful city, which is great to just stroll through and enjoy. Again, it’s another place I’d like to come back to one day, to explore it a bit more, maybe when it’s a bit warmer.

Dukes Arches

After our visit to Lille we drove over into Belgium, just an hours journey by car, to Bruges. We were staying at a little boutique hotel, called Duke’s Arches, which looked lovely on the website, and was very reasonably priced. I have to say, it didn’t let us down. We parked up nearby, and were soon rolling our bags across the cobblestones to the hotel, just a short walk away.

We could instantly see the charm of Bruges and were keen to get out and explore, but first we needed to check-in and drop our bags off.

The stylish reception welcomed us, and we could feel the warmth of the hotel straight away. While I registered our stay Brian was already off exploring the hotel..

From the gorgeous looking bar, to the sumptuous salons and the tall rooms, all was impeccably styled.

And how often do you get a dramatic, glass chandelier in your bedroom.

We settled in, then soon headed out — excited to explore the beautiful city. There are so many wonderful places to stay, and little restaurants and cafés to eat, many of them in the heart of the old centre. This was going to be an interesting little visit.

Palais des Beaux-Arts

Whilst in Lille we visited the Palais des Beaux-Arts, set in a gorgeous building in the centre of Lille. It is dedicated to fine art, modern art, and antiquities. It was one of the first museums in France — built by Napoleon I in the early 19th century as part of the popularisation of art.

We both enjoy the beauty of art museums, and this municipal museum did not disappoint. We headed here to visit the temporary exhibition of the works of Raphael (1483-1520).

The Raphael exhibition, with its priceless collection of drawings — revealed for the first time to the public in its entirety – certainly helped feed the soul. The presentation of the 40 drawings, some double-sided, which were creatively displayed in their own space, is being supplemented by special loans from the Louvre Museum, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the Royal Collection Trust, the National Gallery in London, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid — so quite a collection.

It was a delight to get so up-close to the sketches, paintings and frescoes. To view the details and colours, and witness how the paintings developed from the original sketches to their final versions. It was a very rare opportunity to get such a rounded view of his works.

We then visited the exhibition of the ‘town plans of Vauban’, which are situated on a whole floor dedicated to the many 3D constructions of strategic towns along the French north and eastern borders.

Vauban was a French military engineer who worked under Louis XIV. He is considered one of the greatest engineers of his time, and perhaps the most important in military history. It was fascinating viewing his models, and his ideas for architectural defences, that use the natural features of the landscape as their base.

It was these relief plans that encouraged the town of Lille to renovate the museum building at the beginning of the 1990’s.

We’d heard about the plans existence, so it was really pleasing to get the opportunity to see so many of them together in one place.

Lille by night

If Lille is beautiful by day, it’s spectacular by night. They dress the city so beautifully, from the glittering lights of the vintage chenille ride at the fun fair…

…to the glorious spill of colour on the spectacular architecture surrounding the squares, It’s a feast for the eye and the soul.

It really was, in every way, a warming city to visit just before Christmas.

Eating out

Our two nights eating out in Lille couldn’t have been more different. For the first evening we chose a typical, cosy bar/restaurant, with all the feel of a place that’s been serving patrons for longer than most people can remember.

We arrived early, but it was soon full, and brimming with conversation and laughter. When we received our aperitif, we realised why. The vin chaud was served with a shot of Amaretto, let’s just say it was ‘very warming’ start to the evening.

But if the starting drinks seemed a lot, the food that followed was definitely on the hearty side too. We ordered a couple of sharing platters to start. Followed by a variation of pies, tartiflette, crepes and meat, but most definitely everything included the local cheese — Maroilles.

The second evening was a more contemporary choice, and started with a glass at the downstairs cocktail bar. A great way to start our evening.

Then we walked upstairs to the restaurant, which revealed the rest of the warehouse environment.

It was an interesting layout, with the softened music of the cocktail bars DJ filtering up into the restaurant area.

The food was also quite different, but no less hearty than the night before.

The only question was, ‘should we pop down to the bar to finish?´.

Maybe another time.

Weekend in Lille

We’ve headed up to Lille, in northern France, to meet up with friends for some Christmas market shopping. We’ve never been here before, but already I can say it’s certainly a city we would revisit. It’s absolutely beautiful this time of year, with all the Christmas lights and greenery decorating the buildings and windows, and I would definitely be keen to see it at other times of the year, to enjoy some of the outside spaces.

There’s a huge ferris wheel in the main square. Not something I’d want to go on, but it looks like you’d get a great view from the top, if you have a stomach for heights.

The Christmas market was in Place Rihour, in the centre of the old town. There were lots of stalls, selling everything from vin chaud (mulled wine) to four foot high painted soldiers, in the style of the nutcracker.

It’s also definitely the place to buy a nativity scene, or snap up an addition to one you may already have.

All really enjoyable and very festive.