Advent postcards, Villemain Deux-Sèvres

Advent postcard, Villemain, Deux-Sèvres

Advent day sixteen

Today’s cycling advent-ures postcard is from the tiny village of Villemain, a mere three kilometres from our home. It is neatly tucked into the French countryside, so it’s not even somewhere you would drive through on your way to somewhere else. 

 

We will often set off on one of our quick ten-kilometre bike ride loops that take us through Villemain. Sometimes the route finishes with Villemain and then a whizzing downhill back home. Other times it starts with a gentle incline past goat and cow farms before a real leg and lung stretcher as we climb into the woods on the ridge.

 

If you do find yourself there, I think there are a few reasons to stop and take a moment. The first is the village war memorial. Rather than a sculptured rectangular memorial depicting the names of those lost, Villemain's is a statue of a French soldier painted in the palest blue uniform. Set on a plinth behind iron railings, it is always bedecked with flags for Victory in Europe Day on 8^th May and for Remembrance Day on 11^th November.

 

The second reason to stop is the Georgelet goat cheese farm. Any award-winning cheese farm whose cheeses are shipped all over France is worth a detour in my book, and they win gold medals most years at the national agricultural shows. They make a variety of the local speciality goat cheeses including Le Mothais sur Feuille which comes wrapped in a chestnut leaf and the pyramid shaped Chabichou de Poitou. Twice a week the farm shop is open, selling local produce as well as their cheese, but we can also stock up at the Saturday morning market in Chef-Boutonne, which is exactly what we did today, so that’s one bit of my Christmas shopping finished.

 

Advent Day Four, baguettes, boulangeries and Père Noel

Today's lunch of soup and flat bread

Advent Day Four

We started today by making a batch of flat breads that will keep nicely in the freezer and enable us to have one each with our lunchtime soup for the next ten days. Soup quickly became a winter lunch staple for us when we moved to France in 2004. I can’t even remember if it started with the summer glut of courgettes that became a freezer stocked with soup, or from the realisation that despite gloriously warm summers when our old stone house remained cool inside, winters in rural France turned out to be so much colder than I’d imagined. The cool stone quickly became cold and damp with icy air invading through draughty gaps. Nothing warms you up from the inside quite like a bowl of chunky soup, served piping hot and topped with melted cheese. 

Here is a fun French fact - did you know that despite the French accompanying most meals with a baguette, the one meal they don’t serve with bread is soup?

The baguette vending machine in our village

 

This week the French baguette was granted a UNESCO world heritage status. Buying their daily bread is part of the rhythm of life for French people with twelve million of them shopping in a boulangerie every day and with over six billion baguettes being baked every year, it is the most popular of all French breads. This prompted our local French newspaper to run a poll, asking “do you still eat baguettes daily?” and I was surprised that only 70% of respondents said they did. Sadly, we fell in the 30% who don’t – shh, don’t let on to my French friends, but even when we had a boulangerie down the road, a daily baguette intake just doesn’t agree with my English digestive system, and I’ve yet to use the baguette vending machine that was installed in our village in April. 

Envelopes and post box for Père Noel at our local boulangerie

 

We did visit one of the local boulangeries this week, for a croissant to have with a coffee, and I couldn’t help smiling when I saw it has become a temporary Christmas post office. Isn’t this just the sweetest Père Noel post box? 

 

If you want to know more about French bread, you might like this post from two years ago:

How to eat your bread

 

Here are the links to my previous 2022 Advent posts, just in case you missed any of them this week:

Farewell November

Back in the Creuse with a great fun cosy Christmas who dunnit

Festive fun with French words 

Book review of Sophie Valroux's Paris Stars by Samantha Vérant

Sophie Valroux's Paris Stars by Samantha Vérant

Sophie Valroux’s Paris Stars by Samantha Vérant

 

In the first book in this series, The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux, we left chef Sophie at the chateau in rural France she had inherited from her Grand-mère Odette (you can read my review here). A lot had changed in her life, in a short time, but I was hopeful she had found herself, and her home in France, and I was looking forward to following her adventures once more. 

 

Right from the start of Sophie Valroux’s Paris Stars, the changes and surprises continue to come at her thick and fast, and she finds herself pulled in different directions, leaving her unsure as to where her dreams lie. To take her mind off the grief of losing her Grand-mère, and her inner fears of settling down with her childhood sweetheart Remi, she throws herself into work at the chateau. 

 

It was great to be back in her kitchen, where I could almost smell and taste the dishes she lovingly creates – warning, this book should not be read on an empty stomach – but I was a little sad that she didn’t seem as happy and settled with her new life as she wanted to be. 

 

With her reputation spreading far beyond rural France, it wasn’t long before an offer to cook at a celebrity event in Paris arrives. With the backing of her team, but against Remi’s wishes, she knows she must focus on Paris, despite the many challenges. Sophie still has a lot to learn about herself, her Grand-mère, and Remi, but will Paris offer her the answers she is looking for? I have to say, I was with Remi here, shouting at the pages as if I could influence her decisions, although I did enjoy the glamour and drama Paris provided. 

 

This is a book that is easy to get stuck into, with great fun characters who left me with a huge smile on my face, as well as feeling like I was part of their chateau family. 

The sense of loyalty is heart-warming, the passion and emotions breath-taking, the food descriptions delicious; it tickled my tastebuds and so much more. 

We all need a luxury break from reality every now and then and this book gave me that. Now the nights are drawing in, I recommend treating yourself to a bit of escapism and fun in France with chef Sophie and her team. 

 

Samantha Vérant has also published two memoirs about her extraordinary love affair with France and her Frenchman.

 

Read my reviews here:

Seven Letters from Paris

How to Make a French Family

 

The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux

 

Read Samantha’s France et Moi interview here 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Book review The Hands On French Cookbook by Elisabeth de Châtillon

The Hands On French Cookbook, Elisabeth de Châtillon

Elisabeth de Châtillon on Tour 20th September - 1st October with

The Hands On French Cookbook: Connect With French Through Simple, Healthy Cooking

(nonfiction: Healthy Bilingual French Cook Book and Language Book – French and English) 

 Release date: 6/2/2021 144 pages Hands on French Goodreads 📚📚📚

Synopsis

If you think French food is complicated, decadent, and heavy, think again! If you think learning and exploring another language is difficult or boring, think again! And if you think cooking French food and learning French at the same time is impossible, teacher and home cook Elisabeth de Châtillon is here to prove you wrong. It might sound too good to be true, but THE HANDS ON FRENCH COOKBOOK is full of healthy, simple French recipes that you can make for friends and family while you learn not only the French language but also a little bit about French culture in a relaxed, fun, tasty way.

My review 

There is a lot to love in this innovative French recipe book. 

It is bilingual, with all the text cleverly split into short phrases that can easily be read and translated, with the addition of a handy verb section for each recipe. The repetition of reading this will mean you will soon remember the difference between éplucher and égouter or étaler and émietter. I certainly remember struggling with verbs like these when I first tried to follow a recipe in French. I will admit that although I don’t really need the English translations these days, I still picked up the odd new word or two. 

I also enjoyed the choice of recipes, as there is a good selection from all over France, and for all times of year, although I’d have loved a few more than the ten. From summer salads to comforting and warming gratin dishes, and not forgetting tempting desserts. The seasonal vegetable variation suggestions for each dish were also a great addition to the main recipe, and certainly gave me a few good ideas.

I think my favourite element, and where I learned the most, was the helpful section at the end of each recipe explaining where in France (or elsewhere) each dish came from. Regional food and seasonality are so important in French cooking, I’m glad this was included rather than just a collection of recipe ingredients and methods.

For anyone with an interest in cooking and eating French food, who is also looking for a practical and fun way to improve their French vocabulary, this book ticks a lot of boxes.

Purchase links

 

Our Bookshop

Amazon / Barnes & Noble

About the author

Elisabeth de Châtillon

 

Elisabeth de Châtillon was born in France, has an MA in Education and Marketing, and has taught extensively in both the USA and Europe. She is also an accomplished home cook who enjoys sharing her love for French cooking by feeding her family and friends simple, good food. Her book, THE HANDS ON FRENCH COOKBOOK, was born from her combined love of teaching and cooking —and a desire to share that love and knowledge. When Elisabeth isn’t working or cooking, she likes stepping on her yoga mat, meditating, swimming in the ocean and lakes, walking in the beautiful outdoors, and traveling. She currently lives in Nashville, TN, with her husband, Ron, and Minou, her bilingual cat. To find our more, please visit her website. Follow her on Facebook, on Instagram, or on LinkedIn  

If you live in the US, you can enter the global giveaway here or on any other book blog participating in this tour. 

Visit/Follow the participating blogs on Facebook/Twitter, as listed in the entry form below, and win more entry points!

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY

Tweeting about the giveaway everyday of the Tour will give you 5 extra entries each time! [just follow the directions on the entry-form] Global giveaway open to US residents 2 winners will receive a print copy of this book

CLICK ON THE BANNER TO READ REVIEWS AND AN INTERVIEW

Lazy Sunday Flapjacks

Flapjacks for cyclists

Lazy Sunday Flapjacks

When you wake up to yet another rainy day in May, a lazy Sunday seems the only option. My usual distraction for dull, damp days would be to bake a cake, but having already made a carrot cake this week, I decided on a batch of cycle-fuel flapjacks, that I can freeze. The recipe was inspired by the one from the Global Cycling Network, but I’ve tweaked it for our tastes and reduced the sugar a little, as the mashed banana makes it quite sweet. 

 

Ingredients for Flapjacks

150g coconut oil (I sometimes use half butter, half coconut oil)

75g Agave syrup (or golden syrup)

75g brown sugar

170g oats

75g walnuts (or mixed nuts)

75g mixed dried fruits (today I used dates, goji berries and apricots)

1 ripe banana mashed

 

Method

Melt the sugar, oil and syrup in a saucepan over a medium heat.

In a large mixing bowl add all dry ingredients, mix in the mashed banana and then coat everything in the oil/syrup and mix well.

 

Push it into a lined baking tin and cook at 170º for half an hour, or until golden brown on top.

 

Leave to cool, cut into squares and enjoy (ideally) on a bike ride.

 

Comfort food, meatballs

While the flapjacks were cooking, I focussed my efforts on tonight’s dinner and the sauce to go with my homemade meatballs. Meatballs are our go-to special meal, often served for birthdays and celebrations, but tonight we’ll have them just because they are warm and comforting and cheer us up. My little burst of kitchen activity kept me occupied and filled the house with warm, sugary aromas, but did mean that by early afternoon dinner was done and the weather still hadn’t improved enough to get out on the bikes. We braved the wind to walk the dog, but that just reinforced the belief that despite some sunny spells, today wasn’t a day to take the bikes out, so I might as well curl up with a good book and a flapjack. 

 

If this was a video it would be wild and windy!

May shouldn’t be a month when we need to resort to comfort food, but then the warm leggings and chunky knit jumper, that I thought had been packed into the drawer to be forgotten about for the coming months, have also been dug out once more. I really can’t wait for shorts and t-shirt weather, when all meals are enjoyed in the garden. The hazelnut tree in the courtyard, bowing and bouncing from side to side in the wild winds, was enough of a sign that eating outside wouldn’t be much fun today. A quick walk around the orchard also showed a disappointing sight; the damage of late frosts, cold winds and not enough sunshine this spring means there are very few cherries on our trees this year. I hope the plums, apples and pears have coped better.

 

https://www.gouvernement.fr/info-coronavirus

Covid-19 updates

This week will see many changes to life in France as the second of the four-stage plan to get back to normal comes into effect on 19^th May. The main points are that café, bar and restaurant terraces, that have been closed for over six months, will be reopening, as will museums, theatres and cinemas, and the overnight curfew will come into effect at 21h, rather than 19h. Let’s hope there is an improvement in the weather so we can at least enjoy a coffee and a spot of people-watching from a café terrace, or an evening bike ride as the sun begins to set.  

France has reached the magic twenty million mark for people who have received at least one vaccine and Adrian will soon be joining them. The opening of a four-day gap between courses for him, enabled me to book an appointment for his first vaccination this week, with the second one in the diary for later in June. As youngsters under fifty, Ed and I are only eligible to book a last-minute slot for the following twenty-four hours, and despite regular searching for the last four days, there has been nothing at all within 100km of us. Refreshing the page has become a bit of an obsession but I’ll keep checking until successful. 

May this week bring sunshine and freedom.

Book review of The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux by Samantha Vérant

The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux by Samantha Vérant

My review today is for The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux by Samantha Vérant.

 

This book starts on a high. The buzz of excitement and anticipation in the kitchen of a prestigious New York restaurant can be felt as the chefs await an important phone call. Then wham! In an instant it’s all taken away and Sophie sees her dream of being a Michelin recognised chef disintegrate around her. As her name is ruined, I felt the dull ache of pain in my chest at the injustice of what had happened to her. Sophie spirals into despair as she loses her way, both in life and in the kitchen, and the risk of turning into a broken woman, like her mother, suddenly seems very real. 

 

A little bit of French magic can help to heal even the most broken of hearts and that is just what is offered to Sophie. Although it has been many years since she spent any time in France with her Grand-mere Odette, a telephone call to say Odette is not well, is enough for Sophie to pack her bags in New York and fly into Toulouse to be with her. She may have pushed her happy memories of summers in France to the back of her mind, since her mum died, but being back in the chateau and seeing familiar faces brings them alive once more, and she begins to realise what she has sacrificed to follow her dream. 

 

In order to move forward, Sophie needs to understand more about the past and together with Odette, they slowly work through things that have been too difficult to voice for many years. Not everyone is happy with her sudden arrival, and it will take time and work to regain her confidence and prove her place in the chateau. With support from a few special people and the strength she has from Odette and her notebooks, Sophie tries her best to rebuild her life and her dreams. 

 

There was a lot to keep me entertained in this book, including a great fun and sometimes quirky cast of characters. Sophie came to life through the emotionally charged moments, from the despair at the beginning to the understanding and acceptance that came with the family secrets revealing the missing pieces of her life. I found it easy to visualise the chateau, the markets and the streets of Toulouse, as well as the smells of the kitchen and the produce from the garden and vineyards, and as an added bonus there are recipes included for some of Sophie’s favourite dishes. The more I read, the more I was filled with hope that she would find herself and her home. 

 

If you enjoy novels with strong characters, a sense of place and a little bit of French magic, you will love this one. 

The great news is that the second book in this series, Sophie Valroux’s Paris Stars will be released in October this year. Links to Amazon can be found below.

 

Samantha Vérant has also published two memoirs about her extraordinary love affair with France and her Frenchman, and the kindle version of How to Make a French Family is currently reduced on Amazon.

 

Read my reviews here:

Seven Letters from Paris

How to Make a French Family

 

Read Samantha’s France et Moi interview here 

France Trivia Advent Calendar day twenty-one, Marie Curie

Advent day 21 a sparkling rosé and a biere blanche

Advent day twenty-one, Monday 21^st December 2020

 

Winter solstice.

The arrival of the shortest day and the knowledge that from now on the hours of daylight will slowly increase, gives us much more reason to celebrate than Christmas, and last night we enjoyed our special solstice eve meal, which is the closest we will get to a traditional Christmas dinner. 

 

This morning we were up early, hoping to see a spectacle of colours as the sun rose, promising us that the dark days will become light. Just after eight o’clock, the sky began to lighten, but when the official sunrise of 8h40 arrived, there wasn’t even a hint of pink or orange to break up the grey. I think today must be one of the gloomiest days of winter so far and I couldn’t settle to anything, apart from soup-making. 

 

I don’t think I can claim another December recipe challenge victory for last night’s meal, as although I’ve never cooked guinea fowl before, I just did exactly what I’d do with a whole chicken. However, as the challenge was to drag our meals away from what had become routine, it did at least count as something new. 

Guinea fowl ready to cook in the slow cooker

 

I slow cooked the bird on a bed of leek tops, carrots and turnips with a little rosé wine and then served the meat on a Christmas vegetable risotto, and it tasted delicious. There is enough meat left for tonight’s dinner and the carcass was boiled for a stock, which along with the cooking vegetables and liquid, plus some other bits from the fridge, made a tasty soup for this week. 

 

Covid-19

The news at the weekend that there is a new strain of the virus in the UK and that all of our family over there are now in the Tier 4 category, seemed to come out of nowhere. Just to compound things, two of our close family members, who live in London, have had positive test results in today, having had coughs last week. They assure me they aren’t feeling too bad, but all this has meant their plans for Christmas have had to change. 

 

The world seems to be descending into a madness we could never have imagined a year ago. France (and most of Europe) has closed its border with the UK, we are living with an overnight curfew, and the more I focus on these statements the more it feels like things are spiralling out of control. It is way scarier out there now than it was back in March, but at least from today it is onwards and upwards and I can look forward to longer days, the arrival of spring and the strength the sunlight gives me to remain positive in a mad world.

 

Our Christmas greeting to you

Ed’s latest music video, his take on Lonely this Christmas, which I think is a pretty apt choice for this year, is now up on YouTube. All being well he won’t be lonely this Christmas, as he’ll be with his girlfriend, who he hasn’t seen since the end of October. The poor thing has been cooped up with his mad parents for almost two months and if you do decide to watch this video, you will see just how bonkers we are. 

 

This is our Christmas greeting to you all, wherever in the world you are and however you are celebrating this year. Thank you for following our French village adventures, and liking, sharing and commenting on my posts. Happy Christmas.

  

France Trivia advent calendar, day twenty-one, Marie Curie (1867-1934)

It was on this day in 1898 that French scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered radium, so it seemed fitting for them to be todays’ French trivia. Marie was born in Poland, studied in Paris, where she met Pierre and became a naturalised French citizen. She was the first woman to win a Nobel prize, the only woman to win one twice and the only person to win one in two scientific fields (physics and chemistry). They shared the 1903 Noble prize in physics for their pioneering work in radioactivity and during the First World War she developed mobile radiography units to provide x-rays to field hospitals. Pierre and Marie also shared a passion for long bicycle trips and as the saying goes, the couple who cycle together, stay together. 

Lockdown diaries day forty-four, Advent day twelve, French pizza

Advent day 12 IPA and Bordeaux sauvignon blanc

Day forty-four, Saturday 12^th December 2020

 

Advent day twelve

We are halfway through advent (already) and Adrian is happy with the IPA he pulled out from his calendar this morning as it’s his favourite from the eight varieties included. I have a Bordeaux white, which should go nicely with my pizza tonight.

Toad in the hole, cooked by Ed

 

Last night I relinquished control of my kitchen and let Ed cook his signature dish, toad in the hole. For those of you who aren’t British, this is an oven cooked dish of sausages in batter and I have no idea where the name originates from, but no toads were harmed in the making of our dinner last night. It was delicious and the perfect comfort food choice for a cold, damp day. Traditionally it is served with an onion gravy, but Ed being my son, added mushrooms, peppers and courgettes to his gravy mix as he felt it would otherwise be lacking in vegetables. That’s my boy. Despite its origins, ours was a good local dish as the sausages came from Noah’s Ark Farm (about ten kilometres away), the eggs for the batter came from Bois Cambert (about three kilometres away) and the shallots were from this week’s Espoir Nature veggie pannier.

 

The boulangerie treats from today's bike ride

Greedy little piggies

We have been a bit indulgent today, munching our way through five different types of cake. During the first lockdown I slipped easily into the routine of always having a cake in the kitchen. At this time of year, as well as the topless carrot cake that has become our regular favourite (no sickly cream cheese topping here), there are mincepies too, plus the brownies I made yesterday. It was a real treat to have one of each after our healthy soup at lunchtime. 

As the weather was sunny today, although there was quite a strong wind too, we couldn’t resist a bike ride this afternoon and found ourselves outside the boulangerie in Brioux-sur-Boutonne. Our mid ride rest today included a piece of flan and a chocolate chip brioche roll, that we shared on a sunny bench. It was just what I needed having cycled into the wind for eighteen kilometres. I now have less than fifty kilometres to cycle to reach my goal of five thousand for this year.

 

Tarte flambée - Flammenkuche

France Trivia advent calendar, day twelve, French ‘pizzas’

I know the pizza originates from Italy, but did you know there are two French regional dishes that give the pizza a run for its money? 

 

The first is from the Alsace region in the north east, and one of Ed’s favourites, the tarte flambée or flammenkuche. This thin pizza dough base is layered with crème fraiche, lardons (bacon pieces) and onions before being cooked in a hot oven (or wood fired pizza oven, if possible). 

 

The second is the pissaladière, from Nice in the south. Here the pizza dough base is covered with a generous layer of caramelised onions before criss-crossing anchovy fillets over the top and dotting on black olives.

 

They are both a delicious alternative to a more traditional tomato base pizza, but for a country that boasts over a thousand different types of cheeses, I do think it’s a bit odd that neither French ‘pizza’ contains any cheese. 

Lockdown diaries day forty-three, Advent day eleven, Bordeaux wines

Advent day eleven Bordeaux wine and ruby beer

Day forty-three, Friday 11^th December 2020

 

Advent day eleven

Curfew from 15th December 20h until 6h

Update from Prime Minister Jean Castex last night

Despite the virus numbers not being as low as the government would have liked, they are still planning on easing lockdown here in France on 15^th December. We will no longer be required to fill in our attestations (reasons for leaving home form), but an overnight curfew will come into place from eight o’clock in the evening until six in the morning, and if you do need to leave home during these hours, an attestation must be completed. The curfew will not apply to Christmas Eve, but it will be enforced (with zero tolerance) on New Year’s Eve. 

 

We will be permitted to travel between regions in France, so visiting of family over the festive period will be allowed, however, all gatherings should be limited to six adults. To avoid a third wave (the second wave is not over yet), we really do need to be careful and think before we go out, is our reason for leaving home really necessary? Theatres, cinemas and other public places that were hoping to open on 16^th December, will remain closed, and this situation will be reviewed on 7^th January. The opening of bars and restaurants will be reviewed, as planned, on 20^th January. 

 

We are looking forward to meeting up with a few friends, hopefully with a bike ride, but our Christmas and New Year plans were never going to be over the top, even without a curfew. The end of 2020 marks the day Britain’s transition period ends, meaning we will be officially ostracised from the EU, and those of us living in France will become third country citizens with far fewer rights than EU citizens. There has never been much about that worth celebrating, as far as we are concerned. Having been promised so many times that nothing will change, and deals will be done, the latest from Reuters this afternoon is that leaving without a trade deal will be the most likely option at this late hour. It has been four and half years since the referendum in June 2016, and still we have no idea what the real impact will be or what changes we will need to make in order to run our business in less than a month’s time. It makes me so mad.

 

Chocolate Brownies

Mary Berry’s brownies

One of the downsides to searching through my recipe books looking for new dinner ideas, is spotting something naughty but nice, getting caught up in the moment and diving in without thinking. This is just what happened when I found Mary’s brownie recipe and ended up with the biggest bowl of melted chocolate brownie mixture I’ve ever seen and way too much for my favourite tray-bake tin. The vast quantities of butter and sugar should have warned me I was heading way out of my comfort zone, but seriously Mary, these bad boys should come with a health warning. Thankfully, although the recipe stated it would make twelve brownies, (that would mean almost 40g of sugar per brownie), I managed to cut mine into about thirty, and as they can be frozen, there is no need to rush off and eat them all in one go. 

 

In order to try and burn off some of the calories from the brownies, while the rain, wind, thunder and lightning took over outside, we set to clearing some drawers in the lounge. I might have already mentioned we are not the best at clutter-free living, but the contents of these drawers probably haven’t been looked at in over a decade and gave us a trip down memory lane. Top finds were my handwritten diary from our honeymoon in Mauritius, April 1998, including a detailed inventory of what we had on room service and from the minibar, as well as a page where I was practising my new signature. A notebook from 1997 where Adrian had listed all the additional extras he’d spent on Gizmo, his Mini Cooper, since buying him in 1994. From our early years in France, there were enough supermarket receipts to plot the price changes of our standard shop for the last decade, and enough plastic folders and pockets to set up our own stationary shop. There were also so many cables, plus a whole collection of different models of iPods, Adrian couldn’t quite contain his excitement, and some of Ed’s homemade movies from at least ten years ago. As he is now studying cinema as part of his degree, it was quite sweet to remember how much he’s always enjoyed filming.

 

Bordeaux wines

France Trivia advent calendar, day eleven Bordeaux wines, the basics

My advent calendar has offered me a bottle of Bordeaux, so I thought a quick tour of the wines of Bordeaux would be a good idea today.

 

Reds

Bordeaux, light and fruity and best drunk young.

Bordeaux supérieur, full-bodied, with a delicate tannin and best drunk within five years. 

St Emilion, Pomerol, Fronsac, full-bodied and supple and with the possibility to lay down and age.

Pauillac, St Julien, more complex and higher in tannin when young, but much better when aged.

 

Rosés

Bordeaux rosé and Bordeaux Clairet produced in the Gironde department are light, fruity and best drunk young.

 

Dry whites

Entre-deux-Mers and Blaye-Cotes-de-Bordeaux produced in the Gironde, they are fresh, light and easy to drink.

Pessac-Leognan and Graves are a little stronger and can be left to age.

 

Sweet whites

Sauternes being the most famous, some of these can be kept for many years.

 

Sparkling wines

Bordeaux produces sparkling whites and rosés that Larousse tells me are very fresh, light and easy to drink. 

Lockdown diaries day forty-two, Advent day ten, moules et huîtres

Advent day ten, sparking rosé and biere triple

Day forty-two, Thursday 10^th December 2020

 

Advent day ten

Moules

It was much milder today and I even managed to get the washing dried outside, but I think the sparkling pale rosé I pulled from the advent calendar will be another one to sit in the fridge until I feel the need for a bit of sparkle in my life. The mulled wine was lovely yesterday and the longer it sits mulling, the better it becomes, so although it might not be the ideal apéro for moules frites, that’s what I’ll be pouring myself later.

 

We knew this day would come, but it was still quite sad when the moules lady weighed out our kilo of mussels and said this would be the last week she’d have them. It will probably be late spring before we get to enjoy them again, so tonight’s meal, served with homemade oven chips, will need to be savoured. 

 

Moules night is a pretty easy night for the chef as there is very little to prepare; sauté an onion and some garlic, add thyme and when softened throw in a glass of white wine. Once there is plenty of heat, add the moules and they are done in minutes. The oven takes care of the chips and the preparation of cutting the potatoes, seasoning and oiling them, isn’t too hard either. I’ll certainly miss them, but last night’s mushroom stroganoff was pretty easy and quick to prepare too, and it was deemed a success. 

 

#DecemberChallenge mushroom stroganoff

Adrian and Ed might be easy to please, but Ed ranked it as top meal of the week, even though it was only Wednesday and he almost swooned at the cottage pie (with meat) I’d served on Tuesday. I almost didn’t want to admit that this morning I noticed the jar of cornichons in the fridge, and remembered I was supposed to have added 50g of them to the finished stroganoff just before serving. Oh, well, I will be making it again (it might even become our new Thursday regular) and next time I will try to remember all the ingredients. For some, following a recipe is easy, for me it really is a challenge.

 

This week's veggie pannier

While Adrian worked outside on some of the pots that need a bit of protection over winter, I had fun in the kitchen cake baking and soup making. The soup used up some of last week’s veggies, making sure there was plenty of room for the contents of this week’s veggie pannier. There is something quite satisfying and reassuring to know the cupboards are well-stocked heading into the weekend. One thing we are running low on are mincepies as I have just noticed there is only one left, so I guess tomorrow I will be making another batch of them.

 

A typical French seafood platter for Christmas or New Year

France Trivia advent calendar, day ten, oysters (huîtres)

The moules might be over for the season, but our seafood lady will still visit the village each week selling her oysters. Most French family Christmas Eve and/or New Year’s Eve celebrations will include oysters and to ensure she has enough, she has been encouraging us to place our end of year orders already. Our local Atlantic coast oyster beds, from the area around La Rochelle, Ile de Ré, Ile d’Oléron and Marennes are renowned in France. They get their own special mention in my Larousse guide and when I accompanied Ed’s class on a school trip in 2006, they might only have been aged six, but a visit to an oyster farm (ostréicole) was one of the highlights and most of them were already accustomed to eating them.

 

The baby oysters spend many years in the oyster beds at sea before being brought in for their final ‘refining’ (claire) process. This is done in the old salt marshes along the coast and it’s here they come into contact with a microscopic algae that gives them their characteristic green colour. The oysters are classified as ‘fines de claire’ or ‘spéciales claires’ depending on the conditions of the refining process and how long they spent there.