Lazy Sunday in France with Judith Dowden

#LazySundayinFrance Judith Dowden

Welcome to another #LazySundayinFrance. Today I am delighted to be joined by Judith Dowden, author of Chez Mwah: How to Languish in the Languedoc, a rather funny look at the reality of running a holiday home in France, on a budget. You can read my review here, and for a peek at Judith’s take on French life, read on, she’s taking us for a rummage at a vide greniers.

Chez Mwah, Judith Dowden

LAZY SUNDAY

Sunday mornings in France mean one thing and one thing only and, we’re religious about it. Of course, it’s ch…ch….ch…….CHINER!!

Bless me.

There’s no English equivalent for this verb, chiner. Here’s my definition:

“To rummage around in other people’s old stuff and haggle for fascinating objects that you neither wanted, nor even knew you needed.”

#LazySundayinFrance Judith Dowden

There is an excellent website that tells you where the nearest vide-greniers are occurring. It’s a jolly saunter out towards an undiscovered village, circling it five times in search of a sign, suspiciously eyeing up the other chineurs – also in a holding pattern, until one of us spots a postage stamp sized flyer indicating which car park, stadium or random field to aim for.

Then it’s the spit of gravel, pedal to the metal and a Wacky Races style dash to beat one another to it.

 

 #LazySundayinFrance Judith Dowden

We have furnished our Languedoc home from these events. Our finds include a giant Moroccan lantern, a snail collecting basket, an illuminated Eiffel Tower and a clear plastic bowl with a jaunty orange palm tree sticking out. When it’s full of sandy apero snacks - crisps, nuts, Cheesy Wotsits - it resembles a mini desert island. I noticed a French neighbour’s quizzical stare at one particular soirée and assumed she was wracked with envy over my stylish serving receptacle. She explained that it was actually a terrapin bowl, in which to keep your pet reptiles.

Oh, well. Never mind. I’d given it a good wash.

 

#LazySundayinFrance Judith Dowden

After a noisette and a croissant on some sunny village terrace, we head for home, stopping off at the garage shop. In England, this means a cold Ginster’s and a Mars Bar. But this garage shop has a glorious Minervois wine selection, a sumptuous deli, a rotisserie dripping with golden chickens and, nestling amongst frilly garden lettuces, there are pearlescent oysters.

 

#LazySundayinFrance Judith Dowden

We scoop up the laziest, but most delicious Sunday lunch along with some newspapers. After having unpacked this morning’s vide-grenier treasure, flung hot soapy water over it all and brewed more coffee, we settle down for a couple of hours in the sun.

#LazySundayinFrance Judith Dowden

The first hunger pangs prompt a dish of olives and an apero of local rosé, while we shuck oysters and mix diced shallots with red wine vinegar for the garnish. We warm up the chicken, which comes with sticky, brown potatoes. There is also a sharp Tarte au Citron, collected from the patisserie earlier.

#LazySundayinFrance Judith Dowden

We might go for a bike ride around the vineyards, or a stroll by the Canal du Midi – just long enough to make room for chicken mayonnaise baguettes, with a movie from our French shelf – “La Vie en Rose”, “Midnight in Paris ” or “Chocolat”.

Laziness is surprisingly exhausting! So it’s a relief to fall into bed and apply our thoughts to Monday morning’s rush hour or, as we like to call it, the queue at the boulangerie. Oh, the stress of wondering whether we’ll make it before the fig bread sells out.

Bonne Nuit.

Lazy Sunday in France for French Village Diaries ©judithdowden2018

You can follow Judith on Twitter here and Instagram here.

Chez Mwah is available in ebook and paperback formats and a links to Amazon can be found below.

A French Village Vide Greniers

Vide Greniers and Romanesque Church

I’ve totally lost track of the days as it feels like a weekend, but it’s only a Thursday. Today is Ascension Day and one of the many public holidays that fall in May this year (see here for more information), but not only are schools off today, we have a four day weekend thanks to the famous faire-le-pont, making a bridge between a public holiday on a Thursday and the weekend. This bridge day can sometimes seem greedy and rather a strange idea, but seems more than fair this year as Sunday 8^th May is Victory in Europe Day, another public holiday, but falling on a Sunday means most people miss out on a day off work.

While Adrian is busy working in the UK, where neither today nor Sunday are public holidays and bridge days are unheard of, I set off with Pierrette, my French neighbour, to a Vide Greniers (car boot/yard sale) in a local village. The weather is glorious this week, as so often happens when Adrian returns to the UK for work and at 25 degrees, it was lovely and warm for those of us wandering around, but those sellers unlucky enough not have found a spot in the shade of a tree were wilting in the heat.

Vide Greniers

The roads around the Romanesque church in the centre of the village were closed to traffic and tables were set up to display pre-loved goods to sell. There were clothes, toys, bicycles, ancient electric gadgets that I would have been terrified of plugging in, books, kitchenware, homemade jams, home grown plants and seedlings, local walnut oil, eggs and even live chickens and rabbits sitting together in cages under the shade of a chestnut tree. The road through the village that was still open for traffic had cars parked nose to tail on both sides and people of all ages were milling around everywhere; walking, talking, browsing, buying and enjoying an afternoon in the sun.

Pierrette, who is in her seventies, saw something she recognised from her childhood, but had forgotten what it was for. It was wooden, a little like a bottle opener, but without the corkscrew. The friendly stallholder demonstrated that it was in fact a wooden punch for pushing a new cork into a bottle and she remembered her father using one. 

The stallholder, realising by now he had a captive audience; the old lady who remembers using some of these items and the younger one who hasn’t a clue, but is interested none the less, held up another object, also wooden, curved like the top of a walking stick but with a pointed metal cap on one end. I was stumped, but she knew immediately. It was for making a hole to plant out your seedlings in your potager. What I thought was wood, was actually a thick old tree root chosen specifically for its shape and strength. 

Then came the metal object that looked like a cross between a ladle and a small saucepan with a long handle, but on the inside where the handle joined the pan was a fine mesh of holes. This was used to scoop up a little water from the well and by gently tipping it, the water poured through the handle allowing you a small flow to wash your hands, so simple and yet so clever. We were also shown lovely cotton culottes, long to the knees, but with a gapping hole in the middle to allow easy access for the essential functions without having to get undressed. Pierrette remembers her Grandmother wearing them, but says her Mother wore far more modern cotton knickers.

We spent almost two hours wandering and talking, looking and discussing, but neither of us bought anything. There were plenty of bonjours and bisous (hellos and kisses) as we both found people we knew, although the biggest surprise for her was when a man sitting in the shade and eating a meal with his family called out her name. It took her a while to recognise him as someone who had worked with her husband many years ago, but bisous were exchanged, hands shaken and introductions to his grown up children made, before we continued our browsing. We stopped for a refreshing cold apple juice at the buvette (drinks tent) that was centrally placed by the church and we took a moment of cool and calm to look inside the open door at the simple interior of the village church.

I returned home to sit and cool down indoors, make a cup of tea and flick through the cookbook in my head and decide which cake to bake later. A movement outside the kitchen door caught my eye, it was Pierrette and she was off out on her bicycle for her regular afternoon promenade! I sometimes wish I had her energy.

This post has been linked to All About France with Lou Messugo.