Telethon Charity Meal

It has been a fantastically busy weekend, with the highlight being our Téléthon charity meal on Friday night.  Téléthon is an annual event in France raising money for research, and to help the families of children with genetic conditions like muscular dystrophy.  It is also an annual tradition for our village to host a meal and raffle with all proceeds going to the Téléthon appeal.  This year things were run a little differently from previous years and I somehow found myself as one of the three organisors.  My telephone number was on the posters, so I found myself having to take down names and numbers spelt out in rapid French over the phone.  I also found myself attending meetings where I was expected to talk, listen, understand half a dozen conversations being simultaneously spoken in French and take notes for the minutes – all I can say is that my French neighbours must think my French is so much better than it actually is.  All I wanted to do was peel some vegetables and help in the meal preparation like I have done in previous years and spend some time soaking up the fun, convivial atmosphere of an evening with good friends.  Never mind, we made it, and our recently renovated village salles des fêtes was packed to capacity and the atmosphere was buzzing.  The newly arrived retired chef from Lyon made himself at home in the new kitchen and in a flash, without a glimpse of stress, he rustled up a tasty spaghetti bolognaise for the volunteers who set the hall up on Wednesday (nothing is done in France without food), and a beef bourguignon for Friday night.  I think the only thing that spooked him was the small army of village women bearing vegetable peelers and invading his space, but he’ll get used to that.  I also have a feeling he spent the night in the kitchen as by the time we arrived on Saturday morning to prepare the brioche and mulled wine for the cyclothon that was pit stopping in the village, all was done and the smell of the wine was divine.  Next year we have decided to join the cyclothon, a 50 km bike ride around the local area with numerous (like every 7 km) stops in villages ready to ply you with pastries and hot chocolate, coffee and biscuits, brioche and mulled wine, a three course lunch and afternoon snacks too – how much fun does that sound like!  Although we haven’t quite worked out a final figure raised for Téléthon, our takings were over 1500€, which for a village of 350 we are very pleased with that.

Sunday was spent at a Christmas market held in a cold, but beautiful Abbaye, where we nibbled on raspberry macroons, drank yet more mulled wine and bought some Christmas presents too.  Monday arrived with the shock of a 5.45am alarm, so Ade could make an early morning flight to London.  With Ed out of the house by 7.45 I had plenty of time to plan my English conversation session at the local college, on a Christmas theme.  Despite it being a great British tradition I decided not to take mulled wine, but I did make a batch of mince pies to share with the kids that went down well, as did a box of crackers complete with silly hats and naff gifts. 

The best thing about today was the ‘me’ time where I treated myself to a back, neck and shoulder massage with essential oils, and it was bliss.  A friend with a beauty treatment business had a work experience girl who needed bodies to practice on and all treatments were half price.  The treatment room was beautifully scented, warm, with oak beams, high ceilings and relaxing music, just perfect to unwind and enjoy being pampered which I did.

Please don't forget there are still a couple of days left to enter my Susie Kelly giveaway see here.

Beginning to feel a bit like Christmas

This week has been a busy one and with a BIG event in the village tomorrow (a charity meal for over 100 people that I am helping to organise) it is not over yet. 

Earlier in the week I met some lovely local ladies at a blogging/social media session run by another local blogger Emma, (you can read her blog here). As online socialising is something I find much easier than face to face socializing I was a little bit out of my comfort zone to begin with, but I am so glad I went. It was really nice to meet the people behind the Facebook page or blog and an added bonus was that I received some lovely comments about French Village Diaries that made me blush. If any of you new bloggers just happen to be reading this then thank you and please contact me if you think I can be of any help.

Ade and I have also had an exciting time in Poitiers, our local (one hours drive away) big town, where we pretty much managed to finish the Chirsitmas present shopping, and by the beginning of December too. This is a first, but as I still need to write the cards I can’t be too smug just yet. 

If you are still looking for some Christmas ideas my friend Jeannie at Belle Fusion has some lovely handmade glass pieces and she is running a competition on her Facebook page (see here). For all of you book lovers, here is a cheeky little Christmas present ideas link, if you are looking for some inspiration.

C – The Confidant

H – Hidden in Paris

R – Ramblings in Ireland

I – The Illustrated Olive Farm

S – Swallows and Robins - The Guests In My Garden

T – Travels With Tinkerbelle: 6,000 Miles Around France In A Mechanical Wreck

M – Markets of Paris: Second Edition

A – An Olive Oil Tour of France

S – Sell the Pig

G – Grape Expectations: A Family's Vineyard Adventure in France

I – I'll Never be French No Matter What I Do

F – Faking It In France

T – Treachery in Bordeaux (The Winemaker Detective Series)

S – Son of Serge Bastarde: Mayhem in the Antiques Markets of Rural France

Assuming I survive the Téléthon ‘do’ tomorrow night I will let you know all about it in my next post, please keep your fingers crossed, thank you.

Ramblings in Ireland by Kerry Dwyer

It is BookWormWednesday and although Ramblings in Ireland may look an odd title for a blog that reviews books with a French theme, fear not, I have not lost my way.

Ramblings in Ireland

This book follows Kerry and her French husband Bertrand on a walking holiday in Ireland, but just as they wander off their original routes, in the book Kerry wanders between Ireland and their life in France. It is an entertaining, easy read that brought back some very happy memories for me. I have relatives in County Cork, so have holidayed there many times, but none so special as the time Ade and I got engaged in Cork, then spent a lovely few days driving the ring of Kerry (in a Mini). I am a country girl by heart, even if I was born in London, and we could so easily have found ourselves living in rural Cork if only it had a better climate. Miraculously wet weather wasn't an issue for Kerry and Bertrand once they had survived the fog and damp socks on the first day.

Bertrand sounds lovely, and even seems to enjoy it when Kerry gets them lost either map reading and navigating in the car, or when out walking. Kerry, you are one lucky lady, Ade expects me to know our exact location, and be able to pin point it for him on the map, at any given point when we are out and about. Thankfully we rarely get lost, as rather than laugh, as the lovely Bertrand does,  Ade would be more likely to strop. Not surprisingly, as Bertrand is French, food gets a good mention in the book, especially the hearty Irish breakfasts that couldn't be more different from a coffee and a croissant.

There are some very funny bits, especially about travel from Bordeaux via the lovely Easyjet and Kerry's search for the correct attire for a serious walking holiday, which surprisingly enough included an in depth look at her new underwear. I also laughed out loud at the description of her Mother's use of Facebook, sorry Kerry's Mum. 

This is Kerry's first book, but I hope it is not her last as I enjoyed her writing style and humour which often led to me sharing sections aloud with Ade as I was reading it. If you would like to buy Ramblings in Ireland (a perfect Christmas gift for an armchair traveller) here is a link to Amazon.co.uk.

Guest Post by Vic Heaney, from Vic's Big Walk

Vic Heaney walks, writes and raises money for pancreatic cancer research and today he is guest blogging for me.  Many thanks Vic.

Thanks, Jacqui, for lending me space on your blog.  Vic's Big Walk  from SW France to NW England took 70 days, at the age of 70.  But there was also a training period of two years, during which I walked a further 12,000 kms.  Here are some of my thoughts from one of those walks.

Can You Bear It?

While walking this morning I was hit once again by the strong aroma of silage. Something you wouldn’t notice while in a car. Or is it called haylage? What you get with those huge rolled up whirls of hay which are then enclosed in plastic.

The haylage sits in the sun stewing away inside the plastic. Even though it is completely wrapped you get this very strong very sweet smell of the fermentation that’s going on inside there. Animals, with their sense of smell, must whiff it from much further away. So when the farmers unwrap it for use in winter or in times of drought the critters must go absolutely berserk at this stuff. They probably salivate all summer at the prospect.

And fermentation produces alcohol, does it not? Is it a myth about mad cow disease, then? After all, another name for it is the staggers. Maybe they are just drunk, or, as a good friend of mine would say, "gassed as a carrot". I once read that something like 60% of the road accidents in Sweden are caused by drunken elk, which have picked up fallen fruit, which has then fermented inside them. Speaking of strength of smell of animals, one of the animals we have in this area, although not in great numbers, is the bear. When I first heard this, brown bear, I thought smallish animal, obviously a wild animal and not to be approached but I didn’t realise at the time that we were talking something which stands 9 feet high at the shoulder, can run as fast as a racehorse, and which can smell you from 10 miles away, presumably only when the wind is in the right direction (for him!). Maybe there is some technical difference between this bear and the grizzly but I don’t think that matters to the consumer or the consumed. They had more or less been hunted to extinction in this area. The last natural denizen was shot – accidentally, of course, a few years ago. The powers that be have reintroduced these bears by importing some from Slovenia.

We read a few weeks ago that one of these bears had been seen in Rennes le Chateau which is only 10 miles away or so from us, as the crow flies, well inside the Aude. When they were released they were fitted with radio collars so that their movements could be tracked. This one has been wandering around over a very wide area – it was located in Pamiers – 50 kms in the other direction – only a few days earlier. They think it is, as it would be, looking for a mate. We all need somebody to love.

My books are written to raise funds for pancreatic cancer research. Details here:

http://vicheaneyauthorofbooks.blogspot.com/2012/10/where-to-find-my-books.html

Heading into the Darker Months

December has arrived and we are well and truly heading into the darker months, not my favourite time of year, but at least we were able to spend this afternoon out in the garden.  While Ade put the delicate plants to bed for the winter, wrapping them in fleece or bringing them under cover I did some leaf raking.  Although we have lots of trees we don't actually have too much raking, as most of the small leaves from the fruit trees just seem to disappear with the wind.  The leaves from the ginkgo biloba, cherry (5 trees) and walnut (2 trees) however do require raking up. 

Most of the trees are now bare and the leaves a soggy mush underfoot, but as damp leaves break down much quicker the conditions were perfect.  There is nothing like a garden workout to lift the mood and the smell of damp walnut leaves is quite intoxicating.  The chickens were their usual helpful selves, always under my feet ready to pounce on anything edible that I uncovered as I raked and piled the leaves up.  More helpful than the chickens is my Yeoman Hand Held Leaf Collector, bought for us one Christmas a few years ago and still appreciated (one of those presents that just keeps on giving).  With their help I am now the proud owner of a heap of leaves almost as tall as I am and by next year they will have rotted down and be great for the potager.

After a couple of hours work the orchard was looking much better, I’d even seen signs of next years orchids, and it was time to return to the kitchen where a warm mulled wine was waiting for me.  Now to serve the chicken and pumpkin the slow cooker has been busy cooking all day.

Don’t forget to enter our Susie Kelly ebook competition, see here for details.

Au revoir iWeb

Welcome to the new look French Village Diaries Blog

I have been blogging (on and off) for more than six years and in that time Apple’s iWeb software and I have become very good friends.  It is simple to use and enabled me (with no website design skills at all) to make myself a unique site with a blog page, although I will admit having Ade around helped when things didn’t quite go to plan.  However the time has come to move on and I have been busy creating the new French Village Diaries here on Blogger.

Whilst iWeb made some things very easy, there were some limitations.  Having made the decision to get an iPad I wanted to be able to do as much with it as possible, but despite iWeb and iPad both being from the same Apple family you can’t use iWeb on an iPad, but Blogger on the other hand can be updated via an app or online.  There were also quite a few things I wanted that iWeb couldn’t do, like the ability to add a ‘subscribe to this blog via email’ button, or that fantastic feature from LinkWithin that suggests other similar posts you may also like to read.  I can also now ‘label’ all my posts with key words like ‘recipe’ or ‘review’ so there is no need for separate pages on the site indexing all book reviews or recipes that I have posted, a quick click on a label word (on the sidebar on the right) and all relevant posts will be displayed.  I think it makes for a cleaner and tidier site.  All recent posts and book reviews have already been moved over, however the recipes and guest posts are not here yet, but will be soon.  I will not be moving every post, but some of my favourites may find their way back in someday.  Also, from the tabs across the top you are just one click away from direct access to my Amazon Bookstore and Special Places in France, our holiday home listings site.

I hope you like it too and please feel free to let me know what you think in the comments, thank you.

Susie Kelly New Release and Giveaway

I felt very honoured when Stephanie at Blackbird Digital Books sent me a pre-published copy of Susie Kelly’s latest book Swallows and Robins - The Guests In My Garden to read and review. It was also a great surprise to see Susie had dedicated the book to me (blush), oh all right only joking; she has actually dedicated it to all like me (and her) who hate housework. Knowing Susie to be an animal lover and having no idea what this book was about I assumed it was about the varied wildlife she lives in rural France with – wrong, although her beloved dogs, cats, horses and chickens get plenty of coverage.  This book tells the stories of Susie the project manager attempting to renovate two cottages on her land to run as gites, Susie the guest services manager trying her best to make everyone as happy as possible on their French holiday and finally Susie the cleaner trying to keep the gites to the required standard of cleanliness. This is another Susie Kelly great read that often had me laughing out loud as we meet the various builders, her local friends, the good guests and the bad who popped into her life over a four year period.

Those who have read and enjoyed her previous books about her life and travels in France will recognise her unmistakeable writing style and enjoy the humour she brings to even the most traumatic of situations. It would also be fair to say that she seems to have a habit of finding herself mixed in with the bizarre more often than most of us do. Anyone who has any experience of running gites in France will love this book and anyone who is thinking about having gites in France should read this book.

I am delighted to announce that Blackbird Digital Books have offered me two copies of Swallows and Robins to giveaway here on the blog. These can be either epub, PDF or mobi for Kindle. To enter please email me frenchvillagediaries@gmail.com the lucky two winners will be drawn randomly on December 12th 2012 at noon CET. 

To read my reviews on her other books please click on the links below and I hope you’ll enjoy reading this book too.

Best Foot Forward

Travels with Tinkerbelle

The Valley of Heaven and Hell

The Confidant by Helene Gremillon

The Confidant is a first novel for French author Hélène Grémillon and has been translated and published in English by Gallic Books, who were kind enough to send me a copy to review. 

In 1970’s Paris we meet Camille, a single thirty-something who is at a vulnerable time in her life.  Her Mother has just died and along with the letters of condolence she receives some handwritten anonymous letters that begin to tell a story.  It is a disturbing and intriguing tale that twists around and is told from the point of view of three people unknown to her, so what, Camille wonders, does it have to do with her.  Through the letters she is taken back to pre-war village life and Paris at the time of the German occupation, a difficult time in the history of France and a difficult story for the letter writer to tell.

This is a dark and emotional book of love, loss, betrayal, lies, deceit and revenge, but I really don’t want to say anymore except you need to read it for yourselves.

The Importance of Editing a Book

I have recently read that the ease of self-publishing has (obviously) resulted in more books out there to read – a good thing, but unfortunately in some cases the quality of these books is not what it should be – not such a good thing for readers. Whilst I would never want to put anyone off writing and getting their story out there, after all this is a great way of documenting our times for future generations, I’m sorry to say I have found a couple of disappointing examples.

Last weekend I took advantage of a small window of opportunity and downloaded Living the Languedoc Life and Love Living the Languedoc Life; , by Wendy Stredder for free on Amazon.co.uk (normal prices are £1.53 and £1.97).  I have an almost insatiable appetite for books on life in France, however in my opinion these books highlight the importance of getting a book edited before publishing it.  I spend quite a bit of time writing my blog posts, and while I am aware the grammar may not always be spot on, it is at the end of a day just a free to read blog.  If these books had been a blog I would have enjoyed them, as a free download I tolerated them, if I had paid I would have been disappointed.  Thankfully they were short books, or I would probably not have finished reading them.  I found them to be very rushed, flitting from event to event without stopping to catch a breath and where characters appeared without introductions.  This would be fine if they were for friends and family to read about your life in France, but is confusing if you are putting the story out for a wider audience.  There was also an excessive amount of exclamation marks, something I know I can be guilty of too, but not something I am used to reading in real books.

The second book ‘Love Living the Languedoc Life’ was a little better, but so much more could have been made of their wine-tasting walks, visits to local fêtes and rambles along the Canal du Midi.  It did however make me want to return to the lovely Languedoc, the ability to leave home and find vineyard walks in every direction, with friendly owners happy to refresh you is what dreams are made of.

This book did give me one epiphany moment though; if she can sell her books on her life in France on Amazon there is no reason why I couldn’t either.  I’ll catch you later; I’m off to write a book and maybe some time. 

The Canal du Midi

The big health check

It started with a new mole on my back and a simple visit to my doctor to get a referral letter to a dermatologist.  However our doctor is nothing if not thorough and after waiting the obligatory half an hour to be seen, she starts off with taking my blood pressure, which is thankfully normal, then she listens to my chest, lots of deep breathing required, but again, everything is normal.  She then does a breast examination with her cold hands that she does apologise for in advance, no problems found and then with a glint in her eye she mentions the dreaded ‘S’ word.  It appears it is time for another smear test - gulp.  At least this time there is no student doctor shadowing her.

As I leave with the letter to give to a dermatologist and the carefully packaged smear to post to the laboratory I also seem to have been given a prescription to take with me to the blood test centre for a set of bloods.  This is why I found myself in Melle rather early on a cold, foggy Monday morning, munching a croissant (it was a fasting blood test) and walking the dog.  I had hoped for a blue sky, sunshine and crisp golden leaves crunching underfoot, type of day.  Instead I got wet, slippery leaves with an eerie mist and a day cold enough to wear a coat.  Never mind, it still looked beautiful, Mini had a great time and I’ve had my full body check up.

Guest Post by Anne Trager from Le French Book

When Jacqui asked me to write a post for French Village Diaries, I thought it would be fun to share glimpses of France from the books I’ve most recently translated into English. I love mysteries and crime fiction, and all three of these books are in that genre, are by acclaimed French authors, and are set in France. For me, these books are more than just entertaining reading, they are a way to discover France differently.

Take The Paris Lawyer by Sylvie Granotier (http://www.theparislawyer.com).  Our heroine, Catherine Monsigny, is a rookie lawyer in Paris, but a felony case takes her to Creuse.  I’ve lived in France over 25 years and I didn’t even know where that was until now.  Here, she’s talking to her father about her new case.

 “I’d be surprised if you wanted to hang out there. It’s not such a great place.” “Just as well. I’m not a tourist. Isn’t there a slogan, ‘Creuse, where kids run free and happy’?” “Rivers. Where rivers run free and happy.” Yes. An old ad pops out of who-knows-where. 

The author, Sylvie Granotier, splits her time between Paris and Creuse, and has told me about the nineteenth-century painting-like landscapes that inspire her writing.

In Treachery in Bordeaux (The Winemaker Detective Series) by Jean-Pierre Alaux and Noël Balen (http://www.treacheryinbordeaux.com), you travel to French wine country:

The morning was cool and radiant. A west wind had swept the clouds far inland to the gentle hills beyond the city of Bordeaux…The Médoc was still wild, despite its well-ordered garden veneer, and it would always be that way. In the distance, a few low wisps of fog were finishing their lazy dance along the Gironde Estuary.

This book has a particularly heightened sense of place and you learn a lot about the whole winemaking world. It’s a fun, classic whodunit.

Then there is The 7th Woman (Nico Sirsky, Chief of Police) by Frédérique Molay (“the French Michael Connelly”), which gives a truly different perspective of Paris (http://www.the7thwoman.com).  I lived in Paris for over 20 years and really enjoyed experiencing it the way I did in this book: on the end of my seat.  It’s like the movie Seven meets CSI in the City of Light, with an alpha-male hero and a creepy killer.  Here’s one of my favorite passages, which probably says something about me, but hey:

The Marais was part of the city’s magic, with it narrow streets lined with private townhouses … It was the preserved heart of the capital. It had a long history, and its well-preserved heritage let the mind imagine the unbelievable treasures it once held and the scenes with kings and courtesans that those stones had witnessed. He liked this enigmatic atmosphere. It was, after all, in the tower of the Temple Fortress that King Louis XVI had been imprisoned before being taken to the guillotine. It was also where the young King Louis XVII was killed under lesser-known circumstances. This was a neighborhood predestined for his crime. 

Anne Trager founded Le French Book to bring France's best crime fiction, thrillers, novels, short stories, and non-fiction to new readers across the English-speaking world. The company’s motto is: “If we love it, we’ll translate it.”

Many thanks to Anne for joining us here.

©Sylvie Granotier

Spotted Out and About Shopping

We have been out and about shopping, normal food shopping, a bit of Christmas present shopping and fresh produce market shopping.  Not bad for a couple who really don’t shop unless absolutely necessary.  Some of the things we have seen tickled me and I thought I would share them with you.

As we are nearing Christmas the shops are digging out their tinsel and doing a bit of festive decorating.  Unfortunately ‘elf-n-safety’ hasn’t really reached France yet so we watched with held breath as the lady from the welcome desk at the local supermarket put her life in the hands of her colleague all for a bit of tinsel. With her fashionably high-heeled boots she was standing on the forks of a forklift pallet mover six feet off the ground while her colleague moved her around the aisles to hang the decorations.  This was carried out during the open hours with the added risk of a trolley driven by a doddery old shopper colliding with the forklift.   I would have taken a photo, but I was afraid the flash would have made her lose concentration and fall, so I refrained.

Browsing the aisles I was easily distracted from the potential disaster of a falling decorator when I noticed the advent calendars – for cats.  At a huge price of 9.99€ your pampered pussies could be the owners of an enormous Gourmet sachet filled advent calendar – purrlease!  I was so shocked by this I forgot to take a photo, sorry.

Now to explain the picture of me with the funniest thing we found so far, an enormous book titled Johnny Hallyday pour les nuls (For Dummies).  The French LOVE Johnny Hallyday and find it very hard to believe us when we tell them he really isn’t that big in the English speaking world.  An extensive search on Amazon.co.uk not only failed to find the English version of this book but also showed most of the books available on Johnny were in French.  I have no idea what they found to fill so many pages, but when I mentioned it to some French friends they solemnly said that he had been around a long time, so there was quite a bit to write about.  I don’t think I will be adding it to my Christmas list.

By far the best shopping experience was wandering around the delicious produce at the Angouleme Fêtes des Gastronomades.  Food and drink producers from all over France gathered in marquees in the streets of the beautiful city of Angouleme.  Their produce on display was a feast for the eyes, and for the mouth as tasting was positively encouraged.  We were tempted by biscuits from Brittany to Provence, local goats cheeses to Basque sheeps cheeses, fresh meats, dried meats, olives, fruits, wine, oils – I could go on.  It was busy but worth a visit especially as entry to all the venues was free.  Despite it being held on a Saturday a month before Christmas the sun was out and we were able to drive into a city centre underground car park without any traffic problems and park for over two hours for 1.50€ - in UK this would have been at least stressful if not impossible.    With Christmas a month today I think I am more prepared than usual, phew.  To see more photos of the food at Gastronomades please take a look at the Facebook page, thanks.

Delicious chocolate orange buns

Joie de Vivre, by Harriet Welty Rochefort

For Book Worm Wednesday this week I am reviewing Harriet Welty Rochefort’s book Joie de Vivre: Secrets of Wining, Dining, and Romancing Like the French .  A book with a beautiful cover, where she uses her in depth knowledge of the French, she has been married to a Frenchman and living here for over 40 years, to explain their ‘ways’ to the rest of us.

She tries to unravel and explain a lot of French paradox, they seem to eat more, yet mostly remain on their target weight, their lunch hours and holidays are important, strikes happen and are supported, yet they remain very productive and for a nation with a reputation for being sullen they have the most ‘joie de vivre’.

I was either nodding in agreement or having a bolt of understanding as I read this book. So many things seemed to make sense and it was nice to identify some typically French things I had been following for a lot of my time here without really realising it.  I definitely learnt something - that the most important thing is confidence, from what you wear (like La Parisienne) to how you manage your food.  Talking about food, we all know it is big in France and therefore no surprise, a big topic in this book too, where we often join her and her extended French family at the table.

More than anything it made me yearn for Paris, especially as she describes her walk to the local market, the wine shop where she gets advice and good wine and my favourite, her cheese man with his seasonal stock of over 200 real cheeses.  She also seems to spend a lot of her time in cafés, talking to friends, interviewing or just people watching, but I can’t blame her, I would be doing the same if I were there too. 

If you are looking to create a new life in France it would be a great idea to read this book first, especially if finding a French husband is on your ‘to do’ list.

An Olive Oil Tour of France by Alice Alech

An Olive Oil Tour of France by Alice Alech

An Olive Oil Tour of France

I have been spending some virtual time in the South of France learning about olives and olive oil.  In her book An Olive Oil Tour of France , Alice Alech takes novices and enthusiasts (that’s me) behind the scenes of the French olive oil industry.

My Review

In France, unlike Spain and Italy, most producers are small and strive for quality over quantity and importantly preserving their heritage.  In this book we meet some of the family run enterprises from the growers in Corsica, to the mill owners in Provence and even the soap makers from Marseille still using a cauldron to make the traditional olive oil soap.  Alice also introduces The Olive Garden project where children have been involved in planting 400 trees, caring for them, harvesting and producing oil to take home, a very important project for future generations of olive growers. 

We learn how to taste olive oil and like in wine how important that French phenomenon of terroir is (I love that word that basically means the influence soil and position have on the taste of grapes or olives).  One of my regrets is that last time we were in Provence we didn’t stop at one of the mills to buy (or try) ‘real’ olive oil, but next time with Alice’s tasting notes to hand I will feel more confident to give it a go.  Real olive oil tasting, for the experts, seems even more complex than wine tasting and includes something called the ‘retro nasal sensation’ – I bet you didn’t know that did you?

I love France and since moving here my relationship with food has changed for the better and I consider myself fairly knowledgeable when it comes to the French way of healthy eating, but this book still taught me new things.   It is a good mix of informative but without going too deep in a way that would make the average enthusiast switch off.  Alice also includes some recipes in the book, both edible ones and beauty ones that highlight the olive oil benefits to our hair and skin.  I will be giving the hair conditioning treatment a try.  As you would expect the food recipes are all very Mediterranean but they are not exclusively Provencal.  One of my favourites was a savoury ‘apero’ cake with rosé wine in the ingredients list, now that is my kind of cake.  

Thank you for contacting me and offering me a copy of this book Alice, it has been a very enjoyable journey.  For the moment this is an ebook only, but at a price of £1.94 it is very good value.  A paperback version should be available before Christmas.

You can follow Alice’s blog ‘Provencial Provence’, which has a lot of tasty, foodie posts here.

Celebrating Christmas French Style

Six weeks today is Christmas day.  I will admit that I have done a little bit of pressie shopping, but I haven’t yet thought about writing the cards.  However, I have made the mincemeat for the mincepies and as I don’t bother with the traditional pudding or cake I don’t think I’m doing too badly, but what about something for me?  

There is always a small stack of books on my Amazon Wish List and to make the reading of my ebooks and the France Travel Magazine App easier I have been thinking along the lines of an iPad or a Kindle.  But real inspiration struck when flicking through the publicity catalogues that our post lady kindly litters our letterbox with every week.  If you look closely at the picture above you will see that for the bargain price of 3.99€ I could be the proud owner of a Christmas bikini (one size fits all) or if I’ve been a really good girl for 11.99€ a five piece Sexy Christmas costume could be mine!  Just think of the fun we could have if I treat Ade to the Santa hat with beard at 4.99€ as well, now why does that make me think of a Carry on Film?  The fact that in December temperatures in rural France can be well into the minus figures obviously didn’t put the retail buyers off!  Happy Christmas shopping everyone and I hope this has given you some ideas Ho! Ho! Ho!