Advent Day Ten - waking up to winter

Happy fingers

Advent Day Ten – waking up in winter

What a lucky find those glove/mittens were yesterday, as this morning it was -1º outside and 8.6º in our unheated bedroom. A mist shrouded the village for most of the morning, obscuring the sun and keeping the temperature down. This cosmic shift into winter meant a few changes of routine and I have to admit to flicking the switch for the heating before we’d had our breakfast, rather than during the cheaper rate electricity at lunchtime.

 

The weather put a stop to cycling to the Christmas market as planned, as that would have been foolish, and no one needs an incident just before Christmas. Instead, I busied myself with a bit of housework to keep warm and as the bed was stripped, it seemed only sensible to put the electric blanket on too. That should make things nice and cosy later on. I also found the time to switch my summer clothes for winter clothes, which meant falling in love again with my fleecy-lined trousers – thank you Decathlon once more. 

Mini and I in our almost matching jumpers

 

Mini is almost fifteen and although she spends most of her time curled up and snoring on a bed of fleece blankets (on the sofa), she does now suffer when it’s cold. One of the other things we found when shopping yesterday was a jumper for Mini. This will mainly be for car journeys, but we couldn’t resist trying it for size, and for a dog that isn’t too keen on being faffed with, she seemed quite happy in her pink jumper with a shiny bone motif.

A fresh 31km bike ride

 

Luckily the sun came out this afternoon, so it was off with the fleecy trousers and on with the merino wool layers as we set off for a thirty-kilometre bike ride. It was a fresh and invigorating ride and there was still ice in places, but the colours in the setting sun were superb. I’m delighted to report that the new glove/mittens kept the Reynaud’s at bay and the fingers nice and toasty. I’m also now only sixty-five kilometres away from reaching five-thousand-kilometres this year, so fingers crossed I should be able to achieve that. It is a thousand less than I would have liked, but it’s been a year where things other than cycling have had to take priority. At least most of my commutes to the Château were on the bike and even though it’s only eight kilometres from home, I cycled a total of one thousand, four hundred and seventy-one commuting kilometres this year. That is quite a saving in fuel.

 

I know it’s been cold in the UK today too, so I hope wherever you are, you are toasty and warm, and these three silly photos of me have put a smile on your face.

Advent Day Nine - addicted to gloves

Just some of my glove/mitten collection

Advent Day 9

I think I might have a bit of a glove addiction. Once again, we found ourselves out shopping today. I know for many, this would be considered a treat and a great way to spend the day, but I am not a shopper. Next week is shaping up to be a busy week, with five days’ work in the calendar for Adrian and something different every day for me, so stocking up on food was a necessity that couldn’t be avoided and with Christmas on the horizon, we did a bit of browsing around too. 

 

The first shop we found ourselves in was the sports chain Decathlon, as they had a promotion on some must-have gloves. This week has seen our temperatures drop to 0º, with crisp frosty mornings and icy winds that cut right through you. We both suffer with cold fingers when cycling in the winter and mine especially don’t need it to be that cold before the Raynaud’s kicks in and my blood refuses to flow to my fingertips. These deathly yellow digits are no use whatsoever. They can’t grip the handlebars, squeeze the brakes, or do anything useful, and they hurt.

My new glove/mitten combos

 

I have thin under gloves, thermal gloves, thick padded gloves, chunky hand-knitted mittens, fingerless gloves, and silly gloves. Sometimes I wear more than one pair of gloves at a time and the fingerless ones are great indoors. What I didn’t have, until today, was thick, warm glove/mitten combos. These beauties are fingerless gloves with a fold-over mitten top and will be just perfect on bike rides. The mittens will keep my fingers toasty and warm, but if I need to my fingers to take a photo, I won’t have to keep taking my gloves on and off. In extreme cold, I can even wear my thermal under gloves as well and they have a clever magnet to keep the mitten top from flapping back.

In French a glove is un gant (a masculine word), but a pair of gloves is une paire de gants as the word for pair is feminine. 

 

Stay warm this weekend, my friends. We are hoping to get a bit of cycling in as we both have a few more kilometres to ride to meet our year end targets, but at least we’ll have warm fingers.

 

Book review of The Golden Oldies' Book Club by Judy Leigh

The Golden Oldies' Book Club by Judy Leigh

The Golden Oldies' Book Club by Judy Leigh

 

Deep in the Somerset countryside, the Combe Pomeroy village library hosts a monthly book club.

 

Ruth the librarian fears she’s too old to find love, but a discussion about Lady Chatterley’s Lover makes her think again.

 

Aurora doesn’t feel seventy-two and longs to relive the excitement of her youth, while Verity is getting increasingly tired of her husband Mark’s grumpiness and wonders if their son’s imminent flight from the nest might be just the moment for her to fly too. And Danielle is fed up with her cheating husband. Surely life has more in store for her than to settle for second best?

 

The glue that holds Combe Pomeroy together is Jeannie. Doyenne of the local cider farm and heartbeat of her family and community, no one has noticed that Jeannie needs some looking after too. Has the moment for her to retire finally arrived, and if so, what does her future hold?

 

From a book club French exchange trip, to many celebrations at the farm, this is the year that everything changes, that lifelong friendships are tested, and for some of the women, they finally get the love they deserve.

 

The Golden Oldies' Book Club by Judy Leigh

My Review

This is a lovely read that pivots around a group of friends whose lives are ripe for change. Set with the backdrop of a cider farm, I loved how we moved through the seasons with the apple trees in Jeannie’s orchard. From the blossoms and promise of new beginnings, to the harvest and the cider making, plus all the Somerset traditions and festivals surrounding it. Nature was as strong as the female characters I’ve come to enjoy in a Judy Leigh novel.

 

Jeannie certainly had a lot on her plate, running a cider farm and managing a multi-generational family leaves her little time for anything else. The book club at the library is her moment of escape, just as it was for the others in the group, all of whom had become lost in the routine of life. I know from experience how a simple village library can play an important role in the community, so I was a big fan of librarian Ruth who understood just what it meant to them all. Her idea to resurrect the town-twinning link and plan a trip to France gave them all something to look forward to and their time away cemented their bonds of friendships.

 

There were sad bits, funny bits and lots of heart-warming moments as with the help of a little bit of library magic, the ladies rediscover their dreams. Together they are there to support each other as they make plans for the next stages of their lives. Following their journeys was a delight.

 

If you are looking for a heart-warming, uplifting read, add The Golden Oldies Book Club to your wish list.

 

Purchase Links 

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Judy Leigh

 

Author Bio

 

Judy Leigh is the USA Today bestselling author of The Old Girls’ Network and Five French Hens and the doyenne of the ‘it’s never too late’ genre of women’s fiction. She has lived all over the UK from Liverpool to Cornwall, but currently resides in Somerset.

 

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The Golden Oldies Book Club by Jenny Leigh

You might also like my review of Judy’s Lil’s Bus Trip 

Advent Day Seven, Christmas at the library

Some Christmas themed books at our village library

Advent Day Seven

Christmas at the library

This afternoon, I’ve had fun at the village library putting together a little display of Christmas themed books and magazines to tempt our readers. There is something for everyone, from children’s stories, books on oysters and foie gras – both typically found on the Christmas and New Year table in France, and magazines full of ideas for decorations, recipes and seasonal days out. It isn’t quite as festive as I’d have liked, but with all the decorations locked in the basement, it was the best I could do today.

Qui a peur du Père Fouette ?

 

One of the books that caught my eye was called “Qui a peur du Père Fouettard ?” This translates to “Who is afraid of Father Whipper?” - although fouettard can also be used to describe a bogeyman. Instead of a jolly Père Noel, dressed in red and with his sack of presents, Père Fouettard, is dressed in dark robes, looks rather grumpy and brandishes a whip (un fouet). 

 

We have all grown up knowing that Father Christmas only visits the good children, but in France the naughty children don’t just miss out on presents and Christmas cheer, they risk a visit from Père Fouettard (and his whip) and will receive a scolding for their misdemeanours.

 

You’ll be pleased to hear that in this book, Père Fouettard decides he has had enough of being nasty to the children, and as poor Père Noel is having to make his deliveries on foot, as his reindeers are all feeling poorly, the two of them decide to work together. After all, it is much nicer to bring joy and happiness, and help out a friend, than to be the one to deliver a scolding.

 

Ho ho ho!

Book review of The Spice Master of Bistro Exotique by Samantha Vérant

The Spice Master at Bistro Exotique by Samantha Vérant

The Spice Master at Bistro Exotique

Kate Jenkins doesn't believe in fate. She believes in a clear vision, meticulous planning, and hard work in order to achieve her culinary dreams. On the cusp of opening her own Parisian restaurant, Bistro Exotique, she isn't even concerned when her standoffish--and annoyingly sexy--neighbor dismisses her as a crazy American tourist or when she meets the wildly eccentric Garrance, the self-proclaimed Spice Master of Paris, who ominously warns her of the previous owner's failures.

Confident and optimistic, Kate keeps calm and cooks on. Until a series of unfortunate events derail her plans and her entire staff quits.

Kate is about to throw in the kitchen towel on her lifelong dream when Garrance offers to use her mastery of scents and spices to help her, but it comes at a price: Kate must work with Garrance's son, Charles, a world-class chef and total jerk. After Kate hesitantly concedes to the deal, she slowly learns to open her heart and mind to new concepts, not quite sure if the magic she's experiencing comes from Garrance's spices, from within herself, or from the growing chemistry with Charles. One thing is certain, though: her kitchen is getting increasingly hot.

 

My Review

It’s always exciting when an author whose writing you love releases a new book that whisks you off to Paris, and just in time for Christmas too; I was grinning from page one and loved every minute.

 

The Spice Master at Bistro Exotique is a vibrant, lively and incredibly funny read, with crazy characters I wanted to be friends with. I felt for Kate, who finds herself living a nightmare, as despite focus and planning, everything that could possibly go wrong as she opens the bistro of her dreams, does go wrong. Then there is her mother, loving and supportive, but oh, so embarrassing, she had me laughing a lot. When eccentric Garrance, her sidekick Juju, and her mysterious collection of spices enter Kate’s life, things suddenly begin to heat up in her kitchen. Sometimes in life, the trick is knowing what (or who) to pair together for the magic to happen. 

 

I devoured chapter after chapter. Like a good recipe, this book contained just the right mix of ingredients to create a perfectly balanced dish read, full of spice, flavour sensations that made my mouth water and just enough heat to raise my temperature a few degrees. 

 

This is another feast of a read from Samantha Vérant and if you are looking for a romantic getaway to Paris, add The Spice Master at Bistro Exotique to your Christmas list, you won’t be disappointed.

Purchase Links

 

Author Bio

Samantha Vérant is a travel addict, a self-professed oenophile, and a determined, if occasionally unconventional, French chef. She lives in southwestern France, where she's able to explore all of her passions, and where she's married to a sexy French rocket scientist she met in 1989, but ignored for twenty years.

 

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You might also like to read my France et Moi interview with Samantha or my reviews of her previous books:

France et Moi with Samantha Verant 

Seven Letters from Paris 

How to Make a French Family 

The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux 

Sophie Valroux’s Paris Stars 

 

All of these are great reads for Francophiles.

International Volunteer Day

Our village decorations - made by volunteers

Advent Day Five

The 5^th of December is International Volunteer Day, or in French Journée mondiale des bénévoles. I read this morning that giving your time gives you a sense of worth and purpose, whilst creating positive feelings, and connecting you with other people, thus helping improve your mental well-being. As someone who arrived in France with a young child, knew no one in the village and had a husband whose work took him away from home a lot of the time, volunteering was my lifeline for all the reasons stated above. It has also proved to be an effective way to improve my French, boost my self-confidence and ultimately led to paid employment too. 

 

One of the first things I became involved in was our village magazine and I can vividly remember sitting in the meetings and not understanding a word, let alone being able to contribute anything, apart from helping with the folding, stapling and distribution. Eighteen years on, and I’m still folding, stapling and delivering, but I’m also translating parts of it into English and enjoying the chat and gossip that goes on around the table when we meet up once a month.

 

When Ed started at the local nursery school, I made a point of always saying yes when parents were asked to help out. The weekly craft activities when he was under six and the overnight school trips in primary school, were great fun and gave me a sense of reassurance and a better understanding of the French school culture. Ed’s step up from primary to secondary school was certainly smoother for us both due to the fact I’d been running a weekly English language club for the two years before he moved up. It was an unexpected bonus to learn that this had given me ‘cool’ status among his peers.

 

Life in our French village would be nothing without a core of volunteers. Aside from the monthly magazine, the library, the summer social events, the handmade Christmas decorations, the Children’s Christmas party and more, all exist in our village solely thanks to volunteers. Being one of these volunteers has not only helped me find my place in the village, but it also led to me being elected onto the village council in 2014, something I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of for over six years and offered me many experiences I would otherwise have missed out on. 

My 121st monthly piece in The Deux-Sèvres Monthly

 

Working at the library in Chef-Boutonne came about thanks to being a volunteer at our village library, and in turn led to me being offered the position to work at the Château de Javarzay this year. Having a wealth of new and exciting life experiences here in France encouraged me to start this blog back in 2006. This in turn led to regular contributions to the Deux-Sèvres Monthly magazine and despite never having written anything longer than a letter, I can’t now imagine not having these creative outlets in my life. 

 

I am not the most confident or outgoing person, so to think I could have moved here all those years ago and shut myself indoors for fear of my French not being good enough, is a scary thought. What would I have done with my days when Ed was at school? How would I have met people and learned French? I shudder to think how different my life would be now. It hasn’t always been easy, but it has been rewarding, and volunteering has shaped the person I am today.

 

If you are also a volunteer – Happy Volunteer Day to you. If you’re not yet a volunteer – what are you waiting for? It could change your life. 

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 

Advent Day Three - festive fun with French words

My Christmas tree decorations

Advent Day Three - festive fun with French words

 

It is the first Saturday of December and festive Christmas markets are popping up all over France. This afternoon, our local big town of Niort will turn on its Christmas lights with a firework display this evening, and as well as the chalet market stalls there will be a fun fair, an ice rink and a projected light display on the Donjon walls every evening throughout December. Having visited the impressive nine-hundred-year-old Donjon this summer, as well as done a few cycling trips in and around Niort this year, it sounds lovely, but we won’t be there. In the last two weeks I’ve been to Niort four times, and as it’s almost a one-hundred-kilometre round trip, that is more than enough for me. The fact that Covid-19 is going crackers once more in our region, means for us, large gatherings, even if they are outdoors, are best avoided. 

 

I have seen a few festive things out on my travels, however, that made me smile and I hope you will enjoy them too. 

 

Sapin ou Arbre de Noel ?

In French, a Christmas tree is a Sapin de Noel, literally a fir tree (sapin - pronounced sa-pan) of Christmas. A winter advertising poster with the phrase “Un Hiver Sapin-thique”, caught my eye as we walked past a coffee shop yesterday. 

 

With hiver meaning winter, this is a fun, festive play on words – sapin-thique or sympathique, (pronounced sam-pa-teek) meaning you will have a nice, friendly or pleasing winter when you order their festive specials on the menu. 

 

Then there was the boulangerie poster saying, “Sa Pain de Noel”, translated as his Christmas bread, but sounding almost the same as sapin de Noel.

 

Helping Père Noel with the shopping

The literal translation of Christmas tree is arbre de Noel, but this actually means an organised event or Christmas party where Père Noel meets the children, listens to what they want for Christmas and hands out wrapped gifts. We have already begun planning our village arbre de Noel and Père Noel’s helpers have had their secret rendez-vous with him. You have no idea how much fun it is having a whole toy shop at our disposal as we select the thirty-six gifts and leave them in the careful hands of his elves who will wrap them and ensure they are in the village in time for our arbre de Noel.

 

We don’t go overboard with decorations, but I have hung my advent tree in the kitchen and filled each of the pockets with a tasty treat to share with Adrian. I have also put out some of my Christmas book trees, the perfect decorations for a book worm. 

Book review of Dead in Tune by Stephanie Dagg

Dead In Tune by Stephanie Dagg

Dead in Tune by Stephanie Dagg

 

It’s nearly Christmas, a time for peace and goodwill. Or maybe not.

 

First the house of a young Spanish family is burned down, and then a Dutch clog dancer is battered almost to death with his own footwear. On the night of the carol service, at which the Worldwide Friendship Club’s choir is singing, a Scottish bagpiper is found dead. By Martha, who has come across enough dead bodies already this year to last her a lifetime.

 

Convinced there’s a link to the choir, Martha and best friend Lottie set out on the trail of the murderer. Their unconventional sleuthing methods land one of them in rather a lot of trouble…

 

‘Dead In Tune’, the sequel to ‘Hate Bale’, is an entertaining, festive cosy mystery set in rural France.  

Dead In Tune by Stephanie Dagg

 

My Review

Following our family Christmas adventure last weekend, I’m returning to the sleepy French rural idyl that is the Creuse, with a great fun, cosy Christmas who dunnit, Dead In Tune by Stephanie Dagg. 

 

We are back with Martha and her friend Lottie (see my review of Hate Bale here) as Christmas is approaching and the Worldwide Friendship Club is organising a carol service. Despite some rivalry over the mince pies, everyone is looking forward to the event until some sinister goings on look set to disrupt their plans, and once again Martha finds herself more involved than she would like.

 

This book is full of humour and colourful characters as Martha and Lottie undertake some amateur sleuthing, convinced they know more than the police. I enjoyed the twists, and the real sense of drama, especially as things got quite heated towards the end. 

 

Having followed author Stephanie’s life in France for many years, her obvious eye for detail and the snippets of her experiences, cleverly woven into the characters and storyline, added authenticity to what was already a very readable mystery. I hope there will be more adventures for Martha and Lottie next year.

 

This is a must read for anyone who wants a trip to the real rural France this Christmas.

Purchase Links

 

Amazon UK  

Amazon US   

Stephanie Dagg

Author Bio

 

I’m an English immigrant living in France with my family, after many years in Ireland. We have a seventy-five acre farm with animals ranging from alpacas to zebra finches. I work part-time as a freelance editor. The rest of the time I'm helping to run our carp fishing lake business and inevitably cleaning up after some or other animal.

 

I’ve written both fiction and non-fiction books, and plenty of them - somewhere around the fifty mark now! Originally I was published by two presses in Ireland, but more recently I’ve taken the self-publishing route. I’m a keen book blogger, and I also love knitting, natural dyeing, gardening and cycling.  

 

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Farewell November

The November blues

Farewell November

November you have really excelled yourself this year and it is with a smile of relief we welcome the arrival of December and Advent.

 

This was Mini last night. 

 

“Has November gone yet? Is it safe to come out?”

 

Is it safe to come out now?

 

If losing our friend Sue on the anniversary of losing Adrian’s dad wasn’t bad enough, we learned of the death of another British friend from the village, Richard, whilst we were at the crematorium for Sue on Monday morning. 

 

In another grisly November coincidence, Richard shared our surname, which led to some confusion with the people I work with, and it was a rather bizarre telephone call where I had to explain that the Mr Brown who’d just died wasn’t my husband, or a relative. The fact that all of this took place exactly a year after Adrian spent five days in intensive care at the hospital in Niort, just made it seem even more surreal. 

 

I think it’s safe to say we are all glad to see the back of November.

Coffee, croissant and great company

 

Advent Day One

We celebrated the arrival of December with a brisk but fresh bike ride with friends, cycling into Chef-Boutonne for coffee and croissants this morning. It might only be a Thursday and such luxuries are normally reserved for the weekend, but if November has shown us anything, it’s to seize the moment and do the things that make you happy, today. Croissants and good company always make me happy.

 

Something else that makes me happy is cheese and especially cooked cheese dishes, so tonight, I have decided we will feast on the first tartiflette of the season. This is French winter comfort food at its best in a dish that combines sliced potatoes, lardons, sauteed onions and oodles of melted cheese baked in the oven.

Mini's Advent calendar

 

Mini is celebrating her fourteenth Advent and despite her hearing failing her, her legs being a little wobbly at times and her energy levels being rather depleted, she has no problem with her memory. Just one glimpse of an Advent calendar and she remembers the routine: sit, paw up to select the window and out pops a treat. She even knows that no matter how good the rest of the treats smell, you only get to open one window a day.

 

I’d love to know what you will be doing to celebrate life this December.