Do you too like to read about France ?

It’s a rainy Sunday here. It’s been too wet for me to go to the markets so I’ve spent the morning doing housework and making soup ( it’s that kind of weather). Graham is abusing the referee in a french rugby game on tv, so I thought I’d write to you about the books about France that we have enjoyed reading over the years we have been dreaming of this move.

For those who like to read about France and the experiences of people who embark on the adventure of coming to live here we can recommend these as amongst our favourite books. Some are considered to present a fantasy view of France and the french and others are brutally honest about the difficulties and their effect on relationships and personal growth. We have enjoyed reading them all.

A Year in Provence  - Peter Mayle – It was this book and the tv series by the BBC in 1993 (!) that first made me aware of this different lifestyle and attitude to living in general. While many think the France presented by Peter Mayle is a little fanciful, it is a fun read and we can see the basis of many of his characters and situations in our experiences. Peter has also written a series of fiction books based in France if you really love your “ french lit”. We have been to Menérbes, the village where Peter was living when he wrote the first book. It is a pretty hilltop village typical of Provence.

The Ripening Sun – Patricia Atkinson – Patricia was thrown in at the deep end when her husband bought a french vineyard, then soon left her to fend for herself. Her attitude and determination is inspiring. She lives within 15km of us at Gageac-et-Rouillac so we have driven past the vineyard out of curiosity. Perhaps we will stop by one day and try her wines .

http://vimeo.com/49162838

Bruno, Chief of Police – Martin Walker – Martin has written a series of books based on the character of Bruno, the local policeman in the fictional village of St Denis. Martin has used the village and people of Le Bugue in the Perigord region ( between Sarlat-la-Canéda and Bergerac) where he lives part of each year as the inspiration for his stories. As Bruno loves to cook and enjoys a good wine, there are always descriptions of him cooking his favourite meals and references to his favourite vineyards and stories of their owners. The characters are varied and the baddies are always caught in the end.

http://www.brunochiefofpolice.com/

Tout Sweet – Karen Wheeler – Karen is a fashion writer who decided to run away to France on her own. Her books ( 3 so far) may be more “chic lit” in style but she tells her story well. She is based in the Poitou-Charentes region about 200kms north of us.

http://www.toutsweet.net/

Extremely Pale Rosé – Jamie Ivey – Jamie and friends decide to use a hunt for the palest rosé as an excuse to travel the length and breadth of France, tasting all the way of course. Jamie eventually moved to France and has written more books on his experiences. We are also exploring the variety of rosés available here as we do enjoy them on a hot day ( or even a not so hot day).

And of course, for those who love the french style of home decorating, there is always our own Vicki Archer. Vicki is an Australian who was living in London with her family when they decided to buy and renovate a property in Saint Rémy de Provence. Her books , My French Life and French Essence, illustrated with photos by Carla Coulson, are an inspiration.

http://vickiarcher.com/

There are many many more books set in France, good and bad, biographical, fictional, historical that have informed us and entertained us. Do you have any recommendations to share ??

À bientôt mes amis

Our first guests

After a last minute rush working around our painter as he tried to finish the staircase, the bedrooms were finally ready for our first house guests on Wednesday - old school friends of Graham.

We collected Rory and Shereden from the station at Bordeaux late on Wednesday night after they had flown from New York to Paris via Frankfurt.  That really is the long way around.  Next morning we drove to La Réole on the Garonne River to collect Steve who arrived by train from his home at Gaillac near Toulouse. Then on to a great lunch at La Terrasse on the town square overlooking the chateau at Duras. Lots of food and wine later we headed off to Bergerac for a post lunch walk. This is a beautiful town on the Dordogne river first established in the 11^th century so the “old town” is a fascinating mix of styles from over the centuries. While there are two statues of Cyrano de Bergerac  here, Cyrano was a fictional character and had nothing to do with the town - apart from attracting tourists with their cameras.......

Cyrano de Bergerac - who else ?

 

The gang of four

Rory and Shereden prepared a wonderful dinner for us all and we carried on into the night while the boys reminisced . On Friday we spent a lovely sunny morning wandering the streets of St Emilion and enjoyed another good lunch in the town square under the tree. As Steve had to catch a train home that evening and Rory and Shereden were catching their train from Bordeaux to Paris early Saturday morning, we went on to Bordeaux for  the rest of the afternoon. It was a short visit, but great fun, and we look forward to their return, next year perhaps ?

Graham, Rory and Steve

The square in St Emilion

I spent Saturday afternoon trying to use up our fig supply and making jam, again. We have so much we have to give it away at any opportunity. Since we were back picking them again Monday I am desperate for recipes. We already use them in salads and the jams. Graham doesn’t eat desserts very often so fig tart is a waste. I have found a new recipe for rocamadour ( a small goat cheese) and ham and fig in pastry which I will try this week, but that doesn’t  make much of a dent in the supply. Any suggestions ???

Just one day's haul

Getting lost in the fruit picking

Dinner at our friend Kate’s house in the country on Saturday night and met some of her friends from Australia who had been staying with her. We ate outdoors to the sound of the sheep bells ( from the neighbour’s farm) and the sight of a brilliant red sky as the sun set. As we drove home we saw an amazing view of the new moon through a streaky mist  – fabulous.

The rugby season has begun and Graham spent Sunday afternoon with new English friends at the local stadium watching  Stade Foyen  play. "The game was a bit flat, but I am reliably informed that it is not unusual to see 4-5 red cards issued for a match at this level. At least we won the game and I get to go back to our next home game. Each game has a big hospitality tent set up and lunch of massive proportions with plenty of wine or beer....all for 7 euros. I will be going again."

The cépes have arrived at the market. You know autumn has arrived when these mushrooms appear on market stalls. At the moment they cost €20.00 a kilo ! As they are a big meaty mushroom we tried some sliced and pan fried in butter with lots of garlic and parsley . Very earthy. Lots of the locals go mushrooming in the forests in the hills behind our village, but they are reluctant to share the location of their hunting grounds. Perhaps we will just stay with what’s available on the market stalls. At least we won’t poison ourselves.

We seem to bump into someone we know at the markets every Saturday now. Nice to know we are increasing our circle of friends. Even had to reject an invitation to lunch as it conflicted with another invitation.

After a week of rain and cold and foggy mornings the sun is out again and we are promised temperatures in the high 20s, at least for a few days. Lots of lawn mowing and tidying in the garden and another exciting trip to the dechetterie ( waste disposal station). Sounds so much better in french, doesn’t it ?

Petite roses in a wine barrel

We bought this begonia at a marché. It's about 70cm high !

à bientôt mes amis

Autumn has arrived

Rained over the weekend so we spent Saturday afternoon visiting the shops. Everyone else seemed to have the same idea. All the summer things – outdoor furniture, pool toys, sandals and sunhats are being put away . Now we are seeing wellies, camouflage gear, guns and hunting knives. All the paraphernalia for bottling wine and making jams and preserving summer produce are taking over. At the hardware stores there are ranges of axes and log splitters and chainsaws for all that firewood and pruning of trees. 

Only managed one vide grenier marché in the rain on Sunday, but did find a lovely canteen of french silverplate cutlery for ourselves. It’s a setting for 12, but in typical french fashion they don’t include knives in their sets. So we have still to search for a set of modern knives to suit. It’s never straightforward.

They don't trust us with knives ??

Needed carpet for our staircase – simple you would think. No, the french don’t do much carpet and when they do it’s badly layed without underfelt (so we are told). So  managed to find an englishman from the Correze who travelled around 200kms to come to our house to quote. Had to give him the job after that, and included carpeting the upstairs sitting room as an afterthought, as it’s the warmest of our three sitting rooms and will make an ideal winter retreat.

Which brings me to firewood. After much research online and questioning our friends here, we decided we needed 5 cubic metres of oak cut to 33cm lengths to fit our fireplace. So on Monday morning madame Cambon arrived in her petit camion (little tipper truck) and dropped the lot in our driveway. Even the trucks and graders on the roadworks tend to be driven by women here. Luckily it had stopped raining for the morning so we spent a large part of it stacking firewood in our hangar. Our backs are telling us not to repeat that again soon.

Oh dear !

We're getting there

Done !!!

Tried another restaurant in Ste Foy for lunch – research for our visitors, I swear. Le Huit (No. 8) serves a very generous five course lunch with bread and coffee for €13.00 (AUD 19.00) each. We started with a white bean and tomato soup served in a large tureen so that we could help ourselves to more if we wished (we did). The entree was a tomato stuffed with fresh aubergine, then a steak and vegetables followed by a choice of cheeses. Then to finish a dessert of fresh berries and mousse. We look forward to their autumn menus with interest.

And the local rugby season is about to start. Oh joy ! We met a woman at a lunch (as you do here) who’s husband is also very keen on rugby, and he phoned Graham this week to invite him along to the first match of the season, and to explain the benefits of joining the local club. Apparently, in exchange for your membership fee you get free entry to all the local games (normally €11.00) and you get to attend the 3 course dinner at the club house after every game !!! Naturally Graham has accepted the kind invitation and will be supporting the local team at the game every Sunday afternoon.

The vendage (grape harvest) begins at the end of the month so there are sales of wine everywhere as producers try to make storage room for the next vintage. Our cellar is growing slowly.

We buy the boxes from a man at the marchés. We presume he makes them for the chateaux...

So much better than cardboard and only $2




à bientôt mes amis

Franco-British Week

We have just finished Franco –British Week here in Ste Foy. In typical french fashion it actually lasted two weeks. Never rush a good thing. Many of the local shops and cafes are draped with french and english flags to show their support of the week ( and maybe attract a few tourists to pop in ??).

First the art exhibition. Last week at a lunch we met an english landscape painter who invited us to his exhibition opening on Tuesday night. There was another artist and a sculptress, both german, sharing the exhibition room opposite the mairie. It was a busy night with lots of food and drink ( of course) and we were introduced to more brits, germans and even french. Here’s the link to Peter’s website….

http://www.peterthomaspastels.com/

Then on Monday we went on a garden tour at Les Jardins de Sardy conducted by the owner, Frederic Imbs, who is french but educated in England. Afterward he  entertained us with lunch on the terrace overlooking the gardens and the Dordogne valley. The house is on the hillside and the gardens were first set out by the Italian wife of the owner a few hundred years ago, in the Italian style. Frederic’s family bought the property in 1956 as a ruin and rebuilt the house and relandscaped the gardens. They are not as large now, but very pretty with the orchard below and a stand of hornbeam trees on the plateau above.  Lunch was a simple french buffet affair of only four courses with coffee and as much bread and wine as you wanted. A pleasant way to spend an afternoon with friends.

On Wednesday night we were persuaded to join in a quiz night held at a local community hall. Tables were made up of four french speakers and four english speakers who formed a team. Questions were provided in both french and english to make it easier and were about the history and geography of both countries. There were eleven tables altogether so quite a good turnout and there was, of course, a three course meal served during interval, with lots of wine available. As the only australians there we didn’t expect to be able to answer too many questions successfully, but, who would have guessed but our team WON ! And the prize – a bottle of good local wine each, naturally. It gave us the opportunity to meet another  english couple who live in a village nearby, and a french family including their two teenage daughters who were all charming and spoke as much english as we do french but we all got along really easily.

The winning team !

Decided against the “ darts and fish & chips”  night on Friday, and the “decorate a hat ( french boater or English bowler)"  competition at the pique-nique today. 

Our friends , Jane and Richard, came to lunch on Saturday before they head off to Amsterdam for the launch of Jane’s new book   “ An Army of Judiths” about an historical event in Holland during the 16^th century.  It sounds like a great read. Check it out on her website …….

http://www.cjunderwood.com/

Richard has finished quite a few jobs, big and small, around the house including our dressing room, at last. So great to be able to unpack the boxes of clothes and discover just what it was that we packed all those months ago.

 Our painter, David, is still hard at work stripping that french wallpaper and filling cracks and holes . As he doesn’t speak french he  asked us to supply the paint , and so we had an interesting time at the BRICO (DYI hardware)  getting them to tint the paint to the colour we had finally agreed on. We had chosen a Dulux colour as that is the paint we are using ( everyone says that french paint is rubbish) , but the store only had the recipe for a french brand,naturellement, so we had to find the closest match. Lots of trop sombre or trop claire or presque later and finally une résolution. Then the tinting of 4 x 12 litre cans and into the mixing cabinet while three people wait in line behind us for attention. It didn’t help that we did this between 12.00 and 2.00 – that’s right LUNCH TIME – when almost every other business in France is closed, except this one. The poor harassed guy who served us took off for lunch as soon as we were out of the door – with a friendly au revoir, of course. He didn’t speak any english so this was all achieved with our minimal french skills ! The next time you go to Bunnings and have to explain what you are looking for, think about trying it in a foreign language and see how much help you get .

Not father’s day here, but we did go out for lunch to Le Pressoir at St Meard de Gurcon. Enjoyed a lovely lunch while sitting in the courtyard sipping rosé and watching the clouds sail by. ( 3 courses for €21.00 each !)

We are noticing the end of summer now. While the days are still beautiful and warm it is getting cooler at night and the mornings are quite crisp. We have had a few early morning fogs in the river valley already , the summer clothes and outdoor furniture are disappearing from the shops and the hunting clothes and gun stalls ( yes guns) are appearing at the markets. I’ve already seen big orange pumpkins, and yellow courgettes and even a few mushrooms sneaking onto the vegetable stalls. We picked the last of the mirabelles ( 2.5 kgs) yesterday so I will be making lots of jam tomorrow and we have discovered that we have a small apple tree. Didn’t notice it before as it was overshadowed by other trees, but now we can see some small green fruit. We are still discussing the plan for the potager and we are applying the french attitude – nothing worthwhile should be rushed.

À bientôt mes amis