loads of car booty at the local vide

cute kitty in the window

Got up nice and early today and went to a vide grenier ( which translates as open attic) at Capvern in the Baronnies it was a stunningly beautiful sunny day. The mountains were highly visible and with great clarity. The vide was good it really is like an english car boot, this is our second since we have been here, by August they are everywhere and often in a new town for us to explore. We came away with a lovely wooden trunk for shoes and an unusual pastis water jug, which matches the bottle of pastis in shape and our glasses. On the way home we decided to explore uncharted territory, Tilhouse about five minutes from Capvern. We had been told it was pretty, an artist friend of ours used to go their to draw and paint. It was very pretty, with all the cottages, houses and the church covered in slate which is very typical of that area. Slate roofs are common here because that is the local material that is found in the hills. 

the church at Tilhouse

views from Tilhouse

further down the road we found a beautiful mill  with a camping ground and lots of charted walks. In fact there were a large group enjoying lunch, in preparation for their afternoon walk. We did a recce this time as we did not have the footwear for walking. Lots of wild flowers, winding river and a beautiful day would have made a great picnic spot, we will be back. Kites and buzzards circling the mountains and a purple heron fishing in the river.

tiny sweet mountain strawberries

natural slate  found all over the hillsides

old slate roof!

The Pyrenean Shepherd is a medium-small breed of dog native to the Pyrenees mountains in southern France and northern Spain, bred since at least medieval times for herding livestock, especially sheep. It worked as an active herder together with the Great Pyrenees, another mountain dog, which acted as the flock's guardian.

wild columbine

later that evening we were still enjoying wine sunshine cheese and strawberries (not the wild variety) at nine in the evening!

Had a great week, we could do with a little less rain though, otherwise i will never finish my vegetable patch. We have also met a very nice lady called Liz she is trying to catch us a sauvage ginger kitten, unfortunately he keeps escaping, I will keep you posted on that one. Watch out Hunca Munca, the mice from Beatrix Potters 'the tales of two bad mice' - they are quite cute actually. (sorry P they really were scampering through our lounge!)

carry on mincing

At the beginning of the week, I actually did some gardening, who could resist a garden in the countryside with a backdrop of the mountains...i couldn't, more than that the couple who own the garden are lovely,  so it's an all round no brainer. My hours are a little shorter and it is nice to come home for something different in the afternoon, it was also a very nice temperature on the Monday and Tuesday, although hot a good temperature to work with.

Major connection, we now have a telephone line, grande perseverance from Suzanne via orange in french, and a few days fiddling with various cables in the street on two separate occasions by french telecom, and after six years we now have a land line. Hurrah!!! 

Along with buying a phone which was originally the sole purpose of our visit to Lannemezan, we decided to have a quick look in Lidl's and Aldi, to see if there were any bargains to be had. Lannemezan is our next largish town about thirty minutes away. We bought a 1000gr of turkey and a climbing rose from Lidl's, both bargains.

I have been very excited about trying out my 1950's antique mincer which i bought in Dulwich just before we left, and the turkey was just the excuse i needed. It is a Harper and came amazingly in it's original packaging complete with A5 double sided how to use, only in english!  for those that get frustrated like me, that the brochure is about fifty pages thick with only the first three in the language you require.

I cleaned it thoroughly, although apart from a tiny patch of blue enamel peeling off the nut holding the handle and a few flakes of paint missing off the wooden handle it is in very good nick and very clean. It comes with two hole plates which dictate the size of your mince. You use the larger hole plate for raw meat.

The turkey that we had bought came in one great wedge and i cut it into chunks before feeding it into the machine. it worked like a dream,  i will be posting turkey mince recipes....watch this space. After feeding meat through you then feed chunks of bread into it to help the cleaning process. Although interesting it seemed to me a waste of bread as it was easier to  take apart and clean than the average food processor.

Another bargain of the week. A very nice Minnervois from Castelanau market
at just over one euro a litre

Monday, like the weekend was hot hot hot a very lovely twenty four degrees, the clarity of the mountains was superb. There is something magical or maybe comforting about being bathed in heat and looking at mountains covered in snow.  Like everywhere in spring there are new shoots and wild flowers sprouting up all over the place and i am forever consulting my books for another species that i have found, but here are some you will recognise

We have had the convenience of a small casino ( no not betting) local french mini market. Three years ago it shut down and we were sad, mainly for the people, great characters that ran it. It was very good as it was positioned on our doorstep. Two years down the line it is a fruit and veg shop again. As it finds its feet it will continue to evolve its product range. A lot of local produce are finding space on their shelves. 

Another great, and should be the norm (but sadly isn't) concept, is not to throw the food in bins, better to sell it off cheap, for a soup or a meal, cook it and stick it in the freezer…….

i suppose things go at a slower pace here allowing people to try out the latter. I picked up a kilo of the most devine smelling apples for a euro, their only crime were they were just going a little soft and their skins a bit wrinkled (sounds familiar!)

A bit of perseverance ie skinning and coring,  and then cooking down with some fresh ginger and lemon rind, and they are a great compote for breakfast with some bran and yoghurt. We also had another shot at the fougasse this time with olives and rosemary and it was much better this time, less likely to injure a window.

The star this week was creating our very own mini potager , the idea of how big and where it landed was Chris and Marc's idea …i had grander schemes but probably at this time not practical. Anyway this one was hard enough to make large enough, just to house last weeks pots from the market. I  still need to accommodate the baby toms, and i am after some sorrel to complete the plot.

I am happy that everything is planted now, I  just need to sort the cobweb pantry…but i think i have a couple of months for that.

last weeks purchases from the foire aux fleurs

on that premise we played (ok so we are doing that most of the time?) saturday i finished the potager and later we caught up with Mirley and Cycle in Larroque, avec brian and janet,  for a good fun evening, with some lovely food and wine. The cherries were amazing, and thanks michael for a french classic with your own personal twist on it…fab 

if i do go on too much about the mountains sorry …but my other great love is stargazing and tonight all can say is wow! the stars and the clarity here are just mind blowing. The only place i have seen it this crystal clear (the night sky that is) is in costa rica…….truly amazing

The morning after there was a  sheepish rumour that Jessica Ennis had turned up in the baaaaar for a late morning coffee or beer it or rather she turned  out to be a 11 week old baby lamb, apparently her mother was a very good runner, Simon and Alastair's new pet!!! .

We finished a fun filled weekend with a spot of archery in Chelan with Hugo and Suzanne, a first for Marc and I, well certainly with a proper bow and arrows.

arise and shine

still shattered, but jolly pleased to be here...just waking up to the sounds of the birds or the bells, is just lovely. For those that don't know we are three yards away from a beautiful and unusual twin bell towered church.

not having the exercise or rigour of the tennis court or the outdoor gym we have decided to do a forty minute walk in the countryside and around our village every morning, also to see how Marc's hip fairs. Due to the wear and continual tear of the last seven years he is in some discomfort and will eventually need a hip replacement.

we are continuing unpacking the huge amount of boxes downstairs and i am trying to stuff the contents somewhere upstairs...still have not found my franchi seeds

it is not for some days that we start to feel normal ie thaw or chill out

sticky beginnings....

this is looking more like it

At the beginning of the week we took our first french lesson in the old school in Castelnau Magnoac with 15 other anglaise, five that we knew, Marc thought Philippe our teacher was a bit like the actor comedian Robin Williams, french style. on Tuesday we had a crazy idea of getting up very early like our regular boulangerie so at 5.30 we got up to make French Catalan bread - Fougasse, which is a bit like Foccacia. it was good fun apart from the 5:30 bit, but then i had to think what length and how early our bakers all over the world are up to put loaves in their shops for us to buy for breakfast.

you could break your teeth or a window with it,
but on the whole pretty tasty with anchovies and olives

caught up with lots of people at the Guizerix vide grenier (open attic) which was tres jolie, managed not to buy any more stuff as we are both rather mindful of  the mountain in our garage, but did buy a lovely piece of cheese from a lady that had her own cows and ships !( this is how she pronounced her sheep) in the mountains. a typical Pryrenean sheep cheese called Brebis.

Friday, and i am still looking for seeds in unpacked boxes..no joy, but tidied and unpacked a few more. Then went to look at our intended allotment, Marc thinks we or rather I have bitten off more than i can chew?!

Saturday was our village market plus a flower market, it was very colourful and good to see the village alive and buzzing and i have bought tomatoes, courgettes aubergines, chard and cabbage all for eighty cents each. Bumped into all and everyone including my good friend Gertrud who has a flower stall here.

Christianne et Robert's family are down for the weekend. it is so good for me that we are surrounded by french neighbours it forces me to try and speak the language, which i really want to do. Christianne's daughter speaks some english and so does her husband...better than my french.

Beautiful sunny day, went for my first lac walk this afternoon (no views of the mountains P, almost a whole week)  very beautiful and very peaceful, the blossom on the cherries that they planted a few years ago is blooming and as always in spring the landscape looks new and clean, lively and healthy. Spotted a Copyu or Ragordin (my neighbour Ginette informs me)that had fallen off the edge of the dam in the lac. He was going to have to take a water slide in the opposite direction to get back to a large running stream, no wonder he was twitching his whiskers in disgust as he was probably still shocked at his untimely arrival over six foot, the height of a cliff too him.

As well as our bread experience duck three ways, and a first re gesiers du canard from my sud de France cookbook.

Poelee de gesiers de canard au fenouil (sorry about the  lack of accents)
Duck Giblets with Fennel

On sunday we had our own vide or rather the village did, we went with Ali, Chris and the girls, some interesting bits and pieces, but ended up buying more toms and three cucumbers. Then it was all back to la maison for wine and chat in the afternoon sunshine. After they left Marc and I managed to polish off the rest of the fois gras (thanks Marie Therese), olives and cheese. A relaxing afternoon , i mowed the grass for the first time this year, while Marc made supper.

our garden, late in the afternoon sun