Tag Archives: Food

A woodland harvest and a bush-tucker trial

Posted on by Richard
8

This weekend we were joined by the Dixies for an explore in the forest at Mervent. It wasn’t specifically a mushroom hunt, us being the worst mushroom hunters since time began, but we came equipped with our books for identifying the good/bad ones, plus a (small) bag to carry them home in. Just in case!

Mervent with the DixiesWe began, as all good explorations should, with a picnic dinner. Having filled ourselves with bread. cheese. crisps and fruit (NOT eggs…) we marched off into the woods. We quickly marched back out again when the kids heard the approaching sound of hunting dogs – la chasse was in full swing, so perhaps walking through that part of the forest was not such a good idea!

So we diverted round the edge of the woods and wound our way down to la Pont du Deluge. This is our favourite spot due to the lovely stream flowing through the trees that the kids like to try crossing on precarious stepping-stones. There was no chance of them getting wet on this occasion however, asd the stream was virtually dry! What a disappointment.

Mervent with the DixiesUndaunted by the lack of flowing water, we set our sights on harvesting the chestnuts that were littering the ground. Always the hunter-gatherers, Kevin and Sylvie were very excited at the thought of taking them home and adding them to the evening’s meal. So we all started trawling the area for the green spiky balls (…behave!) that sheltered the chestnuts.

After pricking ny fingers several times, and being the geek that I am, I fashioned a “gadget” out of a twig for picking them up, for which I was basically laughed at. Meh,,,some people just don’t recognise genius when they see it :)

In the end we collected quite a haul and, supplemented by a few edible mushrooms, we had our starter for the night:
Hand-collected chestnuts

Or so I thought…….

In fact, THIS was my starter for the night:
My jungle challenge!

Clockwise, from the top, we have spleen, tripe and veal head. Not pictured is the pigs trotter.

Yes folks, Sylvie had lined me up with a traditional French bush-tucker trial as a challenge especially for me! How kind……

So, with the pride of a nation at stake I did my bit for blighty, closed my eyes and sampled some slices of these French treats. I have to say, they weren’t as disgusting as I thought they would be. The spleen took me back to school dinners eating cold liver. And the tripe and veal head were vaguely like the inside of a cheap pork-pie. Pigs trotter was just a fatty pork chop with very little meat. I managed to eat a little of everything and thereby took another step along the path of integration into proper French society :)

Luckily. the rest of the evening passed without further challenges and I could sit back and enjoy the lovely birthday meal that Lisa had prepared. The company, once again, was excellent. All the kids played like they were life-long friends and the adults could just relax and chat…and try not to fall asleep  *cough*Sylvie*cough* ;)

Another excellent night. With everyone sleeping over it was a very relaxed affair, followed by a very lazy morning. The perfect end to my birthday celebrations and the first of many more such occasions I suspect.

A morning at the market

Posted on by Richard
12

This morning we took our first real trip to the market at Fontenay-le-Comte. I know, we’ve been here for 10 months and this was our first visit, but its a Saturday morning, and with 3 kids it’s a struggle to get them to do anything on a Saturday morning, never mind get dressed and go out!

Most markets we have ever seen in France are pretty much the same – a mix of beautiful fruit, vegetables, fish, cheese and bread, with some rather old-fashioned clothes, hats and lots and lots of pants!  Fontenay market was certainly no different.  However, there is something special about the atmosphere of a French market that is really worth sampling.
Fontenay-le-Comte market
The fruit and vegetables are especially resplendent in their colour and size. Much nicer than their supermarket-bought cousins. The people are all friendly and happy to chat (not much chatting in your local Hyper U I can tell you!) and the road-side cafés make a welcome break where you can just stop for a coffee (or a pineau :) ) and watch the world go by.

We picked up a fair selection of stuff to keep us going over the weekend…some mussels, oysters (yes, more oysters!), lots of bread, some roquefort cheese (to go in the sauce for the mussels)… and Molly bought a scarf,  kindly reduced by the merchant skilfully negotiated down by me from €7 to €5. Yes, I know it’s still 22 degrees and sunny here, but you’re apparently nobody if you don;t have a scarf round your neck…
Fontenay-le-Comte market

I think we may make a habit of a Saturday-morning trip to the market. The kids will be fine to run riot/sleep all morning on their own and Lisa and I can enjoy a pleasant morning perusing the fine produce, having a quiet coffee and generally enjoying this essential part of everyday french life.

Sounds good to me. What do you think? :)

French friends and fungi

Posted on by Richard
4

This weekend was one of new experiences.

First on the agenda was an evening out at Nathalie and Thierry’s house. They had invited us round for a meal, along with Christophe and Gwénaelle, and we were really looking forward to it. This was to be a big test of our language skills, it being the first real evening with only french people and us. Unfortunatley I was full of cold, and not totally on the ball anyway, so we really had to get our brains into gear.

But we needn’t have worried as the evening went really well. The food was wonderful – Nathalie had clearly been extremely busy baking and preparing – and everyone had fun. The language barrier was well and truly broken down for most of the evening, and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. A very successful night, thank you Nathalie & Thierry!

It was around 2am when we got home from our evening out so on Sunday we were all pretty tired. However, we had lined up a potential day out mushroom-hunting with Sylvie & Kevin and it looked like conditions were right for our expedition. So, at 11am Sylvie gave us the nod and we roused ourselves from our bleary-eyed trances, packed up a picnic and headed off to the forest at Benon [map].

Mushroom Hunting

We had never met Kevin [link] or Sylvie [link] before. You may recognise their names, as they are regular commentors here and together run the “FuelMyBlog” community site for bloggers [link]. I had “met” them through this channel and spoken on Twitter [link], but this was the first meeting in “real-life”!  Well, we got on like a house on fire. They are a great family, so friendly and good fun to be with. The kids soon got over the initial embarrassment of meeting new people and were off tramping through the woods and playing games like they had been friends for years. MSN ids have been swapped and I’m sure they will be keeping in touch.

As for the mushrooms, although we found lots about 4, most were unfortunately deadly. Luckily we didn’t have to rely on Kevin’s memory to tell us this, as he couldn’t quite remember what Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall [link] had said… was it bitter tasting ones are good, or are they the ones that kil you…?  Thanks Kevin, very reassuring! :)  Fortunately the well-prepared Sylvie had a book which confirmed the sad truth that none of the ones we found were eatable. :(   We had brought along a couple of carrier bags, expecting, in our naievity that we would just be scooping them up and stuffing our bags full. Oh how wrong we were! Clearly the french experts had already been up at the crack of dawn and snaffled all the good ones while we were still snoring.

Ah well, c’est la vie. The thrill, as they say, is in the chase, not the capture, and we all certainly enjoyed a good wander through the forest, fruitless though it may have been. 

We ended the day with a picnic in the woods while the children played and had a good chin-wag about our respective lives in France. A most enjoyable day for everyone. Here’s hoping for many more…

That’s entertainment

Posted on by Richard
1

It was certainly an entertaining weekend.

On Saturday we entertained Nathalie (Joe’s teacher and the one who Lisa goes in to help with the English lessons) and her family. What a lovely family they are, and we had a really good time. We were a little concerned at our first major “night in” where we would only speak french, but I think we managed it pretty well. The dictionary was out, but we only referred to it on a couple of occasions and made ourselves understood for the rest of the night. Lisa made us all a beautiful meal and we finished the evening playing guitars and singing – something we haven’t done for ages, and we never thought we’d get chance to do again.

The kids meanwhile were off entertaining themselves with playstations and DVDs, breaking down the language barriers in the way that only kids can do. We had a wonderful night and hope to have many more. We are so lucky to count them as our friends after such a short time in the country, and especially sharing a love of music – something that has been sadly missing from our lives since we moved here.

So then we barely had had time to wash up from one evening’s entertainment (oh, to have a dishwasher) and we were preparing for our next guests on Sunday. This time it was an ex-work-colleague of Lisa’s. Helen and her family come to France every year and this year they were coming to Les Sables d’Olonne. As this is only just over an hour from us, it was great that they could come over and see us.

Once again, we had a lovely day. They have two lovely daughters who got on really well with our three – amazing as this was the first time they had met. By the end of the day they were trading MSN addresses and promising to keep in touch. I had finally got some legs for the old door that we salvaged in order to construct a big rustic table, so we set this up on the field, under the gazebo, and ate another lovely meal our there. We ended up all playing cards and taught each other new games to play – great fun.  Sadly the €3 trestle legs the table was resting on started collapsing as the games got more vigorous, so it’s back to the drawing board on that one, but luckily we had another more substantial table to work with.

It was another fantastic day, just the kind of weekend we love, surrounded by great friends. Its funny how you really get to know people so much better when you see them out of their normal environment. We have noticed this with the friends and family that have visited us here previously, but it was especially evident yesterday. Helen had worked in the same school as Lisa, but they had never really socialised before. And the rest of us barely knew the rest of the family. But by the end of the day we felt like we were old friends and hoping to meet up again soon.

And of course, we ourselves have been entertained by our two new additions. Charlie and Lola have settled in well to their new home and are really starting to feel like part of the family. Charlie is clearly the biggest trouble-maker, finding the best places to explore and hide, then calling Lola over to join in. As I write this, they have managed to find the shelf under my desk and are both asleep there cuddled up together. I have the feeling that I may have this kind of company whenever I work from now on, which is really rather nice.