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Places to visit: Castelnau de Montmiral
This month’s place to visit is Castelnau de Montmiral, another bastide town, of which there are many in this area. We found this pretty hilltop village while we were staying at the house that we went on to buy. (Try before you buy – great idea as it gave us the chance to see if we liked it and the area! Seemingly we did – both). We are really spoilt in this area for places to visit and this one did not disappoint. Castelnau de Montmiral was built as a fortified village in 1222 by Raymond VII, count of Toulouse and overlooks the Vère valley and is surrounded by the…
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Cooking with the seasons: November
With the end of October the warm daytime weather came to an abrupt end and with it the need for more hearty dishes, soups to warm us on chilly days, piping hot stews and tagines to ward off the cold evenings. The produce on the market stalls is changing too. The choice of apple and pear varieties has increased as autumn harvests find their way to market, citrus fruits start to reappear, now from Spain rather than further afield and I spotted the first bergamots last weekend. Marmalade making time is not far off, which is lucky as we are almost out of last year’s supply. Nuts in all varieties…
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Chestnuts and Chrysanthemums
Bonjour to you all The beginning of November here in the Tarn has seen a dramatic end to the balmy warm days we have experienced through October. The sunny days with the thermometer hovering above 20°C have been replaced with an almost 10° drop overnight and regular downpours of rain. We can’t complain having had several lovely warm weeks, with enough sunshine to ripen the second batch of figs, but weirdly and perhaps worryingly it also encouraged my strawberries to flower for a third time! We have frost threatened towards the end of the week so I hope the plants will be OK. I have managed to plant quite a…
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One year old.
Joyeux Anniversaire/Happy Birthday! Coffee and Chocolatines is one year old today! I can’t quite believe it is a year since I dipped a tentative toe in the blog water! Thank you so much to everyone who has followed our journey over the last 12 months and even more so to those who have promoted it, commented on posts and interacted with Coffee and Chocolatines on social media. It makes it all worthwhile for me knowing that someone out there is reading this. I have really enjoyed sharing our escapades with you, although as you will know I have gone a bit off schedule over the last couple of months for…
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A puzzle of cats
Hello Everyone Well I am back in la belle France, greeted by gorgeous sunny days, quite warm (18-20C) but goodness the nights are cold, between 2°C and 5°C at the moment. Why so cold so early on? The journey back was long, the weather kind and I did have a welcome break and delicious supper at a friend’s house near Tours, completing the drive across two days. Max had ordered a couple of CDs which were delivered to my Mother’s so there was lots of singing en route! It is lovely to be home, back in the countryside (I never thought I would be such a fan of the peace…
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Homeward bound
As I sit on the ferry watching the south coast of England gradually disappear through a rather grimy window, I can’t quite believe that my trip is over already. While I was there, someone asked me if I still felt at home in the UK and I have to say home for me now is France. What a week it has been, seemingly non-stop with a trip to see my son in Manchester, time with my mother and a very brief hour with a couple of friends. I spent a lot of my time working, as the charity I work with had two grant applications to submit during my stay.…
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Cooking with the seasons: October
Autumn has arrived and with it new choices, including squashes galore. Our thoughts turn to warmer dishes, soups and tagines. The choice of apples and pears has increased as they come into season. It never ceases to fascinate me watching the changing face of the markets here in France during the year and really focussing on using what is local and in season. This can mean a glut of one particular item and the challenge to find ever new and interesting ways to cook with whatever it is. Fresh borlotti beans were available at the market last weekend, a colourful and fleeting treat, delicious cooked with bay and garlic, a…
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From aboard the ferry
Hello everyone Very late this week – sorry this is becoming bad habit! I have been travelling – more on that shortly. The last week has sped by in a complete rush as I decided to return to the UK to see family. My eldest son was due to return to university in the UK but has postponed his return until November. Early one misty morning, in spite of some trepidation (I have got used to low Covid numbers in France, living in the countryside and am possibly becoming some kind of recluse) in a moment of decisiveness I booked my ferry crossing! I requested a list from my younger…
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It’s raining figs
Hello everyone Another fun filled week here at le petit château, as usual not quite doing what we had set out to do as yet another unexpected occurrence pushed our agenda aside! You have to laugh as this seems to happen virtually every week. Still worse things happen at sea as they say, which was actually what a couple of our rooms almost turned into, but more on that shortly. A highlight this week was a fabulous meal, a wedding present that we hadn’t been able to enjoy due to lockdowns. As time was running out for the gift voucher we decided to book. On Tuesday evening we had the…
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Places to visit: Najac
Last September we visited Najac in the Aveyron for a very brief ‘honeymoon’ after our wedding – actually just an afternoon – short but delightful and with some very delicious ice-creams at the end. A pandemic doesn’t really seem the right time to head off on a post wedding holiday – one day perhaps. Our visit was on a beautiful sunny day, after the summer season, so Najac was quiet, the tourists long gone. Najac is a small medieval village surrounded by forests, in the former province of Rouergue, now in the Aveyron. The castle, built in the mid-13th century by Count Alphonse de Poitiers, towers over the village, 200m…
