Out and About

When we have visitors it is an ideal time to do some nice, relaxing touristy things and see a bit of our beautiful region of France. Here we are on the tourist trail with Janet, Philip, Lucy and Steve Moule. Philip was pleased to see that Rugby was a part of the experience even if it did mean going into Serge Blanco's shop in Albi. Food was a big part of our experience too, everyone should have cake for breakfast at least once in their life! We did this at the lovely bakers in Cordes before visiting the market and struggling up the almighty hill. I've included a beautiful view of our village Verfeil Sur Seye and no visit to Albi would be complete without an ice cream! Swimming in the river is highly recommended as a way to cool off and obviously buying haircare products in the supermarket is a very serious business. We had such a lovely time sharing our love of this area with dear friends. Thanks for coming guys.

A visit to Rodez

During the last week we have had the lovely Moule family as our guests. We managed to have an amazing time and Spike especially loved being cuddled and hugged by Lucy. Other highlights included swimming in the river Aveyron, playing endless silly games and eating far too much. It was sad when it came to Thursday and we had to wave them off at Rodez airport. There were, however, a few saving graces to make up for having to say goodbye.

First of all we went to Salle La Source for lunch, this is an amazingly beautiful Medieval village with a stunning waterfall. There is also an excellent restaurant in easy driving distance of the airport. It makes a lovely treat for those on afternoon flights to have a final, delicious lunch. Sadly on this occasion there was a crisis in the kitchen and we ended up waiting for over an hour for our main course. Oh dear we were not happy but the patron obviously realised and gave us out puddings by way of compensation. The food was really good too with a special mention going to the chocolate mousse.

On the way home we got to admire the magnificent Tour de France cows made of straw bales. The Tour passed through Rodez this year and we were filled with admiration for this awe inspiring public tribute. We also had a great view of Rodez cathedral in the distance, flanked by some wind turbines. I actually quite like turbines I think they are kind of magnificent and modern looking and quite exciting. Perhaps I don't get out enough but I think they emphasise the beauty and age of the cathedral rather than detracting from it and anything which gives us cleaner energy is a good thing. I'll get off my soapbox now and have my siesta. What a tough life.

Excitement at the supermarket

Now I don't want you to get over excited at the title of this blog. Let's face it supermarkets are not usually that exciting although I must admit that I am a bit addicted to going into them in different parts of the world mainly to see what the local food is like and to see what people are eating. Ive fossicked in freezers from Arran to Zumpango (Mexico...yes really) learning a lot in the process. French supermarkets are usually repositories of everything good and I can't wait to get in there and admire the exotic range of goodies on offer, not least the wide range of intestines and other fascinating body parts!

Well the most exciting news on the old supermarche front in deepest south western France is that there is a brand spanking new Leclerc supermarket on the outskirts of Villefranche de Rouergue which is the town where we do our weekly shopping. Normally we are to be found in Aldi just up the road which is cheap and has all our basic needs at good prices. Going to Leclerc is a bit like going to Waitrose and probably equally expensive but the siren call of the aisles was hard to resist and in we went!

This proved to be something of a mistake as we came out a short time later considerably impoverished but laden with goodies and having had a variety of thrills. Where to star....hmmmm.....well perhaps I should mention the dishy man on the fish counter, sort of a fishy dishy I suppose (sorry!), he was quite easy on the eye and I bought more piscatorial products than strictly necessary!!!! The wonderful choice of fish did help to encourage me!Following that there was the steak mincing machine, for a mere 9 Euros I bought a kilo of steak and.... he cut it off a real joint of virtually fat free meant and minced it right in front of my eyes coooo.

However the most thrilling thing was the vegetable counters honest honest no kidding. They have these amazing funky chilled counters which blow a cooling misty vapour all over the veg and now I come to think of it the fish too in order to keep it calm and chilled whilst it awaits its inevitable fate. I was fascinated, never seen anything like it in all my life. Mind... I think the man who was watching me photograph the veg thought I was a bit funny!

Going off to play cards now and inevitably to get beaten. I'll try to photograph the fishy dishy for your delectation next time.

Random stuff from Verfeil

Well, what's been happening lately? First of all my chum Kathryn arrived from Boston Mass. and we had a fun week going off here and there. She is a professor of Egyptian archaeology at Boston University so she was very excited to go to Figeac and see the house where Jean Francois Champollion was born. He was the man who worked out how to read Egyptian hieroglyphs. She was even more excited however, by the chocolate mouse/mousse cakes which we had at Cordes one morning. Chocolate before Egyptology that's what I say.

Then we took her back to Toulouse airport and then immediately dashed across to Rodez airport to collect our good friends the Moule family from East Harling. Of course another visit to the cake shop in Cordes was indicated yummmmmmmmmmmm.

We had yummy prawns for lunch one day and guess who immediately came out in a fabulous all over pink rash usually only associated (for me anyway) with crayfish. Erk one bottle of witch hazel later I'm still like a strawberry milkshake all over, including in my hair, but at least I don't itch any more! I'm hoping that it was because the prawns had been touching crayfish on the supermarket counter and that I won't have to give up prawns...a potential major disaster!

The cats as usual are unmoved by all this and remain dozy and restful for most of the day and manic and excited during the night when their two favourite games, chase up the stairs, and scratch the fluffy wall paper, can become a little trying at 4 am! John enjoys his beer and lets everything (except the beer hahaha) wash over him! Even the man we saw in Albi who was celebrating his stag night by dressing up as a willy! What more can I add to that!?

Enjoy the pix.

Petit Randonee a Septfonds

A few days ago we managed to have our first walk of the year. Mercifully, the weather has been much cooler than we we expecting and there has been a gentle breeze and even a suggestion of rain. This makes it very pleasant to walk and we did about 7km all around the village of Septfonds. We were hoping to see ye famous old dolmens and amazingly we actually found one, the tomb of the giant. It was really fascinating and as you can see the countryside was looking fresh and beautiful. I love walking because you get to see all the butterflies and plants which you just don't see from a vehicle. The little bees were having a lovely time in the teazles.

Here in Verfeil it is weeing down with rain which is actually rather lovely, as everything is green and fresh and feels cool. The whole village smells of green, wet vegetation. Spike is fascinated by the rain drops; as he is, by and large, an indoor cat he's hardly ever seen rain close up but here when the screen door is up he is virtually outside. It's hilarious watching him as he tries to follow the falling drops. He can't keep up with the speed and it looks as if he is nodding furiously.

Rain aside we have had some good days so far with a combination of productive work and little trips to keep us busy. We've sorted out all the sheets and ordered some more ready for the coming influx of guests, John has been working on his play and Ive been sorting out the WG pottery report. Yesterday we had a trip into St Antonin. It's such a beautiful drive and it always makes us nostalgic because it was the route we took when we first came to see the house in 2003. Verfeil is completely screen by trees as you approach it from the road ans we couldn't see any sign of the house or village until we were here whereupon we fell in love!

St Antonin is the home of the most wonderful soap shop. My dearest friend Joey jokes that I have shares in it because we always take visitors there and because at home in East Harling the bathroom looks like an outpost of the shop. Anyway, as you will see from the pictures the shop is the most marvellous Aladdin's cave filled with glorious scents and colours and as the soap is made with all natural ingredients it does not make me itch! Orders now being taken for such delights as coffee, vanilla, lychee, rose, orange blossom and tutti frutti, all of which smell heavenly and come as liquid or bars. The bathroom has never smelt better!

Spike supervising the process

All finished I wonder how long it'll last?

Mmmmmmmmmm or in French Miaaammmmmmmm

All ready to go into pots

Boiling it all up was hot work

Hurrah Hurrah we've arrived, so far I've slept for two and a half days and with the other half day I made jam. The strawberries which grow in this area are amazing. They have an intense and perfumed flavour which actually makes you go mmmmmmm strawberry.

I made 3lb of wonderful deep red deliciousness ready for immediate consumption and hopefully also to take home. Now, those of you who know me will be saying "jam, jam, she doesn't eat sugar so why is she making jam?" Well fyo I made it with fructose, proper pure fruit sugar, none of that nasty glucose fructose syrup malarkey but low GI fruit sugar using 3kg of strawberries and only 500g of fructose, (kindly not the use of European friendly weights!). I added lemon juice and because the fructose is very sweet it really works although you need to keep open pots in the fridge. One teaspoon of this now and again is fine for me so cheers cheers. The kitchen smelt heavenly and Spike only tried to help one, narrowly avoiding a nasty jam burn. Silly boy.

Anyway these very special strawbwrries are called Mara des Bois and they are a cross between a culitvated stawberry and a wild one so they are quite small and quite expenseive, but the nice strawberry man on the ,markewt in St Antonin gave me a good deal on some less than perfect specimens meant for the purposes of jam making. Merci mon brave.

All this french houswifery which has also included washing and waxing the floors...don't ask, attacking the wisteria which has gone mad and defending John and Spike from a hornet has all taken its toll with a touch of Verfeil backache so Im going to lie down now. More anon.