MAS DU DIABLE..... C'EST INCROYABLE

I am here at Laura and Rachel's 12th century farmhouse way up in the Cevennes mountains, accessible only by a long, rough, switchback 4WD track. The house is the most ancient man-made thing I have ever seen and is breath taking outside and also inside. The 8 hectares of land is steep and terraced and the vegetable gardens lush and productive. Laura and Rachel work very hard to make this house and garden so beautiful... puts me to shame when I often complain about the slope at my place! 

Laura has some very interesting vegetables like ground tomatoes, long beetroot and a tomato plant covered in vicious spines, as well as prickly pear, a yellow fig and so many different capsicums and chillis I lost count.

 

We picked the beetroot and I cooked Jamie Oliver's recipe for baked beetroot, to go with the roast chicken we had for dinner. We also had Laura's delicious yellow butter beans - so good..... It's a hard life here in France!

 

Of course there are and will be more photos......here.

 

 

 

 

AT HOME IN FRANCE

Food in France is a serious business and there are vegetables gardens everywhere; in yards, in plots and allotments and food growing is central to the lives of these rural communities that I am visiting. I don't know about in the cities but compared to small Australian towns, French towns are a wonderland of food for me.

This ancient little village of Gabian has a boulangerie where Richard goes to buy fresh bread every morning. I asked him when it opens and he said maybe 6am...he has never been there when it hasn't been open in the morning. It closes about 12.30 and then opens again about 4, full of more fresh bread for the evening meals. Sundays they make patisseries and the townsfolk can be seen wandering home with boxes of cakes and goodies for after the Sunday family lunch.....sadly I won't be here on a Sunday!The bakers are a young couple with a baby.

There is a little general store, run by a friendly woman, and apart from essentials she keeps small amounts of local fresh foods like eggs, meat and cheeses you would only find in the central market in Adelaide, like roquefort and Saint Nectaire which we had last night and was superb. For AU$8, Richard bought a quarter of a round of this. Amazing!

Yesterday was market day in the square with just about 5 stalls....vegetables, kitchenware, clothes, fish and a van displaying, as Teleri said, everything you can do with a pig! We bought some Spanish chorizo which was like nothing I have had before as it had lots of roasted capsicum and pieces of smoked pork and was soft and aromatic and I ate far too much of it at lunch time while waiting for the paella to cook on the garden charcoal BBQ. See the photos.



There is always a lot of discussion about food and when other gardeners walk by at the allotment, there is an exchange of food news and it is wonderful. My spoken French is pretty bad but I can understand the gist of what is being said and yesterday I loved being shown around the plot next to Teleri and Richard's and hearing the enthusiasm in the voice of Antoinette as she told me about her dozens of haricots verts (green beans) plants, the cabbages, tomatoes and her new ginger plants, all the time apologising about how poorly it all was when actually it was amazingly abundant!

Suddenly she decided that Richard should dig out a couple of cherry seedlings growing next to her large cherry tree and take them to plant in their garden. There were no ifs or buts about this. She had decided they needed cherry trees and have them today they would! So they were promptly removed and we pruned them as she indicated and took them and planted them straight away. People - gardeners in particular - are always so keen to share and to give, the world over, and in every language.

We took the scenic route home....as if it is not ALL scenic!!..... and viewed Gabian from the top of the hill, up a windy path, which couldn't be called a road, and looked out as people have been doing here for a thousand years......

Today we went to the beach and I swam in the Mediterranean Sea.... a little cool and cloudy but a lovely experience and a beautiful drive. Plus lunch right on the seafront.... then we had to get back in time to catch the seafood van which comes every Thursday and Saturday from 4 to 4.30pm. Today we bought oysters for aperitifs and mussels, which I am going to cook for dinner.

Where do I live, again?

AN ANCIENT SETTING FOR MODERN DAY LIFE

Here I am in Gabian, in the centre of the village which dates back over 1000 years.... incomprehensible to most Australians, I would think. The photos say it all. Streets so narrow you have to walk single file, roof tops of tiles seemingly just piled up thicker and thicker to stop leaks, everything at odd angles and stone so mellow and worn it is hard to believe it is not a movie set! Everything is in French and Occitain, an old local language.

Chaiselongue and Lo Jardinier are wonderful and have even made limoncello for me! We spent some time at their plot which is perched up quite high with a view across a valley to hills covered in olives, a few vines and some enormous power lines....ancient setting for a modernday life.

The village clock chimes every half hour all day and night but so far I haven't even heard anything during the night and have slept like a log, even with my windows wide open and the clock only just down the street. It is incredible to stay with people who love growing their food and cooking it as much as I do and even want to go for a walk on the beach with me on Thursday .... sadly I won't be able to take my mother's dog but the neighbours have one!

There has not been a drop of rain anywhere I have been since I left home! It is warmer than I thought....I should have brought more short-sleeved shirts. The seedsavers people will think it funny to see me in my regular Adelaide gardening clothes and hat....I only wish I had brought my ho mi !!

See more photos here.

I used blogger to do this and I apologise for it looking so bad.....

AT LAST..... GARDENING IN FRANCE... AND MORE EATING AND LAUGHING

After visiting Sarah, the next stop has been Ian and Sylvia's, near Bergerac, where I have been staying for the weekend. It has been just so lovely and in between eating, chatting and visiting wonderful neighbours, Ian and I have actually got some gardening done - the first since I left home nearly 2 weeks ago.

We cleared out the pumpkin patch, planted leeks and spring onion seedlings from the Villereal market, broccoli and fennel seedlings Ian has raised and enlarged the bed by another third....soon it will rival Villandry!

It seems quite unreal gardening in blogland, and seeing all the things Ian talks about on his blog, including the Saturday visit to the Villereal market and a stop in to Bernard's to buy his 2004 Monbazillac.

We have spent quite some time with a French couple who live just down the street and they are such fun and so kind, cooking special Perigord dishes for me for dinner at their house on Saturday night and showing me around their vegetable garden as well as a wonderful slide show of Michel's beautiful wildlife photos that Ian regularly posts on his blog.

I tried a cocktail that Michel made which Marie-Sylvie assured me was not too alcoholic..... luckily I didn't believe her!

We had so many courses I lost count...so see Ian's post for details!....aperitifs, amazing garlic soup, delectable confit de canard, local organic vegetables, cheeses to die for etc etc and an apple pie I made for them. We had so many laughs and it was incredible and I thank them all very much.

Ian and I went early to the Villereal market and started by having coffee and croissants as of course one must when in France....very nice. The market fills a square which is surrounded by shops, and spills out onto the streets. It is just as I imagined from Ian's photos.... picturesque, down to earth, authentic, friendly and fun.

Villereal Market....

I was so lucky to have Ian and Sylvia take me to visit another neighbour, Gabriel, who grows vegetables, fruit trees and ornamental plants and is a man with an affinity with his land, his life and the health of the body and soul. I didn't take any photos.... it just didn't seem appropriate. He speaks a broad dialect but made a real effort to speak so I could understand, which surprisingly, I mostly did....as it was all to do with propagating and growing vegetables and fruit in his own wonderful way.... The quality of his produce was exceptional and from his vegetable patch we could see 35kms in one direction down the rolling land of the valley to Chateau Biron. and 55kms another to...... He grows a lot of tomatoes in polytunnels, and he gave us one which weighed 500g, which we are going to have for breakfast tomorrow. It was so special to listen to him telling me so much, in French, there in the south of France, and to see in his eyes his passion for all the things I too care about. Like Richard, in Singapore, Gabriel is connected and in tune with himself and all about him.

Tonight I am cooking mussel risotto for Sylvia and Ian..... starting right now!

As always, there are more photos on the link.They will have captions soon....hopefully before I go to bed tonight!

VISITING SARAH

It is sometimes quite astounding how people come to meet and after just a few minutes you can feel like you have known each other for ages. This was the case with Sarah, a woman Ian took me to meet a few days ago. She has moved to France from England and has bought a lovely little cottage with lots of space for a vegetable garden, in the French countryside.

 

Sarah hasn't grown vegetables or anything much else before but now she has started a box system and provides vegetables for several other families and is building it up all the time. She has taken a leap and is now trusting her cape.....a little phrase that has become central to how I think, lately.

 

 

We looked around the vegetable garden, which is bounded on one side by one of these beautiful fields of sunflowers that are around every corner in this part of France. We sat inside and ate a lunch she kindly made us with things from her garden, with the sun streaming through the windows, and the road just outside the door....no cars went by while we were there. And anyway, in the back streets of France the roads are so narrow people just potter along, on the whole.

 

 

 

Sarah has found a connection and is making it work. She has removed herself from the ratrace and made a little space to absorb a more tranquil life. Like me, she has discovered slow and all the good things that come with it. We found so much in common.....me, an Australian woman travelling to see other people in the slow lane and Sarah, just doing it, out there in rural France.

 

 

Sarah belongs to Gardeners' Calendar

It was really lovely to meet you Sarah and I hope we can keep in touch.

TOTAL DECADENCE

The other night I had a dessert that was nothing short of total decadence. I don't know what came over me to order it because, as I love only the rich, dark, bitter chocolate made by our local Haighs, I never normally choose chocolate things when I am out as they are always disappointing in comparison...But I am in France and they take food very, very seriously...

The menu I translated loosely simply as profiteroles with mint something and a hot chocolate sauce. It was 3 small profiteroles filled with a smooth, lightly minty icecream and the whole thing smothered in a chocolate sauce that can only be described as black, it was soooo dark. What was amazing was how they got the icecream inside the profiteroles and at the same time kept the profiteroles crisp and perfect even after having hot chocolate sauce poured over them! The sauce was like Haighs chocolate, rich but not sweet, thick and  melted and concentrated and heated and poured in lashings over the profiteroles and the whole plate!

It was one of those eating experiences that leaves you thinking where you have been all your life not to have had it before!!

VILLANDRY

I haven't had access to wifi for days and I have so much to say now......and to show you....

I took a trip to the Chateau Villandry and discovered a nice little cottage with a few vegetables growing out the back.... thought I might move in.... see what you think...

	There are 9 sections, displaying 9 magnificent collections of vegetables, each colour coordinated and every plant perfect. I wonder if they would notice if I put up a tent and slept under the pear trees?
	Check the photos link for LOTS more photos...