Verfeil sur Seye

Well hello loyal blog readers. I bring you the latest post from France where it is VERY sunny indeed. A scorching 39 degrees. I'm staying with my very good friends Sally & John in their house in Verfeil sur Seye near Toulouse & Albi in south west France.

You can tell I'm in France as the photography turns to food... although I'm not sure these cakes would make it to the artisanal bakery!

I discovered you can buy macarons in the freezer section of the supermarket here and that small fact has lead me to thoughts of making them again; all I need is a freezer; anyone, anyone.......... I can pay you in Macarons.

These following I hasten to ad were NOT frozen and also very, very good. This larger raspberry variety of macaron are traditionally known as an Isfahan because of their rose scent. Isfahan is the name of a province in Iran famous for its damask roses. I'm afraid they didn't last long enough to sniff all that much.

And my one weakness.... Ile Flottante
After lunch we slunk from shady spot to shadow along the hot pavements of Albi to view one of the most impressive buildings I've ever seen and indeed the largest brick building in the world. Albi cathedral is an absolute monster, its tallest point, the bell tower stands 78 metres or 256 feet tall.

From the heights of Albi, just so you don't feel too insignificant I must let you know that they too have the ever present dead conifer amidst their architecture.
Which brings us to a nice segue into this fascinating bit of ivy covered architecture in one of the back streets near Sally & John's. A storm was brewing and the sky really was this colour!

Van Gogh eat your heart out.
Sally & John have been fabulous hosts

with aperitifs amongst many, many other delicious meals ...

A walk in the woods nearby.

I've never experienced a landscape like this one. If you narrowed your eyes, you could imagine yourself in the Australian bush but just a little bit greener. It was so hot, the cicadas were the only thing stirring. As we silently walked our way along the rocky paths we came upon these ancient burial mounds called Dolmens or stone tables. Strange and awe inspiring, they brought more questions than answers about how on earth prehistoric man managed to shift these enormously heavy stones.

We also managed to have breakfast in one of Frances most charming medieval market towns, Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val.

Ricardo and I came here in 2009 and it has not changed at all, which was good and bad as you can imagine.

Sorry to leave you on a sad note. Hopefully these baby swallows will cheer you as they did me although swallows always remind me of loss too as they are here for so short a stay.

La Fosse de Tigne

After a long drive with Clarry and Zebby (thank you so much for a stress free travel experience) I arrived at London City airport.
The airport was full of businessmen and I was the ONLY person in an outfit that wasn't black or grey. As I sat numbly on the plane I felt that my whole life was black or grey and I had one of those moments when you feel that you really wouldn't care if the plane crashed into the Channel as long as it was quick.
However my darling Liz picked me up from Nantes airport and drove us home to her place and THIS is what I woke to this morning!
La Fosse is one of the most precious places in the Universe and Richard's soul hovers very close here.
We have stayed here year after year for the last 3 years helping Liz build it up to be a fabulous B&B.
And the main reason we loved it is because of Liz.
It's so good to be away from a million zillion pieces of paper that all have my life hanging in their balance. It's so good to be with a sympathetic friend and it's so good to have a little bit of sun on your head.
It's so beautiful and I'm so lucky that Richard left me the legacy of Liz and La Fosse.

Saumur market

We went to the market in Saumur on Saturday with Liz and Laure. Sensational.
It's in a lovely small square planted with tall shady trees. I know it's a cliché but boy, French markets are so good.I must admit I'm a complete foodie so to see people who care so much about their produce brings me close to tears. The gorgeous cheese man with the giant gallic nose selling 'Tomme du vache fumé', the sweet little blonde girl selling fresh milk, butter, fromage frais battu and fresh cheese all from her own cows. The handsome man selling only stawberries and what strawberries. Like Chanel number 5 in chunk form the Maras des bois are a sensation that must be experienced.Liz and Laure are best friends. As they walk through the market at Saumur, laughing and joking everyone smiles and nods; those girls have good karma. They are true to French form (even though Liz is actually an Aussie) and do that very French thing of talking about the next meal even before you've finished the last one. Here they are trying out the plums from the Very-French-Dude near the fountain. You'de never even see plums this ripe in the supermarket...too soft to transport.Here they are with their favourite bloke. Ricado the magnificent. (Just don't mention roses and thorns!)Here are a few French doggies to keep you amused too...
We sat at a wonderful café and ate lunch watching the passing parade and I had that feeling that if I died now, that would be just fine, I would have had a great life.

Bouchemaine brocante

On the weekend we made a pilgrimage to a place called Bouchemaine. It's on the river Maine very near where it joins the Loire (thus this department we are in is called the Maine et Loire). Here's me looking like a prig out swinging my French shopping basket and matching my surrounds.
There was to be a 'vide grenier' which translates into 'empty your attic'. In Australia it would be a garage sale, in England a boot sale. It's one of our favourite things to do here and is a good reason to get up early on a Sunday. We knew it was going to be big and boy was it ever. Over 700 stalls and everyone from miles around had come for a bargain.
And yes we DID. A wonderously thick and huge linen sheet, a bike rack to take Jaques Anquetil home and a fabulously tacky cork picture of a palm tree. We spread the linen sheet out under a poplar tree, ate moules (well Ricardo did, I just ate the) frites and watched the amazing passing parade. It was fascinating observing what different people had bought. From the huge green soft toy crocodile that a little girl lugged along which was as big as she was, to two men wheeling a very large birdcage. It was a perfect day and everyone was happy to be out in it. There was a great air of holiday and these guys helped with their slightly off key songs played on hunting horns.
Just in case you thought their pants were tight....here's a back view.Oh and by the way. I HAVE been working too.
I've never really uphlstered anything before but Liz's friends Mirjam and Franc asked me could I re-cover some dining chairs for them. I had no idea whether they would work and I'm always incredibly nervous about delivering these things to people but with a hot glue gun and a bit of a hand from Ricardo, the first one worked out a treat so hey..... now I'm the Queen of double piping.
So at last I can sit under the Lime tree with a glass of wine and take a big deep breath.
Now for the next five chairs....

Saumur and Aubigné

On the weekend we went to a Brocante or boot sale at Saumur, a town not far from here right on the Loire. The first year we came here we went to the same one and got great bargains . This year we didn't really need a badger umbrella standor a stuffed red squirrelWe did have a lovely lunch though and a chance to do some more market research on Ile Flottante .... this time Ricardo was the taster.
Afterwards we went to a festival of wine art and music at a nearby village called Aubigné. The area around Aubigné on the Layon river is famous for a wonderful dessert wine called Coteau du Layon. This year at their féte they had a font made specially by an Italian sculptor named Claudio Parmiggiani that dispensed the wine. Here Ricardo got to be the taster again..... In most of the photos lately you may notice that Ricardo wears a rather charming hat. It was given to him by my lovely sister for his birthday and never a more perfect present has there been. He hates taking it off to sleep and always leaves it somewhere where he can see it first thing on awakening. So you can imagine our suprise and delight when we bumped into an equally stylish stranger who happened to be wearing the same hat! It is indeed a small world.

Wedding bells at La Fosse

Well there's been quite a mood of expectation around here. Liz's friends who live across the road Patrick & Helene's daughter Constance was getting married on Saturday. Preparations were long and involved.
The local Church looked amazing, decorated completely with white flowers. There were some amazing outfits most of which I was too shy to photograph but I did get this shot of the most Parisienne woman I've ever seen. All in black with dark glasses, hair in Princess Leya ear buns, smoking a long cigarette and with two tiny matching dogsAs the wedding progressed, her partner had to look after the dogs and looked mightily hot and peeved.We hung out the window of the top house waiting for Patrick & Constance to come around the corner with the horse and carriage and finally they came. What is it about a wedding that makes you involuntarily sob? Especially at the sight of a horse and carriage. Patrick looked so proud and Constance looked like a vision of loveliness.
More sobbing as they wound their way back out of the village to Uncle Gerard's Chateau for the reception.
So.... we tried to decide whether we'd rather these two horses
or these two horses.Over a game of Yarnuff, a bottle of wine and some steamed artichokes we decided the latter.