To Market To Market!

Every Saturday morning there's a market in our village which attracts people from far and wide to shop the vegetables, fruit and other goodies on offer, or just to enjoy a coffee in a buzzing atmosphere and watch the world go by. Neighbouring villages all have they market-days on a different day, so no matter if you miss one, there's always another one the next day.

Plenty of veggies to choose from if you don't have a garden of your own. All local and delicious.

The market is only 150 metres from our front door so it is very handy when I've forgotten to buy onions or potatoes or if I need a couple of flower pots for the windowsill.

If you haven't had your breakfast yet, you can pop into the boulanger/bakery (the backround, on the right), buy some croissants and go to the nearest cafe to eat them. As long as you buy a coffee, of course!

There's also a wide selection of plants and flowers available. Most of my windowsill decorations come from here.

Mussels (and cockles),  alive alive, oh! Which incidently are not local...Foreign mussels are ok apparently but foreign wine is not.

Dracula's nightmare.

Funny flat peaches and eating grapes.

It's all a bit pricey here but at least they don't come from Spain or Morocco.

And here is the carnivore section. Saucisson!

Horsemeat is very popular here. The French they love their meat; as often as possible and in various different forms. Mon Cheri is a regular customer here. I haven't tasted the horsemeat myself yet but I'm told it is excellent.

Clothes, hats and handbags can be found as well. My first winter I bought a woolly hat here. That was  before I got handy with a crochet hook and made my own.

Very Berry an' Veg

I am starting to believe I have some masochistic tendencies as I found myself again, in the middle of one hot and sticky afternoon, in the blackberry bushes, getting all sweaty and scratched.
But they are here, THE BERRIES!
Free food, right in the neighbourhood and nobody else seems to want them.
So...gotta do something about it, I say. And I will.

Here they are, the beauties! Viens voir Maman!

In about one hour, and with minimal amount of scratches,  I had managed to pick almost two litres of berries. Not bad at all. I do enjoy getting food from the wild (It's in the Finnish dna; one must wander into the forest/field/lakeside as often as possible, and bring back something one can eat), especially so close at home.

 And to think that at the local marché they cost at least 15 euros/kilo! Or more. I should actually sell them! But to be honest, they're more likely to vanish into couple of little mouths, before I get any further with my lucrative business idea. Maybe next year.

So I made yet another bramble pie, this time for visiting family. Mon Cheri complains that there is a certain lack of pies in our own household, so I should perhaps go pick more berries tout de suite and remedy the situation...

To appease him, I made some courgette (our own, of course!) soup which turned out delicious and should give me few extra days before the question of pies rises again.

The things in the garden are decidedly slowing down, except the melon which has gone a bit crazy. We got two melons out of it (which took three months!) and I thought, that's it, c'est fini. But no, now it is full of flowers and lots of  new little melon buds, all ready to rock. I'm just afraid it might be a bit too late for this sort of enthusiasm but I will let it do its thing, we'll see what happens. I'm all for supporting a trier, no matter how futile.

That's the one I'm talking about, when it still had the first melons growing.

Gardening for the first time in this country has been very interesting and instructive. It has been fun as well and of course the best part is to harvest your own veggies and cook delicious dinners out of them.

So far we have harvested about 32 kilos of tomatoes, 17 kilos of courgettes, several salads, some haricot beans and couple of melons. Still more tomatoes to come, as well as bell peppers (and melons, if they have the time).

About a week ago our haricot beans started to look like they were at death's door. And since they were already plagued by some illness or nutritional deficiency, not sure what, I decided to call it a day and stopped watering them. Then just couple of days ago they were full of little beans again, so I had resume the watering. It seems the melons are not the only ones getting a second wave.

Sweaty Drive to a Cool Place

The other day I went to visit a place called Cirque de Navacelles, a large erosional landform, not far from here. There is a free shuttle bus that transports people the last few kilometres down into the valley where the cirque is situated but in my foolishness I decided to drive all the way down till the final parking myself. A decision I regretted instantly after a bend in the road revealed the descent I was to take. But by then it was too late; nowhere to turn around and come back, just a single lane road and a hair-rising drive down. My stomach did a nasty doubleflip backwards as I gripped the steering wheel with my hands and hoped for the best.

The wikipedia describes the road like this:

 Roads in the area are very poorly maintained and are only wide enough for one vehicle. In order to pass the landform, a dangerous, but exhilarating, road which weaves down into the valley and clings to the sheer cliff face on the way back up must be braved.

Exhilarating? Terrifying would be a more exact term, especially if you're driving yourself.

(Picture from google as I was too busy concentrating keeping myself on the road at this point.)

Looks pretty tame from this point of view, doesn't it? The road is at the backround but it doesn't show the most 'exhilarating' point at the start when you are just realising what you have let yourself into.

Finally down, safe and sound, I could take the camera out.

 Not so scary anymore. Being a lovely day and a weekend, the place was crawling with people but there are lot of different walks and a cool, shaded path by the river where you can get some peace.

And here is a lovely, clear river where some brave souls were swimming. I had my swimming suit and an urge to do the same but in the end I decided not to. It was just too cold. I must be getting old and too soft.

Damn it, one time in Scotland I plunged into the sea in February while the ground was still covered in snow! Look, here's the proof.

Yes, it was cold! Very cold.

My friends photographing wanted me to stay in the water a bit longer so they could get good shots but I was of a opinion that they just had to be fast.  Nothing good last forever, you know.

Soirée Française

Our neighbour invited few people from the nearby houses for an soirée of drinks and nibbles the other night. Since the weather was excellent and the traffic is minimal at that time of the night, we put up some tables on the street, enjoying the balmy air and cooling breeze, whilst tasting the produce of our gardens.We took some tomatoes and my bramble pie, as well as some lovely, local rosé (we take our own five litre plastic canister when we go and buy the wine, and it costs 7 euros, just over an euro per bottle. Hooray!).

It was lovely to see the nearest neighbours and talk properly for once, not just the normal bonjours and ça va's (my French is getting on, you know). The ages ranged  from 2-85 years old and as it often happens here, the 85-year-old went off to her bed before the youndest toddler. Teach them young, that's the spirit.

The beautiful evening we had. Well, nearly every evening here is beautiful and warm. This northern girl is ready for the autumn. I have had enough of sweating.

 It has taken me a rather long time to find out that we have some decent neighbours since I'm often distracted by the unpleasant ones; noisy music listeners, beer-drinking loudmouths and unemployed drug-sellers (unless that is classified as a job..?).

Very often I actually avoid going out because I don't feel at ease in here. Needless to stay, there is a plan to move somewhere more peaceful with a garden soon.

I know there was food, I am pretty sure there was alcohol and much fun was had. Why didn't we get this idea earlier?

The hosting neighbours' delicious grapes.

Looking at the unclear picture, I think it was nearly the end of the night. Luckily, the home is just a crawling-distance away - literally!

Wherever I Stick My Teeth That's My Home

The recent haul of brambles demanded some serious kitchen action, so I did manage to make some jam after Mon Cheri had picked the berries from the floor and washed them. I had read couple of recipes on the internet and was a bit confused about the very short cooking time.
Obviously I don't remember a thing from the times I made jam in Scotland or the sun has finally melted my brain. It's not rocket science, after all.

 Let me explain; after the jam had reached the boiling point and further 15 mins more of cooking was done, it was still resembling soup more than jam. So I decided to give it a bit more time and after the jam was cold and had set, it was rather solid...Ok, so maybe it's more like spreading cold butter on yer toast than jam but I think the taste is the most important thing. Any excuse.

I do like taking my own advise; you never learn anything if don't try it several times and fail. Look at all the scientists, they do that for a living!

Anyhoo, here's the jam. Happy to report that it does taste GREAT even if the texture is rather unusual.

I also made a bramble pie because we've been invited  to our neighbours' for an apero tonight (aperitif; little things to nibble and drinks to go with that, before the dinner. Wonderful invention, Vive la France!).
 Incidentally Mon Cheri got his eye (or should I say his teeth) on the pie first and it suffices to say I had to make another one.


Before...

...and after.

It's not the mice this time.

Day in the Town

Last week I went to Montpellier in search of inspiration and new books, leaving home like this.

And coming home a bit like this.

 Yes, it's still a bit hot and humid in here. At this time of the year it is an effort to even leave the house and expose oneself to the elements but once in a while it is necessary to get diversion from the daily grind. And go buy some more books. I get nervous when my unread-book pile gets down to 3-4 books. Some people need shoes, I get my fix with the books.

The night temperatures have luckily fallen to around +18°c, but during the day the place is still more like Sahara. The autumn is coming, yet not fast enough! 

At least I'm not doing the grapepicking this year, due to the knee-problems (something positive at least). The last time nearly killed me, as we toiled under the hottest September  sun in 20 years, and I almost fainted on the first day. No alcohol involved...that would've been the first!

The old town is really beautiful and atmospheric, offering some much needed shade. Like so.

Spoon anyone? I wonder if they sell cake here..?

But not many people around. Must be holiday or something.

Not here either.

I must be the only person crazy enough to wander the streets in this heat. But hey, at least I get the streets all to myself. Not a thing you can say often in France.

Better go and cool down in the Botanic Gardens. Which is a lovely place, by the way, if you ever happen to be in Montpellier and search for some shade and peace.

Waterlilies, just opening their flowers. I really wanted to go and swim among them but better not, I might get arrested.

Summer Bounty

The sun keeps shining, we keep toiling in the garden and the results are showing. We've been getting  1-2 kilos of tomatoes nearly every day for a month now and the courgettes are not far behind. What a pleasure to eat something you've grown yourself and what a difference to the ones you buy from the   shops or markets, like night and day.  The only trouble really is thinking of enough recipes to cook and preserve all this bounty. We've been eating the veggies every day, preserving them and giving them to the neighbours but there's still plenty to go around. Happy days!                                                                                                 

And they keep coming! I had no idea what to do with the melons when we first planted them but they pretty much take care of themselves as long as they have enough water. After googling the issue I found lots of confusing information about pruning which I didn't quite understand

( or maybe it was just my lack of patience again) so I ended up going about the business with the secateurs and intuition. This has been proved a successful method before in many areas of life. 

But the plant is still alive and well, so all is good. 

And I am happy to report the melons are delicious!

Even if one has a garden, it is good to keep one eye on the wild larder in case something pops up. Mon Cheri has keen eyes and he spotted these beauties in the neighbourhood, mere few hundred metres from our house. And to think we've been serching the brambles before this, high and low, along the country roads with not much success. 

Apparently no one has seen them yet since all the bushes were heavy with the berries, just waiting to be collected and consumed. Not many gatherers in the neighbourhood then, I suppose.

In no time at all we had picked (Well, I PICKED, and Mon Cheri got his Tarzan-gear on wielding the secateurs and cutting the bramble shoots that were blocking our way to the biggest berries.)

Anyway, aren't they beautiful, nice and cosy in their boxes!

And this is what happens when you get a bit smart with the boxes. Tarzan finally doing his bit of picking.