Relaxing at L'Orangerie

 Hanging out at Chateau Parkeau

After wine tasting and cooking French food, we needed lots of time to relax! We've enjoyed time by the pool; sitting and drinking coffees and wines; and getting to know new friends.

While we've been at L'Orangerie, we've met Jacqui; Brett; Fred; and Susie and Malcolm. The fun thing about meeting these people is that everyone has a different connection to Bec, but we've not known each other. We've spent lots of time sitting around together and sharing the wine each night has been a highlight!

Jacqui

Lach & Brett

Fred

Susie & Malcolm

We've explored more local markets and bought all sorts of interesting goods - strange looking mushrooms (which became a yummy mushroom linguine), pumpkins, fresh bread, fresh pasta, roasted chicken, proscuitto, veggies, and jewellery! We've marvelled at many other things also but haven't had the need to buy them- the spices in particular. 

 We are enjoying coffee (and often with a croissant also) in the town squares; then coming home and eating lots of cheese and drinking wine!

The view from our terrace, where we've eaten most meals. 

Meals have been a highlight - both the food and the setting! With lots of people here, and not a busy agenda, cooking yummy food has easily happened.

Lunch in the village of St Emilion

We've explored a few local villages, but often just on market day. St Emilion was an exception: it is well known as a wine area around Bordeaux. As a day out we went, but wine tasting with children doesn't go so well. We enjoyed a yummy lunch in the village square, then had a tour around some of the wineries - the area truly is beautiful, but we didn't taste the wines there on this occasion.

Fresh crepes at the markets

a view of L'Orangerie

Looking into Chateau Duras

Duras Castle is the local tourist attraction and it is located directly behind us. The castle dates back to the 11th century and has been held by both the French and English at various times.  L'Orangerie was once part of the castle and where oranges where held, to keep them fresh. The photo above is taken from the castle, looking down onto L'Orangerie. The large green tarp is on our roof as a result of some flooding that happened at 4am one morning! We were at the castle one day when scenes from history were being re-enacted. There was lots of fighting involved, but as the commentary was in French, we didn't understand much more!


Our time at L'Orangerie is almost over. We head to Paris tomorrow, for 4 days, before heading home. We arrive home next Wednesday, 1 October, which will be one week short of 9 months away. We are looking forward to it!

French villages and markets

Trying to live as the French live

We are in the village of Montmaur, as shown by the green marker. It is southeast of Toulouse. The villages of  Villefranche-de-Lauragais (where our closest big supermarket is) and Revel (where the best local markets are) can both be seen on this map. 

Village of St Felix de Lauragais - about 10 mins away.

Part of the appeal of being in one place for a longer period was to get to know the area and to see how locals spend their time. Our nearest village, Montmaur, is tiny yet has a growing population. One of the markers for “village status” seems to be the presence of a boulangerie … a bakery. There isn’t one in Montmaur, yet 18 new apartments have just sold off the plan in this tiny place! Map-france.com tells me the population was 153 people in 2007! 

There appears to be great appeal to living in a small village, full of old buildings. In the case of Montmaur, the new apartments are actually in a 13th century castle! Montmaur claims to be 45 mins from Toulouse, but we suspect that its only 45 mins if you drive there at 3am in the morning, at breakneck speed! 55-60 minutes is much more realistic!

So many of the villages still maintain the old buildings. Its hard to estimate how old they are, but certainly as far back as the 16the century and earlier. The houses are just a metre or so from the road - no footpaths, yet many still squeeze pot plants and flowers into their tiny gaps. Most have shutters, as well as small windows. Colours are very much the different hues of orange - from quite pale to rich, strong terracotta colours. 

I love the pot plants squeezed onto the tiny footpath. This
is the main road through Montmaur.

Each village has a sign announcing the name of the village as you approach; then as you leave, it has another sign with a line through it to inform you that the village is finished! Most villages have a square of some sort. In Revel, it is a large square and that is where the markets are held each week. Montmaur didn't quite have a square, but it did have a "rectangle" near the centre of town.  A couple of times, we saw groups of older men playing the French game of boules there, often late in the afternoon. Made us chuckle!

Most houses still have small windows,
complete with shutters.

Moving on from Montmaur, there are several other villages that are a little bigger than Montmaour, as they have a loulangerie!  The biggest centre in the region is Revel. Revel has several boulangeries, as well as a large supermarket - a population of about 9 000.Revel is most well known for its weekly markets. The markets, held each Saturday, rate as one of the best regional food markets in france. We were lucky enough to go twice, so we stocked up on fresh food 

and french specialities - cheese, pâtes, baguettes, Toulouse sausage and plenty of seasonal fruit and vegetables. Mushroom linguine for dinner was the result of our market trip this morning!

Snails! They were very popular!

There were several food varieties available at the markets - the most distinctive being the snails! The waft of garlic hit you before you saw the snails, but they truly were snails bubbling away in this massive pot. It was a very popular stall and though we were offered a taste, we all declined ... much to the amusement of the locals!

Some of the other foods available ....

We love all the images associated with the markets as they seem to epitomise all that we’ve read about markets. Plenty of fresh food, direct from the seller; sellers who are passionate about their food and how to cook it; great instructions on how to cook it (despite me saying I don’t speak French) and the locals sitting around the edge of the square, drinking their coffees … and beer, and wine …. no need to wait until wine o'clock here... wine is drunk at any hour!

One of our highlights has been attending some local trash and treasure markets on Sunday. Known in French as 'vide grenier', which literally means emptying the attic, these were amazing. In the village of Saint-Julia, which according to map-France.com only has 117 people, this village came alive with hundreds of people coming to the stalls. You could buy everything from old typewriters, clothes (a Yves St Laurent skirt and jacket - although it was 150 euro, so a little more expensive than most other options), kitchen bits and pieces, antiques, old farm equipment plus anything else you haven't thought about in months! 

We had a very enjoyable morning wandering around this quaint village, chuckling at the variety of things available. Icecream at the end was great too!

Domaine La Castage

Days exploring the French countryside

After our canal boat adventures, we had a farm house booked for 10 days. This was very much a time to relax and wind down after our travelling. Mum was with us for the whole time; also our niece Sarah Sugars joined us for three days, from London. 

We can't remember how we chose Domaine la Castagne, a farmhouse just outside of the village Montmaur,  as we looked at so many places! We are certainly glad we did as it is a very comfortable gite (french word for accommodation), with everything we needed, including a great outdoor eating area and pool. It made it very easy to enjoy 10 days of down time. The countryside was filled with fields of sunflowers. Most of these were now dead, but not yet harvested. They are primarily grown for the oil in the seeds, so the sunflowers are grown and left until they are very black before they are harvested. There are still some fields where the sunflowers are yellow and they are stunning to admire.  This photo above shows a field of sunflowers on the left, with our farm house on the right. 

Our gite in the background

As big as Lach's head!

The sunflowers grow in the most barren ground. It is really just dirt! They are so tall - many were taller than Sophie ... and the heads of the sunflowers are bigger than the heads of our children! Lots of sunflower seeds in there!

We have spent our time exploring some of the local villages, which I'll expand on in the next few days. We are loving the "quaintness" of them; the lack of commercialism; the simplicity of the exterior of the houses and constantly wondering why people live where they live!

We (the children) also spent lots .... and lots .... and lots..... of time in the pool! The children have loved it and with the temps hovering around 28-30 degrees, its been a perfect way to spend the day. With some reading, eating and sleeping thrown in, we have all relaxed significantly. The gite has several other guests also, who are often ready to chat and share stories of what they've done and new suggestions.

We (the adults) have drunk lots ..... and lots .... and lots.... of French wine! At about 5 euros a bottle ($AUD 7.50), how could we not? Topped off with local cheese and a fresh baguette for lunch each day, we are really enjoying the gourmet side of France. We aren't quite eating croissants daily, but still regularly! We had a night out, thanks to the owner of our gite for providing some babysitting. We sampled some of the local specialities, which included the roasted camembert, foie gras and the main one, a cassoulet. More on food in another post!

The weather is cool in the morning and evening; just giving us a hint of autumn which is on the way. The trees have a slight tint in them also but haven't started to fall just yet. The days are hot, with a clear blue sky - very much like an Australian sky. Temps are around 28-30 degrees, so just perfect. Mum is very content ... she's completely forgotten about that plane trip home!

Au revoir, Montreal ....

The most amazing five months ....

Our time in Montreal is coming to a close and we are preparing to leave. Packing up to leave Montreal is significantly easier than packing to leave Australia! Still, we have acquired a significant amount of "stuff" and working out what to do with it now is the challenge .... four boxes have been sent home already!

I don't think I could cope with this scene and these
temps every winter!

So as we prepare to leave, we have been thinking about what we've gained from this experience.

Some thoughts ...

The things that we gained from this experience .....

- the opportunity to participate in another culture and live as locals do has been invaluable;

Farewelling some of our lovely neighbours

- meeting locals and make new friends. In particular, our neighbours have been so kind and generous to us. They've invited us to their houses, to their winter cottages, lent us bikes, collected mail and looked after bins - and all this, barely knowing us. Our little part of Chemin Laval was a great community. Farewelling them was hard!

- experiencing an extremely cold winter and learn how people continue with their daily lives surrounded by so much snow and when it is freezing cold. We loved watching the snow clearers; learning about the process; realising that snow didn't just disappear and physically had to be removed; all things you don't realise when you visit for a short time;

- the privilege of being able to do so much skiing and really improve our skiing abilities;

- learning that I don't want to live in an extreme winter environment for any extended time again (only to visit for skiing trips!);

- spending so much time together as a family - we feel very much a "tight unit" from this;

- furthering our skills in a second language;

- exploring another city, away from the tourist traps - to really explore the side streets and find new and fun cafes.

- watching the change of seasons has been fascinating. There is so much moisture in the ground, so there only needs to be one day of sunshine and warmth and the amount of growth is phenomenal!

- a new appreciation of the Saeco coffee machine that is in the Dostaler's house ... we will miss that! Tony and I look forward to our coffee each morning. We started visiting the local cafes around but then decided that we love our coffee at home just as much!

Love the coffee machine!

- learning about the French Canadian culture. The Quebecoise (as the people from Quebec province call themselves) are so proud of their French heritage and see themselves as different to the rest of Canada. Maintaining the French language is very important to them.

- tasting new foods and then learning to cook them at home! The cheeses...... and maple butter ...yum!

- experiencing living in a city much bigger than Canberra. We are all very comfortable and familiar with the metro; and Tony and I have a pretty good sense of where everything is in the city.

- an appreciation of so many things back in Australia. These range from people firstly; to our house, to some of our belongings and the ease in which we can do things in Australia. All of us have missed people - both family and friends - and we all have new appreciation of people in our lives. As Australians, we have so much to be grateful for and so many opportunities.

- school in Australia. The children have loved their school experience here in Canada but it has been challenging at times and they now appreciate their school community in Canberra even more.

- being forced out of our comfort zone. It takes guts to do it. We've all had our weak moments, but gosh, it's good for us and changes and challenges do make you stronger! There have been many occasions for all of us where we've taken big deep breaths and told ourselves that "we can do this", even if our heart wasn't quite believing our brain!

- the opportunities offered through house exchange. Isabelle and Pascale have been so generous to share their house with us, and in many ways, their lives. We've become friends with their friends, used their belongings and made ourselves at home in their home. We've become great friends and hopefully our paths will cross again ... if not ours; perhaps our children's paths will cross in the future. This was the hardest goodbye of all!

The "before" photo - January...

... and the "after" photo - July.

Things that we haven't really liked or found challenging ....

- the weather. It has been the biggest accomplishment but also the biggest challenge ... and we survived! For the weather not to go into positive numbers for a month was unbelievable ... and to hover around -18 for most of the day, for weeks on end, was equally unbelievable! But we managed.

- it has been hard to meet people. We didn't meet as many people through the school environment as we had hoped;

- with lack of familiarity to a city, things are hard. So often we would comment that ... "in Canberra we would just go/do ..... ". But to work these things out here has been challenging at times. This has become easier as time passed, but simple daily tasks like buying school clothes and shopping were huge challenges, with the snow also, back in January.

Ice on my boots ... ice defrosts and falls off but you are left
with salt stains. Good boots do not get worn in the snow!

- driving on the right hand side of the road. I'm still terrible with giving the correct left/right direction. Tony knows to follow the hand which is usually pointing the correct way!

- the salt that lingers on shoes, after walking on the snowy footpaths;


So the positives certainly outweigh the negatives! We are so lucky to have had this opportunity. We are thankful to our work places for giving us the time off, to the bank for help with finances and to the Dostaler family for agreeing to swap houses with us! This is an experience we would highly recommend to others. We probably won't do a long term exchange again for a while, as we want the children to have long term stability for high school. But as for the longer term future, Tony and I see it as a fantastic way to travel and get to know a place. In the short term, we see it as a great way to have cheap holidays and we will be looking at holidaying around Australia using house exchange locations.

Food...

We didn't know what to expect with food. We didn't know whether the French influence would come through or the American influence would rule. I think there is a component of both!

When talking about food, you can't start without maple syrup. Canada is so lucky to have such a marketable national food. I can't imagine vegemite taking off the way maple syrup has here. There is maple syrup flavoured everything! This is a sample of the supermarket range of the syrups.

After the syrup however, you have many other varieties of the sweet stuff.  There is maple sugar and maple granules, which you may like to add to your coffee or sprinkle on top of your crepes.




Then we come to maple flavoured foods. So far (this list grows daily), we have found maple flavoured yogurt, (next to the coffee flavoured yogurt .. another intriguing flavour), maple biscuits, maple flavoured ice-cream (which actually is really, really good) and ... the one that made me laugh the most .... maple flavoured granola.

For the astute readers, you might notice that the maple flavoured granola is right next to the chocolate and salted caramel flavoured granola. Andy and Helen ... are you impressed with this start to the day??
We have tried some of these products, but not the yogurt or the granola .... yet!

I've said before that Montreal feels very European, alongside its Canadian culture. One thing that Canadians are quick to point out is that they not American - they are very different. I must admit that chocolate and salted caramel flavoured granola is sounding a little American!

I'm sure this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to maple flavoured food. I will let you know what else I discover!

One of the most famous Quebecoiuse food is poutine. This is really just hot chips, covered with gravy and the cheese cubes, which melts & becomes gooey. There are lots of different styles, such as with chicken pieces, or variations of the chips: thick vs thin etc. Hot chips can be a weakness of mine, so I actually try to avoid! So far, poutine hasn't been that popular in our family.

The one thing we are loving is the variety of cheese. There are so many different tasting cheeses to what we've had in Australia. There are many that are known to us, such as the brie, camembert, gouda, edam, etc, but many new ones that have very distinct tastes. We are particularly liking goats cheese, especially a brie made from goats cheese. Most supermarkets have a large range, often with big wheels of cheese and there are several speciality cheese shops. We have been trying to buy different ones each week to sample - it makes a lovely snack with a glass of red, once the children have gone to bed!

 

Tony and I often have lunch out and about, as we explore the city. Meals are not huge, as we expected, however most meal comes with soup at lunch time. Usually the soup is just one choice, but it is common and most people are tucking in The photo below shows a very typical lunch - a baguette, although often a panini, with soup and the crackers. Very warming when the temps are many below zero!