Wine and cooking

The essentials of French life

To get into the true sense of french life, we decided to had to learn more about the essentials of France: wine and food!


We found a wine tour where we could spend several hours at the winery, chat with the wine growers, learn the process, help out with jobs on the vineyard, taste the wine and enjoy lunch! We loved the sound of this, plus the children were welcome, so off we went!

The winery, La Tour de Chollet, was a small, family owned organic winery. Kirsty and Paul moved from England about 10 years ago, deciding on a "French-change" - having not grown grapes or made wine previously, they went about learning then decided to settle and have their family in France. We had a walk around the vines and learnt the process of growing grapes, seeing merlot, sauvignon blanc and semillon grapes.





The grapes are only a week or so off being harvested, so the vines were heavy. One of our jobs during the day was to walk along the vines and clear leaves away from the bunches of grapes, to allow maximum sun onto the grapes. We also had to snip off any small, underdeveloped grapes.





Our other job was to empty oak barrels of the 2012 red wine, then clean out the barrels. We all got to have a go and it was fun. We tasted their wines and made several purchases! Kirsty and Paul then prepared lunch for us, which was a great spread of baguettes, salads and cheeses ... plus a great choice of wines!

Team photo for the day!

Inspecting the vines and pruning some leaves

Then there was the French food! 

the girls starting the chocolate
lollipops

Learning the tricks with choux pastry

We arranged to have a chef come to our house, who helped us prepare some canapés for our dinner. Our savoury dishes included foie gras lollipops with a fig dressing; toffee tomatoes with pesto tarts; parmesan bread with duck; and fish mousse on toasted baguette. For sweet canapés, we had double chocolate lollipops with roasted pear; lemon and basil tarts; and choux pastry with hazelnut filling. All yum, yum yum!!

Filling the choux pastry

Stirring lemon curd

The cooking and preparation took about 4 hours, but it was fun afternoon, chatting and learning new skills. We all got to have a go at preparing the dishes and learnt many new tricks along the way. 

Jac de-boning the fish

Whether or not we can recreate them when we get home is another issue!

Foie gras on the end of those sticks!

Sprung!

toffee tomatoes with pesto pinwheels
on top!

the result of the choux pastry -
profiteroles!

 





















 After our afternoon of preparation, we decided that such fancy food needed a fancy occasion: so a dress standard for dinner was introduced. Lipstick and high heels was the dress code!

The savoury results of our cooking class


We all did the best we could, with our limited travelling wardrobes, but all scrubbed up well. We started the evening with champagne, proceeded to eat our specialities, then ended up dancing to Olivia's playlist! Sophie's quote the next day was: "we didn't even sit at the table to have our dinner!" It was great fun and will be a highlight for all of us.

Bec and I

and the dancing starts!

The Wilsons dressed up for the evening ... one of the few times I've worn lipstick and heels!

Chateau Parkeau

Time with Bec at Duras

Bec and I

A view of L'Orangerie

One of the main reasons we decided to stay in France was to join my friend Bec, who was renting a house as part of her 40th birthday celebrations. She was renting the house and invited friends to join her, contributing to costs, to spend time with friends and family. Bec's nickname has always been Parko, so being French, we changed the 'o' to the French sound of 'eau', which makes the same sound and makes it sound like a castle!

So life is tough!

Morning coffee with Chateau Duras
behind us

We are spending our days chatting, going to local markets, chatting, swimming, chatting, eating, chatting, drinking, chatting ... how lucky are we? Thus far, we've met other friends of Bec's; Jacqueline and Brett; and just yesterday, Susie & Malcolm. Together, we are all exploring the local area and enjoying the products of the region!


We are in the village of Duras, which is most well known for the Chateau Duras. We aren't quite staying in Chateau Duras, but Chateau Parkeau, which is otherwise known as L'Orangerie. In past times, it was the storage of oranges for Chateau Duras. The chateau is directly behind us and gives us a stunning setting to enjoy our morning coffee and croissants!


We have a beautiful pool, where we've enjoyed a few drinks while the kids swim. We've bought fresh produce each day, turning it into great meals! Then there are the wines - at €5, which is about $AUD 7 - its a crime not to enjoy them!

Different guests are coming and going, so we are enjoying meeting new people - all with our friend Bec in common. Once again, we feel so lucky!

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!

Canal du Midi

Canal du Midi, France

We had been looking forward to exploring the countryside of southern France and experiencing some warm weather once again. The French food and wine just added to the temptations!

We met up with my mum, Anne, who was joining us for two weeks in France. We started by driving to Homps and collecting a canal boat, which would be home for 4 nights. We cruised along part of the Canal du Midi, a 205 km canal which was built in the 1640s as a major transport link across France. 

The view on our first night on the boat. 

The experience on the canal boat was both fantastic and challenging. We saw some amazing scenery along the way; explored some quaint little villages and enjoyed cycling into town each morning to buy croissants and baquettes. 

With good steering (Tony in charge) we fitted through these arches!

Most of the canal is lined with plane trees, which gives beautiful shade to the canal. A pest is unfortunately killing these trees, so the authorities are on an active renewal program, where they are systematically working their way along the canal, removing the diseased trees and planting new ones. Despite this, the views are stunning and its beautiful to cruise through the trees.  

The lock system is a marvel of technology. It took us a while to literally "learn the ropes" as we travelled through the locks. We passed through more than 20 locks during the week, travelling from Homps to Carcassone and back to Homps. Some locks were quick to traverse; others, especially the double and triple locks, had long waits - for one, we waited more than 90 minutes. The lock keepers stop working for an hour over lunch, which is a lovely French tradition of making you relax and enjoy your lunch; however it does create long queues at the locks.

These photos show some of the various jobs. Everything involved either tightening the ropes or loosening the ropes, depending on whether we were going up or down! We had a land crew and boat crew each time. Things went awry went the crew member "got bored" at their particular post; or felt "left out of the conversation" as the rest of us chatted to someone on an adjoining boat. Some funny times. 

Tony was captain. He was not allowed to wander too far otherwise things went really bad! Gemma actually was taught to drive the boat, but this only happened in short doses, as I seemed to be jinxed. On my shift, we came across a boat straddling the canal and blocking all traffic; I nearly ran into a bridge; and the children had bike troubles along the edge of the canal. It did however, give Tony a few moments of refuge from the steering wheel and allow him to admire the view - albeit temporarily!

Morning tea of coffee and croissants on the front deck each morning. Cool mornings but by lunch time, it was close to 30 degrees each day. 

One of those few times away from the steering wheel! 

Unfortunately, there is no (intentional) swimming in the canal. All the excess water and by-products go straight into that water, so its not very clean. It was rather icky just pulling ropes out of the water! There were no associated smells however, as there is still significant movement of water along the canal. 

It was a big week. A great experience but 4 nights was enough for us. Its a bit like camping: if you have the right equipment, its fantastic. If you do it as a once-off, you struggle a bit. We also compared it to our times in the RV: they got easier as we learnt more and were more prepared. We were grateful for real showers, proper toilets and a still bed by the end!