Today's rambles

Today I went to my French classes and am quite pleased that I walk the 4.5 km there as I am then sitting for over three hours. My French is getting better, but I still have a very long way to go. When I returned home, Les was still out on his rambles......pics below, so I did some chores, including buying another Chateau Cardboard of the lovely Voignier that is carried by the Cave Cooperative. Well, this time, my fidelity card was full. I had no idea what to expect, but it wasn't' TWO FREE BOTTLES OF WINE!! We definitely are not in Canada anymore.

And Les walked along the Mosson River which is very near us and followed it to Grabels, about 5-6 km away. He returned via the camino and we are both very excited about walking this in March for a few days. It's nice that we can just pack a small bag and go.

So here are a few pics that Les took today with his little itouch.

The Mosson River

A waterfall coming our of a rock, joining the river.

A pilgrim sign with a pilgrim on the stone wall.

Our Sunday walk downtown

Today we walked downtown and veered from our usual route, to walk along below the aqueduct (the camino in reverse) and enjoy the view that we won't get in a few months when all the trees are covered with leaves. On a Sunday, this is empty, a big contrast the the bustling Saturday market, of which there are many photos earlier in the blog.

We met Brian and Elaine and got to see the lovely place they have rented through AirB&B. Great downtown location and a lovely loft/den area, with the sun streaming in and a huge deck to enjoy the warmth.....when it's not so cold. There's not much open on a Sunday but just around the corner from their apartment was Mary Cherry Cupcakes and brunch was served. Les' eyes were immediately attracted the the bacon and eggs and I had a salad.

The brunches included orange juice, tea or coffee and a cupcake. I brought mine home in a nifty plastic carrier and will enjoy it after the cheese strata which is in the fridge, ready to bake.

And this little restaurant had the smallest bathroom in the world. Check it out.......everything you need is there.

Saint-Remy-de-Provence

Yesterday we did a driving trip to his lovely town, just south of Avignon thanks to Charlie who did the driving and commentary. It was a circular drive and was to include Glanum, an archaeological site http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glanum , but we skipped that as it was cold and the Mistral was a blowin'. It would have taken easily over an hour to wander around the site and the winds were up to and over 40km. As they say, it's never bad weather, it's just inappropriate clothing and we were dressed to go out for lunch and Jeanette did not have a hat. So, another time.

We did walk around the town, which is largely closed up for lack of tourists but a few places open. First stop, Joël Durand, Chocolatier.....oh my.....and this is just a sample of what was in the shop.

I thought it a good way to learn my French alphabet ;-)

And then lunch........

I had the Aïoli du Bistrot......lovely cod with veggies and endless aïoli. Literally endless as I witnessed a few tables over when the customer asked for another pot of it.

Les had the lamb and yes, it tasted as good as it looked.

We rounded of the day, back in Montpellier attending and competing in Book Quiz !V, put on by the Friends of the Anglophone Library of Montpellier  (FOAL) and the American Women's Group of Languedoc-Roussillon (AWG). There were about 50 people there, divided into three teams. Each question in the quiz was annouced and also displayed on a screen and consisted of a theme, or a sentence and who wrote it and what's the title. There was a timing bell and two scorekeepers. Great fun. And talk about feeling stupid! Trying to pull titles out of our brains in a few seconds really put everyone to the test and it created lots of laughter.

We ended the evening with a Skype call from Noëlle and got to play and laugh with our grandson for a bit.

Woke up this morning to sun and -1C. It's now 9:30am and the temp is up to 1C, apparently going up to 12C. We'll have another coffee before walking to the market.

Make hay while the sun shines......

or at least go for a bike ride. Yesterday it poured rain all day, so we took the Tram out to Ikea, Decathlon, the Gèant Casino (a grocery store) and generally had fun without getting soaking wet. Today the forecast was rain, but we woke up to sun and after a quick clean of the apartment, we decided to go for a short bike ride to Grabels. Nice bike lanes, lots of up and downs (although at the time, it seemed only up, as the ups take a lot longer) and a total of 15km there and back. 

We followed the camino for a couple of kms. Nice to see the signs again.

lovely daffodils on the divde between the bike trail and the road.

And here, as one enters Grabels, a statue of a horse, made out of horseshoes, eating the pansies.

Believe it or not, we are expecting snow to fall between 6 and 8am. If I'm up, I'll take pics ;-)

Mon cours de cuisine

In order to improve my French language skills even more, I signed up for a cooking class. It is the school, Accent Français, that offers this and it's another 70€ for the course. Hmmmm, sounds a bit expensive??? Well, I'm here to tell you, it was well worth it. Met 6 other women: Australia, Brazilian (2) Swedish, Canadian (living in NY state), and an American. One of the Brazilian women is 54 and the Swedish woman is about my age. I haven't seen her as she is a level above , so likely in another building. Anyway, we arrived at 3:45 pm, began to prepare, cook, etc and at 6pm, sat down to dinner.

The "kids" didn't drink any wine, so Birgitta from Sweden, and Nanci from Portugal did our best.

I was picked to start frying the paupiettes de veau in clarified butter. I have seen these little bundles in the boucherie, but didn't know what they were or how to cook them and now I know. The bundle is made up of a thin layer of veal, wrapped around ground veal and then there is a layer of fat encircling it.  The fatty part is removed for eating. So below is the picture of the paupiettes that I have fried and now lardons have been added as well as some dry white wine and veal stock. Bake for 30 minutes.

Et voilà

The centre piece is polenta which we made, cooled and then I cut with a scone cutter (similar) and then it was fried in butter, with the paupiettes to rewarm them just before we plated them.

Desert was fun. The original menu on the school program said "Le sabayon gratiné aux legumes". I thought that very weird and in fact, it was a typo, as it was gratiné aux agrumes.......citrus fruit. The chef taught us how to take each segment from the orange by cutting each one separately, so I showed him how my mom had taught me. He nodded and said, "but this is the way to do it". And then I watched him a couple of minutes later helping someone and he was using mom's method. Love it!     

                                    And then......

Add sabayon, and sprinkle with brown sugar.......

And then fire up like a creème brûlée.

Lovely meal and lots of fun!

Just another food blog

I know this is not a food blog, but pour yourselves a glass of wine (or cup of coffee) and join us. Today we went to a restuarant for lunch that had been recommended by our friend Doug. We had tried a couple of times to go but when they had openings, we couldn't go and vice versa. So today was our big day. Les picked me up from the language school and we headed off for our 12:30 lunch.

There are only places for 24 and a set menu with only two choices for each of starter, entrée and dessert, but with the quality of food, any more choices and you would be lost. We started with a glass of local Viogniers.

Lovely that the bottles are available by the half bottle as at lunch.........

We both had the same starter, a ravioli filled with crab, a sauce you would die for, topped with sweet grass and some finely chopped celery. As you can see, the pasta is so thin, you can see the crabmeat.

I opted for a main course of cod and Les had the lamb. The piece of perfectly cooked cod, was resting on a bed of finely chopped cod, divided by slivers of mushrooms. At first I thought truffles, but no, just lovely mushrooms, and topped with purple onions which had been almost caramelized.

Les ordered a glass of red wine to accompany the lamb, perfectly cooked with carrots and potatoes. The meal ws so good that we actually took our time eating it as we wanted to really savour the flavours.

And for dessert, we were offered babas au rhum or an array chocolat. Yes, we both chose the chocolate.

From the left: pumpkin ice cream, decorated with the kumquat leaf, sitting on a layer of ground nutmeg, petite gateau with cream, another cream with the kumquat fruit, and then a warm chocolate cake with whipped cream and mushy centre. Oh my!

We didn't like it at all..........much. Finally rolled out of there at 2:30.

Enjoy your day. We certainly did enjoy ours! And as reminder, my gmail is permanently hooped so I only receive email on my shaw account........maryvirtue  at  shaw   ca

 

Living in France today

The latest killings and kidnappings in France have taken everyone down a thoughtful road. It has been difficult for me to think of writing a frivilous blog about our travels, our tasty treats, even the interesting people we may have met (for me, in my French classes). However, like the rest of the country, we are carrying on, living our life and enjoying our freedoms. All the time, we are reminded of the terrible events of last Wednesday at the offices of Charlie Hebdo. In the shops and in the windows of some homes, there are handwritten signs "Je suis Charlie". Below is a photo of a special edition of the local paper, reminding us that we are all of us, Charllie. We are enjoying free speech and a free life. 

At the Arceaux market yesterday, many of the stalls also had handwritten signs: Je suis Charlie. And in the small medieval town of St. Guilhem-Le-Désert, which we visited yesterday, it was the same. Signs on walls, in windows. And today at 3pm, in every village, town and city in France, there will be a rally of memorial and solidarity. We plan to be at the one in Carcassonne. We mourn the dead and send condolences to their families.

It's sunny, so let's go!

We looked at the weather coming up......

and decided that all things being equal, we'd take a bike ride on Saturday or Sunday. Saturday was market day, and cleaning the apartment day, so on Sunday, we washed the sheets, hung them on the line outside and got our bikes out. Of course, since it had been weeks since we'd last been on them, I forgot my water bottle, my pee machine, and my extra kleenex. I think you all know where this might be going..........

So, we caught the Tram from across the street to the south, about 5 km from the coast and then cycled to Carnon, La Grande Motte, Le Grau-du-Roi and finally Aigues-Mortes. Beautiful cycle ride. Sun out, lots of people out and about and very crowded in La Grande Motte, where the paseo provided room for bicycles and walkers. However, it was such a beautiful day that the paseo was for pushing babies, old ladies, strolling lovers, roller blading families and walking families. At one point on the way home, we actually had to get off our bikes for about 1km and push through the crowds and the paseo was at least 20 metres wide.

The path all along the coast varied from marked cycling path beside a suburban area, to a path along the sea, to gravelly bits.

Clearly, we had to detour this bit. And then we reached Aigues-Mortes.

The restaurants in the square were chock a block, but we sat and order the moules frites. This may seem a bit boring to those reading this, but we've found that it's impossible to get back on the bikes and ride after a heavy lunch. The moule frites are just the right amount of protein, flavour and starch. And of course, accompanied by water, water, and more water. (And this is where I decided to use the facilites, no toilet paper, lights went out while I was in the cubicle, waving my arms above me to try and activate the light, while not quite sitting...all you women know the position...and then trying to get out in the dark). There's more, but you really don't want to hear. As you can see from the pics, we were in light garb for the ride, and after about 40 minutes wait, lunch was at the table at 2pm. By 3, we were back on the bikes, heading through some wind to the Tram stop. Total ridden, 55km, but it felt like more with the wind. We made it back to the Tram stop in Perols shortly after 5 and while we waited we got to see the moon rise.

We arrived home in the dark, after 6pm, but didn't have to go through Montpellier traffic as the tram stop is just across from the apartment. Perfect! Early to bed and then French classes today!!!

Happy New Year to all!

We had a quiet New Year's Eve. After discovering my email had been hacked, I decided this needed some thinking as the hacker was very sophisticated........even to answering my emails as if it was me!! Apologies again to all those who were affected by this.

Anyway, we took a short drive, in the sun to Aigue-Mortes, the great walled port from which Saint Louis sailed to the Crusades. It's now a town that's 5km inland due to the muck of the advancing Rhône delta. We enjoyed going to the market and buying some cheeses and tapenade, but it was too cold and windy to climb the ramparts, so we've put that aside for another day.

Although the sky was blue and the sun was out, the temp was 4C and the wind was very cold. And that would be Saint Louis on top and Les leaning against the fountain. We returned to Montpellier for a hot lunch at our local restaurant, Le Salad "Rit.

We started dinner with shrimps in garlic, then our cheese and tapenade course, followed by a strawberry pastry from the bakery. All washed down with a bubbly from our local cave. And when we went in on the 30th to buy the bubbly, this is what we saw. Not an uncommon sight for the "fill your own" is only .95€ per litre for very drinkable wine.

Best of health and happiness for 2015!