The Chronicle ~ Missive 20

July 2010

Dear All

Hopefully you will find Missive 20 attached, apologies if you also receive Victoria’s updates – she beat me to it this time, hopefully you won’t feel too Higgsed out – two communications in one day!!!

Love

Roger

rogerhiggs@hotmail.co.uk

Mes chers amis

The Chronicle ~ Missive 20

“Sharing our house with friends is one of the real joys of Bel – Air, and finding that it is a special place for them too, is a bonus.” N.B: in our case for Bel – Air read La Loge, although there are about 8 Bel – Air’s within spitting distance!!

Particularly of flora and fauna: “There is the time and quiet here in which to wind down and observe this other world.”

Both of these very apt quotes come from “A Harvest of Sunflowers”
(also very apt as they are just coming up to their magnificently stunning best, all around us!) which is Book 2 of Ruth Silvestre’s partial escape to France, “Sunflower” trilogy.

Shortly before we packed up and moved here, I had read a lovely book by someone who had beaten us to it and done it already. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the title of the book and as it is at present languishing somewhere in a cardboard box in Stroud, I can’t go and have a look and discover it for you!!

However, the book was written about the first year of the author’s “escape to France” in much the same way as my missives and suggested the keeping of a chronicle with a number or sections, so prior to departure I edited my own chronicle framework to include the following sections or chapters and this missive and the next will pick up on some of the sections, as in many ways - more by luck than judgement - much of what I have recorded and projects I have undertaken during the last eighteen months fit haphazardly into the planned framework:

Writings Poems House
Garden Menus Postcards /Letters
Projects New Words Flowers and Trees
Animals and Birds Sketches Descriptions
Planting advice People Food
Miscellaneous

to which I subsequently, once we had “arrived” added a section on St Laurent, “our patch,” which contains any events in the village and the surroundings to which we have been.

Obviously there has been a good degree of overlap between some of the sections, as it is hard to separate out detailed pieces about people or the house, for example, from the missives (Writings) that hopefully you look forward to receiving! Also, some sections have remained barren, particularly the poems and sketches sections, although the artistic intentions have perhaps been, at least for the time being, superseded by my photographic endeavours and associated slide shows.

In short, much of what has been chronicled since our departure has come together for now as “My Blog” which contains the missives and much more, which in due course may well become the next “escape to France” book!!!

Garden

From last year the garden, at least the cultivated part has almost doubled, with three new borders, giving us lots of room for potatoes but also space for some newcomers.

And courgettes ........? Well, we made the perhaps unlikely decision to have as many plants as last year, despite the angst that it caused us the previous year, with sleepless nights caused by nightmares featuring giant courgettes chasing us around the garden!! But, having discovered so many great courgette recipes, including ones for chutney and pickled courgette, which over the course of the winter we had all but run out of, it seemed sensible to make more of the same for this winter. Sensible that is until the jars ran out and the great green giants once again started chasing us around the garden! I have just frozen the latest batch, which some books will tell you isn’t possible! But we have discovered that the best way to cook them afterwards, if you are not just adding them to a sauce, is to defrost them and roast them on an oven tray, spread with a little oil, it dries them up and gives them back some of their crunch.

The rest of the garden continues to produce plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit, the fruit just coming into ripeness, but much less of it this year. We will have a few black plums; very few cherry plums (last year there were so many that they were breaking the branches) and a hopefully a good crop of peaches as we are watering them well this year – now we know what they are!! I think they’ll be less fruit than last year, but each one bigger thanks to the extra watering.

From the top then we have growing or being picked, or have had; potatoes (probably three crops this year), a few parsnips from last year, purple sprouting, French beans (2 crops), onions (2 crops), sugar snap peas (possibly 2 crops), tomatoes, peppers, celery, celeriac, leeks, carrots (if the rabbit or hare that has set up home in the garden doesn’t get them first!), cabbage, beetroot, runner beans and not forgetting the courgettes!! Or should I say: pomme de terre, panais, violet germination (or broccoli violet peut-être!), haricot vert, oignon, pois mangetout, tomate, poivre vert, celery, celeriac, poireaux, carrotte, chou, betterave, haricot d’Espagne et courgette, in that order!!! And, that’s not to mention various herbs, salad leaves, radish and hedgerow or wild foods.

Mentioning the wild food, this grows in abundance and one of the food projects I am undertaking is a “Wild food map” locating on a map, the source of various ingredients for dishes such as my “Ditch Apple Pie!!” But more on the wild food of the region in a future missive.

People

Obviously, one person has featured a lot in previous missives and will again in the future, but for now it’s his dog Tottoon who is taking centre stage, well they are part of the family, and we see more of the dog than the master! Also, someone asked the other day if having a surrogate dog around helps, to which I’m sure the answer is yes, but not sure how we’ll feel once dog and master return to Spain at the end of the summer.

At the moment, following a couple of times when we have looked after Tottoon, she seems to have moved in! Previously, except for one occasion when she was caught around at ours, in a very heavy shower of rain, when we allowed her to sit on the mat just inside the door waiting for the rain to stop (which in itself is a little silly, as she likes nothing better than to plunge into the various ponds around and come out and roll around the grass drying off!!), she had always been very good and not tried to venture into the house, just sitting forlornly just outside the door gazing longingly with her big dark eyes, which she puts to good use, accentuating them by looking slightly askance and so framing one side with the brilliant white of the rest of her eyeball!! Monsieur says she has very astute eyes!!

Her first visit was just for the day, but we felt if she was being left with us for the first time, the second time longer and already planned but more of that later, then she should be allowed in, in part to prepare for the couple of nights that would follow a week or so later. Anyway, the first visit was whilst M. went off for Sunday lunch with some relations in a restaurant near Nantes, but with no shade in the car park, so he asked if she could stay with us. On the appointed day he came around with her, told her in Spanish (although like her master she seems to be fluent in at least Spanish, French and English!!) that she was staying with us and that he would be back and with that I held onto her collar as much to her puzzlement, he walked off around the corner, got in his car and drove off! Normally, he never goes anywhere without “his princess!”

Well, I held on to her until I felt he was clear of the avenue and Tottoon decided to roll on her back and have her tummy tickled, which as it turned out was a clever “I’m not bothered he’s gone ploy!” to get me to let go of her collar. Continuing the deception, she let me tickle her tummy for a few seconds, before in one quick motion turning over, jumping up and running off around the corner!! A little worried she would try to follow the car, I followed her and was surprised to see no sign of her on the road, instead she had headed home to the chateau jumped the moat (her normal entry point) as the inner gates were locked and finding the normally open front door tightly shut had taken up position on the step awaiting her master’s return. Unfortunately, the locked gate and the moat make it nigh on impossible for us to enter the inner part of the chateau grounds and she was there sitting in the bright sunshine at nearing the hottest part of the day!

We had already decided to take her for a walk in the shade of the woods and to let her cool down with a swim in the lake, but it looked a little as though I might be doing the swimming first, across the moat to get the dog who hopefully would recognise me and not carry out her guard duties too dutifully!! Thankfully, a couple of whistles and a call of her name and she came back, jumped back over the moat accepted the proffered chew and dutifully set off in front of us towards the woods. After a walk in the woods, a swim in the lake at least for Tottoon (M. says the lake can be swum in but has leeches in it!!!) and it was the acid test as we walked back passed the inner gates and turned towards our house and the outer gates. Totally, unconcerned Tottoon, without so much as a backwards glance, followed us home, although returning to guard duty later in the afternoon. This time she happily came when whistled and as I strolled back along the drive, totally “to the manor born” I thought M. was returning as a car similar to his pulled up at the chateau gates. Imagine then my surprise when the window came down and a voice said “Hello Roger” and I was confronted with a couple of friends from Stroud, who happened to be passing, (as you do!) and stopped off for a cup of tea!! But that’s another story, although unfortunately I wasn’t able to come out of the gates, they were locked and I had to duck around the side of the hedge and admit that the chateau wasn’t our abode, rather the servants quarters around the corner!!

But back to Tottoon, she welcomed our visitors and joined us for tea, waved them off afterwards, but was quite pleased when M. returned a short while later and she was able to go home with him!! But, she was back again for a walk with us later on after our dinner, so an afternoon slumming it in the servant’s quarters hadn’t put her off!!

This was just as well, as just a few days later the departure scenario was repeated this time with M. bringing Tottoon’s food and bed, together with an old sweaty tee shirt to keep her company as she slept, and having a longer conversation about how she was his princess, constant companion, partner, his all, and how he would miss her whilst he went into hospital for a minor op and a stay of a couple of nights. This time Tottoon was less concerned, although M. was convinced that she wouldn’t eat any of her dinner that he tipped out into her bowl, as she would be pining! Another walk and once she had been shown where her bed was, she settled very well, didn’t head back for the chateau, ate all her dinner and went happily to bed, and had even pushed out the tee shirt in the morning!!!

She was however, delighted to see her master back, made a big fuss of him and went home with him, although as he was tired and took to bed she was back within half an hour, feeling even better as we had now our next lot of visitors, who included a couple of girls, aged 10 and 12, who were more than happy to respond to astute eyes and proffered tummy!! That night we had a real job persuading her to go home, posting her over the moat several times before she got the message that her bed had moved back. Funnily enough, now she rarely waits to be invited in, finding our tiled floors nice and cooling in the very hot weather, but has not once ventured down to passage to the bedroom where her bed was, when she became our lodger. She is still spending a lot of time with us, but now after the evening walk, all I have to say is “Bon Nuit” by the outer gates and off she goes!!

Also, we have begun to be able to place some of the other St Laurentians, as the inhabitants are known, in addition to the three other English couples we have met who live in the commune, two permanently having sold up back home in the UK and moved lock, stock and barrel, the others spending summer here, but retreating back to the UK for the winter, less silly than it might seem at first as the winters can be quite harsh in these ‘ere parts! It seems increasingly likely that this is what we may end up doing – a small place in the Vendée and The Parrot House back in Stroud, fitting life round the two.

After a few false starts, I think we have finally sorted out the family of the farmer who keeps an eye on and tends the chateau in Monsieur’s absence. He and his wife live in the farmhouse over the field from the end of the avenue, with the youngest son, Mickael, who lives we think in a self contained part of the house. The older brother lives in a bungalow next door with his wife and three daughters and the farmer’s daughter is married to the fauchage (village grass cutting etc) man, and live in a modern bungalow across a couple of fields with their two daughters. The daughter in law’s best friend lives at St Laurent’s other chateau “Le Plessis” in the converted stable block and her and her husband look after the big house and several other people in and around the village, including possibly the Mayor, M. le Maire, all seem to have connections with the farmer and his family. We even seem now to have got most of their names, so as time goes by the “family tree” might be expanded!!

Food

To some extent following on from the section in the last missive; “Chilli Pasta,” food has understandably featured large during our time in France, not only for ourselves now having the time should we so wish to “stuff mushrooms!!” But also, for the many visitors that we have received and needed to send on their way well “fed and watered,” with some typical French style meals to look fondly back on, as part of their holiday memories.

After the last missive, where I talked about recipe searching, I found the following Nigel Slater quote on his website, it completely sums up what I feel about recipes and how I often modify accordingly! “I have always felt that a recipe be something to inspire, remind and lightly influence rather that a set of instructions to be followed, pedantically, to the letter.” How very right! We have at the moment visitors who we hadn’t seen previously for well over ten years. They used to live a few doors down when we lived in Huntingdonshire, and nearly every weekend we would get together to eat at each other’s houses or to go out for a meal or a drink. The other night after dinner, Mary paid me the compliment of saying that I was still a good “chef!” My response took her a little by surprise, as I thanked her and said that I thought I was actually better!! It wasn’t meant to brag or show off, I just think that between then and now I have gone from the learning and following the recipe book stage, to knowing instinctively what goes with what and being able to cook “off the cuff” as it were, with the odd bit of research into my various cookery books, particularly when looking for something new, regional or for flavours that go together that I hadn’t thought about before – for example courgette makes a mean cake and the recipe for courgette and ground pepper muffins is on the comment at the end of the July 2009 Blog entry. Try it, it goes together deliciously, like chilli and chocolate which is particularly good with a venison steak!!!

Just a flavour for those yet to sample La Loge fayre and a reminder for those who already have, here are some of this year’s recipes (in no particular order!): Mogette (Vendée beans which to achieve their creamy best, must be boiled for a minimum of 3 hours!) or Puy lentil casserole, warm potato and sausage salad with a grainy mustard dressing, fruit pizza, sorrel or courgette pancakes, pan-fried green beans, pan-fried duck breasts, pan-fried fish with creamy herb sauce, rice with garlic and crème fraiche, mushroom risotto and boudin noir (French black pudding which is softer than its French counterpart) with fried apple and mushrooms ...... the list goes on and on and others may feature in future missive. And, if we take Nigel Slater’s quote above to heart, you don’t need the recipes, just the seeds, a little imagination and some experimentation, for example the boudin noir is great moulded into a tall thin cylinder (an empty tomato purée tin works well) served on top of a slice of lightly grilled French bread that has been rubbed with raw garlic! Try it, or a variation that you come up with and see for yourself!!

For those of you concerned that since Max is no longer with us, we will have to eat his share of the bread, don’t despair!! As the nub ends collected and I didn’t have the heart to throw them away, a little research came up with a number of recipes that involve breadcrumbs or stale bread, which have since been added to the repertoire, including quite the silkiest fresh fruit bread pudding I have ever tasted! As I say, another for that list above!

St Laurent

I have discussed previously the village, or commune, in which we are currently living, with particular reference to “village finance” and indeed once again we have received a full colour 32 page “Bulletin Municipal” giving us all the gen on the previous twelve months. Indeed, we are featured on the Page 6 État Civil ~ “naissances – marriages – décès – nouveaux arrivants 2009” “births, marriages, deaths, and newcomers 2009” where we are welcomed to the village. But it didn’t stop at that, as shortly after receiving the bulletin, we received a flier late in December, from M. le Maire, informing the residents about the forthcoming annual meeting and “Ceremonie des Voeux” “Welcoming Ceremony” to take place on 22nd January 2010. But to be sure, in the next post, we received a personal invite from Sébastien ROY, Maire de Saint-Laurent de la Salle inviting us “plus particulièrement” “more particularly” to the ceremony, in order to be officially welcomed into the commune, to meet the Municipal Council, other inhabitants and to find out about the different associations (clubs and organisations) that take place within the commune.

Fortunately, at this time our winter travels for a family wedding, Christmas and the New Year had finished and we were back at La Loge, trying to keep warm and find things to talk to each other about, as “surprisingly” the visitors dried up a little once the sun had gone!! I therefore felt that as we had received our own invitation, despite the lack of an RSVP, a well used English acronym which actually as I’m sure you know stands for a French phrase one of several in common usage in England, I felt that we should at least acknowledge and accept the invitation, and say how we were looking forward to meeting M. le Maire, so duly sent a notelet to this effect, in of course my best, or should that be google translate’s best!, French!

I was pleased I had done this, as when we arrived at the event, M. le Maire, looking quite uncomfortable in a suit a tie, he’s a young agricultural contractor and mostly around in jeans and tee shirt, came straight over welcomed us and thanked us for the note, all in French as he doesn’t speak any English!! There followed a very pleasant evening, with the “parish report” and then presentations to the newcomers of a goody bag with a poster of the mairies of the Vendée, some leaflets about environmental concerns and a lovely full colour book about a variety of gardens in all parts of the area. Then drinks were served and we felt well and truly welcomed into the community.

“Ici devant nous!”

This is the “Flowers and Trees” and “Animals and Birds” sections rolled into one, and as I said last time will catalogue some of nature’s splendours that surround us and continue to surprise us. Indeed, having just gone out onto the avenue to look for Tottoon, the Chateau dog, who was lodging with us for a couple of days, I saw my second red squirrel but the first close to home, nonchalantly hopping and bobbing along the grass verge, noticeably smaller than the grey squirrels I am used to at home. These larger gray species, have it is claimed driven the reds out, although recently I did see some evidence that in the right situation the two can co-exist relatively peacefully together, something politicians have been trying to achieve, in places like the middle east, for many years!!

But the main theme this time is frogs, and I hasten to remind you that this section is about wildlife!! You may have read previously about the large toad that waited patiently, and continues to do so, on the front doorstep, just waiting for someone to bite the bullet and pick it up give it a kiss and wait for the consequences!! Also, I’ve told you about the noisy frogs, initially mistaken for “invisible” ducks that croaked at great volume on the nearby small lake and indeed any suitable body of water, at times when the sap was rising and this year they have totally surpassed themselves, which I suppose accounts for the near plague like numbers of tiny miniature frogs that are everywhere, including last night under one of our young visitors beds. At first she and her cousin who is also staying, thought it was a large piece of fluff, until it jumped!! And, it’s the jumping to which I want to turn in this section.

These frogs are, as I said, everywhere and it is quite hard not to stand on one as you walk outside, in the garden, along the road, in the park – as I said everywhere!! They are perfectly formed replicas of the adults, dark olive green / brown in colour and by can they jump!! Most at the moment seem to be up to 2 cm in length and either aren’t growing or as they grow they become better at keeping out of our way with more youngsters growing up to replace them. At first when you come across them they scatter as you walk, and you might well mistake them for the many grasshoppers that frequent the area, but closer inspection reveals these tiny amphibians, with an impressive jumping ability. It is not uncommon for one of these frogs to jump 50 cm, or 25 times the length of their body.

Equate this to a human being of 1.8 m in height who would have to jump about 45 m in a single stride to compete, so pretty impressive and as they can put several of these jumps together in quick succession, catching those that have decided to come indoors during the balmy evenings we have been having, when the door doesn’t get shut until late, is not only a case of out flanking them and then catching them in the cut off two litre lemonade bottle with a cardboard piece cut to slide under the opening, but also somewhat amusing to watch!!

My original “thought!”

The thought that crosses my mind this month is, that not many of you will believe that I could stick to the theme of “What we have been doing, have seen or plan to do!!” as promised! Not least “her indoors” otherwise known as my greatest critic!

Kind regards, Best Wishes and Love, Roger and Linda

And maybe to come next time? Even more of the same: “What we have been doing, have seen or plan to do!!,”