La belle France

Today is Bastille Day and France celebrates it big time. The sun is shining and tonight's fireworks should be spectacular, as always!

A lovely birthday in a beautiful place

I have taken you to Collonges-la-Rouge before, but I hope you don't get tired of it. We have been there several times and never fail to enjoy it all over again through the eyes of the new visitors we invite to experience this magic little village. Collonges is a great place to visit with little children, as cars are not allowed, apart from residents' cars, and they're out at work until late in the day.

Our friends Hilary and Keith gave us a lift there and my niece Laurita arrived with her family soon afterwards. We had arranged to meet at the restaurant where we were going to have lunch before wandering around the village. Hilary took this photo:

The children, Thomas and Nina (six and three years old), were shy at first, but once we started walking in the village and I started showing them some interesting things, such as the ancient communal bread oven, they were hooked. 

Nina asked if I have an oven in my house, bless her...

Collonges is a mystical place, with many tales of witches, fairies and knights in shining armour. The local shops reflect this:

    Creperie of "The Pilgrim and the Witch"

They were fascinated with the very long walk the pilgrims took from Rocamadour to Santiago de Compostela and the hospitality shown by villagers along the route. Collonges, like our own village, was one of the many stops en route to Santiago, and the welcoming shells are still very much in evidence.

Thomas was particularly impressed with the redness of Collonges, built with the beautiful red stones peculiar to the area. The village looks like something out of a fairy tale.

We had a really lovely time and I enjoyed my birthday very much. It was also lovely to come back from such a magic place and enter another one, our very own WTIOC, to be greeted by your warm and loving wishes. Thank you, friends, you know how to make an old girl feel special!

A delicious chicken recipe for the summer

I found this recipe on a site for British expats in France. I'm not eating any animal based foods at the moment, but that doesn't mean I can't salivate all over the keyboard and share the recipe with friends who can enjoy it in real life!

A slow roasted chicken with garlic and lemon, perfect for when the sun is shining. “This is also one of those recipes you can’t make once: that’s to say, after the first time, you’re hooked” says the creator Mark Binmore. It is gloriously easy: you just put everything in the roasting dish and leave it to cook in the oven, the fabulous smell will pervade the house, at any time of year, with the summer scent of lemon and thyme – and of course mellow, almost honeyed garlic…

Mark Binmore is the proprietor of Maison de l'Orb.

Ingredients

1 2-2.25kg/4lb 6oz-5lb 8oz chicken cut into 10 pieces
1 bulb garlic separated into unpeeled cloves
2 unwaxed lemons cut into chunky eighths
Fresh thyme
3 tablespoons of really good olive oil
150 ml/5 fl oz white wine or vermouth
Black pepper

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160ºC/325°F

2. Put the chicken pieces into a roasting tin and add garlic cloves, lemon chunks and the thyme; just roughly pull the leaves off the stalks, leaving some intact for strewing over later.

3. Add the oil and using your hands mix everything together, then spread the mixture out, making sure all the chicken pieces are skin side up.

4. Sprinkle the white wine over the mix, grind on some black pepper, then cover tightly with foil and put in the oven to cook, at flavour-intensifying low heat, for 2 hours.

5. Remove the foil from the roasting tin, and turn up the oven to 200ºC/400°F

6. Cook the uncovered chicken for another 30-45 minutes, by which time the skin on the meat will have turned golden brown and the lemons will have begun to scorch and caramelize at the edges.

Serve it straight from the roasting tin if you like, after garnishing it with the rest of the thyme. Serve with vegetables, potatoes, rice or pasta – this dish goes with almost anything.

Don't forget to get some French bread to mop up the juices – bon appétit!

Stepping into the past right in the heart of the village

We had our usual walk yesterday and took a route through the centre of the village. Everybody says bonjour to everybody, so when we passed this old lady standing outside her large double doors, we smiled, said bonjour and carried on walking. She called us back and we thought she needed help with something. She asked us to step in. We obliged, waiting for some request for assistance.

Nope. She wanted to show us her splendid fireplace. We looked around and found ourselves in a bar, with a counter, glasses neatly ordered behind it and the shelves stocked with bottles of booze. There were plant pots and ashtrays on the counter (smoking inside bars has been banned for a good number of years). We said we had no idea the place was a bar by looking at it from the outside. 

We remarked how cool it was inside, the building being on the shady side of a narrow road. She explained that she has been retired for many years, but in its heyday the bar was incredibly busy in the summer, as it was so cool. She told us to come to the back with her and opened some sliding doors to reveal a dining room. They had two waitresses, her husband ran the bar and the cellar because they had no fridge in those days, and she cooked.

We asked if she lived there, so she led us to a door, and behind it was a large spiral stone staircase, very much like the one in the tower. She wanted us to go upstairs, but we made some excuse and declined the invitation. Lovely Jeannine must be in her 90s and very lonely...

Then we noticed the scallop shell carving (coquille de St Jacques, Santiago in Spanish, St James in English) on the fireplace, a sign that the pilgrims were welcome there for food and rest on their way from Rocamadour to Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia, Spain. The pilgrimages started centuries ago, dating back to the 12th century (1152). These days people still do it, some for religious reasons, others for the challenge. There are several routes to Compostela and the one starting in Rocamadour, passing through our village, is an important one.

A couple of weeks ago, during another walk, we noticed a young couple with backpacks. We met them later at the Café de Paris and found out they were walking the Route to Compostela. The girl was Dutch and the guy Belgian. They asked about a cheap place to stay the night and the barman suggested "La Brasserie", where TW and Irishgirl stayed when they visited us. We would have invited then to stay with us, but the guest room is full of boxes and clothes on the bed, courtesy of our Billy...

A little while later, a few local English people arrived at the café and we asked if they knew anybody who could accommodate them for the night.

One of the couples has a house they rent to visitors in the middle of the village and offered it to them at a friendly price. The following week we found out that the guy who owns the house took them some food, because the only restaurant open out of season is the Brasserie, with very steep prices for the evening menu.

If we had met the lonely old lady a few weeks earlier, we're sure she would have been delighted to welcome them with open arms!

I didn't have my camera with me, but I found some photos on the net.

The old bar/restaurant:

The Coquilles de St Jacques, the first one above the door, the others in different spots around the village.

This fireplace is almost identical to the one we saw at the bar: 

A similar staircase. Please note that the old lady's house has a tower...

The start of the journey, Rocamadour:

And the end, Santiago de Compostela (St Jacques de Compostelle)

Further reading about the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.

Muguet du bonheur

Today is a holiday here, International Labour Day, and my Facebook news feed is full of photos of lily of the valley posted by French friends, wishing everybody much happiness. People offer women an actual bunch of muguet on May 1st.

In the "language of flowers", the lily of the valley signifies the return of happiness. Legend tells of the affection of a lily of the valley for a nightingale that did not come back to the woods until the flower bloomed in May.

At the beginning of the 20th century it became tradition in France to sell lily of the valley on International Labour Day, May 1, by labour organisations and private persons without paying sales tax (on that day only) as a symbol of spring.

The house of Caron launched a fragrance called Muguet du Bonheur in 1952. I remember wearing it in the 70s. It was a fresh, delicately sweet, very feminine scent.

Happy May Day, my friends, may happiness lie ahead for all.

Scared of heights!

When I went to Paris with my younger sister in 1988, we visited the Eiffel Tower and bought tickets to go all the way to the top level, but I couldn't get past the first... It's quite a spectacular sight, which I prefer to admire with my feet firmly on the ground!

Oh the temptation!

Last night I woke up from a delightful dream where I was floating in a sea of creamy chocolate to find the air heavenly scented with the aroma of... chocolate!

Our village has one of the best chocolatiers in the region and every Easter people travel considerable distances to buy their holiday treats. 

The business was started in 1909 by the couple Pierre and Clémence Borzeix as a modest bakery which expanded to include patisserie and chocolate creations, achieving their enduring reputation for excellence over the years. The business was purchased by Bernard Besse in 1985, and he simply added his name to the original, retaining the history of four generations of chocolatiers/patissiers.

They must start to prepare their beautiful creations in the middle of the night and the smell travels around the village, giving the residents very sweet dreams indeed.

Here's a "taste" of this wonderful place: