I am a sporadic cook at best these days. When my children were at home, I used to cook a lot more but most of the time, I serve up the same old dishes that are easy and quick to make and that Jean Michel and I both like. However, now that we have started to go to the Saturday market in Blois where they are a lot of market gardeners I find myself with ingredients that I don’t usually buy.
I usually make my own pastry but recently I bought some fresh pie crust pastry to make a leek or a spinach quiche and promptly forgot all about it. Today, I had a look at the use-by date and saw it was my last chance before I’d have to throw it away. I obviously had no spinach or leeks left so I rooted around the cupboard and came up with some onions. I had some boletus mushrooms in the freezer from our last forage plus some chives so I figured I could combine them all.
Quiche is traditionally made with fresh cream but I usually make it with fromage blanc which I always have in the fridge because I eat it for breakfast every day. If I buy cream it goes off before I remember to use it.
Do you have a favourite quiche recipe?
Ingredients
1 pie crust
2 very large onions
Wild or cultivated mushrooms
2 pots (about 1 cup) of fromage blanc
2 pots (about 1 cup) of milk
4 eggs
fresh (or frozen) chives
Slice the onions thinly and cook in olive oil until brown and soft. Beat the fromage blanc or fresh cream, milk and eggs together. Season and add the chives.
Cook the pie crust for 5 minutes at 225°C in the oven. I use a convection oven so you will need to add a few minutes if you’re using a regular one.
Line the bottom of crust with an even layer of onions. Place the cooked, sliced mushrooms on top then pour over the egg mixture.
Cook for about half an hour at 200°C. It’s cooked when it puffs up and is slightly brown.
Three entirely different subjects this week. Ever pratical Jo Karnaghan from Frugal First Class Travel takes us on a day trip to Reims which is not only famous for its champagne; Maggie La Coste from Experience France by Bike gives tips on how to take the train with a bike and panniers; while Janine from The Good Life France has compiled a very interesting and useful guide to Christmas in France in 2013 that you can download. Enjoy!
How to make a day trip to Reims
by Jo Karnaghan from Frugal First Class Travel, an Australian who loves to travel – especially in Europe – and who has gradually learned how to have a First Class trip on an economy budget, without missing out on anything!
Reims (pronouned “rance” as in France) is an easy and convenient day trip from Paris, being only 45 minutes away by TGV. What most visitors will find surprising is that Reims is about more than champagne. Here’s my take on a great way to do a day trip to this pretty and friendly city, that includes more than just champagne!
Arriving in Reims
Reims is only 45minutes by TGV from Gare de l’Est in Paris. Make sure you book a TGV rather than a stopping all stations train that will take you 2hours. Read more
Navigating train stations in France with bicycle panniers
by Maggie LaCoste from Experience France by Bike, an American who loves biking anywhere in Europe, but especially France, which has the perfect combination of safe bike routes, great food, great weather and history.
Nothing can ruin a day for a bicyclist more than having to maneuver stairs at a rail station! Sometimes, no matter how well you plan a trip, you need to take a train to connect to another cycling itinerary, to avoid a bad part of a route or oftentimes to return a rental bike. Regardless of the reason, managing stairs when your bike is loaded down with all your gear is tough. I’ll never forget the first time we arrived at a train station, bought our tickets and then patiently waited for our track announcement. Of course the track was announced literally as the train was coming into the station and getting to it required going down and then up two very long sets of stairs! Read more
Christmas in France in 2013
by Janine from The Good Life France, an independent on-line magazine about France and all things French, covering all aspects of daily life including healthcare, finance, utilities, education, property and a whole lot more
Christmas in France 2013 – a free guide to the best Christmas markets in Paris, Alsace, for day trips, near Calais… things to do and where to see the best window displays and beautiful illuminations in Paris, the City of Light. Lots of French festive facts… and top recipes from celebrity chefs Michel Roux Jr, Raymond Blanc and Rachel Khoo.
From us to you at Christmas… Christmas in France 2013 the book…
To download your free Christmas in France 2013 guide click on this link or right click “save link as” Christmas in France 2013. Read more
This week, The Good Life France, appearing for the first time in my Wednesday’s Blogger Round-Up, explains the origin of the Michel star award to French restaurants, while two Aussies, whom I’ve often quoted here – Wendy Hollands from Le Franco Phoney and Phoebe from Lou Messugo – share their experience of the chrysanthemum tradition in France. Enjoy!
What does Michelin star restaurant mean?
Written by The Good Life France, an independent on-line magazine about France and all things French, covering all aspects of daily life including healthcare, finance, utilities, education, property and a whole lot more.
Most people are aware of Michelin the tyre company and their famous logo Michelin Man the roly-poly tyre man – or Monsieur Bibendum which is his real name. His image is known the world over and he does an excellent job of promoting the company’s tyres.
Michelin is also famous for ranking restaurants – achieving a Michelin star status is like the Holy Grail for chefs – to have one is to be acknowledged as amongst the elite, to have reached the pinnacle of one’s profession. For customers it is in an indication that the restaurant that has been awarded a Michelin star status will almost certainly guarantee an epicurean experience, a high quality meal, a great ambience. Read more
Chrysanthemums and Death in France
by Wendy Hollands from Le Franco Phoney, an Australian who writes about all things French in La Clusaz, Annecy and Haute Savoie as seen by an outsider
There’s a reason that faux pas is a French phrase. As a non-French person, I’m constantly making mistakes with both the language and the culture. I reckon they invented it for foreigners.
As mortifying as it can be to mix up ‘chiot‘ (puppy) and ‘chiottes‘ (toilets), or ‘canard‘ (duck) and ‘connard‘ (idiot), failing at French cultural etiquette can be equally as bad.
For example, a French breakfast with friends is no fast meal. Expect to spend hours absorbing your food — dunk your croissant into your bowl (yes, bowl) of coffee and break off a bit more baguette while you all catch up. That butter, jam and Nutella is on the table for the baguette, not the croissant. Do not apply these products to the croissant! They might not say anything, but they’ll think you’re weird: croissants are eaten without spreads in France. Read more
All Saints Day – Flowers and French traditions
by Phoebe from Lou Messugo, a traveller, francophile, expat, mum and foodie now living in Roquefort les Pins where she runs a gîte after many years of travelling and living in Asia, Eastern Europe and Australia
This weekend has been all about Toussaint, a Catholic holiday honoring all Saints. It is a time when French pay respect to their deceased relatives. All Saints’ Day, the 1st of November, sees families gathering to visit cemeteries to clean and decorate tombs. And they decorate them mainly with chrysanthemums.
The tradition of using chrysanthemums is a relatively recent one, dating from 1919 when the then President, Raymond Poincaré, declared that all war memorials should be decorated with floral tributes. As one of the rare flowers still in bloom in November it became the flower of choice for cemeteries, with hundreds of thousands of widows laying blooms at their fallen husbands’ memorials. Read more
I’ve already written extensively about my love of mushroom picking here on this blog but following a recent comment on Facebook by Judy McMahon, I wrote a guest post for MyFrenchLife on how to pick mushrooms safely.
How to pick mushrooms safely in France: 4 secrets
by Rosemary Kneipp, writing for My French Life – where you can discover France beyond the cliché with other curious, savvy francophile & French members.
If you’ve never picked mushrooms, you are definitely missing out on one of life’s great pleasures! You probably think that’s an exaggeration, but you only have to look at the ecstatic expression on my Aussie friend’s face when she found her very first wild mushroom in the Loire Valley to see what I mean (pictured right).
Maybe it’s our scavenging instinct coming out, but searching for, finding and eating mushrooms create an incredible feeling of wellbeing and satisfaction. While you’ve got your mushroom eyes on, you don’t think of anything else. It’s wonderfully relaxing – particularly if you live in the city. And when you suddenly spot one, usually trying desperately to blend in with the vegetation, you feel exultant. Read more
So what’s on the agenda this Wednesday? Mary Kay from Out and About in Paris takes us to the Maison du Chou where she has discovered the lightest choux à la crème, while French Moments delights us with ten stunning photos of autumn in France. Meanwhile Carolyn from Holidays to Europe brings us some very useful tips for driving in Europe. Enjoy!
Something Sweet for Monday – La Maison du Chou
by Mary Kay from Out and About in Paris, an American by birth, Swiss by marriage, resident of Paris with a Navigo Pass for the metro that she feels compelled to use
Whether it’s an unexpected glimpse of the Eiffel Tower as you round a corner or a chance encounter with a beloved friend in a bistro on the Île Saint-Louis, the best things in life are often unplanned and completely spontaneous. In Paris, I know exactly where to go for the most delicate macarons and the richest hot chocolate. What I didn’t know, at least not until yesterday afternoon, was where to find the lightest choux à la crème. If you would like to serendipitously discover these delightful cream puffs freshly filled with a mousse-like mixture of sugar and fromage blanc, stroll down Rue Bonaparte past the famous Deux Magots Café in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood of Paris. In your best flâneur style, casually turn right on Rue de l’Abbaye and left when you see the quaint Place de Fürstenberg. Read more
Top 10 Most Beautiful Photos of Autumn
by French Moments, a Sydney-based organisation with an international focus which promotes the French language and culture to English-speakers worldwide. Their French team is all about the language, culture and experience.
In this post we have compiled a selection of French Moments’ photos of autumn all taken in France’s North-East and Lyon.
Summer has now been replaced by autumn and the trees have put on a fabulous colour display with yellows fading to reds. Under the beautiful blue sky of an Indian summer or on a misty morning, the colours of autumn sometimes do not look as good in a photograph as they really do to the eye. Read more
Tips for Driving in Europe
by Carolyn from Holidays to Europe, an Australian based business passionate about sharing their European travel expertise and helping travellers to experience the holiday in Europe they have always dreamed of
When planning their travels in Europe, many Aussies are keen to hire a car for at least some of their trip but are, understandably, apprehensive about driving in large cities. Driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road can be hard enough, but navigating your way through busy streets that are often very narrow and one-way, can quickly raise the blood pressure. So, what do I recommend?
The rail network in most countries in Western Europe is excellent and it’s often the first choice of transport for travellers but for those wanting to visit more rural locations or countries where the rail system is a little less sophisticated (or barely exists, such as Croatia), driving is the next best thing. Read more
Since I have been writing quite a bit about Sofia in Bulgaria recently, I thought you might like a more French focus for this Wednesday’s Bloggers’ Round-up. Kathy Stanford from Femmes Francophiles reviews the phone app Memrise for learning and improving your French vocabulary; Phoebe from Lou Messugo takes us on a day trip by train from Nice to the Valley of Marvels; while Mary Kay from Out and About in Paris explains all about Dijon mustard. Enjoy!
Plant your Language Garden with Memrise
by Kathy Stanford from Femmes Francophiles, an Australian who has an ongoing passion for France and the French language currently on holiday in Europe
During the more than 10 years that I have been learning French I have tried many online applications in my quest to improve my French vocabulary. I have found Memrise particularly effective with its scientific basis and combination of learning with fun. The competitive aspects as you climb leader boards can become addictive. I have even lost track of time sometimes when learning vocabulary (playing). If you love using mnemonics and find them helpful you will love Memrise.
Memrise has been designed to help you connect with the new words that you choose to add to your sets. It does this with mems. Read more
Wonderous mountain train – a day trip from Nice
by Phoebe from Lou Messugo, a traveller, francophile, expat, mum and foodie now living in Roquefort les Pins where she runs a gîte after many years of travelling and living in Asia, Eastern Europe and Australia.
Train journeys are my kind of thing; trains and I, we go way back. Apparently, or so the family folklore says, I was on a miniature train in Delhi when the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi turned up for a bit of political campaigning and I was chosen to sit next to her for the film shoot. I must have been about 7 years old. Now whether this was the beginning of my love of train travel I can’t say but since then I have taken some pretty interesting and scenic train journeys in Asia, Europe and Australia. So it was with great excitement that we recently took the grandly name “Train des Merveilles” from Nice to Tende and back. Read more
Searching for mustard in Dijon, France
by Mary Kay from Out and About in Paris, an American by birth, Swiss by marriage, resident of Paris with a Navigo Pass for the metro that she feels compelled to use
Mustard, Crème de cassis and wine – that’s what popped into my mind when we finally decided that Dijon would be a good place to spend the night on our way home from Switzerland last weekend. Given my mother’s penchant for all kinds of mustard and the fact that an entire shelf of her refrigerator was formerly reserved for the exclusive storage of this yellow condiment, visiting a mustard factory was at the top of my “to do” list. The only problem, as a search of the internet quickly revealed, is that Dijon’s oldest mustard factory was forced to close its doors in 2009 after demand for mustard declined in France. Read more
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Regular readers of my Wednesday’s Blogger Round-Up will already know Carolyn Schonafinger from Holidays to Europe, an Australian based business passionate about sharing their European travel expertise and helping travellers to experience the holiday in Europe they have always dreamed of. I recently quoted from her post on cycling on the Austrian lakes. Carolyn has kindly agreed to write a guest post about an area she knows well in the south of France – Languedoc – which I have also visited (and enjoyed) on several occasions. Enjoy!
Aah, the south of France. Over 300 days of sunshine per year, endless stretches of Mediterranean coastline, unspoilt countryside, bustling markets and untouched medieval villages. I’m talking about Provence, right? Wrong! This is Languedoc, the real south of France.
Less well known than its famous neighbour, particularly by Australians, Languedoc offers the visitor the quintessential rural French experience. Its strong history of wine making (it’s the largest wine producing region in the world) is reason enough to visit but there are plenty of other reasons, too. Our focus below is on the Aude and Herault departments of Languedoc.
The walled city of Carcassonne
Carcassonne and its famous medieval castle is a ‘must-visit’ site in the region. The UNESCO World Heritage listed fortified city sits above the ‘new’ town and you can easily spend a few hours wandering the cobbled pathways inside the medieval walls and exploring the castle itself. Numerous shops, restaurants and cafes are now housed inside the walls and there are fantastic views towards the Pyrenees from the castle walls.
The Canal du Midi
Another UNESCO World Heritage site in Languedoc is the Canal du Midi. Stretching for 240km, the Canal was built in the 17th Century as a means of transporting goods between the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts. These days, the only boats you’ll find on the Canal are pleasure craft. An afternoon boat ride on the Canal du Midi is a wonderful way to while away a couple of hours, taking in the stunning scenery and marvelling at the workings of the locks which raise and lower the water level as required. Canal-side villages like Homps and Trebes offer the perfect location to dine alfresco alongside this unique waterway.
Minerve
The village of Minerve was a strategic base for the Cathars during the crusade against them in the early 13th Century. It was also an important stopover for the pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostelle in Spain during the medieval times. The small Musee Hurepel is well worth a visit. Sixteen scenes, complete with intricately made clay figurines, depict the story of the Cathars’ struggle against the Crusaders. As a member of France’s ‘Most Beautiful Villages’ alliance, Minerve is definitely worth a visit.
Lagrasse with the abbey in the background
The Fontfroide Abbey, along with the abbeys of Fontcaude and Lagrasse, can all be found in this region, too. The ruined, but still spectacular, fortresses of Peyrepertuse, Montsegur and Queribus are the scenes of the last desperate struggles of the Cathar rebels. A visit to the ruins of Lastours is also worthwhile, with its four small castles (now in ruins) keeping watch over the valley below.
Lastours
The Mediterranean coastline in Languedoc stretches from Collioure, not far from the Spanish border, to Espiguette near Provence. Languedoc’s beaches tend to be wider and sandier than those in Provence and they vary from busy tourist sites to intimate coves. Some of the more popular beaches include Sete, Gruissan, Canet and Narbonne Plage. Europe’s largest nudist colony can also be found in Languedoc at Cap d’Agde.
Cap d’Agde nudist beach (source: Wikipedia)
Narbonne dates back to pre-Roman times and was once the capital of the Languedoc. A visit to the beautiful covered market, Les Halles, will have your mouth watering. The quality of food, from butchers through fishmongers and everything in between, is excellent. The Narbonne market operates from Monday to Saturday, and on Thursday and Sunday you’ll also find a huge market on both sides of the Robine Canal, a tributary of the Canal du Midi. Whilst in Narbonne, make sure you visit the magnificent cathedral, see the Archbishop’s Palace (now the Town Hall) and enjoy a stroll along the Canal du Robine.
Narbonne Cathedral
To make the most of your holiday in Languedoc, why not stay in your own home-away-from-home in a holiday house like Castel Grand Rue? The three-storey, three-bedroom, traditional French house is right in the heart of Olonzac, a market town in the Minervois region. The sunny rooftop terrace makes the ideal place to dine on fresh local produce and sip the local wines after a busy day of exploring in Languedoc. Furnished to a high standard with everything you could possibly need to feel at home, the Australian-owned holiday house fits the bill for location and comfort.
Carolyn Schonafinger is the editor of www.HolidaysToEurope.com.au where she blogs about her travels around Europe
With the journées du patrimoine coming up, I thought I’d take a look at the word patrimoine. It’s an interesting word because it has so many different meanings all connected with its Latin origin of patrimonium meaning property inherited from a father.
Let’s start with the journées du patrimoine, which is part of the European Heritage Days initiative launched by the Council of Europe in 1991. The meaning is the same as the Unesco World Heritage List except that in French it’s just patrimoine mondial. You don’t need to follow it with “list” or “site” e.g. Capitale de la Chrétienté au Moyen-âge, Avignon a gardé de son Histoire un patrimoine d’exception dont une grande partie est inscrite au Patrimoine Mondial de l’Unesco. Points for the person who finds a decent translation for that sentence!
Wachau, a Unesco world heritage site in Austria
Then we have patrimoine héréditaire – inheritance – which obviously means that a patrimoine is not necessarily inherited. Any one can have a patrimoine immobilier, for example, and it doesn’t have to be inherited. In this case, we’d talk about property or real estate in English. Patrimoine social, on the other hand, designates public housing.
While we’re at it, we can have a look at immobilier which is opposed to mobilier. You’ve no doubt seen “Agence immobilière” on what is obviously a real estate office. The root is mobilis from the very movere to move which means that immobilier can’t be moved. In French, it’s both an adjective and a noun: investir dans l’immobilier – to invest in real estate.
There’s another word that home owners in France will be familiar with and that’s foncier as in taxe foncière or property tax. The word comes from fonds de terre, fonds having the same root as our fund, and terre meaning earth. A property owner is a propriétaire foncier and income from property is revenus fonciers (note the plural).
Mobilier is the opposite: it can be moved, and is the usual word for furniture. It also has the more technical meaning of personal or movable property. Mobilier de bureau is office furniture, as you would expect and mobilier urban is street furniture, which always seems less strange to me in French than in English.
And what do we with fixtures and fittings in French? The usual term is aménagements intérieurs while fixtures in a building in legal terms is bien immeuble. But you may already have heard immeuble in another context.
In legal terms, it means real estate, but is generally used to mean a block of flats or offices i.e. un immeuble d’habitation or un immeuble de bureaux. Un immeuble de sept étages has a ground floor and seven upper floors, known as an eight-storey building in the US, if I’m not mistaken and a seven-floor building in the UK and Australia. And just in case you are thinking of investing here, an investment property is un immeuble de rapport.
And if you’re in France or Europe on 14th or 15th September, enjoy the journées des patrimoine.
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I have often quoted paragraphs from Kathy Stanford’s blog Femmes Francophiles in my Wednesday’s Bloggers Round-up. Kathy’s permanent home is in Adelaide, but she comes to France as often as she can. In my contribution this month to My French Life, the global community & magazine for francophiles & French, I tell the fascinating story of how she manages to reconcile her love for France and her life in Australia. Enjoy!
Meet Kathy, a francophile with big dreams
Thirteen years ago, when she was preparing for a trip to France, Kathy became enthralled with the French language and culture.
This was the start of her French dilemma, because her home and husband are in Adelaide and her French connection has grown stronger with the passing years.
She began learning French at the Alliance Française in Adelaide to ressurect her dim memories of school French. She has done several courses in France; in Rouen, Toulouse and Vendôme – as well as Noumea. She has worked as a volunteer for the Alliance Française in Rouen. Read more
Three completely different subjects for this Wednesday’s bloggers’ round-up: Sylvia from Finding Noon invites us along for ice-cream at La Pâtisserie des Rêves; fellow Australian Jo Karnaghan from Frugal First Class Travel explains how she managed to pay only $925 for her firstclass airfares and railpass for Europe; while Heather Robinson from Lost in Arles shares the magic of Chartres Cathedral with us. As some of you may know, we have a little leadlight window in our house in Blois containing a blue cabuchon from a renovated stained glass window in Chartres Cathedral. Enjoy!
Date Night – Pâtisserie des Rêves
by Sylvie from Finding Noon, an American living in Paris who appreciates fine art, good music, succulent food, and breath taking scenery
If there is anything that Mr French loves nearly as much as me and his family, it would have to be ice cream. Every night after dinner he asks what flavours ice cream are in the house. And almost every night I have to inform him that there is an ice cream shortage chez nous, I’ve prepared strawberries. Or watermelon, or any other fruit that happens to be in season. Read more
Resting in the shadows of the Chartres Cathedral
by Heather Robinson from Lost in Arles, an American writer and photographer living in Arles who offers us meanderings through all that makes life in a small town in Provence worth while
The longevity of awe…and the quietude buried within peace. These were the two thoughts echoing in my mind with the gentleness of passing a feather from one palm to the other while I was sitting in the Chartres Cathedral. We were in town for a wedding, a new beginning but I couldn’t stop thinking about the past.
I had sat in these pews years ago. Then, I was buoyed by the weight of the beauty surrounding me but this visit I realized that something far heavier was at play. How must the cathedral have loomed above the fields to the pilgrims that spied its spiers from afar, starting in the 12th century. Read more
How I paid just $925 for my first class airfares and railpass for Europe
by Jo Karnaghan from Frugal First Class Travel, an Australian who loves to travel – especially in Europe – and who has gradually learned how to have a First Class trip on an economy budget, without missing out on anything!
I’m off to Europe in October. I’ve organised to spend 10 days in France, and then I’m heading to Istanbul for 4 nights before I come home. It’s a bit of a special trip – in celebration of a significant birthday, so I want the best possible I can afford. But I still want it to be frugalfirstclass all the way.
My itinerary includes a First Class Suite on Etihad Airways from Sydney to Europe. Then I need a four day France Railpass. I’ve done my sums and have worked out that a four day Railpass will be cheaper than individual point to point tickets, or a three day pass and a point to point for my shortest leg. Read more
