A postcard from France
Our long-time friend and customer Dorothy writes to us from France
You may remember that we left Edinburgh for our cottage in central France in mid-July 2020 and find ourselves still here, quite unexpectedly and totally unplanned. And now a combination of Covid 19 and Brexit rules keep us here whilst we apply for French ‘residency’ (which will allow us to come and go as we please provided we stay for 6 months and two days each year for the first 5 years). No hardship there then!
We are both still relishing the food available to us. We are near a market town of around 3000 inhabitants and let me tell you what we can buy here week in and week out. We have three bakers to choose from, each of whom make delicious cakes and one of whom is a chocolatier. We were gifted some of his chocolates recently and they are truly divine. We have two butchers, plus we have a weekly market! You can buy beautiful fish, shellfish and always oysters. The fromagerie is awesome! They have a long, long counter which starts with goats cheese (we even managed to buy one at Xmas in the shape of a fir tree!), then blue cheeses - our favourite of the moment is Bleu de Causses - Beaufort, Cantal - young or aged or fruity! Mont d’Or in three different sizes, and so on, ending with eggs, yoghurt, pastry which is apparently awesome and fresh butter, plus Echire! OMG.
The butcher at the market is awesome 😎. He always has some home cooked dish and then usually has, for quality research purposes, a couple of different boudins to taste! We are loving boudin with châtaigne but we have to get there early. He has on display the history of his beef for all to see when it was born, which farm it lived on etc etc.
You can buy also live chicks, ducklings, geese, rabbits of all colours and breeds. And if I were here longer I’d love to have chickens.......
The thing which is important is that access to wonderful meat and fish is readily available and the inhabitants don’t mind paying a good price for it. It’s not cheaper to live here however to buy excellent quality of food is easy. Without driving for miles.
Add to this please my little hamlet and all within it. Wonderful neighbours and friends with whom we share meals and apéros. We also share home cooking and this I love. A friend arrived at ours with at least a metre of boudin noir and two different terrines a couple of weeks ago all made by her. They have their own pigs, just a few for friends and family, amongst their main passion which is Charolais cattle. This particular friend has a vegetable garden too so almost everything we eat there is home grown. How deluxe is that?
Another little example, I love to make pissaladière which we all love and is just made for sharing! Following ‘La Chasse’ we were gifted a small haunch of venison and a ‘roti’ of sanglier. All wild and living in the forests around us. We have other friends in the village who adore cooking, so a meal chez eux is always special. We keep our food scraps for their hens and we receive some beautiful eggs in return. They keep chickens for laying eggs and separately chickens for eating. He loves fishing plus he joins la chasse frequently.....he’s an engineer in his other life but keeps his roots close to nature.
There’s a huge amount of sharing food and fun around the French tables here tho’ from the outside you might think nothing happens! That’s the quiet secret of foodie life in France! Ssshshhhh!