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Tag Archives: food
Cattle Country
Considering we are surrounded by them, I’m surprised I haven’t written more about these mainstays of local agriculture. Perhaps it’s because I have a love-hate relationship with them, especially when marauding herds have trampled down our garden. What am I … Continue reading
Posted in Food/drink/recipes
Tagged Beef, beef consumption, boeuf, cattle farming, farming, food, rural life, SW France, transhumance
27 Comments
French Flavours #1: A is for Aligot
The temperature was approaching -10C when I went downstairs this morning – outside, I hasten to add. This is the coldest spell we’ve had for five years. In this weather you want rib-sticking food; nouvelle cuisine doesn’t hit the … Continue reading
Posted in Aveyron, Food/drink/recipes
Tagged aligot, Aubrac, Aveyron, burons, food, Laguiole, Laguiole cheese, SW France, tome fraîche
42 Comments
Appetising Return to Belcastel
Last time, I wrote about a ghostly story linked to the château de Belcastel. This week, we had the opportunity to make a return visit to this plus beau village in Aveyron. Not only does it occupy a delightful setting … Continue reading
Posted in Aveyron, Food/drink/recipes, Places
Tagged Aveyron, Belcastel, Château de Belcastel, food, Michelin star, Plus beaux villages, Restaurant du Vieux Pont, SW France
16 Comments
Opération Escargot
France’s cuisine was awarded UNESCO World Heritage Status in 2010, when it was included in the list of humanity’s intangible cultural heritage. Why “intangible”? Good food might be a consolation for the soul, but it’s also a feast for most … Continue reading
Posted in Food/drink/recipes, Nature
Tagged escargots, food, French cuisine, gastropods, héliciculture, rural life, snail breeding, snails, SW France
22 Comments
Le Temps des Cerises
The title (‘Cherry Time’) is that of a very famous French song written in 1866 and interpreted much later by Yves Montand. With the addition of some verses, it became one of the anthems of the revolutionary Paris Commune in … Continue reading
Posted in Food/drink/recipes, Places
Tagged A Year in Provence, cerises, cherries, cherry-picking, Clafoutis de cerises, food, Le Temps des Cerises, Provence, recipes, SW France
12 Comments
Seasonal Treats: Asparagus and Strawberries
When we first moved here, it was frustrating not to find strawberries or asparagus in the French shops in the winter. I completely changed my mind a long time ago. There is a lot to be said for enjoying produce … Continue reading
Posted in Food/drink/recipes
Tagged asparagus, food, Gariguettes, seasonal produce, seasonal treats, spring, strawberries, SW France
14 Comments
French Restaurant Capers
French restaurants are currently on the menu in the news. A hapless blogger posted a bad review and was fined by a judge. And as from last Tuesday, restaurants have to indicate if any or all of their meals are … Continue reading
A Brief History of Cheese
At the Tuesday market in Caylus, which stall has the longest queue? No contest: the cheese stall. It’s especially long in summer when the holidaymakers and second homers swell the population. But even in winter you can count on a … Continue reading
Posted in Auvergne, Food/drink/recipes, History
Tagged cheese, cheese production, dairy produce, food, France, French cheese, fromage, history of cheese
19 Comments
Frog and Toad
In culinary matters, the French and the British often compete about who first discovered a particular dish. A notable example is burn’t cream – crème brulée in French. Both countries claim to have invented it . Now, there is … Continue reading
Posted in Customs, Food/drink/recipes, History
Tagged Amesbury, bufo bufo, Common European Toad, cuisses de grenouille, food, French cuisine, frogs, frogs' legs
19 Comments
Goose Fat and Garlic
A few weeks ago – only just found time to write about it – I attended the launch of a new edition of Goose Fat and Garlic, a book about the cooking and recipes of SW France. Jeanne Strang, who … Continue reading
Posted in Aveyron, Books/writing, Food/drink/recipes
Tagged Aveyron, books, Ferme Carlès, food, Goose Fat and Garlic, Jeanne Strang, recipes, SW France
15 Comments
French Provincial Cooking
When pondering what to serve dinner guests this coming Saturday I reached for my disintegrating copy of Elizabeth David’s French Provincial Cooking. Not because I expected to copy a user-friendly recipe but because it is chock-full of ideas. First published … Continue reading
Posted in Books/writing, Food/drink/recipes, Personalities
Tagged Elizabeth David, food, France, French cuisine, French Provincial Cooking, Writing
15 Comments
Chestnuts and Chestnut Recipes
It’s that time of year again when the sweet chestnuts are falling. Very few chestnut trees grow near us but not far away, around Najac and Laguépie, they clothe the slopes. If you walk along the River Viaur, a tributary … Continue reading
Posted in Food/drink/recipes, History, Personalities
Tagged châtaignes, chestnut cake, food, gâteau à la châtaigne, rural life, SW France, sweet chestnuts
19 Comments
Figs and Fig Recipes
This is the time of year for figs, those strangely luscious and fleshy fruits. We have plucked these figs from our own tree – alas, we have only one. They are unusual in that they are not the small … Continue reading
Posted in Food/drink/recipes, French life, Nature
Tagged autumn fruit, fig and walnut jam, fig clafoutis, fig recipes, figs, food, France, living in France, SW France
20 Comments
Tomatoes and Tomato Recipes
How about these for tomatoes? Each one is about 14 centimetres in diameter and weighs around a kilo. None of your shop-bought imitations – perfectly symmetrical, dosed to the pips with noxious substances and tasting like cotton wool. And just … Continue reading
Posted in Food/drink/recipes, French life, Gardening
Tagged food, France, gardening, growing vegetables, living in France, SW France, tomato and courgette soup, tomatoes
4 Comments
What Do the French Talk About at Dinner Parties?
Last night, we were invited to dinner with French friends with whom we socialise regularly. The SF and I have christened our group ‘the Gang’. There were nine of us yesterday. Some of them were born in the region and … Continue reading
Posted in Customs, French life
Tagged dinner party conversation, etiquette, food, France, living in France, social customs, SW France
13 Comments
You must be in France when there’s…an Egg Mayonnaise Protection Society
Apologies to any subscribers who were unable to access this post from their notification email. I did something stupid but have rectified it so the link should work now. I almost overlooked another important news item in last Saturday’s Le … Continue reading
Posted in Customs, Food/drink/recipes, French life
Tagged Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée, confréries, food, France, living in France, oeuf mayonnaise
7 Comments
French winter market
Our village market in winter occupies a different world from its summer version. There are many more stalls in summer, when jewellery sellers rub shoulders with purveyors of over-priced charcuterie. As I walked down into the market square this Tuesday, … Continue reading
Pumpkins and Pumpkin Recipes
Where we live in southwest France, size is of the essence: in fact, the bigger, the better. One of our local villages, Parisot, held a competition on Sunday for the biggest, heaviest and oddest shaped. I am of course talking … Continue reading
Posted in Customs, Food/drink/recipes, French life
Tagged food, France, living in France, pumpkin, recipes, rural life, SW France
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Roquefort
Roquefort cheese takes its name from the place where it is manufactured, Roquefort-sur-Soulzon. Until last Thursday, what I knew about the manufacture of Roquefort would have gone on the back of one postage stamp. After our Thursday outing, I … Continue reading
Posted in Aveyron, Food/drink/recipes, French life, History, Places
Tagged Aveyron, cheese, food, France, living in France, recipes, Roquefort, SW France
3 Comments
Walnuts and walnut recipes
I’ve written about walnuts before, but that was in May when they were unripe. June is the time to pick the unripe green ones for walnut wine (see my post about it, here). October is when the nuts start to … Continue reading
Posted in Food/drink/recipes, French life, Nature
Tagged food, France, living in France, recipes, SW France, tarte aux noix, walnut tart, walnuts
8 Comments
Mushroom picking fever
After this week’s rain, the event we’ve been waiting for has arrived – the mushroom season. People carrying baskets or plastic bags are seen disappearing furtively into the woods. They look round suspiciously, as if in a spy movie, in … Continue reading
Posted in Food/drink/recipes, French life, Nature
Tagged cèpes, food, France, living in France, recipes, SW France, wild mushrooms
8 Comments
French markets
We all love going to French markets. The array of misshapen and sometimes eccentric items (and that’s just the customers); the banter between stallholders and customers; the sight of French people in pursuit of that most serious of pastimes, eating; … Continue reading
Posted in Aveyron, Food/drink/recipes, French life, Places
Tagged blogs about France, food, France, living in France, markets, rural life, SW France
2 Comments
Goats, grain and gremlins
The gremlins were the weather goblins, who made last weekend a complete washout. Sunday 20th June was a journée du patrimoine, when monuments and places of historic interest open their doors to the public. Despite the weather, or maybe because of … Continue reading
Posted in Food/drink/recipes, French life, Nature, Personalities, Places
Tagged farming, food, France, goats, goats' cheese, living in France, recipes, SW France, watermills
5 Comments
French seasonal treats: répountsous (asparagus alternative)
Strangely bent figures can be seen at this time of year patrolling the grass verges, heads bowed in concentration, oblivious to the juggernauts thundering past. What are they doing?
Posted in Aveyron, Food/drink/recipes, French life, Nature
Tagged asparagus, Aveyron, food, France, recipes, repountsous, rural life, SW France, Tarn, Tarn-et-Garonne
1 Comment
Walnut wine – vin de noix
Try making walnut wine, a regional drink from southwest France, where walnut trees abound, suggests A writer’s lot in France. Continue reading
Posted in Food/drink/recipes, French life
Tagged aperitifs, food, France, recipes, SW France, vin de noix, walnut wine, walnuts, wine
7 Comments
French social customs 4: table manners part 2
People in France eat out a lot (although somewhat less during the present crise). On Sundays, you will often see whole families from grandparents down to babies tucking into a five-course meal. This is the reason why French children are … Continue reading
Posted in Customs, French life, Top tips
Tagged blogs about France, breaking news, dinner, etiquette, food, France, Lunch, restaurants, social customs
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