Perfect with Your Melon

I was in Karim's (the CocciMarket in Preuilly-sur-Claise) the other day, and noticed the Vendee Ham has an instruction on it.

Who am I to disobey an instruction?

Ok, it's not really an instruction, but ham and Charentais melon is a local classic, and if they suggest their ham is "parfait avec vôtre melon" that's good enough for me.

Jambon de Vendée is a traditional raw ham that is cured by hand in dry salt before being rubbed with a blend of wine, brandy and aromatic herbs and spices, including cinnamon, pepper, thyme and bay leaf.

The ham is then wrapped in cloth and pressed between two wooden boards, which gives it its distinctive rectangular shape. Unlike many other cured hams, this variety undergoes only a relatively short drying period, as the pressing process helps to accelerate the curing.

In October 2014, Jambon de Vendée was awarded Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status, a designation that recognises the product's regional origins and quality as well as its traditional production methods. It is now considered the third most popular French ham, after those of Bayonne and Aoste.

A Missed Anniversary

Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of our first blog post.

The blog started as an open letter to our friends and families, partly to counter accusations of "you didn't tell us that". At first we posted whenever we had something we needed to say and had time to write about it, which meant we wrote on 2 January 2007 about the fact we had bought this house - an event which happened on 21 November 2006. On 8 February 2008 we started posting daily at 9.00am. More recently we stopped posting at the weekend, because even scintillating writers like us need a rest.

Two weeks ago we also missed the 20th anniversary of signing to buy this house. Our only excuse is that the recent string of canicule (5 so far this year) have turned our brains to mush.

We recently lost probably our most avid reader, which caused us to question whether we would continue.

As you can see, we have decided we will. We have met many interesting people through the blog, and it would be a pity if we lost that.

I don't know if we have another 10 years of blogging in us, I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

PhotObjectif

Rieja van Aart, a local art photographer https://riejavanaart.ultra-book.com/, recently organised a photography exhibition https://www.lepetitpressigny.fr/medias/association/Flyer_photobjectif_2026.pdf over the weekend just gone in Le Petit Pressigny. Our friend Ingrid de Winter was invited to submit works and we went to support her. There was quite a crowd on Sunday afternoon when we were there, and the quality of the works was very high. The exhibition was a credit to all concerned, and quite remarkable in such a small village (population about 350 I reckon). The venue was the old school and surrounds. I ran into a friend I hadn't seen for over a year, which was really nice, and got to chat briefly with Rieja and her husband Leonard, who I've known for a while. We encountered Ingrid on our way over as she was cycling back home in the heat!

Here are a few photos I took. I avoided taking photos of people and people's works of art out of courtesy to them as it didn't feel appropriate on the day. So you will just have to take my word for it that the exhibition was very interesting and varied.

The exhibition banner.

I got very excited as we arrived and I saw someone putting blue cloths out in the sun. Oooh goody I thought, someone is doing a cyanotype demonstration. Ahem...they turned out to be tea towels drying, after doing the lunchtime washing up...

One of the artists was producing works using compost.

You can see why I was confused -- someone had done a cyanotype!

Ingrid is a wildlife photographer, so her submissions are of birds. On the left a crow and on the right a spoonbill.

What IS That Thing

Yes, it's a steam locomotive, but all is not what it seems

Outside the Cité du Train in Mulhouse, mounted on a plinth beside the car park, it's a survivor from the early days of French railways: a PLM 030 TB steam locomotive. Built for the former Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée (PLM) railway it was intended primarily for freight and shunting work.

The locomotive dates from around 1860, making it a genuine 19th-century machine and a reminder of how compact early steam locomotives were. Its open-sided cab, small driving wheels and exposed mechanical equipment make it look primative compared to the large express locomotives that dominate railway museums.

But here's the "what is": although displayed as PLM 030 TB 2 the locomotive is a confection, reconstructed from components of several early locomotives, rather than a completely original survivor.

Assumption Day Gathering

We have previously been to the Lésigny Assumption Day car gathering (held in conjunction with their brocante, to which we have never been) five times: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2024, and 2025.

Now make it six.

This year we went with John from "Anne and John across the road". We had invited them in 2024, but only Anne was able to make it. This year John was free, but Anne was busy.

Claudette wearing her rally plaque. This is a new development this year, and at 5€, a bargain.

As is traditional we arrived just in time for breakfast (excellent home made terrine and camembert on a serve yourself basis), and then departed on the 30km circuit (theoretically 10am, but actually about 11am). We drove through la Roche Posay, Boussay, and Chambon, having taken a short cut at the start which placed us near the front of the convoy when we rejoined. The shortcut was because the signage in Lésigny was obscure, and the Jaguar driver in front of us was confused. Hey ho...

Through the Arch at la Roche Posay

As is now traditional, once we were on narrow country roads going up a fairly steep hill, the lead car (possibly the oldest car there) declined to proceed, leaving the rest of us fretting about the state of our radiators. It wasn't as long a technical pause as last year, so Claudette didn't come anywhere close to boiling and soon cooled down again.

You can see volunteers trying to push start the stalled car. That's not Claudette, we were following another Traction Avant

When we arrived back in Lésigny Susan claimed a table in the shade by a simple expedient of laying a tablecloth. We had a convivial lunch of melon and ham starter, followed by salad niçoise, and flummery, looking elegant with our period correct looking picnic hamper (and accoutrements).

You can see how hot and dry it has been

After lunch we forewent the swim in the river and came home. It was too hot.

Zucchini Slice

Every summer the dreaded zucchini glut arrives. Friends (Huub and Ingrid I'm looking at you) and neighbours insist on offloading gigantic marrow sized things on your doorstep. Or you have yourself made the mistake of allowing more than one zucchini plant to grow, on the grounds that the last time you did that it was the coldest summer on record and your zucchini did not thrive. Well, I think you are safe from that one in these days of increasingly record breaking hot summers...

Half a marrow sized zucchini, seeds removed and tediously grated by hand as we don't own a food processor.

Ingredients

2 large zucchini, grated
1 large onion, chopped
150 g chunky lardons
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
Half a cup of oil
4 eggs
1 cup of grated cheese
Salt and pepper to taste.

Method

Turn the oven on to preheat to 180 C.
Grease a deep square baking dish or a lasagne dish.
Mix all ingredients together thoroughly and pour into the prepared dish.
Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes.
Leave for 5-10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Can serve 6 as a main, or 12-18 as part of a series of small plates (tapas, aperodinatoire, etc). Serve warm or room temperature, with salad.

A serving for two that I cooked in the air fryer because the weather is so hot at the moment and I didn't want to turn the oven on.

It is curious to think that Europeans have really only been eating zucchini since the 19th century. The ancestor of this rampant and productive squash had arrived from the Americas earlier, but it was so different to anything anyone was used to eating that it took a while to catch on. Zucchini and marrow are the same species, Cucurbita pepo, and the difference is size/maturity. The word zucchini first appeared in Italian cook books in the 1840s, after Milanese gardeners developed a small tender cylindrical dark green squash that became C. p. var cylindrica. The word marrow first appeared in British cook books in the 1820s. Zucchini is first mentioned in print in Britain in the early 20th century, a couple of decades before the word courgette is used in either France or Britain.

Zucchini Slice was a mainstay of Australian summer gatherings when I was growing up. Everybody made it, because everyone had too many zucchini. It has that extreme simplicity and low cost that makes it popular when you are cooking for a gathering or a family. The cheese and bacon ensure it tastes of something, without complication or too much cost.