Manoir de la Baudelliere

 

The privately owned 17th century Manoir de la Baudellière has a square staircase tower in the middle of its western facade. The courtyard is flanked on either side at right angles to the house by older barns (out of shot). In the 18th century it was owned by a parliamentary lawyer.

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Aloo Gobi Saag

First of all, an announcement, some news before we get on to the recipe for today: So I've survived two weeks in a new job now. Ironically, at the height of the Covid19 lockdown I've been offered a 6 month maternity cover job at an on-farm small dairy processing unit. It's hard physical work at my age but I'm hoping I'll cope better in a few weeks. The timing is just about perfect to tide us over until maybe, just maybe, our American clients can return to France and we can resume business. The government aid for people like us in the tourist industry runs out at the end of the year so far as we know, so most guides are desperately looking for new ways of earning an income.

 

**************************************************

 

This is a vegetable curry. Aloo is Urdu for potato, gobi is cauliflower and sag spinach.

Organic cauliflower, grown in a local garden, cut into florets.

I love this dish. It is so intensely savoury, real comfort food. It's a great dish for trying with people who hate cauliflower or spinach. Carnivores are often quite happy to eat it. One person who is notably not happy to eat it is Simon, so if I make it, I have to have an alternative on hand for him.

Chard can be substituted for the spinach.

The quantities in this recipe are extremely flexible. If you have already taxed the cauliflower for a few florets to have with lamb chops and cheese sauce for dinner yesterday – don't worry – just chuck in another potato.

Tomato and spices mix.

Serves 3-6

Ingredients

1 cauliflower

3-4 potatoes

1 onion, peeled and cut into 6 wedges

1 small piece of fresh ginger root, finely chopped

1 can chopped tomatoes

1 fresh red chili, finely chopped

3-6 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon cumin seeds

2 teaspoons tumeric

1 large bunch fresh green coriander, stalks and leaves chopped separately

1½ teaspoons ras al hanout or garam masala

1 teaspoon salt

100g fresh spinach (or in a pinch, a couple of blocks of frozen) – optional

Method

1. Divide the cauliflower into florets and discard the trunk.
2. Scrub the potatoes and cut into chunks 5-8cm across.
3. Put the tomatoes into a bowl with their liquid. Rinse out the tin with about ¼ cup water and add this to the bowl. Put the tin in the recycling bin.
4. Add the coriander stalks, tumeric, chili, ginger and salt to the tomatoes.
5. Heat the oil on medium in a large deep frying pan (a kadai - one of those that looks like a heavy, flat based wok is traditional and ideal), then fry the cumin and onions until yellowish-golden but not brown. Yes, this is quite a lot of oil. You probably could use less, but if you have Pakistani or Indian friends and have watched them cook, you will know that they tend to be quite generous with the oil when frying off onions and spices. Flavour molecules tend to attach to fat molecules and become enhanced and accessible. The dish gains a textural quality as well as just imparting flavour sensations.
6. Add the tomato mixture and fry for 3-5 minutes.
7. Reduce the heat then add the cauliflower and potatoes. Stir well.
8. Cover and let simmer over a medium low heat for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are done.
9. Turn off the heat and add the chopped coriander leaves, spinach and spice mix. Stir carefully then cover and let stand while you cook rice.
10. Serve with rice, dhal (lentils) and/or chapatis or naan.

I am not a fan of very hot food, although I like spicy. I see no advantage in spending a meal with eyes watering, nose running, sweating and gulping in cool air after every couple of mouthfuls, so I limit the chili. If your tolerance is higher, put in 2, 3 or even 4 chillies.

Mustard seed/rape/canola is probably traditional, but sunflower or peanut will be fine. Traditionally, quite large quantities of oil are used too, but you may wish to be more moderate and go for the lower limit suggested.

I know preparing the leaves and the stalks of the coriander separately sounds tedious and time consuming – but do it – it's worth it for the extra flavour you get. Wash the bunch of leaves and shake vigorously to get as much water as possible off. Dry your hands and pick off the leaves. If you have wet hands when you are pinching off the leaves they will stick to your fingers in a thoroughly irritating way. Chop the pile of leaves finely. Gather the stems together into a neatish bundle and cut them into 5mm lengths – shorter if you have the knife skills and patience. You can just gather the bunch together after washing and separate the leafy bits with one firm cut at wherever seems best in order to get a pile of stems and a pile of leaves, but this shamefully cavalier and impatient attitude doesn't produce quite as good a result.

Preparing the coriander can put you off making this dish. This step alone will take about 20 minutes if you approach it calmly and steadily. But for me the dish is so delicious and so comforting that I have been known to make it after a particularly frustrating day at the office when I thought I couldn't be bothered with food at all.

If you can't buy ras al hanout in the shops it is especially easy and economical to put together if you buy your spices in the generous quantities offered in shops or markets catering for people from Africa or India. To make the blend, combine 2 tablespoons ground cumin, 2 tablespoons ground coriander, 1 tablespoon turmeric, 1 teaspoon hot chilli powder, 1 teaspoon smoked sweet paprika and 1 teaspoon smoke essence. Store in a sealed jar and use as a rub on meats prior to grilling or frying, sprinkle on potato wedges, in recipes that call for garam masala or curry powder as well as ras al hanout.

What is smoke essence I hear you ask? Smoke essence is a brilliant idea from Sally Schneider's 'A New Way to Cook'. Take ½ cup Lapsang Souchong tea and whiz at high speed in a blender or spice grinder for 1 minute until it turns into a fine powder. Use it to give ordinary grilled meats and veg that straight from the barbecue flavour.

Yum

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Iluka Beach

 

Iluka beach is on the northern New South Wales coast. It is in a National Park and is famous for its unspoiled environment and sapphire blue water. It is popular with nature lovers, especially bird watchers.

The beach is 2.5 kilometres long, and the Clarence River exits into the sea at the southern end. The combination of river, rocks and waves makes an interesting surfing spot.

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

French Antiques

 In June we stayed in the Hays family holiday cottage in Charente-Maritime. At that point they were like a lot of holiday accommodation owners in France -- in a quandary about whether they should take bookings or not. Depressingly, they are once again closed to guests due to Covid19 restrictions.

 

But if you fancy a touch of France at home, check out Susan Hays' antique boutique. She has a delightful stock of items she has found at flea markets and garage sales which can be shipped to customers all over the globe. 

As she said on Facebook: P.s thank you so so much to everyone who continues to support our little brocante shop on our website, www.ourfrenchlifestyle.com it makes an enormous difference 💗

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Chateau du Verger, Vou

There is a substantial bell at the gate.

 

The Chateau du Verger near Vou is what in French is known as a gentilhommière, a gentleman's residence, in this case really a fortified manor house, composed of a large rectangular main building with several towers. 

The polygonal tower appears to be having some work done.

 

On the north facade, the courtyard side, a distinctive polygonal tower rises, housing a vast spiral staircase giving access to all floors. The Renaissance entrance door is framed by flat pilasters and surmounted by a double moulded lintel with four medallions. A small circular turret, set in a watchtower at the angle between the staircase tower and main block, serves as a staircase to the uppermost floor. At the southwest corner of the house is a round tower whose upper part was dismantled: it was cut diagonally and its parapet walk was removed, while the corbelling of the machicolations was cut flush with the wall.

The truncated tower, with the main block behind.

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Sheep

 

Sheep weathervane on the barn.

 

I photographed these sheep because they were attractive and it looked like they lived in lovely well maintained surroundings. I don't know what breed they are.

Ewes and a lamb.

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Memorial to American First World War Services of Supply in Tours

There is a rather unusual war memorial in Tours. It's appearance is striking for a start, as it is topped by a gilded statue of a Native American holding a Bald Eagle. It is a memorial to members of the Services of Supply in the American Expeditionary Forces who aided French troops during the First World War.

The American supply troops were mostly based at Tours and their job was to ensure supplies got through to French troops on the frontline. During their time here they built 1500 locomotives for the war effort.

 

The memorial is ten and a half metres high, in two elements. The lower part is a limestone basin, the upper part the aforementioned gilt bronze Indian. The four women on the column that joins the basin to the bronze represent the four branches of the service -- procurement, construction, administration and distribution. It was commissioned in 1925 by the American Battle Monuments Commission and designed by a Franco-American team of architects and sculptors. To the relief of the cash strapped municipal administration of Tours the American Battle Monuments Comminssion took charge of the cost of the monument. With all the delicate negotiations about who paid for what, where the monument would be sited and what it would look like, it wasn't until 1937 that it was inaugurated.

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Chateau de la Roche-Berthault

A glimpse of a medieval building in the grounds of the chateau.

Abandoned for more than fifty years, the Chateau de la Roche-Berthault was restored from 2000 by retired Belgian diplomats Raphaëlle and Benoît de Viron Cardon de Lichtbuer, who have turned it into holiday accommodation. The outbuildings have been turned into self-catering holiday lets.

A tourist posing in front of the chateau. Nice car!

There has been a feudal castle here since the 14th century, but the current one dates from a century later, and was enlarged in the 18th century, then seized and sold as national property during the Revolution. The estate was divided and neglected and the buildings deteriorated until they were restored in the 19th century. Currently the chateau consists of a main block oriented north-south, with a polygonal tower on the eastern facade. It was extended to the north-west with a large round tower and a smaller one, and another tower added at the southern end. There is also a chapel and medieval troglodyte caves.

The northern end of the chateau.

In September and October the grounds are an ever extending carpet of cyclamens, lovingly encouraged by the owners.

Cyclamens sprinkled about and colonising the understorey.

The chateau dominates the valley and is surrounded by a park of hundred year old trees.

Viewed across the fodder sorghum.

Viewed across the valley.

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Valencay Cheese

Valençay cheese is a goats milk cheese that comes from the Berry, in the area around the town of Valençay. Like the other goats cheeses of the Loire Valley it is a raw milk cheese, coated in ash and salt and eaten at about three weeks old. 

A Valençay cheese, bought from the cheese truck at Loches market.

Legend has it that Valençay was originally a classic pyramid-shaped cheese. In order not to remind Napoleon of his defeat in Egypt, Talleyrand, who was then living in the Château de Valençay, had them "beheaded" before offering them to him!

Of course, it's not true, but it's a great story. 

Pure white inside.

 

Only 26 farms produce the green labelled artisanal farmhouse cheese. Red labelled Valencay is also available, produced by half a dozen factories in the area. The two products differ because the farmhouse cheese must only contain the milk from a single 24 hour period, from a single herd (the one on the farm) , where as the factory cheese can contain milk from a 48 hour period from a number of farms. As well as producers there are specialist refiners too, who carefully mature and age the cheese under controlled conditions of temperature, humidity and air movement.

Each cheese weighs around 220 grams, and 340 tonnes of Valencay cheese are produced annually.

The proper way to cut it is from top to bottom, in wedges radiating out from the centre. Our friend Jean-Louis does it expertly, with the cheese in one hand and his pen knife in the other.

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Coastal Billabong

 

This coastal billabong is near Iluka in northern New South Wales. Tumbling over the bank is Saltwater Paperbark Melaleuca cuticularis and in the water the non-native Cape Blue Waterlily Nymphaea caerulea.

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Carrelets

Wooden fishing huts perched on piles above the sea along the Charente-Maritime coast are emblematic of this area, many dating from the late 19th century, but the oldest were constructed three centuries ago. They grew in numbers after the First World War, when most people got paid holidays. Some, the older style, are only accessible at low tide, but others have high jetties. If you want to acquire one for your own leisure, it could cost up to €35 000, depending on condition (and they are a lot of work to maintain, with some very strict rules that apply). Owners also pay a monthly fee to the Department of Maritime Affairs of about €400 (pro rata, based on the size of the cabin). There is a waiting list for concessions too, and prospective owners will need to wait for the previous generation to give them up.

The name carrelet refers to the square nets used to catch eels, prawns and mullet, which have been used by hand here since the 14th century. So strictly speaking we should talk of 'emplacements de pontons de pêche au carrelet' (square net fishing pontoon places). There are over 500 of these little cabins, sometimes brightly painted and providing a picturesque element in the landscape. They are now officially listed as cultural heritage.

The carrelets themselves are a 4 metre by 4 metre frame with a 12 millimetre mesh net. It allows fishermen to return unharmed any fish that are too small. The platforms have been equipped with pulleys and winches since the 19th century to assist with raising the nets.

The platforms must not exceed 20 square metres and the cabin must not be bigger than 10 square metres. Although fishing at night is allowed, you cannot sleep overnight in the cabin.

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Chateau des Repenellieres

 

Chateau des Repénellières.

The 19th century Chateau des Repénellières was the home of the Mayor of Ligueil during Napoleon III's Second Empire (1852 - 1870).

Vine hut (Fr. cabane de vigne).

The vines are long gone from the estate, but this very posh vine workers hut remains. It is right on the roadside at the intersection of the D212 and the D59.

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Demarcation Line Memorial

Demarcation line memorial.

On the intersection of the D59 and the D212 at a spot known as Bel-Air, near Ligeuil, there is a memorial to the Demarcation Line. The road here was once cut by the border established in the early days of World War Two between Vichy France and Occupied France.

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Modern Day Muleteers

On 10 October I heard clip-clopping down our street and looked up to see a pair of mules and a pair of what I assumed were pilgrims passing our front window. I rushed out and snapped a photo of them disappearing down the street.

The next day, returning to Le Grand Pressigny at the end of a 10 kilometre walk with the hiking club, I was thrilled to discover the 'pilgrims' and their mules at the café on the market place. The mules were snacking idly on linden tree leaves and the 'pilgrims' were drinking coffee.

 

They are clearly well used to people coming up to them and wanting to know who they are and what they are doing. It turns out that they had started in the Pyrenees and were walking to Brittany. They aren't really pilgrims, at least not in the religious sense. I didn't manage to get to the bottom of why they were doing it, nor did I catch their names. 

The mules, on the other hand, are called Amulette and Flora. Amulette is smaller than Flora because Flora's mother was a big Breton draught horse breed. The mules will require reshoeing four times over the course of the journey. I wish now I had asked all sorts of other questions about how they managed to find places to stop, how they found food for the mules and how many kilometres they did per day. The mules were charming creatures, very well behaved and placid.

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Chateau de la Motte-Usseau

 

The 15th century Chateau de la Motte-Usseau stands on the border of Poitou and the Touraine as a testiment to the architecture of the late Middle Ages. It is built around the motte of an even older chateau, as its raised central private courtyard reveals.

 

It seems to have been occupied by monks in the 19th and 20th centuries, who undertook extensive renovations, alterations (new openings) and additions (outbuildings). At one point in the 20th century it looks like the main dwelling was used as a granary.

The chateau is now privately owned and offers accommodation [link]. As you can see from our photograph is easy to get to, just off the A10 (L'Aquitaine).

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Braised Red Cabbage

There really is only one way to cook red cabbage, and it's completely different to the green variety.

Ingredients
1 kg red cabbage (about half a large cabbage, or a whole small one), outer leaves and core removed, shredded
500 g onions, finely chopped
500 g apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped
A clove of garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp ras al hanout (North African spice mix)
1/4 tsp ground coriander seed
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp five spice
3 tbsp soft brown sugar
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
3 tbsp apple juice
3 tbsp water
1 tbsp butter
Salt and pepper

Method

1. Heat the oven to 150C*.
2. Combine the apples, garlic, spices and sugar. 
3. Combine the vinegar, apple juice and water.
4. Put one third of the cabbage in a large casserole or boiler, season with salt and pepper.
5. Top with half the apple and onion mixture.
6. Repeat with a layer of cabbage, a layer of apple and onion and a final layer of cabbage.
7. Pour the liquid mixture over.
8. Put dabs of butter all over the top.
9. Cover and cook for 2 hours.
10. *Can be cooked on very low heat on top of the stove (I often do it on our wood burning stove).
11. Serves 8, freezes and reheats well.

Yum

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Yamba Ocean Pool

Access to the beach near Yamba.

Yamba Ocean Pool is the most northerly of New South Wales' glorious ocean pools. For those of you unfamiliar with them, they are swimming pools cut into the natural rocks in the littoral zone, so that they fill and empty with the tide. They are rarely signposted and hardly anyone but locals use them.  For a thousand kilometres south along the east coast of Australia from Yamba to Eden there are around 60 ocean pools. Yamba's ocean pool was built in 1969, but many of them date from between the Wars.

The coast near Yamba.

The pool was recently refurbished after years of lack of maintenance. The pool is 33 metres long and located on the southern end of the beach. It is associated with a Surf Lifesaving Club, who use it for practising rescue techniques and training, so it is a very safe pool to use and the public have free access. There are public toilets and outdoor showers on the path back up to the clubhouse.

Yamba Ocean Pool.

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Porcelain Flowers in Moeze Cemetery

There are quite a few graves in Moëze cemetery, in the Charente-Maritime, that are decorated with these colourful porcelain wreaths.

 

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos.