Showing posts with label cassoulet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cassoulet. Show all posts

Thursday, 1 November 2018

261. Autumn marches on.

26th November. This track by Laura Pausini was the ever-present soundtrack when I was working in Italy in the 90s:
Here's another great song from Laura with Andrea Bocelli.

The weekend rugby results were uniformly good news for the English-speaking nations - and here are the headlines as they might be reported by the English tabloids: the New Zealand tsunami made tiramisu of the Azzurri (highlights); Scotland made Argentina cry (highlights); England walloped the Wallabies (highlights); the Welsh bashed the Boks (highlights); the Irish tanked the Yanks (highlights) and, to round it off, France flopped against Fiji (highlights)..

25th November. Out on my ebike yesterday afternoon (before the rugby!) for a ride along the Adour - and I thought I'd try a ride through the Forêt de Pignada (mentioned a few days ago). I thought it would have had all the ingredients necessary for a great ride - but it didn't work out like that. Every now and again, I encountered drifts of sand across the paths and I'd come to a wobbling dead stop as the tyres cut through the sand rather than riding over it.  

22nd November. We both have ebikes and I was surprised to read that the tyres need pumping up to astonishingly high pressures. For example, mine need around 65-70psi (4.5 - 4.8 bar) and if I don't ride it for a week or two, the tyre pressures soon seem to drop off. As the nearest garage with an air line is a fair way from here, I thought it would be a good idea if we had one of these handy little Michelin air compressor gizmos (left), so I ordered one this week and it arrived yesterday. It plugs into the 12v cigarette lighter socket in the car and it works a treat.

The chart below hardly needs any words to explain it. The graph shows the exchange rate between the pound sterling and the euro - and you can tell to the minute when the news was released that the EU and the UK negotiators finally agreed the Political Declaration this morning. However, this is only Part 1 and it has yet to be approved and signed off by all 27 EU states and the UK House of Commons. The Trade talks are going to grind on for a few years. I think we'll have all lost the will to live by the time that gets signed off.
19th November. I make no apology for including the full match between Ireland and New Zealand at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin - for I doubt that we'll see a better international this year. This is a rugby match to watch again and again. Highlights below - full match here.
If you want to beat the All Blacks, take a leaf out of Ireland's book - and do likewise (easy to say!). There were many thunderous tackles, mighty collisions and much heroic defending on both sides from start to finish and Ireland didn't take a single backward step. Ireland were inspired and relentless and they took the game to New Zealand with a vengeance. I wouldn't single out one player for Man of the Match - for me, there were 15 Men of the Match - and they were all Irish.
Ireland's Tadhg Furlong, Rory Best, Cian Healy, Peter O'Mahony and Devin Toner celebrate the final whistle.

Here's a short video of Bayonne that captures much of its spirit.. Within its historic ramparts (designed by Vauban), the streets are narrow and so all building had only one place to go - up! Outside, however, it's a different story and the adjacent tree-lined boulevards boast some highly desirable houses in the Basque style, interspersed by a number of pleasant parks and gardens.
18th November. I was just closing the shutters upstairs at 8pm when I heard the sound of cranes overhead on the move again. I thought they roosted overnight? If anyone knows better, please leave a message.

We've found a new place for walking the pooch - aka tree heaven! It's the Forêt de Pignada at Anglet.. and it's full of tall maritime pines, tranquil paths ideal for those contemplative walks and - at this time of the year - precious few people!

Walking through the woods, there's only the occasional sound that penetrates from the outside world. There are multiple routes through it and the little feller is in his element! The activity shown both here and below is typical of the summer months - outside of July-September, many of these places can be enjoyed in peace:
There were two massive games of rugby of interest to me yesterday - England vs Japan at Twickenham and Ireland vs New Zealand in Dublin. While I'm primarily an England fan, Ireland has long been my second favourite as they play with an aggression, a passion and an intensity that England find hard to emulate. Sit back and enjoy these highlights from the Aviva stadium as the boys in green finally record their first and well-deserved home win against the All Blacks.

England were less impressive - however, after trailing 10-15 at half time to a sparkling Japanese XV, Eddie Jones made a few substitutions and although they ran out 35-15 winners at the end - a scoreline that flattered them in my view - I think it's fair to say that they never really subdued Japan, led by their inspirational captain Michael Leitch. Japan pose a genuine threat and they are more than capable of causing a few upsets in the upcoming Rugby World Cup in Japan (only 10 months away!).

A name to watch for England in the Six Nations: Joe Cokanasiga.. a massive talent at 21 years old. His stats are impressive: 1m93 tall (6'4"), 120kg (260lbs) and he's fast. Look here.

17th November. On looking out at the sky this evening, I was reminded of an unusual sight I saw about a week ago. At around 3am early one morning, I was persuaded by Nutty, our 17kg cocker spaniel, that he had to go out. Standing in the garden, I heard the now-familiar raucous screechings of cranes migrating south - and suddenly there they were revealed in the moonlight: an immense ghostly formation of cranes (grues cendrées). There must have been close to 150 of them as they passed low overhead - perhaps 300 feet up - in a single, broad, flattened vee formation. I'd always assumed that they rested up at night and waited for light before continuing. From this map, it looks as though they rest up just north east of here at the lakes at Arjuzanx.

You don't have to dig too deeply into the soul of a Frenchman to find the beating heart of a revolutionary. Today sees a nation-wide 'Manif' ('demo' in Angliche!) against the recent rise in fuel prices. Apparently it's a leaderless movement that's been put together with the help of social media and the plan is simply to disrupt traffic around the country - and the identifying mark of the protesters will be the gilet jaune (the yellow jacket that all drivers are supposed to carry).

Taking the pooch for his morning excursion this morning, I could hear the sound of sports motorbikes being revved to the limit and the screech of tyres from the direction of the town centre. On reaching Allée Paulmy (mentioned previously), the road was filled with several hundred sports motorcycles, many of whom were practising burn-outs and other 'tricks' to impress the onlookers.. There were tractors bedecked with Basque flags, cars with girls in yellow jackets hanging out of the windows pumping their fists, horns being sounded, engines being revved - in short, all the evidence you'd ever need that France is, at heart, a nation of anarchic revolutionaries.

Could this happen in Ye Olde Englande? I don't think so - even with the ongoing train crash that is Brexit, I don't see the Brits getting out on the streets in huge numbers across the country. Here's how Brexit is being reported here:

15th November. For those of you out there who aren't all "Brexit'd out" - here's the 585 page Draft Agreement that's taken so long to produce. There's a shorter 7 page summary here with the catchy title: "Outline of the Political Declaration Setting Out the Framework for the Future Relationship between the European Union and the United Kingdom" - that's going to race off the shelves nearer Christmas! I admit to not having read it yet - but if this Draft Agreement passes through Parliament, then reportedly the UK is going join a customs union with the EU for an unspecified period - but one which we can only leave if both parties agree.

Another phrase that caught my eye is that the UK is now described in the Draft Agreement as an "independent coastal state". I wonder if Bill Bryson will be renaming his first book: "Notes from a Small Independent Coastal State"?

President Hollande once warned darkly that there would be 'consequences' if the UK left the EU.. in the same way that Mafia protection teams warn restaurant owners of the fire risk if they fail to pay up. The EU has carefully contrived an end game where neither of the two choices on offer to the UK are especially appetising. One is to agree to this preposterous Draft Agreement that will see the UK shunted into a siding - from where there's no release until the EU agrees - a position that will cost us somewhere in the region of £40bn to £60bn - a colossal sum sufficient to buy between 162 and 243 brand new Boeing 777-300ER airliners.

The alternative is to walk away and trade on WTO terms. However, untangling the resultant chaos with an uncooperative - oops, sorry, what am I saying! I mean our "friends and partners" in the EU could be challenging indeed!

All this to exit a political grouping of nation states that we entered into freely (following a democratic referendum) - and one that we now wish to leave (again, following a democratic referendum). 
 
11th November. Back from walking the dog alongside a surging sea and, on returning home, I was faced with a sight on the television that stuck in my craw: a group of black-clad world leaders walking in a gaggle along a Parisian boulevard towards the Arc de Triomphe. Maybe I'm out of step with popular opinion but I've long held the view that it's politicians who cause wars and the sight of their faux-sombre faces as they 'paid homage' was too much to take - especially as they saw fit to preface it with a glitzy dinner last night at the Orsay Museum. (it wouldn't do to pass up an opportunity of a free feed would it?)

One phrase that our politicians are careful to avoid using is that War is a failure of politics. The only people who should be upfront and central in remembering and honouring the dead are not those who cause wars but the military - those who have to pay the price for doing the politicians' dirty work - and the families of the bereaved. It is only they who have to confront, and pay, the true cost of war - and it's at times like these that we should pay our respects to those of the military - both dead and living - who stepped forward at times of national need to serve their country - unlike the politicians, whose instinctive reaction is to take a step to the rear. Am I alone in thinking this? If our politicians describe our fallen soldiers as our 'Glorious Dead', how should we best describe our politicians?
These images are almost unwatchable - row upon row upon row of silent witnesses, forever on parade in their serried stone ranks. Why them - why not me? If one man's death is a tragedy - what words could be used to describe all these deaths?
10th November. At around 7.20pm (UTC + 1) this evening, an asteroid the size of a house, and travelling at 4 miles per second, will whiz past Planet Earth - missing us by an estimated 237,000 miles. This appears far enough away until you think of its speed in standard astronomical units (light years) - then it sounds far more threatening as its miss distance will be less than 1½ light-seconds away - which is uncomfortably close. Gulp. Odd to think that everything we know hangs on such small margins.. You can watch it here with the Virtual Telescope Project from 7pm.

9th November. It's usually about this time of the year that we light the fire - and think about putting one of our favourite videos on. I think we could well be in for an evening at the foot of the Ngong Hills:
Health Warning: A few lines on Brexit. Juliet Samuel writes for the Daily Telegraph and she has produced a stinging (& well-deserved) one minute critique of Theresa May's shambolic handling of the negotiations. (don't forget to turn on the volume)

8th November. The questions have started - "Any idea what you'd like for Christmas..?" Truthful answer? No.. Probably the only thing I'd really like is more time between Christmasses. They seem to be coming along more frequently these days. Must be a sign of the times. Then there's the question of what can I get for Madame. I walk around town and fail to get inspired. I prefer to do my Christmas shopping in November - as it takes the desperation out of it! There's nothing worse than going out on Christmas Eve having to find something that doesn't look like the last chicken in Sainsburys!

Bayonne (& the rowing club) looks nice in the winter sun here:
7th November. On Sunday we took a drive out to the stunningly beautiful Les Aldudes valley to see the autumn colours but I think we were a couple of weeks too early. As we climbed higher and higher we started to see snow lodged in gullies high up on the hills and, far off in the distance, the top of the Pic du Midi was completely covered in snow. We finally achieved a long held ambition of mine which was to visit Urepel - a small village that I had always thought might be as far from Calais as it's possible to go and still remain in mainland France. (Just checked - it's actually Menton that's the furthest)
Urepel
We're having some work done in the kitchen by someone who comes from this valley and, speaking of restaurants in that area, he told us to try this place.. They've not heard of nouvelle cuisine here.

There's also a Logis hotel - St-Sylvestre (above) with a restaurant that's long been on my 'to do' list. (Top tip: don't forget the elasticated waist trousers..)

Here's a short video about the branding of the cattle* in Urepel and their subsequent journey back up the mountain to their summer pastures. 

* they seem completely unconcerned by the process.

3rd November. A cold start to the morning today and mist lay on the river as I drove with the dog out for a mid-morning walk through the woods. Major advantage - he didn't come back soaking wet from here! If I'd still been rowing, it would have been an uninspiring and damp start to the day in the mist.

2nd November. Here's a glimpse of the future.. think these boards fitted with hydrofoils will be all over the beaches down here next year:

1st November. Today being la fête de la Toussaint (All Saints day), it's a public holiday here in France, despite it being a secular state. Traditionally, it's the day when families return, like so many spawning salmon, to their natal village to pay homage at the graves of their loved ones - usually with a bunch of chrysanthemums*. 

Bearing in mind that in France, as in many other countries today, the descendants of those resting in peace have often moved far from their spiritual home, the days surrounding Toussaint see an exodus of elderly drivers, unaccustomed to driving long distances (especially after a good lunch!), out on the roads. For this reason, Toussaint is associated with a peak in the number of road accidents. This year, as Toussaint falls on a Thursday, many people here will be taking a day of holiday (known as a pont - or a bridge) - thus finishing up with a 4 day weekend. If I have to be out on the roads in the afternoon, I try to keep well clear of cars driven by anyone wearing a hat! Say no more!

* Chrysanthemums are traditionally associated with cemeteries in France, so it's not a good idea to offer them to your hostess when invited out.

I mentioned a day or two ago about the trees on Allées Paulmy being trussed up in anticipation of the roadworks necessary for the new Tram'bus service - well, here they are! You could be forgiven for thinking it must be a slow news day here - but as it's Toussaint, everywhere's closed and it's grey and wet.

Madame has just opened a tin of cassoulet* (below) for lunch. (It's said that sniffy Parisian chefs are fond of saying that the only kitchen implement required for 'cuisine du Sud Ouest' is a tin opener!) I spotted a half empty/half full (you choose) bottle of Saint-Pourçain lurking on the kitchen table - so there's hope!

* from here - given to us by some kind neighbours.

I stopped earlier in the year (en route to Provence) at the Aire de Port Lauragais, a service station on the A61 some 30km south east of Toulouse (it's worth making a note of this address). The service station lies at the intersection of the autoroute and the Canal du Midi - and there you'll find La Dinée situated on an island in the marina. It's one of only two privately owned restaurants to be found on the French autoroute network and if, like me, you enjoy the traditional cooking of South West France, then the menu there is the mother lode. Whatever else you do, go there hungry. The cassoulet that we're having in a few minutes comes from the Hotel du Lauragais (map here) and they also supply La Dinée. I'd recommend the La Dinée set menu for 20€70.. starting with the salade Lauragaise (smoked duck breast and duck hearts) followed by the Cassoulet Maison de Castelnaudary (Try as I might, I couldn't finish mine). A nap in the car park afterwards will seem like a very good idea. I'd be surprised if there's a better cassoulet than this anywhere. As you might expect, there's a Confrérie of the cassoulet..

Far be it from me - un Anglais! - to suggest one recipe is better than another as each town around Castelnaudary is proud of its own version of this classic dish. Here's another view on how it should be prepared.

Verdict: Marks out of 10 for the cassoulet? 37! Thick with haricot beans, Toulouse sausageduck confit and richly flavoured with duck fat.. Just the job for a cold winter's day and excellent for keeping the draughts out.
We've just had a few heavy rain showers blow through out of the Bay of Biscay - so I'm hoping that this isn't a foretaste of how the rest of November is going to pan out.


Thursday, 3 September 2009

17. Noël

I was just saying to Madame the other day that so far we’ve seen no reference to the approach of Christmas in any of the shops – no towering displays of marzipan or jars of mincemeat or John Lennon singing “So this is Christmas”.. or Easter eggs in Woolworths. (now - unbelievably - closed for good in the UK I heard)

So imagine my surprise this morning when I heard on the radio the unmistakeable sound of 'Jingle Bells'…! It made me think – well here we are with less than 2 months to go to Christmas and still no Christmas Lights.. The French just don’t have a clue do they.. (irony!) I would guarantee that, for the last few weeks, supermarkets back home will already have been fully set up with dedicated aisles for such traditional English Christmas essentials as German Stollen bread, French marzipan, Belgian chocolates, Turkish delight, Italian panettone cakes and the like (we contribute the spuds!).. and deep freezes full of turkeys the size of small boulders..

One afternoon we went into Bayonne to a “Depôt Vente”. This is where you can take things to sell – mainly furniture.. The Depôt Vente sets the price and then takes a percentage of the proceeds. We went there looking to see what they had in the way of armoires. There were some in stock and while they were certainly cheaper than we’d seen in antique shops, it was fairly clear why. I think these are the kind of places that you need to drop in every week to see the new stock as it arrives - except that, like stuffing mushrooms, life is just too short for some things.
After this, it was starting to feel like evening so we came back. Madame had bought some chestnuts so we had these roasted with a cup of tea (living dangerously!).

For the French holiday on 1st November, we planned on going to Les Aldudes - a village buried in the Basque mountain country that straddles the entrance of a valley that, while it runs deep into Spain, is still French. The valley's chief claim to fame is that it produces arguably the best Jambon de Bayonne in the area. And, of course, many of the other products that the Basque cuisine is famous for.

There is a saying that some lofty Parisian food critics are fond of quoting that the only implement needed in a kitchen in the South West is - a tin opener! While this was meant as a clever put-down, nevertheless I think it does hit on a truth. Much of the great products of the South West can be preserved.. Think of confit de canard, foie gras, haricot beans in graisse d’oie (goose fat), rillettes, cassoulet and pipérade (though personally I have some doubts about this last one) et al... There isn't much that can't be put in a can or a jar - but it's none the worse for that. It's possible to buy all these products via mail order too!
Post visit report: Well, we had a great day out today high up in the Pyrenees.. First of all, the weather was supposed to be 3C in the morning warming up to 12C in the afternoon. Anyway, we set off and as we climbed up and up the skies cleared and we were gradually able to see the start of the high Pyrenees in the distance – the mountains near us were only about 2-3,000‘ high – further east, I think they go up to about 9,000’ or even higher. As we climbed, the full extent of the Pyrenees started to unfold in front of us.. and just when we thought we’d seen one high mountain, in the distance behind it, we’d see another even higher one - and in the blue misty distance behind that one, another one..
Les Aldudes
.. and yet another one beyond that. And all the time, the valley sides were getting steeper and steeper as we wound our way ever-upwards.. It was difficult to keep one eye on the driving with all this magnificent mountain scenery around us and at one moment, I thought I saw the pale outline of a snow-covered white peak that was higher than the rest, way way off in the distance and I thought, surely not, a snow covered peak so early in the season but on the regional news when we returned home they featured it too. First snow of the year in the Pyrenees..

Stirring mountain scenery and it was difficult to keep my eyes on the road as the country opened up before us. We ran up the valley on an old single track smuggler’s road that climbed up towards Spain and near the top we pulled over to eat our lunch.. I opened my window and looked out across the expanse of a great deep valley – white farmhouses with red roofs were dotted across the valley floor. It was through rugged border country like this that the men and women of the wartime Comet Line (organised by 24 year old Andrée De Jongh, a brave Belgian woman) famously helped Allied airmen to escape down from the Low Countries, through the occupied zone in France, across the Pyrenees into neutral Spain and home via British-controlled Gibraltar. In fact, in Sare, a Basque village close to the border, I recently discovered a newly placed memorial (below) to Victor Ithurria, a highly decorated and legendary figure who served in the SAS with great distinction during WWII before being killed on 25th August 1944..

I saw some large birds flying around in circles and I realised I was watching vultures (griffon vultures..) circling around in the air currents.. As I watched, I saw one furl its wings and dive down to the ground, followed by another, and another. Soon, there must have been 20-30 of them down there. Whatever was down there under a tree was getting a good pecking. Another British pensioner who won’t stop for a snooze after lunch again! We first saw them here a few years ago when we were up high in the mountains.. I remember thinking at the time, if I didn’t know better I’d swear they were vultures. When we got back to the hotel, they told us that, yes, there were quite a few vultures up in the hills.. Certainly makes you think twice about falling asleep in the sun after a good lunch..

We next came to a small village, ie, about 5 houses together, and one of them was a hotel with a restaurant. Out of interest we stopped to look at the lunch menu… it was £8 for a 4 course lunch…! (these are 1960 prices!) Next time we go up there, we might just try it. Anyway, we continued higher up the valley and soon we came to the border. There was no border as such – just a garage and a smoky café.. (smoking still being allowed indoors in Spain)

The countryside looked spectacularly good in its burnt copper autumn colours under a cloudless deep blue sky. After this, we went to St Jean Pied de Port. This is a very old town in the heart of the Pyrenees where Madame’s father’s family originated.

It’s on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. People still come from all over the world to walk the route. It was getting really warm now and after blocking various pavements for a while we found a tea shop and sat outside in the sun. Madame couldn’t believe that she was still wearing her sunglasses on 1st November..!
Main street of St Jean Pied de Port

Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port
At the moment, there’s still that holiday feel to life down here because we’re still "camping out" in the gîte with a minimum of our belongings. I just have the one English book and that’s “Out of Africa” - which I’ve read twice since we’ve been here - as all our books are in storage. As a compulsive reader, forgetting to pack a box of books in the van was a major mistake.

This is "Tarantella" by Hilaire Belloc.. (try reading it aloud)

Do you remember an Inn, Miranda?

Do you remember an Inn?
And the tedding and the spreading
Of the straw for a bedding,
And the fleas that tease in the High Pyrenees,
And the wine that tasted of tar?
And the cheers and the jeers of the young muleteers
(Under the vine of the dark veranda?)
Do you remember an Inn, Miranda,
Do you remember an Inn?
And the cheers and the jeers of the young muleteers
Who hadn't got a penny,
And who weren't paying any,
And the hammer at the doors and the Din?
And the Hip! Hop! Hap! of the clap

Of the hands to the twirl and the swirl
Of the girl gone chancing, glancing, dancing,

Backing and advancing,
Snapping of a clapper to the spin
Out and in
And the Ting, Tong, Tang of the Guitar.
Do you remember an Inn, Miranda?

Do you remember an Inn?

There is another verse but I like this one.