Toulouse - Ancient, Medieval and Modern

It's been an incredible week - exhausting but full of exciting opportunities, especially for Son 1, who was at the Museum of Antiquities in Toulouse for his first work experience. As I was saying earlier, in a rare fly-by the computer, this has seems to have involved me spending most of the week navigating narrow, medieval city streets by car. Sheesh! But of course I knew I could make the best of this - on days without much work I spent lots of time in the city centre, which I normally avoid. Yesterday morning I dropped off the young man (because that's how he seems this week) and went around and then into the medieval basilica church of St. Sernin. Poor St. Sernin is a home-grown martyr. He was the local church leader in Toulouse at a time when the Roman city felt particularly threatened by invasion, and they tried to appease the traditional gods by insisting the Christian leader sacrifice a bull. St Sernin refused and was tied to the bull for his pains. The bull ran off (its route is immortalised in the street name 'Rue du Taur') and the saint's remains were buried where this church now stands. The church is much more recent than this story - it's mainly what we would call 'Norman' in England, although that's meaningless down here!

On one side of St. Sernin's basilica is the old medieval hospital, which is now the museum. I spent a bit of time looking round it, and was then joined by Son 1 - whenever he didn't have appointments or tasks he was given free time to drift round the museum. He gave me the guided tour that he'd already been given by the staff, and showed me lots of lovely little details that I wouldn't have found on my own - particularly details such as carved snails and lizards on the marble plaques from the imperial villa near Toulouse. It was great to give him the chance to share his knowledge!

The rather functional, modern vehicles in the photo of the museum are explained in this snapshot! Life goes on in Toulouse - behind the medieval buildings and above the Roman mausoleum was a carriage, setting up ready to ride round the city advertising a Blood Drive in the City Square! I hope they got lots of blood - we can't give ours here because we lived in Britian during the Mad Cow years...

Have a lovely weekend, friends! We will be recovering, chopping wood, and hosting the usual round of teenaged boy-related events.

Art in Toulouse

This week is all about Son 1's work experience - I seem to be contstantly shuttling him into and out of Toulouse - but it's well worth it, given how much he's loving learning about the archaeology of Toulouse at the Antiquities Museum. When not working, I've decided to make the most of having to go into the centre of the city (I usually skirt it for my teaching tasks). Yesterday I wasn't working in the morning so I went to the Fine Art Museum to see an exhibition that had caught my eye when it was first advertised:

It's an exhibition of the small, intimate paintings of individuals, families and rural scenes which became popular shortly before the French Revolution. Instead of showing powerful people or religious stories on huge canvasses, the Dutch fashion for painting real, ordinary people, spread to France and was beautifully interpreted in both pre- and post-Revolutionary France. Rich people paid to be painted and poor people also became subjects for the artists - clothes and skin were depicted in incredible detail, and background details were surprisingly sketchy. The silks and ribbons of the aristocracy and the cottons and muslins of the Revolution and Empire periods were wonderful! The exhibition was all I hoped for and more, and it was a wonderful way to make use of my trips into Toulouse.

Tomorrow... the museum and one of the big churches, followed by lunch with Son 1!

This week...

Hello everyone - I've been really enjoying the moments I've had to pop over and visit those who are joining in the Thrill of What You Already Have - do look in my sidebar and go to see the posts, if you haven't already! January is turning out to be incredibly busy, which is odd given than my language school has very little work for me...This week is a particularly exciting one - Son 1 is doing his first work experience, and is delighted to have been accepted at Toulouse's Museum of Antiquities. He'll have some guided tours around the museum and the different sites, some interviews with different staff members, a few tasks, and some free time in the museum.

Have a great week yourselves.

Update: He's got a full timetable - the 'childcare' they referred to is merely sitting with the staff as they accession artefacts - he gets to join in and he really likes that! Today he saw some gold coins with the head of Nero and got to measure bells for an exhibition on musical instruments. Fantastic!

The Thrill of What You Alreay Have - January

Welcome to The Thrill of What You Already Have - a monthly opportunity to take inspiration from a picture and create a display using only what you already own. The theory is that the thrill of shopping isn't the only, or even the best, way to enjoy that wonderful frisson of 'look what I got!' If we can get the same frisson for free, we're meeting budgets, resolutions, restrictions and environmental concerns with a thrill instead of with a groan! Here goes... This month's picture was a wonderfully cool 1930s poster advertising Dunfermline, Scotland's ancient capital. The grey silhouettes, black shadows and pale orangey-pink gothic architecture are actually quite a challenge in the first month of this event, I think.

So here is my own collection of 'stuff', raided from drawers, shelves and boxes around the house. Shadows come free! I was quite pleased, seeing the photos lined up together in the file, that they did blend nicely with my photographs of the original railway advertising poster.

Now on to my gloat over the lovelies I found! The tray is Scottish, which is appropriate. It's from the National Trust for Scotland and presumably depicts a Scottish castle..? Really, I should have looked before I put things on top of it. I wanted to add more Gothic shapes, so that's the wooden lid, more black (those lovely carved, wooden African animals), more orange and more natural textures (the lichen ball and Chinese lanterns) and something French:this sweet autograph book with the little 1920s mademoiselle eating a lovely orangey fruit. Actually, the silk on the bobbin behind her is French too.For height and greyness I was pleased to remember my lavender-scented candle with the grey baroque-type decoration. I put it on a plastic cup on top of the wooden pedestal, and covered the cup with a black silk scarf. Then it was just a bit more of the natural bits and bobs and a pretty Russian painted egg which seemed to have the right colours.

So there we have it: January! I'm going to avoid Mr Linky (I'd have to pay to get that done, which is not in the spirit of the thing) and will make up a blog list of all your posts, if you just let me know here when you've posted! If you want to join in, the 'rules' such as they are can be found in the post below this one. I'm really looking forward to seeing how you interpret the picture with what you already have!

EDIT: Blogger is being really strange about comments at the moment. Even I can't get into the comments box for this post tonight! So please do email me if you would like to join in, and do leave a link to your blog so that I can find you! I'm going to try to reset my comments box now, to see if it helps...

The Thrill of What You Alreay Have - Launch

Back in October, when we were all running out of money for thrifting, we were discussing the value of rediscovering old treasures, and the pleasure to be found in the things you already own. We suggested that a monthly blogging event for 2012 could be a lot of fun, so here it is:Commenters felt that Carolyn summed up the ideas nicely when she said: "I think this is an excellent idea, esp as it not only encourages us to be content, to be happy, to appreciate and enjoy what we have; but it will also encourage us to look for things we had forgotten, to tidy out those cupboards, to reclaim old forgotten loves."This is the idea - every month I post a photo from my calendar (this year it's iconic Scottish rail tourism posters from the 1920s and '30s) and we use that photo - colour schemes, shapes, images, location, content - ANY aspect of it - to inspire us. We search through our drawers, boxes, attics, stables etc and make up a display of lovely or surprising things, and then share a photo on our blog. If you're like me, having a monthly excuse to rummage, combine, display and then gloat will be a very enjoyable experience. Sharing our pictures will really give us a chance to thrill over our 'stuff' without any need to go out and buy any more of it. And seeing photos of other people's ideas should give us further inspiration of what we can do ourselves.
The one key rule is - work with what you already have. OK, you knew that. I think the only other rule should be DON'T APOLOGISE! You don't have to apologise for missing a month or four, and please don't apologise for having something similar to/different from other people - just do what you like, as and when you can!



So, if you'd like to join in this month, grab the title photo and put it in your sidebar if you can, and then get musing about what this Dunfermline picture sparks in your mind. I'm thinking that I might need to go into the garden and get some twigs (garden stuff is certainly What We Already Have) but I've not got going on greys, oranges, pinks, blacks, gothic arches etc... I need to get thinking! When I've got it all together, I'll make a little display on the wooden chest in front of my calendar, and take a photo or five to share with you. In that post I'll try to get Mr Linky or something similar working, so that you can link your posts to mine.



Have I forgetten anything? Let me know what you think...

DIY Galette des Rois

Thanks for your thoughts yesterday, and for your ongoing comments on my Coming to France post. Having discharged my maternal duties for now (long wait at doctor's for Son 1's sore foot, and research for vocabulary for Son 2's Spanish homework *a love letter!!!*) I can now take the time to tell you about our homemade Galette des Rois. Firstly, my search for rolls of puff pastry scored a real result - our supermarket's own brand does a special Epiphany pack - fève and crown included! I snapped it up. If you're looking for the history and tradition of this cake, I talked about it here two years ago.

The pack also includes a recipe. I did find an internet recipe and I gave it to you last Friday, but this one is just that much easier, and, given a very, very sore bottom and reduced bendability (40-something women should not ice-skate unless very good at it) I decided that easy was desirable, this weekend!

Relieved to be standing upright, I put the first puff pastry roll and its baking parchment into the case. I pricked the base with a fork, to stop it bubbling up, and then I put the filling ingredients into a bowl - I did put in half ground almonds and half ground hazelnuts, as my internet recipe suggested.

I mixed it up (half-heartedly, as the butter was rather less soft that ideal) and put it into the base.

Then I put the second puff pastry circle on top and turned over/crimped down the edges - all very simple but fun.In the baker's near the ice rink I'd been stiffly studying the patterns cut into the tops of their galettes. My pack suggested these ideas:I felt it was wise to start with something simple, so I went for straight lines

but made the pattern diamond-shaped rather than square. I think it worked well!

Spot the deliberate mistake?I left out the fève! I bet that happens quite often. I found a bit near the edge where I thought I could shove it in without being too obvious, and glazed the cake with egg yolk.

Part way through the baking, the egg yolk was darkening much quicker than I liked, so I hauled it out and gave it a baking paper cover before putting it in for the rest of the time.And here it is! With bought pastry, it really only took about 15 minutes to make. I'm not sure about the cost difference - it probably does cost less to make it yourself, even with the expensive ground hazelnuts, but only just. The key question is: did it taste better? Well, I think it did. I didn't get photos of it cut, as I'd intended, because it disappeared so fast! We ate it, warmed, with ice cream or cream. And guess who found the féve? Me! Here are this year's fèves on our mantelpiece - Ben got the santon (traditional Provençal nativity figure) with the water jar, Son 2 found the flamingo (see map of France on the back showing were you find flamingoes in our country) and I got the little circus elephant. Hmm, very French that, still having circus animals...Tomorrow, I'm going to launch The Thrill of What You Already Have. We discussed this last year and decided that a fun, and free, blog project for the year would be to do a monthly display of rediscovered treasures, or things we already own, seen in a new light. If you're interested in enjoying the good things you already own, instead of going out and buying more, then please do pop in tomorrow and find out what's going on!

Made it!

Thanks for all your comments. I made it and it was yummy and tomorrow, I hope, there'll be time for me to tell you how it went... but mother's duties call right now. See you later!

Celebrate!

Oh yes, the celebrations haven't finished here in France! In our family we link the Epiphany King Cakes to our own celebrations - the anniversary of our arrival in this country. Thank you for all your comments on my 'heart-felt' post below - I feel very privileged that I have friends in blogging who will read what I have to say and take the time to respond. So, if you've read the post below, you know that our arrival in France was not without incident, and that, although the good things (like these gateaux des rois) started straight away, there were plenty of hard things to deal with for a number of years. As you clearly understood, looking at your comments, I don't regret our move here one little bit, even though it was difficult. And the uncomfortable process of 'breaking' has proved to be rewarded one-hundred times over, so much so that I'm not so scared of difficult times any more. And yes, I can speak French now - we had a meal with two of Ben's colleagues last night and through it I was thinking: "I am chatting in French, I wish my blogging friends could see me!" French is a language of beauty and perfection, and my French is neither beautiful nor perfect, but it does work.So tonight is Twelfth Night ('or what you will') and we'll be taking down our fairly low-key Christmas decorations. Then I'm going to celebrate Epiphany this weekend by baking my very-first galette des rois. I've found a recipe here in English (American cups or metric measurements) if you'd like to join me! And for those of you who read French or are good at code-breaking (I know there are a few readers in both categories!), here is a recipe for our more local couronne des rois, which is a bread-based delight, as pictured at the top of my post. I'll let you know how we get on - please tell me if you have a go too!

Seven Years in France...

Seven years ago I was reeling. We'd taken a leap in the dark, accepting a contract for Ben which was so informal it was hardly written down, and we'd worked up to the last minute, trying to pack in between jobs. I'd tried to take a few French lessons but had very little success - the boys had more fun with a French woman who'd moved to our town, but I was paralysed by bad memories of school French lessons and could only rely on Ben, who'd spent holidays with French families as a teenager, and had continued with evening classes when the boys were tiny.

Seven years ago we'd spent one night in a French motel, inconveniently located far from our rented home, because I'd booked it over the internet and didn't really know where anything was around Toulouse.

Seven years ago we drove to our rental home, with no furniture and no fire lit. The boys played, Ben did something practical, and I huddled in the corner in a sleeping bag. I'd had a run of illness all autumn and winter, culminating in a recurring virus which kept me low for the whole of Christmas at Ben's parents' home.

Seven years ago I felt lost, helpless and incapable of analysing my own situation. I could only hope to press on.

Seven years ago we had breakfast in the motel and saw a French couronne de roi for the first time! We ate one again last night, to celebrate.

Seven years ago we drove out to the beautiful rental house which was so 'Ben and Flossie' that it infuenced our choice of home when we chose to buy out here.

Seven years ago we were welcomed by kind French motel staff and new neighbours.

Seven years ago the boys started free school, with free transport, before we'd even paid a cent of French tax.

Seven years ago I began to notice the weather, the seasons, the sky, in a way I'd never done before.

Seven years ago I began to break. I needed to break because I was too inflexible. The break took a few years and it hurt. It hurt me and it hurt other people as I tried to hold on to my inflexibility with ever-fiercer certainty.

But finally the break came to a point where I wasn't inflexible any more. I became open. I became, just a bit, softer.

Until I had broken, I couldn't take in more. Until I had broken, I couldn't become whole.

Something much more complete, much more real, is filling the gaps caused by that break.

This is a story you may recognise from your own point of view. From my viewpoint, as a Christian, all those years of singing this song now seem to finally be making sense;

Spirit of the living God,
Fall afresh on me.
Spirit of the living God,
Fall afresh on me.
Break me,
Melt me,
Mould me,
Fill me.
Spirit of the living God,
Fall afresh on me.

2011 - The year in seasonal food

Happy New Year, friends! Thanks for all your seasonal wishes and your excellent blog posts, which I'm slowly enjoying between unpacking, housework, homework, boy-minding etc (there are the usual five boys here at the moment, although they can mainly mind themselves).

I wanted to do a now-traditional review of the past year, and spent some time pondering the most appropriate set of photos to accompany the post. I finally fixed on seasonal food, one photo for each month - harvesting, cooking and eating being such a good way to mark the seasons, and thrifty and environmentally friendly, too. The photos all came from my blog, so I was limited by what I'd posted about - some months I hardly photographed food at all. But, rest assured, we ate... So, in January 2011, various members of the family went skiing and cooked a hot meal in the snowy Pyrenees. In blogging we enjoyed the excellent Wind in the Willows week, which has created its own follow-up event in the form of a touring book, which I believe will make its way to France at some point in 2012! I also asked the question, "What is Modern Vintage?" and you came up with some good answers. The food photo of the month is this Roasted Pumpkin and "Wild" Mushroom tart. The pumpkins are in the kitchen again, slowly being eaten up - it's a good thing I searched the photos and was reminded of this recipe!

In February I over-did the jam in this Valentine's Day tart. Sticky and sweeeeeeeeet! Other than that, we had a big blogging conversation about the use of handkerchiefs. I love 'em. I sold quite a few of them in my blog shop this year, too.

In March my friend's chickens started laying again and I had to 'help out' by taking some eggs off her hands. It's a hard life... It was also the town floral fair and we surround the outside of the house with 10€ worth of pansies, which lasted well into the summer. In a Vide Grenier I bought some initialled ribbon, which has since travelled as far as Australia in a swap!

April was the first month when I started photographing food out of doors, although we were actually eating the occasional meal outside from February onwards. This is our Easter Simnel Cake, decorated with some of the famous pansies! In the run-up to Easter we had our annual Pause in Lent, I had fun joining in the swap and posts for Thrifty Week, and I posted some prayers for our children which are still quite important for me.

The cherries ripened on our friends' tree in May. In the relevant post I said that we'd eaten cherries with every meal one day - it's great to read back over the posts because one forgets stuff like that. Our own tree is tiny and we're lucky to get one cherry a year off it at the moment. Paience...

June was a really busy, mainly exciting month. I met up with some lovely bloggers in London, which was such a great opportunity to spend time and chat - well worth doing again! I picked blueberries from the local farm, cooked loads and froze more. I will be back there in 2012! The downside of the month was Son 1's operation on his knee - it's good to have great healthcare here in France but even so, an operation is nasty. He's due for a second one (the other knee, a related problem...) at the end of January 2012.

Whilst recuperating, Son 1 celebrated his 14th birthday and spent some time reading his Hairy Bikers' cookbooks. When he was up on his feet again he introduced us to Courgette and Feta Fritters. Possibly the best recipe we discovered this year? And we usually have enough courgettes in the garden to do this. Other than harvesting and eating garden produce, July was a productive time for Brocante shopping for me - I found a closing-down sale! I bought a fair bit of china, including the red-stencilled plates in the photo. They've been in constant use ever since.

By August the garden was producing so well that we were looking for recipes to deal with gluts. This Cherry Tomato Chutney was a good new addition to our repertoire! We had both a Staycation and a Gite holiday (the latter with Ben's parents) in August and it was a very special month.

Ben's birthday towards the end of September prompted the boys to generous acts of cake-baking. Son 2 ALWAYS makes carrot cake and Son 1 decided to revisit Bruce Bogtrotter's Chocolate Cake, from his Roald Dahl Revolting Recipes book. It is NOT revolting. The Vide Greniers of the area were still going strong and I was still hauling in some lovely finds. I had to slow down on the spending, in fact...

Finally, we were back to photographing and cooking food indoors in October, although we were sometimes still eating it outside. The garden peppers and aubergines were great this year, as were the chillis (now well-distributed around our relatives in smoked, dried and jellied form). Happily, given my lack of disposable income, I mooted the idea of 'The Thrill of what you Already Have' and you seemed interested - more to follow on that for a 2012 monthlyblogging project.

In France there is a seasonal wine for November, as well as specific foods. We head to the local supermarket and buy whichever Beaujolais Nouveau they are favouring - you can rely on them to choose a decent one and sell it at a reasonable price. We were not disappointed this year! In blogging, our Pause in Advent began. It's really good to join with blogging friends and see their different 'takes' on the run-up to Christmas, and to also see how themes emerge despite our different approaches.

Finally, in December we threw ourselves into Christmas with just about the right balance of work (mainly on homemade gifts and food) and relaxation ("Christmas Machine, what Christmas Machine?"). We spent time with the majority of our relatives in England and Scotland and offloaded the preserved contents of our garden onto each of them. We were home for the New Year and feasted on cèpes (wild mushrooms) bottled for us by our neighbour this autumn. We are looking forward to another year of thrift in food-shopping, productivity in the garden and sharing excess produce - I think you and we are all getting the hang of this enforced thrift, don't you? It's not actually a hardship, when you see how we've feasted. I hope you're able to feel the same.

And I know I quoted it last year, but surely there is no better verse for the turn of the year than this one:

"This, this is the God we adore!

Our faithful unchangeable Friend.

We'll praise Him for all that is past,

And trust Him for all that's to come!"