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~ A fairy-tale cottage by the Seine in Normandy

chaumierelesiris

Category Archives: Food

Bells, Hedgehogs, Sardines

21 Sunday Apr 2019

Posted by chaumierelesiris in Culture, Food, France, Normandy

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chocolate, Easter, Food

Savour the variety of Easter chocolate on offer in France. From the multiplicity of French labels in the major supermarkets (the global brands compete for a look-in) to the local chocolate makers – every village has at least one – the choices are delightful, and affordable. 

This charming hedgehog – herisson- nestling in his bag of grass from our local boulanger-turned-chocolatier for Easter. 

Normandy is known for its seafood – moules, oysters, coquilles St-Jacques – so why not chocolate versions?

Hens are everywhere: a chocolate French hen is to be expected. 
No Easter Bunny in France. Instead, the bells are said to fly away from the churches and return with chocolate by Easter morning. So there are chocolate bells galore although I have no pictures. But here’s a cheeky Easter bunny from the supermarket. 

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Gemma Bovery – A Norman Story

06 Saturday Sep 2014

Posted by chaumierelesiris in Culture, Food, Normandy

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Books, film, Flaubert, Gemma Bovery, Madame Bovary, Normandy

We’re getting excited about the forthcoming French film of Posy Simmonds’ comic novel, Gemma Bovery. Set in Normandy, it’s a modern retelling of the classic French novel Madame Bovary – with a heavy dose of English irony thrown in. The book is great on the English and the English in Normandy, on our relationship with the food, the countryside and the French. The film is released on September 10th in France, and stars Gemma Aterton. Here’s the trailer.

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Halloween Candy USA vs France

28 Monday Oct 2013

Posted by chaumierelesiris in Culture, Food, France

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candy, France, Halloween

Guess which is which!

American Halloween CandyFrench Halloween Candy“What’s this?” cried the French children, seemingly disgusted. But the basket was nearly emptied, and it was the American candy, not the beautiful French candy, that went first as the children gorged themselves.

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Le pain: la fin de la faim!

13 Saturday Apr 2013

Posted by chaumierelesiris in Food, Normandy

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bread, museum, Normandy

On Easter Monday we visited one of my favourite close-by places, an undiscovered gem of a museum: the bread oven, a cottage in La-Haye-de-Routot in the middle of the Forêt de Brotonne that maintains a traditional bread oven. Most weekends they bake and sell hundreds of their sweet-smelling loaves all afternoon. On this day, as well as the loaves, there was chocolate-filled brioche, an Easter treat.

Bread storage, Bread Oven Museum, Normandy

Bread Oven, Normandy

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Night and Day

08 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by chaumierelesiris in Food, Normandy

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Armada, Art, home decor, Impressionist Festival, Le Havre, oysters, Rouen, Seine

This year we did it the Norman way. The local oysters came from the supermarket, of all places–but only after a protracted discussion with the fishmonger about just how fresh the oysters were, and how to store them, and what size is best (2 is larger and better than 3). Oyster knives were secured, space was made in the fridge, and the last evening of the year was celebrated with oysters, champagne, foie gras and prune-stuffed pork loin (based on a Jane Websterrecipe).

Normandy Oysters

I’d wanted to do it this way for a long time–you see the oyster boxes piled high at market in December–but didn’t know how or have the confidence to do it alone. We had keen company: she had holidayed in Brittany as a teen, and remembered the men wearing oven gloves as they swore at the boxes of recalcitrant oysters. He claimed to have shucked oysters “once or twice”–know that an Englishman always understates his skill. The oysters were prepared, kept cool over ice and served with lemon, vinaigrette and scallions. Perfect.

New Years Eve Table, Normandy

I went a bit Martha Stewart on the New Years Eve table using bits of ivy, mistletoe and rosemary from the garden. The silvery tablecloth is from Zara Home, and extra sparkle was provided by our guests in the form of a hostess gift (as if the shucking weren’t enough), these gorgeous festive napkin rings from The White Company.

Napkin ring from The White Company

The next morning the Seine at the end of the garden was as perfect as it can be. It had gone all Monet, reflecting the trees and clouds so that even the most unpainterly among us couldn’t miss the mirror effect.

Seine, Normandy

In 2013 two of the major events in Upper Normandy will focus on the Seine. The Impressionist Festival from April to September will put on six exhibitions and many activities on the theme of water in Impressionist paintings. The Rouen Armada in June will host tall ships along the Seine from Le Havre to Rouen. No better way, then, to start the year than on the banks of this great, beautiful river.

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Grandmothers, Markets, Food

28 Friday Dec 2012

Posted by chaumierelesiris in Culture, Food, France

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culture, famly, Food, France, Market, photographs

Lovely market pictures and a meditation on the pivotal role that grandmothers play in French food culture.

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Pont-l’Évêque Market Day

25 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by chaumierelesiris in Food, France, Normandy, Travel

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calvados, chestnuts, Flowers, Food, France, Market, Normandy, Pont-l'Évêque

One of the joys of spending time in Normandy is visiting the area’s bountiful food markets. Our local market, held on a Friday, never disappoints: but in those weeks when we’re traveling or otherwise occupied on a Friday, a close second best is exploring the other markets of Upper Normandy and Calvados. This month we made our way to Pont-l’Évêque, where the weekly market is held on a Monday. It’s home to the eponymous cheese, and to a lovely church which survived wartime bombing.Church, Pont L'Eveque

The point of local markets is they change every time. You go for the seasonal produce and for the individual sellers. It’s the opposite of supermarkets, where it’s downright inconvenient when the aisles are changed around adding a precious few minutes to your already too-long shopping time.

In the first week of November, there were chestnuts, quinces, and the alien-fabulous chou romanesco. I’ve never cooked any of these, although the guests at our cottage the week before had collected chestnuts in the forest and roasted them over the open hearth. I’ll have to try that, and here’s how.Chestnuts, NormandyQuinces, Normandy marketChou romanesco, Normandy

I love these pre-prepared bundles of meat: so lovely and neat and easy, the original, organic, guilt-free ready meal.Pont L'Eveque Market

And the chrysanthemums were flying: you could see them lining the village streets, and all around around the cemeteries where families were marking November 1st, a day of remembrance. We left some by the cottage gateposts: I wonder how far into the winter they’ll last.chrysanthemums, Normandy

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A Luncheon on Le Toussaint

20 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by chaumierelesiris in Food, France, Normandy

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All Saints Day, Cookbooks, family, Food, France, friends, holidays, Recipes, table setting, Toussaint

The significance of November 1st may be all but forgotten, little more than a hangover after the revelry of Halloween, in many places. But in France–where Halloween is observed as a holiday only for children—it’s Le Toussaint, All Saints Day on November 1st, that is widely marked. As one blogger explains, it’s a holiday when everyone goes home to be with their family and remember their loved ones who have died.

So it felt just right to mark 1st November this year with a family meal. We were joined by friends we’d not seen much in recent years, since they moved away from our London neighbourhood back to Paris with their four children. To mark the occasion I made Susan Loomis’s hearty lamb stew from her memoir-cookbook about moving to Normandy, On Rue Tatin: The Simple Pleasures of Life in a Small French Town, followed by David Lebovitz’s ever reliable Chocolate Mousse I from The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World’s Most Glorious–And Perplexing–City.

Table, Normandy

Something dreadful happened in the village this year. I’m not ready to write about it yet, may never be. It gave some peace and much-needed pleasure to prepare and then eat together at the cheerful looking table; to take a postpandrial walk in the woods together; to share with friends the downs and ups of busy lives in our different cities. It was indeed a day to remember, as well as to celebrate the lives we have.

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Wild Mushrooms

05 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by chaumierelesiris in Food, France

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Books, Food, France, recipe, wild mushrooms

The mushrooms are late in Normandy this year. So late that our village cancelled its usual foraging expedition in October and couldn’t find a date to reschedule on account of the Beaujolais Nouveau tasting event in November – which can’t possibly be delayed.

And so, in the last week of October, we encountered more mushrooms than usual along the forest paths around the cottage. I took these pictures in the hope that someone can tell me if any are edible. I reckon they aren’t: I reckon all the good ones have been plucked.

wild mushrooms
wild mushrooms
wild mushrooms

wild mushrooms and tree stump
wild mushrooms
wild mushrooms

wild mushrooms
wild mushrooms
wild mushrooms

I did cook with mushrooms, beautiful chanterelles from the market which were practically free and so flavourful. Milk-fed veal with giroles (replacing the giroles with chanterelles), pan-fried escalopes with cider and oodles of dollopy Norman cream, from Jane Webster’s luscious memoir-cookbook, At My French Table: Food, Family and Joie De Vivre in a Corner of Normandy. So easy and last minute, and all from market ingredients.

I’d like to try it with mushrooms I’ve picked myself. In France you can take your found mushrooms to the pharmacy, and the pharmacist tells you if they’re alright to eat. At first I didn’t believe this. But everyone – people I hardly knew, who couldn’t possibly be pulling my leg – insisted it was true.

Just as I was building up the confidence to do it, I had lunch with my pharmacist friend and her family on Toussaint. She explained to me that on the pharmacist course of study you can choose one of several tracks – hospital, industrial and so on. On the track she chose, she didn’t have to take the mushroom course. Later, she had a job in a pharmacy near Paris. People would bring in their mushrooms. She hated when that happened, because she couldn’t help them. She didn’t guess – but what if she had?

I don’t think I’ll be picking mushrooms this year. Not yet.

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Cider Days

14 Sunday Oct 2012

Posted by chaumierelesiris in Food, France, Les Iris, Normandy, Property in France

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apple trees, apples, autumn, Buying a house in France, calvados, cider, Food, France, Normandy

Autumn is all about apples in Normandy and, by association, cider. Normandy is the only region in France that doesn’t produce wine, but it makes up for it with an amazing array of cider and its more potent cousin, calvados.

We’ve tried much cider and calvados in Normandy. Everyone with a couple of apple trees seems to have a go at brewing. When we were house hunting in the region, no visit was complete without the owner offering a sample of their very own tipple, and we’ve seen more than a few dinner parties off with a bang by introducing their DIY calvados.

Orchard with sheep, Normandy

The nearest cider maker to Les Iris, signposted on the main road to Sainte-Opportune-La-Mare, is excellent. Like champagne, his cider comes in doux, brut and semi-brut.

Cider, Normandy

He also maintains a vigorous vegetable garden, and sometimes sells extra produce alongside the cider. He takes the children into the garden, lets them choose their vegetables, and pulls the selected plants out of the ground, shaking off the rich dark earth. It’s the freshest lettuce and rhubarb in the world.

Vegetable garden, Normandy

In our garden there’s only one very old and gnarled apple tree standing guard by the gate. One of these days it will go: until then, it insists on producing an abundance of large green-red apples that turn brown within seconds of being cut open. Still, we’re delighted to have a token apple tree, and one of these days we might plant another, of the cooking apple variety.

Apple tree, Normandy

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