Bize Bytes

15 November 2009

14 November 2009

Two things that are in abundance just now. And while there may not be any mushroom festivals in the immediate area (that I’ve heard of, though I suspect that there very likely are!) - there are two chestnut festivals in the region held at this time of year. One is held in St Pons de Thomières and the other in Olargues.

The one is St Pons is called la fête de la Châtaigne and the one in Olargues is called Fête du marron.

Marron and châtaigne are both words for ‘chestnut’ and it was a bit confusing asking the vendors the difference. There was a rather convoluted conversation (of which I understood not a lot!) about the trees being grafted ….

However, I’ve since found out that although they are both types of chestnut trees, the main difference is that marroniers are cultivated chestnut trees, and châtaigniers are the wild variety. There is also a difference in the fruit - the prickly ‘shell’ of the marron usually contains only one ‘nut’ while the châtaigne normally has several.

Regardless, they’re delicious freshly roasted and I bought a kilo of them for Christmas and will roast some of them on the little bbq and keep some of them for the brussel sprout/chestnut/smoked bacon recipe I’m going to do for Christmas lunch this year.

Oh, and speaking of Christmas, Paul my son is coming over from Perth in December for a couple of weeks – it will be the first time that we’ve had a family Christmas (i.e. with Nic and family) since February 2003 when Steve and I went over to Canada for ‘Christmas in February’ and Paul joined us there.

We’re a fairly unconventional family as far as Christmas is concerned – not too worried about the actual day – but we do like the turkey thing. Last year I spent Christmas day at Singapore Airport on my way back to Perth – but managed to have a celebration of sorts with the family here on the 22nd, and then again with Paul back in Perth several days after my arrival.

But the turkey - this year we’ll be having a free-range one on order from a little organic veggie garden (he raises a few chickens, ducks and turkeys as well) on the outskirts of St Marcel.

Nic ordered it the other week, and beyond saying it was for 7 to 8 people, and asking for one that was ‘grosse’, we really don’t know how big it’s going to be. Nic said the eyebrows of the farmer shot up, so we’re thinking ‘big’.

However, I digress. Chestnuts. So the festival at Olargues ran for both days of the weekend, and I was there on the Sunday.

It’s a gorgeous little village and is rightly designated as one of the most beautiful villages in France (Les Plus Beaux Villages de France).

Bize-Minervois is not on this list (yet! – do we want to be?), but Minerve which is just up the road, is.

Patisserie in Olargues

I digress again – here’s a short video clip of Olargues on the day – a little stall set up outside a quirky little shop – I’m not sure what it was selling! Though I see behind the piano there are wine cartons, so I suspect that perhaps is what they sell. Maybe stuffed animals too?

And then the other week, there was the annual new wine/chestunut walk with the regular group. Nic and Elizabeth and I had planned only to go for the walk – busy with other things and didn’t think we would make the picnic lunch. We had [wrongly] assumed that the annual event of roasting of the chestnuts and tasting the first of the new season’s wine would be part of the lunch. I have been to this the previous two years, but had obviously forgotten the order of the day!

So we turned up at 2pm, went for the walk with the group, and were pleasantly surprised that the lunch event and chestnuts/wine were separate – i.e. the chestnuts and the wine were after the walk! How very civilized, and what a nice surprise.

There are different types of chestnut roasters available, the bigger of them being custom-made cages. Someone here however has been very resourceful and used the inside of an old washing machine. Worked a treat. The chestnuts were delicious, and the first of the 2009 new wine (a 100% cabernet sauvignon from the Argeliers Cooperative) was very good indeed.

Now the mushrooms:

At the walk last week, only a few kilometres from Bize, there was an abundance of mushrooms growing all along the side of the paths, under the pines. There were a couple of Australians on the walk (visiting an Australian couple who live in the nearby village of Mailhac) who collected quite a few, once they had been reassured by the locals that they weren’t poisonous.

Here in France you can take mushrooms to the pharmacy to be checked before eating them. I’m sure this has saved many lives.

Interesting though, despite Claude’s delight with this monster ….

…. the locals didn’t collect any of these, even though they are edible and were everywhere. Apparently they’re just so-so, and they have their favourites, the best they tell me are the ceps.

And they’re not about to tell me where to find them. Claude does tell me however when they’ve found some, and just how delicious they were!

Perhaps I’ll feel like I’ve really ‘made it’ here if I ever get invited on a mushroom picking expedition! Guess I’ll just have to buy them from the markets for now.

And just to finish off, some gorgeous autumn colours of the vines around Bize.

31 October 2009

A weekend of Lodève and Joan Baez

Friends from Fremantle - Ron and Gaye - who have an apartment in Lodève, have been in France these last couple of months. We’ve managed to catch up here in Bize a few times – and consequently had a very social time doing it.

Incidentally, they have been keeping a blog of their own about their stay here, with some lovely photos of Spain. They’ve convinced me that Bilbao and San Sebastian are a must-see, so that will have to go on my increasing list of ‘places I would like to visit’.

Last weekend I went over to Lodève and spent a very pleasant weekend in their stomping ground, so to speak. Doesn’t do me any harm at all to move out of my comfort zone!

Their apartment in Lodeve

And while I’m very biased about this region and this lovely village, of course I can accept that there are many beautiful places here in France – and Lodève and the surrounding countryside are just that.

Very different – the vines peter out as it’s a fair bit higher, and you actually get to see a bit of livestock – non-existent in most of the Languedoc of course. Here, it’s grapevines and then more grapevines. Now why did I decide to settle here…?

Lodève itself is a town of about 7,000 people with a great Saturday market. We wandered into the cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-Fulcran de Lodève) and were greatly amused to hear chopsticks being played by a young boy up the front of the church!

The highlight of the weekend was the Joan Baez concert in Montpellier – even better, it was a free concert being held outdoors, at the end of a week-long guitar festival.

We drove down to Montpellier – about a 40 minute trip, and did a park-and-tram ride into the centre of town. We were very organised – packed sandwiches for dinner, and arrived in plenty of time to get a space fairly close to the stage.

We were in fact just behind a small fence, on a grassed mound that was high enough for the vertically challenged (i.e. me) to get a great view across the sea of heads.

There was a young guy standing immediately in front of us. He smoked about 4 or 5 joints in the first hour or so of the concert and was enjoying himself immensely. And then he decided he could play a game of chess, and still have a great time. And that’s exactly what he did!

The archway (Arc de Triomphe or Porte du Peyrou),
leading to the Esplanade du Peyrou, the venue for the concert.

And as I’ve mentioned before, October has been (and is continuing to be) incredibly warm. A few weeks ago there was a frost, and we figured we’re well and truly into autumn weather, heading towards winter – and it all turned around again. We’ve been basking in mid- and sometimes high-twenties. A little bizarre really, but certainly no complaints.

Anyway, the weather on the night was amazing – we were all prepared for a cold evening, and ended up in shirt-sleeves for the duration. And Joan Baez gave a great concert to a very enthusiastic crowd of perhaps 20,000 people.

Fantastic ……………..

28 October 2009

Can-O-Worms

The latest addition to my garden (well, garage actually) – is a worm farm! I’ve wanted one for ages and did some research on the net and found a supplier in Pezenas. It was interesting to find that it’s the brand Can-O-Worms, designed and manufactured in Australia.

I called into the factory on the day we (Neil and Jane and I) were heading up to the Millau Bridge. The woman who served us spoke good English and told us the story of how she came to be importing them into France. She worked near Sydney for about five years, and came into contact with them there, and saw a business opportunity.

And now she has a successful recycling/composting business that employs five people, breeds worms and supplies them with the worm farms. She has also done the ground work to getting local communes (councils) and schools involved. A nice story.

So, as I was buying one for Margaret who lives in the village, it was a rather tight fit in the car with three adults and two of these things – they’re rather cumbersome. And it was Neil who ended up squashed in the back seat with the worms, hoping there weren't going to be any escapees…..

Because I bought two farms, I was given a book on worms as a bonus. So my bedtime reading at the moment is Worms Eat my Garbage !

And two weeks after set-up, mine seems to be going great guns. The instructions advise all the types of things that can be fed to them, and suggests that the smaller things are cut up, the easier it is for the worms.

Now Neil took this very seriously, and can be seen here carefully cutting avocado skin into manageable size pieces!!

He made a real good job of the cardboard insert of the toilet rolls, (the woman at the factory said it was a real treat for them!.....) Sadly, I didn’t get to record that on film. He and Jane and are so impressed with the setup, they’re going to buy themselves one in Scotland.

I debated about taking a photo of the worms at work, and decided that a picture of my kitchen scraps being composted probably wasn’t in good taste….

But I can report everything seems to be going according to plan, and hopefully soon I will have worm castings for the garden/pot plants, and liquid fertiliser on tap!

27 October 2009

The Scots were in town . . . .

I’ve just had a visit from my Scottish friends Jane and Neil. This is their second visit – they were here back in April 2007. They’re now back in Bonnie Scotland with instructions not to leave it such a long time between visits.

A few trips out and about – the Millau Bridge (failed to take any photos this time!) and a side trip to Roquefort where we bought – yes – blue cheeses!

We also managed to get to the medieval village of Mirepoix where the annual apple festival was being held. Each year there are sculptures made of apples, and this year the theme was 'music'.

Jane and I tried the most divine freshly squeezed apple juice, Neil preferring to take his fermented (cider) and then watched the apples being pressed the old-fashioned way.

And interestingly, there was also a bit of line dancing / boot scooting happening which kept us amused for a while!

Because we're having a run of beautiful weather – very warm for October – we decided to do a BBQ and have the family and a few friends around.

It was also a chance to say farewell to a few of those friends who are (fortunately temporarily) departing la belle France – Bonnie and Terry from the nearby village of Agel who have now left for States for a few months; Bernie and Shayne from Capestang who are soon headed back to Australia for a spell, and Duff who is returning to Algeria for his 4-weekly work rotation.

One loaf, with plenty left over for the freezer!

Now, Neil and Jane are the sort of guests who are not only great company, but are damned fine hands in the kitchen. They made hosting the bbq for 13 people a veritable doddle.

And here they are amongst the smoke – looking after the cooking side of things. And Neil’s overnight-marinated pieces of foil-wrapped salmon were a huge success.

21 October 2009

Provence

Each year, the village group do long-ish trip to another country, and then later in the year a shorter break to somewhere relatively close by. And last week, the short trip was across to Provence for 5 days.

Now even though I’ve visited a few times, each time was either a quick visit or just passing through, and I hadn’t really seen a great deal of the countryside or villages.

So, needless to say, it was a very busy few days, staying in the same hotel in the lovely coastal town of Sainte Maxime for four nights, and heading out in a different direction each day.

The company – as always – was convivial, and the weather was stunning. However, there was one day when we had a real taste of the infamous Mistral wind, but not bad enough to interfere with our day’s plans.

So what follows here is really a few ‘holiday snaps’ and video clips. I’m getting a bit behind the eight-ball with these posts, and have a few more to write up!

Moustiers-Sainte-Marie

Street name - Rompecul (or rompe cul) literally means
'break your backside' - to put it politely - and
is the name of the street in the photo above .....