Traffic in the Minervois

I've never liked commuting.  In fact, I hated every minute of it.

My commute to work these days is a quick 12 minute drive on a narrow, serpentine road past acres and acres of vineyards, across a bridge and through a bustling village (with an excellent boulangerie), past a few olive groves and along the shores of a small lake.

If I don't run into traffic that is.

In the spring the horses from a neighboring farm like to wander around, looking for spring delicacies sprouting in the fields to nibble on.

At the height of summer teams of cyclists appear.  I still don't understand why they choose to ride around in 38 degree C weather, but hey, to each his own.

Now that summer is coming to an end and the vendange has begun, it's the tractors and harvesters.  From now until the end of September I won't be able to drive anywhere without getting stuck behind one of these lumbering vehicles, who's top speed is a whopping 25 kilometers an hour.

If anything, living in France has certainly taught me patience.  And to expect the unexpected when driving!

French Desserts

Yesterday we indulged.
I had two days off in a row and we were celebrating some recent good news, so we took ourselves out to lunch.

After consulting my Minervois Restaurants and Wineries notebook and sorting through the various criteria - price, wine included or not, shade or sun, inspiring menu, possibly somewhere new - we had it narrowed it down to a few places. I called the first one to book a table and there was no answer.
Fair enough, it was only 10:30am.
I tried again at 11am and still no answer.  By 11:30 we assumed that they had shut down for les vacances and started calling restaurant #2.
Same story.  No answer, no "we're closed for vacation" message.  Nothing.
By now it was almost noon and I was starting to worry that I would end up having to cook, so a final, desperate phone call was made to restaurant #3.

The third time was a charm.

We ended up in Olonzac at Le Minervois Bel, a restaurant that's tucked away on a dead-end side street, across from the middle school and next to a bar, and so well hidden that we often forget it's even there.

The owners are charming and the shady courtyard is a plus, but the food is the main attraction.
Yesterday's €13 lunch menu (which changes every day) was a chilled tomato soup with a dollop of whipped, herb infused chèvre and a parmesan tuile;  fillet of merlu in a succulent, slightly garlicky white sauce with a potato and wild mushroom timbale and sautéed carrots; followed by cheese or dessert of your choice.

We both opted for dessert.  I tried the mousse au fromage blanc avec fruits rouges and my husband ordered crème brûlée. 
The mousse au fromage blanc was sublime.  I mean really, really sublime.  And the crème brûlée was some of the best I've tasted since moving to France.

Since becoming a cheese addict I usually prefer cheese over dessert, though sometimes my sweet tooth wins.  I know there's no comparing the two, but when they're done right, French desserts really do take the cake. 

Moving to the Languedoc-Roussillon

AARP Magazine recently compiled a list of their top ten Best Places to Retire Abroad and lo and behold, number four just happens to be our home in the south of France, the gorgeous Languedoc-Roussillon.

It seems that many seeking "la vie en rose" (or la vie en rosé as I like to call it) have read the article, done a Google search or two and landed here at Chez Loulou.
Thus, the question-filled emails are piling up in my inbox.

To help anyone who is new to this site and looking for information about moving to the Languedoc-Roussillon, please have a look at the posts I've written about moving to France and the cost of living in France. 

Once you've read through all of the information I've provided I would be happy to answer any questions you have. 
Just email me at louloufrance@gmail.com

Writing

Writing is funny. It doesn't always come naturally to me. It doesn't always ebb and flow.  I get hung up on sentence structure and trip over myself trying to write correctly.  I'm trying to get better at ignoring all the rules.

Today I am just trying to get a blog post written. And wishing it were coming a little more easily.

There are some blog writers out there who completely blow my mind with their brilliant stories and the sheer number of intense, heartfelt words they churn out every day. Paragraphs and paragraphs of them.
Every. Day.
Where does it all come from? Aren't their minds ever quiet?

I need more time to contemplate what I want to say and to find the words.  Time to write them, leave them for a bit so I can come back and have a fresh look at them.  Maybe I fuss too much, am too careful.
(Maybe I've become too comfortable with the limitations of 140 characters?)

So instead of writing about French cheese, or the Carte de Résident or about anything tangible, I'm just going to work through this frustrating writing funk by writing about it.

Voilà.

Not Quite...

I usually wander out into the vineyards sometime in mid August to check out the grapes.
They're coming along.  Ripening a bit more slowly than last year, but the reports from our vigneron neighbors are positive.
Can't wait to try the 2010 vintage.

La Fête du Fromage - A Filetta

All of the Corsican cheeses I've tasted have been real characters. 
Brocciu was soft and seductive, smelly U Bel Fiuritu almost ran us out of the kitchen and I fell head over heels for herby, prickly Brin d'Amour.
 
A Filetta is another Corsican cheese with personality to spare.

I love the way its edible, slightly crunchy, salty rind embraces a soft and supple pâte that tastes of earth, mushrooms and herbs.  Though decorated with a fern leaf (a Filetta means "the fern" in the Corsican language), I didn't detect any fern or leaf-like flavor.  It is a dense, meaty, substantial cheese, but the flavor isn't as strong as I thought it would be.  This was a young cheese so the flavor was very mild.
I've heard of much older, much stronger versions!

A Filetta is an artisanal, unpasteurized fromage de brebis produced in the town of Isolaccio in northern Corsica.  Affinage takes 4-6 weeks and there is also a goat's milk version produced from January until late July. 

A glass of Minervois red paired nicely with the earthy quality of this cheese.  A glass of Muscat sec would also be good.

La Reine-Claude - Recipes for Crumble and Sorbet

Simplicity is the keyword of summer.  Especially when it comes to dessert.

I have a hard time enjoying a rich chocolate mousse or any heavy, cream based desserts during the summertime.  There are so many varieties of fruit available right now, so that's where I focus my attention. 
And for the moment the super sweet, diaphanous green prune reine-claude is at the top of my list.

Reine-Claude Plum Crumble

• 2.2 pounds (1 kilo) reine-claude plums
• 3-4 tablespoons sugar (or vanilla sugar)

topping:

• 1 cup flour
• 3 ounces (6 tablespoons) butter, cut into cubes
• 4 tablespoons superfine sugar
• 4 tablespoons ground almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Rinse the plums, cut in half and remove the pits.  Mix the fruit with the sugar and place in a deep baking dish.
3. Process the flour and butter in a food processor until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, then add the sugar and ground almonds.
4. Sprinkle on top of the fruit and bake till the fruit is bubbling and the crumble topping is golden, about 40-45 minutes.
5. Serve warm or cold, however you like.  Vanilla ice cream is optional, but recommended.

If you're not in the mood to turn on the oven and want something sweet and refreshing for dessert, then try this sorbet.

Reine-Claude Sorbet
from Recettes de Cuisine and translated into English
serves 4

• 2.2 pounds (1 kilo) ripe reine-claude plums
• Juice of 2 lemons
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon plum brandy (optional)

1. Dissolve the sugar in the water in a pan over medium heat and cool.
2. Wash and pit the plums and finely purée them in a food processor.
3. Add the lemon juice and sugar syrup to the fruit purée, mix together and chill until cold.
4. Mix in the optional plum brandy, transfer the purée to your ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer's directions.
5. Scoop into a covered container, freeze until firm, about 2 hours. (Can be made 1 week ahead. Keep frozen).

You might also like these recipes:
Green Gage Summer - my famous 20 minute company tarte
Green Gage Plum and Pistachio Crumble
It's All About the Jam - Again!

La Fête du Fromage - Tomme de Thônes

I love butter.  Especially the sweet butter from Brittany, the kind with generous amounts of sea salt flakes mixed into it.  Sometimes I think that there's nothing more delicious.
If I wanted to throw caution to the wind (and buy an entirely new wardrobe in a much larger size) I would eat slabs of the stuff every day.

Well, I think I've found something just as delicious as my beloved Brittany butter; Tomme de Thônes, an absolutely heavenly, buttery tasting fromage de vache from the Haute-Savoie.

Tomme de Thônes is a medium strong cheese that offers the luscious flavor combination of rich salty butter, yeast and sweet mountain grasses and flowers.  It is dense, yet quite soft, and melts in your mouth.
Yes, I'm in love.

It paired nicely with a glass of local rosé, but not with our Minervois red. 
I think a glass of white from the Savoie would be perfect.

A little something extra:  A short video showing Le Beurre Bordier being produced.  It's much more amusing than it sounds.  I promise!

France Travel Guide - France Voyage

La Belle France.

It has everything that a traveler could ask for; exquisite food and wine for the gourmet, rugged mountains, stunning river gorges and plenty of wide open spaces for the outdoorsy types, a very happening scene for art and music lovers, miles of coastline for beach bums, and history buffs will think they've died and gone to heaven.
Every corner of l'hexagone offers something unique to explore and experience.  And the fact that the choices are endless can make planning a trip in France seem a bit overwhelming. 

That's where France Voyage comes in.

France Voyage asks you to pick and choose your itineraries based upon your interests; Culture, Architecture, Well-Being, Nature or Leisure Activities.  Other criteria include the length of your stay and the pace at which you want to travel.  A map pops up after you've entered all of your information with links to the towns and sites that they recommended.  Limited restaurant, hotel and holiday rental information is also available and the site is offered in six languages.

I can't remember how or when I stumbled on to this website, but the other day I had a great time checking out various week-long itineraries that start in the Languedoc and end in different cities throughout the country. It also gave me some really good ideas for the trip we're taking up north in October.

So whether you're planning a trip to France, dreaming of a trip to France or just like to do a bit of virtual armchair travel, I think you'll find that France Voyage is a pretty cool website.