The Best Litttle Town in France

Through a bit of research, and with a bit of luck thrown in, we have found ourselves living just a few minutes down the road from what I think qualifies as the most perfect petite ville in all of France - Bayeux.


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For All You Cheese Lovers Out There

Paris By Mouth now has an informative Tour de Fromage that offers cheese tastings at several fromageries around town and will introduce you to a wide variety of the more than 500 cheeses produced in France.

Notes on Cheese, The Murray's Cheese Notebook is just the kind of thing I needed a few years ago when I started keeping tasting notebooks.

Did you know that French goat's cheese had it's own ambassador? 
 
Formaticum and the Brooklyn Slate Co. have created the Cheese Survival Kit.
The only thing missing from that bag is a nice, big wedge of cheese!



When I'm researching a new cheese, I turn to these three books;  Mastering Cheese: Lessons for Connoisseurship from a Maître Fromager by Max McCalman, The Cheese Primer by Steven Jenkins and French Cheese (Eyewitness Series).

I love these downloadable Cheese Tasting Note Cards from Culture magazine.
So practical!

Pike Place Market hosts the Seattle Cheese Festival the weekend of May 19-20, 2012. Or if you happen to be in Provence that weekend, check out the Fête du Fromage à Banon, celebrating the village's namesake fromage de chèvre.


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Photo du Jour - What Took Us So Long?

On Wednesday we took a drive up the Cotentin peninsula to Saint-Vaast la Hougue. After lunch we explored a little bit and as we sat on the tip of this stretch of beach in Réville, looking back toward the port of Saint-Vaast, we wondered why we had waited nine years to visit this exceptionally beautiful region of France? Pin It

Photo du Jour - Pastoral

It used to be that when I walked out our front door and turned right, I was on a road that wound its way through the vineyards. Now when I walk out our front door and turn right, I am on a road that winds its way past small farms and soft green pastures.

My camera and I have a whole new world to discover together.

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My Favorite French Dishes

I know you've heard it before, but it is true...you simply cannot think of France and not think of the food.
Also, you most definitely cannot live in France and not become obsessed with food, and with finding the best that is available, both locally and regionally.

The most heavenly fromage de chèvre. The firmest, most perfect asparagus. The crispiest baguette. The fruitiest olive oil. The butcher with the best cuts of meat. The richest farm eggs. The sweetest apricots, melons and cherries. The juiciest magret de canard. The flakiest croissants. The charcuterie with the most flavorful sausages.

France is a paradise for food lovers.


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Thank You Mark Bittman

The cauliflower at the markets in Normandy right now are irresistible.
Not only for their price - 2 heavy, generous heads for only €2 - but for their versatility.

So how happy was I to recently stumble across this cauliflower article in the NY Times by Mark Bittman?
One Vegetable, Four Meals.

Thank you Mr. Bittman!

 

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La Fête du Fromage - Le Deauville

I'm not fussy when it comes to trying new cheese. As soon as I get it home, snap a few photos and make sure it is at room temperature (very important not to eat cheese too cold!), I cut myself a generous wedge and dive right in. Which is exactly what I did with le Deauville, a sumptuous cow's milk cheese that we picked up on a mini road trip last week to, you guessed it, Deauville.

Next time I might be a bit more careful, however. This one looks pretty harmless, but it is not for the faint of heart!

Le Deauville is heady stuff. It has the whole milk lushness of a Pont l'Evêque and the smelly richness of a Livarot. The rind is sticky with little crunchy salt crystals and the pâte is gooey, with savory caramelized milk and earthy mushroom flavors. It is incredibly delicious.

I recommend savoring le Deauville in petit portions. A little goes a long way.



It is produced at la Fromagerie de la Houssay, a 200 year old farm in the Calvados region of Normandy. As with many cheeses from this region, le Deauville pairs well with hard apple cider, Champagne or a fruity white such as Gewurztraminer or Viognier.

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Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Cheese?

The other day I counted ten different kinds of cheese in our fridge.
Eleven if you include the tub of mascarpone.



It made me wonder, is there such a thing as too much cheese?









Mais non!
One can never have too much of such a good thing.


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Tales of a France Telecom Survivor

Trying to organize this move has had its moments.

Before we got the keys to our rental house we contacted the usual suspects to alert them of our new abode. EDF and la Poste were easy.
France Telecom, (who has definitively changed their name to Orange...I think I was the last to know), not so much.
They wouldn't let us have a phone number until we had a justificatif de domicile from the rental company. Ok, no problem. A few phone calls and signatures (many, many signatures) at the agent's office took care of that.

Once we attained said document we went straight to the local Orange store in Bayeux and applied for our new phone number and Internet access.
Again, no problem. We had the required documents, they created our dossier and we left with a phone number and were told that after a 10-14 day waiting period, our line would be up and running.

See, that's always when we run into trouble..when we trust that the powers that be (and the people punching the info into their computer) know what their doing.

Lulled into complacency, yet again.


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