5 Things - Apéro Time!

1) On the terrace




2) Along rue Montorgueil

3) Aperitivo in Bologna

4) A generous apéritif dinatoire in Montmartre




5) At our neighborhood café - they could stand to be a bit more generous with the popcorn, non?





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5 Things

1) When Paris was just a village




2) 'Tis the season




3) Steep




4) Summer market




5) Country in the city



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5 Things

1) Exploring a new quartier in Paris




2) Sacré Coeur - it's swarming with tourists, but still worth a visit




3) France is definitely in vacation mode




4) Café terrace air conditioning - in liquid form

5) A flower lined balcony with a view



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5 Things

1) Stacked

2) A perfect tree to climb




3) Rosé for a BBQ




4) A sign of good things

5) Une maison à colombages




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5 Things

1) Enjoying the last few days of rosé weather




2) Homemade garlic and rosemary focaccia




3) A sure sign of autumn




4) Leaves aren't the only things that change color in September and October!




5) Bayeux Cathedral at dusk


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Today

Today I would like to be sitting here...



with a glass of this...



nibbling on some of these...



and some of this...



followed by one of these...



with a view like this...



or even like this.


What would you like today? Pin It

La Fête du Fromage - La Couronne des 3 Seigneurs

The sweet, fresh flavor of La Couronne des 3 Seigneurs perfectly embodies the mountains of the Ariège Pyrénées, where this goat's cheese is produced.

There is nothing complex about about this delicate fromage férmier, all around it is very easy on the senses. There is almost no aroma, the texture is soft and fine and it has pleasant flavors of fresh milk, mellow citrus and a hint of salt. Yet for such a mild cheese, we thought it was fantastic!

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La Fête du Fromage - Brebize

One of the best things about eating my way through the cheeses of France (other than stating the obvious) is that I'm learning about French geography as well.

Not too far from here is the Tarn - a gorgeous region that is home to Albi, a red brick covered bustling market town, and the farm Les Paulinetoises, who have been producing fromage de brebis for over 20 years in the small village of Paulinet.

This unpasteurized, bloomy-rind fromage is very odoriferous.  It is packed with heady barnyard aromas that I appreciate, but might put some people off.  Its bark is worse that its bite though...Brebize is quite mild tasting and seriously delicious.

The flavors are a mix of mushrooms, sweet hay and salty earth and the texture is oozing, smooth and chewy.  I thought it was just perfect smeared on some pain complet and enjoyed with a glass of local rosé.

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La Fête du Fromage - Fromage Pur Chèvre Férmier

This is just the kind of cheese I needed on this hot, sticky summer day.

Fromage Pur Chèvre Férmier is a fresh, unpasteurized goat's cheese produced by a passionate young farmer in Thézan-les-Corbières, about 45 minutes due south of our village.
Les Corbières are a scenic, mountainous region of the Languedoc-Roussillon known for wine, remote villages and Cathar castles.

Over the years I've tasted several different cheeses that have been called chèvre férmier and each one has been totally unique and memorable.  There was the dense Chèvre Férmier from the Haut-Languedoc, the sublime Chèvre Fermier from Roquebrun, the seaweed covered Fromage de Chèvre Férmier from Brittany and the light and nutty Chèvre Férmier from the Pyrénées. 

This chèvre férmier is perfumed with mild almond and slightly sour and refreshing citrus flavors.  It has a velvety smooth, fine texture that melts in your mouth and is just perfect with fresh figs, peaches or grapes.

I would suggest a glass of rosé or a light, fruity red wine to pair with this cheese.

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La Fête du Fromage - le Pécalou

This has to be one of the most memorable and intriguing goat's cheeses I've ever tasted.  It wasn't soft or pillowy or chalky or spicy or creamy.  There were no grassy or herb flavors, nor did its aroma conjure up images of a barnyard.

Le Pécalou is just a baby in terms of cheese - only 11 days of affinage -  yet is very mature and refined tasting.  Its texture is slightly dry and it crumbles a bit when you cut into it, but not as crumbly as a cheese like Templais Sec.
The flavor is very rich and nutty, with a fair amount of salt, a bit of a tang and a mild goatiness.  It all balances out perfectly.

Finding a wine pairing was a bit difficult.  It didn't work with the local Minervois red, nor did I like it with the only cold white we had in the fridge, a Vin de Pays d'Oc produced in a neighboring village.  On a whim, I tried it with some rosé and was pleasantly surprised at what a great match it was.
Eh voilà, le Pécalou is the perfect cheese for summer!

This divine little fromage de chèvre is produced here in the Languedoc-Roussillon by Les Chevriers de l'Hérault, up near the town of Lodève. 

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Summertime Sangria

Our local co-op sells Minervois rosé for the bargain price of €1.30 a liter.
We enjoy its thirst-quenching, refreshing qualities all summer long, and like to do all we can to support our local vignerons!

Husband recently decided that we should try to make Sangria with rosé instead of red so I happily mixed up this concoction late this morning and left it to sit and infuse in the fridge for a few hours. At lunchtime we poured ourselves a couple of icy cold glasses to taste.
What a wonderful flavor!
Tangy, not too sweet, invigorating and delicious. I'm so happy with the results!


Loulou's Summertime Sangria

• 1 bottle of dry rosé
• 1/4 cup Cognac* or brandy
• 2 lemons, cut into pieces
• 1 orange, cut into pieces
• 3-5 tablespoons sugar
  

Put all of the ingredients in a large pitcher and stir until the sugar dissolves. Taste and add more sugar if you like your Sangria a bit sweeter.
Leave in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight to allow the flavors to blend.
Serve over ice.

¡Salud!

*no need to use your best Cognac for this recipe

.
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Photo du Jour - Over the Canal du Midi

Blue skies and hot, sunny days. Summer in the Languedoc is here with a vengeance!

Too hot to turn on the oven except for the early morning. Summer recipes are keeping us cool.

melon and serrano ham
panzanella
cold tomato soup with basil
pasta with cherry tomato, garlic, arugula and feta cheese
fresh peach tart
cherry frozen yogurt

A glass or two of icy cold rosé doesn't hurt either. Pin It

La Fête du Fromage - Brin d'Amour

Looking to fall in love?
It may look a little sharp and spiky on the outside, but its velvety, savory inside will seduce you.*

This prickly little porcupine of a cheese is Brin d'Amour.

Brin d'Amour - "a little bit of love" is produced by artisan cheesemakers on the island of Corsica. It is an unpasteurized ewe's milk cheese that is wrapped in a blanket of aromatic local herbs from the maquis, the distinctive Mediterranean shrubland of Corsica, and matured for 2 weeks to 2 months. This cheese also goes by the name Fleur de Maquis.

As you can probably guess, the herbs -rosemary, thyme, savory, and juniper- infuse the cheese with their assertive flavors. There are also subtle hints of green olives, hazelnuts and tangy citrus, making this a very unique cheese.
The texture is firm, yet creamy and smooth, and melts in your mouth. The aroma is dominated by the heady herbs, especially the rosemary.

Enjoy with a Côtes de Provence rosé or a white wine from Corsica.


*We cut the herb covered rind off because the texture was too sharp, but a less matured cheese should have a softer coating.


Larousse translation of brin.


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La Fête du Fromage - Le Petit Risso

The Lozère is a wild and isolated department of the Languedoc-Roussillon which encompasses rugged mountains, vast meadows, deep gorges and limestone caves. Its human population is the lowest in France, leaving plenty of wide open spaces for the cows and sheep to graze.

It is home to several well known French cheeses such as Laguiole, Tomme de Lozère, Pélardon, and blue cheeses such as Bleu des Causses, Bleu d'Auvergne and Roquefort.



My most recent cheese discovery from the Lozère is another blue veined cheese called le Petit Risso. It is produced at the farm, La laiterie Rissoan, a small scale producer of cow's milk and sheep's milk cheeses since 1948.

Don't let that blue veining fool you. This is not Roquefort!
Le Petit Risso is soft and mild with slightly salty, grassy and tangy flavors. Its texture is dense, rich, quite buttery and chewy, and the rind is hard, but totally edible.

The cow's milk used to make this cheese is lait thermisé - heated at a lower temperature than pasteurized milk so that harmful bacteria are killed but flavorful enzymes remain.
Lait cru - never heated above 40°C
Lait thermisé - heated at 45°C for 30 minutes or 72°C for 1 second
Lait pasteurisé - heated at 63°C for 30 minutes or 72°C for at least 15 seconds



While I didn't fall head over heels in love with le Petit Risso, I would absolutely recommend it if you like mild blue cheeses.

It pairs best with some dry, fruity white wine or a dry rosé. Pin It

Photo du Jour - Minervois Wine

La Livinière's winemakers hosted a great wine and tapas evening last night.

In addition to wine, charcuterie, moules frites and duck breast sandwiches (not exactly my definition of tapas, but we're in France, not Spain, so I guess it's more loosely defined) the evening offered live music by a very traditional brass band and a separate dance floor complete with a modern, Mararena-playing DJ and flashing disco lights.

Not a bad way to spend a Saturday night. Pin It

This Week's TO DO List

1) Go to the Mairie for this year's letter stating my validity as a resident in France. As usual, my Carte de Séjour is late. It expires today and there's no indication that the new one will arrive any time soon.

2) Drop off 5 liter cubie (a plastic jug that holds 5-10 liters of wine) at neighbor's to be filled with his fantastic, 100% Cabernet rosé. If he's not at home I'm to leave it on his windowsill between the flowerpots and he'll fill it and bring it to our house.

3) Tuesday market in Olonzac. Must go early to avoid the August crowds.

4) Price paint for the bedroom. This involves driving to Olonzac, Lézignan and Narbonne or Carcassonne to BricoRama, Brico Marché, Monsieur Bricolage and Tridome. It could be September by the time I find the color I want at the price I'm willing to pay.
Doesn't €60 for 2.5 liters of wall paint seem rather exorbitant?

5) Order 6 cases of Domaine Coudoulet Viognier.

6) Do something with all of these tomatoes. I need my kitchen counters back.

7) Teach kitten to use the stairs so I don't have to keep carrying him upstairs to the litter box.

8) Go to the bank to find out why they haven't moved money from our account in the States to our account in France yet. This normally takes 1-2 days. When I went in last week after 3 days, they shrugged and said, "it's August, c'est les vacances, check after 7-8 days." Unfortunately the direct debits due to come out of the account this week don't know that it's August.

9) Invite summer friends around for a drink before they head back home. Pin It

Photo du Jour - Village Fête

Rosé anyone?

Last night's annual summer fête in a neighboring village.

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La Fête du Fromage - Bleu de Chèvre, Tomme Corse and Saint-Marcellin

Bleu de Chèvre, Tomme Corse and Saint-Marcellin are the three cheeses I picked for this week's Fête du Fromage.

The Bleu de Chèvre was by far our favorite of the three. It was fruity and sweet and crumbly and oh so delicious! I thought that Bleu de Basque was my favorite bleu, but the Bleu de Chèvre now has that honor. It is made from unpasteurized goat's milk and comes from the Auvergne region of central France. Enjoy with a glass of Côtes du Rhône.

Corsica produces some amazing cheeses, none of which we'd had the chance to taste until I brought home the Tomme Corse. The word "Tomme" appears often when you're looking at cheese. The basic definition: a round, rustic cheese that is produced in the mountains. The flavor was very mild and slightly salty with an underlying sharpness.
We thought this sheep's milk cheese was just ok, it certainly didn't leave us clamoring for more. Drink some Corsican rosé alongside.



The little piece of Saint-Marcellin we tasted was very, very young. It was soft and runny with a mildly acidic, grassy and somewhat fruity flavor that at first I wasn't very excited about. It seemed unrefined and immature. But I gave it another try the next day and really enjoyed it the second time around. Maybe my palate was off or something.
I'll keep my eyes peeled for an aged piece to try next time.

Saint-Marcellin is a close cousin of one of my favorite's, Banon , and is made in the Dauphiné region, north of Provence, from unpasteurized cow's milk. There is mention of its production since the 15th Century when the soon to be crowned King Louis XI had an accident while hunting and shared a meal with his rescuers. They introduced him to Saint-Marcellin and he in turn introduced it to the cheese makers in Paris. The result; a cheese that has been enjoyed by French ''society" for over 500 years.
 Have a glass of Côtes du Rhône or Châteauneuf-du-Pape with this one.


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