Flat Out

Buckle up, people: this is a long post! 

Oh hey! - in case you didn't know (I just found out myself) - if you click on any of the photos, you will get a full-size view of it! Carry on. 

Global Explorers

On Wednesday in Global Explorers, they explored story-telling through the medium of opera. Lish was instrumental (heh) in the session, up to and including performing a simplified rendition of Saint-Saëns' "The Swan" on cello, with me providing the very simplified accompaniment! The children loved hearing the cello. 

It had been a very, very full day - starting with the usual Wednesday market, plus the supermarket, plus the organic store; then the Global Explorers, which finishes at 5pm and we need dinner promptly at 6.30.

For this week we opted for a rôtisserie chicken - which sounds very cheatsydoodle (and okay, it is). But French rôtisserie chickens are leagues away from Woolies chickens! This thing was highly spiced, and unbelievably tender.  I made simple sides of roasted potatoes and steamed veg. 

Stepgrandfather Gordon nabbed the carcasse and spent the remainder of the evening pottering around in the kitchen, making stock from the chicken, plus a second pot of vegetable stock, which I found most useful later in the week! Very good and frugal repurposing of leftovers - and when your chicken cost €20*, you want it to go as far as it can!!! 

* roughly AUD32

With the English grandparents here, Caroline has helping hands around, so Lish and I grabbed the opportunity on Thursday to take a full-day trip. 

Gan to St Jean de Luz is about an hour and a half, more if you somehow get the Google Maps to take you all the squiggly back ways, through the tiny villages. Super picturesque; extremely difficult to get any decent photos while we drive! 

Silo art is apparently a thing here, too! 

Lish drove - their car has unlimited km, mine does not. This has to be the first family trip where I have not been the only driver! It's wonderful to be able to sit and look at all the stuff, and knit a bit!

Lish is now so confident with the driving on the wrong side stuff, and even managed to get up to cruising altitude on the Autoroute! 130km/h!!!!! Wheeeee!

This fun little guy in the centre of a roundabout at Mourenx. Apparently roundabout decoration is a thing in France. Also, I just read this random post on Facebook by a guy that I don't know, who says "somewhere that France went from having none at all to being the world's leader for 'rond points' in about 40 years! They are often admirably 'paysagé' (some have waterfalls!) as well though sometimes the Maire will commission his 'beauf' (brother in law) or get a local 'bureau d'études' to erect a suitably kitsch decoration. If the town is known for chair making they'll stick up a 10 meter high chair or if it's hats a giant ..hat!"

Which I thought was fantastic, and terribly well-timed. 

Stone houses are the go in this part of the world. Even the nice rendered ones - if you peel off the render (or the render peels off), this is what is underneath.
I just love them.  Maslacq

St. Jean de Luz

A seaside town on the Atlantic coast, almost directly west of where I'm living. 

'1726' inscribed above the door

And the door knocker! 

These beautiful tiles on a hotel wall

Very poor panoramic photo of the beachfront! This was literally the first day we have had proper rain, since I arrived. We had been hoping to swim.

 I put my hand in the water. It was probably as warm as the air! Absolutely should have packed the swim bag. 

Église St Jean-Baptiste

This is the church in which the French King Louis XIV was married, in 1683, to Marie-Thérèse of Spain (because it's so close to Spain, I guess!) 

This doorway was opened for them to enter the church for their marriage, and then re-walled up immediately after the ceremony! They REALLY didn't like associating with the rabble! 

What a stunner of a church - no wonder they wanted to get married there!
The doorway is just to the right of this pic. They would have been able to walk straight to the altar.

Stained glass depicting St. Johanna

Boat hanging from the ceiling in the church, for reasons known best to themselves 😝

Lovely stairway up the side of the church

It's a beach town. I was interested to see Australian surf and swim companies well represented here! 

Billabong

Sea Folly

 
Lish and I had a lovely little lunch - Lish anxiously asking me it if would be weird if they ordered a tea with their meal? I asked the waiter if they had tea available and she was completely unperturbed about it. Apparently not weird, not even in France. 

Lish had a vege-burger, and I had this simple but absolutely exquisite grilled octopus, on potato purée with salad vert. It was garlicky and herby and just perfect. Thank goodness for the ubiquitious basket of French bread, enabling me to mop up the last traces - or I might just have shamelessly licked the plate!

After lunch we headed off again, maybe about half an hour up the coast to: 

Biarritz

Which I have to say, we liked better than St Jean de Luz. 

It's probably AWFUL in peak season. I can imagine the beach is absolutely COVERED in people and you wouldn't be able to swim without elbowing somebody. But off-peak, gorgeous.

La Grande Plage (main beach)

A lil island just offshore at the main beach

The terrace of one of Hotel du Palais Biarritz (a Hyatt) has a lovely walkway carved underneath, for pedestrian passage to the beachfront, named Allée de Winston Churchill!
Apparently he spent quite a bit of time here. Winston Churchill's Holidays in Northern Basque

The architecture is crazy. Mini-castles everywhere you look. 

Actually quite reminiscent (to me) of some of the architecture in the Fairlight area.

More Aussie representation!

In France you do not, repeat DO NOT walk in your bathing suit from the beach up through the town! You get back into your clothes! Or they will fine you! These signs are everywhere at the beachfront. 

Main beach, southern aspect. 

I couldn't help but think of Balmoral Beach! - is it patterned on this place? 

I love the graffiti art here

A film crew were setting up for a shoot, at the fisherman's harbour! 

Église Ste. Eugénie

This beautiful church is halfway up the southern headland. You can go in the front doors but it's glassed off past the crucifix, apparently they are doing a fairly massive restoration. But that front area is set up so you can have a little pray.

We paused for a little mid-afternoon boisson - hot chocolates all around; Lish's with chantilly.

Grande Plage Ussie!

Another lovely church; didn't take note of what.

Earning my Keep!

After a day of spijbelen, it was time to get BUSY.

I had one day in which to do food prep for the coming three days.

On Friday, Caroline had invited an American couple for lunch. David and Ashley spend two months a year down here. I had met them a few weeks ago, at church.

We served a simple but nice meal of:

* roast butternut pumpkin and chickpeas

* herbed couscous

* pan-fried chicken

* garden salad

Followed by my (apparently) signature dessert - certainly one of my favourites to make! The simplicity of this tart vs. how spectacular it is, makes it well worth it, every time.

Credit: RecipeTin Eats - Pear & Pistachio Tart

Hacks: I used almond meal in the frangipane instead of ground pistachios, as I don't have equipment here adequate for grinding nuts.

Hand-chopped pistachios sprinkled on the top, instead.

Decorated with borage blossoms from our potager. I do love an edible flower!

I am having a difficult relationship with Caroline's ovens - one runs too slow, one runs too fast. I used the fast one and the tart was really a bit overcooked, to my enormous chagrin. I can do better. 

Monein, the village where Ashley and David are living, has a brilliant pâtisserie. She brought this lovely offering - so simple, just two slightly crunchy pastries, filled with a thick layer of patisserie cream, plus a couple of punnets of fresh berries. 

We were very full and happy after that meal!

Full tummy notwithstanding, immediately after kitchen reset, I went straight into prep mode for our picnic on Saturday!

Mini zucchini, mint and Emmental cheese tarts. Nice easy finger food for a picnic!

And continuing our introduction of this small subset of the French populace to iconic Australian cuisine:

LAMINGTONS!

I realise that in my life I've probably only made these twice! 

Credit: RecipeTin Eats - Lamingtons

.... whilst simultaneously shouting instructions and encouragement from the sidelines as Mademoiselle Chloé learned to cast off! 

She is very proud of herself, as she should be. Next lesson: stocking stitch.

Plateau de Benou

Picnic! 

What a gorgeous day we picked for our picnic!

It was about a 40 minute drive from home. Lish drove. I took terrible photos of lots of pretty things.

I'm putting this on my Christmas wish-list! Or something very like. 

The scenery is stunning. These photos are totally not doing it justice. 

We parked, set up a picnic table, and let the kids run amok. Lish went with them. 

There was an entire herd of horses, just ambling around the landscape! Completely unbothered by the people there. 

I looked up the area on Google Maps, and they are actually listed! 

The Horses of Benou

Lish is totally down for a horsie ride. Oh boy. You know what that means!

The footprint of a long-gone dwelling

In addition to the horses, an entire herd of cows, complete with cow-bells! They also were really tame, and let me walk among them. Standing in the choir of cowbells was something wonderful.

 

This is the face of a young Frenchwoman who has just discovered the delice that is a freshly-made Lamington.

Clearly I'm gonna have to make another batch. Or two. 

Walk along a gravel pathway from the car park, and you come to a place called Ferme Maria Blanca. Here, in addition to the cows, they also raise black pigs.

I had the strangest desire to yell Little Pig, Little Pig, Let Me Come In! 

And then suddenly, out of nowhere, the weather changed. It got windy and cloudy and cold! 

We were due at Ashley's and David's for afternoon tea anyway, so we packed up and headed back to the car park ... 

... to find two of the horses taking shelter from the cold wind, in the lee between two of the parked vehicles! 

As we approached, we could see the owners of the Renaut van trying to work out how to actually get into their vehicle and drive away. The horses did not appear to want to move from their nice spot!

We took a different route back down the mountain. 

It is literally the middle of nowhere 

The entire area is designated transhumence, which is the seasonal movement of livestock between different elevations or regions, e.g. moving to mountain pastures in the summer and lowland valleys in the winter.

The stock is also largely free-range. So you're driving along these extremely narrow one-lane-each-way squiggly roads, and suddenly ...

... there are horses grazing at touching-distance from your window

and cows standing around right on the road! (and a little further on from this lass, there was one taking a nap on the verge). 

Quite challenging driving conditions! - but Lish did magnificently. 

Finally out of the switchbacks and onto the flat (and back to wifi and GPS availability, thank you!!!) and we continued on to our afternoon appointment. 

More obscenely adorable architecture

... with a pit-stop at the only Lindt chocolate factory in existence outside of Switzerland, conveniently only 23km from where we live 😍

We bought a hostess gift for Ashley. We may or may not have bought a few other things to have later. 😇

Monein

Ashley and David welcomed us with delight, and with more sweet things from that amazing pâtisserie. Two boxes worth! 

This is their AirBnB. 

The yellow part of the house is their space. The rest of the house is lived in by the owner. That barn on the right hand side is apparently full of beautiful vintage cars! 

It has some amazing history to it!!! 

Jean III king of Navarre, Vicount of Béarn (we are in Béarn here) and great-grandfather of Henri IV of France, died in the chateau of Esgoarrebaque, which was located on this site, of which the oldest records make mention dating back to the 12th century.  Jean III is now buried in the cathedral of nearby Lescar.  The chateau disappeared tragically in 1570 - due to discord between the Catholics and the Protestants (Béarn was largely Protestant in those days; Henri IV was a Protestant, but converted to Catholicism to achieve the throne of France, famously saying "France is worth a Mass").

The chateau was rased to the ground. Only the moat is left. Chloé and I walked it. 

There is a venerable chestnut tree between the house and the site of the chateau. The chestnuts are ripe for the collecting! 

They are SUPER spiky! 

But with some effort and care, we collected quite a haul!

Now I have to work out how to cook them!

This sweet old man is Daly. He doesn't belong to anyone, but the neighbours all take turns feeding him. He was exceptionally friendly and gracious, but he does not accept to have his tummy touched. 

Eventually the heavens stopped threatening and actually started pouring. We headed carefully home, me exclaiming at the flowing gutters! - and staggered in for a quick meal. I had prepared ahead! - on Friday morning I soaked white beans, on Friday night I cooked the beans, on Saturday morning before the picnic I made Southern Baked Beans!  All that was needed upon our return on Saturday night was to reheat them and cook some poached eggs, and we had a beautiful easy, light tea. 

Credit: RecipeTin Eats - Southern Baked Beans

Hacks: no bacon (vegetarians), no cayenne (spice wusses). Still wonderful. 

The French kids had never had poached eggs before, if you can believe them! 

The English grandparents were loudly appreciative of the beans. 

It was a wonderful few days, very full and very tiring, but wonderful.

I slept nearly 9 hours, with almost no interruptions (amazing for me). 

Sunday was less busy, but still full. 

We ate our main meal at lunchtime, as we were invited to a guitar concert in the late afternoon!

We all woke up late after the busy Saturday. So breakfast finished at 10am - at which time I had to hustle to get the slow-cook on in time to eat again at 1pm 😜

We have been eating very little meat. But I got lamb (quite hard to get, and very expensive) at the butcher. 

We had Lamb Tagine, with the couscous, roast pumpkin & chickpeas from Friday, and green beans from the garden.

I used the slow oven and was desperately worried that the lamb would be tough, even though I'd cooked it for two hours. And there was absolutely nothing to be done about it, if so. But it was perfect! - pull-apart tender. 

Credit: RecipeTin Eats - Lamb Tagine

Hack: used dates in place of the dried apricots. I really like it better, I think. 

Then we all piled into the 9-seater and Caroline drove us to Lescar, where they have an annual arts festival that spans something like six months at a time. Caroline's mum Sue had very generously bought tickets for all of us, including me and Lish, to a guitar concert. 

Which turned out to be held in a circus tent!

We got there early, to be sure of parking, and it was also not numbered seating, so we were fortunate to get ringside seats

The guitarist was INCREDIBLE. 

Biréli Lagrène

I have never heard playing like it.

He started off with a little chat, most of which I missed. But he did mention that he hadn't prepared anything - but he said 'It's Sunday, we can do anything' - and then he just started .... footling.

There were little snippets of bits and pieces of things that you might know. I heard Bach in there. I heard Debussy in there. 

One piece sounded like an entire four-piece jazz ensemble. He did ALL THE PARTS. He had a drum solo! on guitar! 

He did things I would never have imagined possible. His dexterity and his speed were awe-inspiring. 

Lish would do a better job of explaining the technicalities, perhaps. 

This is a concert that I would never, ever have thought of attending, had I not been invited. I'm so grateful for Sue's generosity!

We wended our weary way home. It had been a VERY full weekend.

More French graffiti :) 

While I pulled dinner together, Lish amused the kids with a singalong around the piano. 

Dinner was quick and easy - mostly fridge picnic. Leftovers of beans, zucchini tarts, chicken, ham, pizza, salad. Cleared quite a lot of fridge space.

*   *   *

Today's pic of the Pyrenées looks like a white dragon lay down for a snooze! 

À bientôt!