The Loire Valley and especially Blois
Nettle leaf plant food, an excellent organic fertilizer, was taken off the market in France in 2006 because it has not been approved for sale. If you want some, you have to make it. Jean Michel is using his electric hand-held grass clippers to shred the leaves which have to be immersed in water for 3 …
Continue reading “Nettle Leaf Plant Food Forbidden? – Purin d'orties interdit ?”
I took this photo in rue de l’Hôtel-Pasquier in Les Grouëts as we were walking home from Bread-Baking Day yesterday. The house used to belong to the son of Victor-Auguste Poulain who founded one of France’s oldest chocolate brands, Chocolats Poulain. Albert Poulain built Bellevue in 1910 when the first tram line was inaugurated in Blois so that …
Continue reading “The Chocolate Ruin – La Ruine du chocolat”
Today it was Bread Day in Les Grouëts, the area in Blois where we live. Hubert, on the left, fired up his bread oven and baked loaves of bread and pizzas made by locals. And a good time was had by all ! Aujourd’hui c’était la fête du pain aux Grouëts le quartier de Blois …
Continue reading “Bakers for a Day – Boulangers pour la journée”
The new gardens in Chambord are now open but I think they look better from the rooftops. Les nouveaux jardins à Chambord sont désormais ouverts mais je pense qui’ils sont plus beaux depuis les toits.
We’ve been seeing the Denis Papin stairs in Blois from afar but thought they had been decorated to represent a waterfall. A closer look today shows it to be a cloudy sky! The collage, by Imprinova, is a hommage to Geoffrey Hendrinks, aged 86, nicknamed the Cloudsmith due to his watercolours designed to turn objects …
We haven’t had much rain this spring, but it’s been rather wet the last few days, to the relief of the cereal farmers. Our weigela was completely soaked this morning! Nous n’avons pas eu beaucoup de pluie au printemps cette année mais depuis quelques jours on se rattrape au grand soulagement des céréaliers. Notre weigela …
Yesterday, our friends Susan and Simon from Loire Valley Time Travel, invited us to join them in a car rally in Blois called Le Bouchon de Blois aboard Claudette, their 1956 Citroën Traction Avant. The second photo features Susan and Simon who help visitors explore the historic and fascinating Loire Valley in style while the third is my favourite …
Continue reading “Blois in the Fifties – Blois aux années cinquante”
As a French blog, I feel rather challenged by a subject about food. In the end I decided to illustrate a recent tradition in French cuisine – the café gourmand, which is a coffee served at the end of the meal with a selection of mini-desserts according to the chef’s whim. From left to right, we …
Château de Chaumont at 7.30 pm at the end of April. Château de Chaumont à 19h30 fin avril.