this neck of the woods

Archive for the ‘France’ Category

Lasts

As we near the end of our time here in Germany (3 weeks, 2 days) we find ourselves really noticing the things around us, and appreciating our surroundings more. Consequently we’re also starting to count the things we’re doing for the ‘last’ time (probably not the last time in total, but the last time while we’re living here). It’s a bit of a sad thought, but it’s actually causing us to really spend the most time we can with our friends, and to take pause and look back at what we’ve achieved and experienced over the last (almost) 3 years.

This weekend marked the ‘last’ time we’ll be at the French house for a while.. great food, great friends, great memories to take with us!

Our bedroom for the weekendEntranceEveryone basking in the sunby the side of the roadGray Vézelaycheery windowBBQingThe cellarsnapped while I was out on a walk

Sweetie Pie

As promised, here’s a look at what we bought yesterday at the AgroGast.. yes that’s right – get jealous.. I’m over here getting fat on delicious delicacies from the country that still uses LARD instead of butter. It’s a tough life but someone has to do it! We had no idea what some of this stuff was – until Dave charmed some ladies waiting at the stall who were all too happy to speak English with him (not something we’ve commonly experienced in France).

So here, in order of appearance are: Cheese cake, Caramel and butter something-or-other (apparently Dave did too much charming, he can’t remember the name of this one), Bebe.. something something.. with caramel.. he also can’t remember this one (we’ll call it ‘death by pie’ for now), and finally Coconut Macaroons. So any of my lovely French friends out there (or Swiss – Aude, Maryline?).. feel free to enlighten me if you know what it is that we’ve bought here (but not the ingredients.. that, I don’t need to know).

cheese cakecheese cake caramel butter something-or-other-deliciousnessBebe caramel something... sooooo goooooodChocolate Coconut MacaroonAssorted Coconut Macaroonstime to go for a run...

AgroGast 2010

This weekend, in a big paddock behind a small French village, AgroGast 2010 was in full swing. What is AgroGast I hear you ask? Well.. it’s a place where lots of the wine and food makers from around France and Germany come to show off their goods. It involves a lot of wine tasting, salami eating and cheese smelling.. and is really good fun! We headed out there today for a look, and walked away with none of the things I just mentioned. Instead, we managed to find all of the sweet stalls.. I’ll show you tomorrow what we bought :D

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Backwards

A little while ago I posted about a weekend trip to Paris that Dave and I took, during which we visited an antique market called Marché Vernaison. I also mentioned that we’d picked up some pretty cool loot, which I’ve only just gotten around to photographing!

Below is the outcome of about 1.5 hours (not kidding) standing in the hot sun, rummaging through boxes and boxes of old wooden letterpress type. Being the kind of people that we are – we couldn’t leave until we’d uncovered every ‘w’ ever made, in search of one that would fit in that spot perfectly. In fact we were so dedicated that we even checked through every ‘m’ as well, in the hopes that one could pose as a ‘w’. We didn’t have much luck, so modified the best ‘w’ we found.

By the end of our search we were completely and utterly covered in decades-old French filth.. it was so worth it!

this neck of the woods letterpressthis neck of the woods letterpressthis neck of the woods letterpress

Paris in June

We headed to Paris over the weekend to (among other things) check out a large photography market being held just out of town. Dave had a lovely time trawling through all the stalls on the hunt for some bargain photography bits and pieces, and came away with a small box full of some pretty cool loot. I, on the other hand, got pretty excited when we headed out the other side of town to find an old permanent antique/flea market called Marché Vernaison. Yes, I do actually get deliriously happy at the sight of antique and flea markets, I’m a grandma. I too came away with some pretty cool loot, but I’ll share that at another time :)

Camera marketCamera marketcamera marketMarche VernaisonMarche VernaisonMarche Vernaison

Canal boating the safe way…

Here are some pics taken on our recent canal boating adventure in France. As you will see, our little boat had a slightly unfortunate name, which provided endless entertainment for those on board of course.

Open figCollected Figsmanriding for bread the jolly condom!Mother and daughterriding south France

A weekend in France

Last weekend we had the privilege of staying with our American friends in their beautiful French country house. We had the most perfect summer weekend, and I came home desperately trying to convince Dave that we needed a French country house too, preferably with lots of land, a creek, a chateau.. you know – the usual. He quickly reminded me that money is required to purchase such things, along with the fact that they speak French in France.. and we don’t know French. Hm. Oh well.. I think it’s definitely worth working towards!

So anyway, while we were there we took a trip out to a beautiful town called Vézelay, where we managed to stumble upon an antique shop that had boxes and boxes of old timber letterpress letters just lying around on the floor. I agree that this might not be so exciting for most people, but I have been dreaming of this day for a long time… and wouldn’t you know it, now that the time had come, I had no idea what I should spell with my new found letters! We ended up just getting our names, but I might think about it a bit harder for next time we’re out that way!

the houseview abovehydrangeawooden letters

la case de cousin paul

boutique

While we were in wandering around Sacre Coeur in Paris, we found this beautiful store selling all different coloured ‘ball’ fairy lights. It’s called ‘la case de cousin paul‘. While they do sell ready-made sets in certain colours, you can also browse the store with a basket in hand, and pick out the colours you would like to have on your string of fairy lights! All the different colours make for such eye-candy.. I literally had to be dragged out of the store. Luckily for those of us that don’t actually live in France, they have a website in which you can drag and drop your favourite colours onto a string of lights, and they’ll ship it to you. Brilliant!

Sweet Paris

man and metro postersold metro postersold metro poster

I just thought I’d share a couple of photos of some old posters that were exposed in one of the metros in Paris. We had specifically planned the trip last weekend just to catch up with some family who were there over the weekend, but managed to extend our stay to 3 nights which was perfect!

On Thursday night we got ourselves caught in one of the most incredible storms I’ve ever seen.. it came up so suddenly that all we could do was just stop in the middle of the footpath while we were pelted with rain and bits of debris and hope the wind didn’t just sweep us off our feet . We were also hoping it wouldn’t pick up any stray coffee tables or chairs and throw them our way. We eventually managed to run into a restaurant (with staff desperately trying to hold down their awnings and tables) completely saturated and freezing.. far too much excitement if you ask me!

The rest of the holiday was much less dramatic I’m please to say!