The Bread Oven

Participating in community activities is an important aspect of life in France.

Three years ago, our local council floated the idea of a community bread/pizza oven, to connect communities and generations.

The idea gained traction and an initial plan was formulated to build an oven at the rear of Bazens Chateau.

After much discussion and research, an alternative proposal was put forward ... a mobile oven.

This oven, made of sheet metal and weighing several hundred kilos, would ultimately be transported around the district on the back of a trailer.

If people could not go to the bread oven, then it would go to them!

Bérangère Lassevils, from the association Vivre Mieux Ensemble  at Port Saint Marie, took the reins and organised funding for the project. 

Money came from the Conférence des financeurs (Lot et Garonne department) and Carsat, which finances projects involving pensioners.

But who would build the oven? Plans were downloaded from the internet, as an open source document from a website that involved an identical oven fabricated by country bakers. 

The plans made the task look highly complex and specialised. At first blush, the plans looked like a NASA moon-module!

A local ironsmith, Solene Huet, rose to the challenge. She possessed impeccable credentials, being the creator of a life-size elephant that stands by the roadside a few kilometres from Prayssas.

The project progressed slowly but steadily. Then Covid hit and work came to a halt. 

When it resumed, a few local volunteers participated in workshops to assist Solene and learn new skills. These included the measuring and cutting of materials from plan specifications, welding and assembling.

I attended a few of these workshops with my neighbour and friend Remy. Jacky, the Deputy Mayor, also got involved.

All the hard work came to fruition in the spring of this year. It was with great excitement and a sense of satisfaction that we gathered at Solene's for the inaugural bread-oven firing and pizza lunch.

A local baker, Fabrice, brought the dough and oversaw operations. 

The fire was lit at 8.30am and by midday the interior temperature was ready at 300 degrees.

While Fabrice kneaded the bread dough,  a cast of eager helpers chopped ingredients for the pizzas. We worked in the shade of a giant Lime tree, as the outside temperature rose into the high 30s.

Fabrice kneads the dough

People made their favourite pizzas

Hot work

Pizzas for all

The oven proved a great success and we all thoroughly enjoyed the lunch. Families took home freshly baked bread.

Crowd-funding of the trailer to transport the oven is underway. It will provide so many opportunities for residents to come together, learn more about the ancient practice of communal baking and enjoy the fruits of their labour.

Fabrice, the baker

Solene, the Iron Lady 

Remy, Solene and Jacky

Bérangère

Our bread oven was a long time in the planning and construction ... but it was worth it!

 

Night Market

The first night market of the year was held on Friday at Frégimont, the small village one kilometre down the road from Ellesmere.

These weekly market nights normally occur in July and August but Friday's event was a special, preliminary show.

All our friends were there to enjoy the food, wine and music.

 

There were fewer food stalls than normal but the standard was very good. Local brewer Natural Mystik was represented and our favourite local winery Quissat was there too.

These night markets are wonderful community events that showcase what is best about French provincial life.

Pot of Gold

After a severe but short-lived storm on Friday night, a breath-taking rainbow landed just at the edge of the forest, where the ploughed field meets the winery road.

It was rather magical and mystical. 

Basque country

We'd heard so much about Bayonne and the Basque country ... so we decided to go there.

With the ID3 at full charge, we drove south, past Mont de Marsan and Dax. We reached Bayonne after two-and-a-half-hours and still had another hundred or so kilometres in the battery.

We stayed at a hotel by the Pont Saint-Esprit, in a room with an angled view of the river. About a hundred metres down the road, quay-side, was a charging station for the car.

We set off on foot to explore the town ... and what a charming town it is!

Situated on two rivers, the Adour and the Nive, Bayonne has stunning buildings and an old city full of medieval character.

We walked the narrow, cobble-stone streets of Grand Bayonne, along the attractive Rue Port-Neuf, with its interesting shops and restaurants.

Bayonne is noted for ham and chocolate, so needless to say we indulged in both!

While Cliona did some window-shopping in the historical centre of town, I took an outdoor table at the Cafe Central, by the river. Under the early Spring sun, with a pint of beer, I sat and watched the passing parade.

On the other side of an ancient stone bridge, across the Nive, stood a row of four and five-story terrace houses adorned with coloured shutters, of burgundy, blue, soft greens and greys.

In the square, carefree children played and grown-ups walked their dogs.

It was one of those sublime, relaxing, French-café moments that make living in this country such a joy.

We dined that evening in Petit Bayonne at a restaurant called Goxoki. Here we enjoyed, without doubt, the most memorable meal since arriving in France more than five years ago.

Every course was bliss. For the entrée we chose scallops and veal, for mains we chose lamb and monkfish, and for dessert the crepes and chocolate.  

The wine, Cliona's choice, was superb ... a French Catalan masterpiece.

We strolled home, across the elegant Pont Saint-Esprit, with the lights of the grand Haussmannien buildings reflected in the waters of the Adour.

Chickens

 

We arranged to get six young chickens from our farmer friend Alain. He lives not far from here, on a property that overlooks the valley. 

I know Alain because I regularly buy honey from him.

He has beehives, an extensive vegetable garden and an unknown number of free-range chickens.

About four weeks ago, I bought a pre-fab chicken house on line. It was relatively easy to assemble.

Once installed, I completed the coop by wrapping wire around the Lallandi pines to form a predator-proof (I hope) enclosure.

With the help of Cliona's brother Kieran, who was visiting from Ireland, we collected the hens from Alain's and installed them in their house.

We left them there for 36 hours so they would get acclimatised to their new home and accustomed to returning there at night to roost.

After two weeks they are still very skittish and shy. That's ok ... we will give them all the time they need.

They forage and scratch around their compound and feed on corn as a supplement.

We are getting three eggs a day, on average.

As soon as they've laid an egg, they cackle away happily for about five minutes. It's a scream!

We installed an automatic door so we can go away for short trips ... I will leave them plenty of corn and bowls of fresh water.

They are a joy. 

I'm really happy I got them.

Frost

 Now it really feels like winter.

Here in the Lot et Garonne, it's getting down to minus six degrees at night and not getting much above five or six during the day.

A freezing fog blankets everything and the sun struggles to break through.

But break through it did ... today.

A pale-blue sky made a perfect backdrop to the ice covered leaf-tips of pines, frosted as if with icing sugar.

Particles of ice fell like snow from the branches, coating the ground in patches of white, not yielding to the weak sun, not melting.

Inside, it's time to use home-grown potatoes and leeks ... to make a warming, winter soup.

With the wood-burner going at full tilt, we are happy to stay indoors. 

NYE gourmet marathon

 

We were invited to the town of Jouy-en-Josas, near Versailles, to experience a typical French New Year's Eve party.

It was held in a large, well-equipped room at the friends of our friends.

We were told to prepare ourselves for a gourmet marathon.

But nothing we did, including an afternoon nap, could prepare us for what was in store.

Françis, Micheline, Cliona and I took the Rapid Antigen Test an hour before we departed. A negative result was a condition of attending the party.

We didn't arrive til 9.30pm.

Aperos, hors d'ouevres and lively conversation followed ... until midnight.

Then it was à table!

Out came the seafood ... oysters (Pacific and native), prawns, langoustines, huge crab claws and sea snails.

Then came foie gras, steak and potatoes, salad, cheese and dessert.

All this was washed down with copious quantities of excellent French wine.

And there was dancing and karioke. 

We got home at 7am ... exhausted.

I'd never been up this late in my entire life ... neither had Cliona. But wait! There was more! We fronted up the next day to continue this Bacchalian extravagance.

After seafood and snails, we were treated to a gorgeous cassoulet, over which the President of the Ile de France Rugby Association had slaved for four hours.

I complemented Arnaud on his delicious dish and tried to enveigle him into giving me first dibs at tickets to the upcoming World Cup. But alas, the wily old codger was having none of it!