French Christmas Adventure

A variety of roots at the Marché in Besancon including beetroots, cerfeuil tubereux, parsley, Oca du Perou, crosne and topinambourg

The difficulty with uploading photographs and then not being able to move them is that I must compose a story around them or just ignore them completely.

Early on Saturday morning we had a phone call from Corinne`s mother explaining that the weather conditions were very bad, and that we might not make it to Besancon. A few minutes later there was another call, from my mother, who explained that the weather situation in Ireland was severe and that our flight may be delayed. I had already taken out the rubbish and wondered where this bad Irish weather was, or if it turned up since! It was not an auspicious start to our little trek but we stepped off the train in Besancon 14 hours later in good order. It was -14 Celsius and there was snow everywhere, but not too deep.

In describing poor driving conditions the French say "les rues sont delicates". This was the first of many double meanings which I might experience over the next few days! As the temperatures began to increase the weather changed and it also began to rain. It was still freezing and the roads. In France snow is either all good or all bad and the rain altered matters considerably making the roads deadly.

Butchers preparing meat at the marché in Besancon

The marché at Besancon is building up to the biggest family feast of the year; le Rèveillon. This is effectively a feast of gourmandies and as midnight approaches the children are put to bed just before Pere Noel (a.k.a. Santa Claus) arrives at midnight. This character, typically clad in red with a white beard, indulges in disappointent and never appears to wait around for the good childen of the land to open their presents. Obviously the disappointment of the children is short lived for the most part as they tear the wrapping from their presents.

The food is always the centre of attention during his time and the build up to Rèveillon is everywhere to be seen. The year end fixation for figures and statistics is bound up into this expectation and excitement. The chiffres (figures) reveal that there was 20,400 tonnes of foie gras produced in France in 2007. One newspaper article centered upon a producer from Alsace who had created an academy for foie gras. He elaborated on the characteristcs and qualities of the various foie gras; the vigeur (vigor) of the foie gras de canard and the douceur (sweetness) of the foie gras du oie. However, he also brought it one stage futher announcing "canoie"; a combination of foigras de canard and foie gras du oie (duck and goose livers). Foie gras forms an important part of the meal of the Rèveillon and its subtle flavours have gone through many fads and styles of preparation through the years; it is available smoked, salted or sweetened with figs and other fruits and now as canoie.

Corinne's mother has prepared her foie gras by placing it in milk for two days with salt, pepper and a little spice. After that it was wrapped in plastic and mascerated in a little port hile rolled into a cling film and bound in your best dish cloth! It tasted stunning this morning and no doubt will acquire a little more flavour from the port over the next day or so. In this part of France it is normally served with pain d'épices; a tradtional dence golden brown loaf made from honey and spices.

Chocolate snowmen or bonomme de neige at Hirsinger, Arbois

Chocolate shops do a roaring trade in France over Christmas. There are sweets everywhere from the humble papillottes to the more elaborate pieces produced by master choclatiers. The papillotte is the equivalent of our crackers at the table. They are typically a chocolate covered praline sweet and are covered in bright eye catching wrappers. While our crackers have jokes the papillottes contain questions to be posed to your fellow diners. For example "How heavy is a big male chimpanzee? a. 70 kgs; b. 90 kgs; c. 110 kgs". The answer of course, as everybody knows, is 70 kgs and more impotantly we are informed that he is three times stronger than a human male of the same weight! In contrast Corinne and myself pulled a cracker together before we left, and I was left explaing the following joke contained therein; "The local police station was burgled recently. The police had nothing to go on".

Le Morillon - a cheese stuffed with morelles

There was almost 50,000 tonnes of Comté cheese produced in Franche Comté this year, a fact based upon the offical chiffres or statistics. Cheese mongers are far from left out in this season of feasting; cheese is an essential course and every region celebrates its own produce. The fromageries or fruiteries in Franche Comté are stunning emporia and often produce their own cheese on the premises, some only selling what they produce such as bleu de gex, Comté, or Mont D'or. One shop in Champagnole sold a number of locally produced buches de chèvre or goat's cheese which I had never seen or heard of. They included Truffe ventidor, Tanpiniere and Bicaillon which were all stunning looking and quite individual in their appearance.

The scenery of the Haut Doubs of Franche Comté is dominated by pastures, forests, large farm houses and cow sheds that often resemble large farm houses. When the snow arrives it becomes a winter wonderland and the Montbeliard cattle are nowhere to be seen as they have retreated to the safe havens and sheds where the chill of the wind and snow will not be felt.

Winter in the Haut Doubs

A dash through November

November slipped by so fast it was frightening. It appeared to be a work-filled month running from one job to the next with very little time to take stock or note of what was going on around me. I do remember making some very nice chocolate biscuits and a few fish pies to keep us happy and well nourished. The dark days slipped by very quickly as we raced towards the shortest day of the year.

Today I am in Besancon with Corinne surrounded by snow and ice. The treachorous roads may keep us somewhat confined but if we get hungry we can always shoot something or other! The pears and quinces stored outside have frozen and the sweet chestnuts have dried rapidly in the chilly air.

Back home our allotment became less demanding over the last few weeks because the slugs have devoured the turnips and the beetroot are still too young. One delight however has been the growth of one of Corinne's new variety of globe artichoke plants. Despite my pleas to leave it grow for a lttle longer, she longed for the tender fresh and young leaves. So it came to pass, no sooner had I turned my back she had chopped it away from its mother plant when I had my back turned. I found the solitqry innocent inthe basket when I was loading the car. Everything tastes great with a little mayonnaise and this little specimen was no exception.

Corinne's new Globe Artichoke plant

November also means the harvest of the slug infested jerusalem artichoke plants, which lay maturing in the soil for the last few months. To my surprise they had not been too badly attacked by the useless slugs, and we had a few very pleasent meals with either roasted or steamed jerusalem artichokes (which also taste great with a little mayonnaise). The harvest of these unphotogenic critters is quite unforgettable because we wash them in the rainwater filled basins on the allotment. The water is inevitably freezing and my hands are throbbing with pain by the time I have washed the mud from them. The real reason for a lack of photgraphs at this point is because my fingers became paralysed in the cold water. A sensation which repeated itself yesterday after shovelling snow for a period.

During November I managed to get away for a few days to Holland, and spent a day in Haarlem before meeting friends in Amsterdam. There are times when you need to have some time to yourself and Haarlem I believe is the place to do it. It is much smaaler than Amsterdam but still has all the charm. The city is disected by the Spaarne river. Below are a few views of Haarlem to enjoy.

Check out the wonderful furniture of Piet Hein Eek

Traditional boats on the Spaarne with St Bavo`s cathedral in the background

Halloween was still in the air but so were the Christmas lights like so many cities

Sinterclas and Zwart Piet were making their entrance into the cities of the low countries the weekend I had arrived. There were a lot of beautiful wreaths of flowers, berries and fruit to hang on your door, or indeed decorate your beloved bicycle. I am contemplating bloging Conor`s Christmas Adventure (if I am allowed - so stay tuned in).
All errors above are due to defective and non standard French keyboards.