parapluies roses

An installation of pink umbrellas in Rodez for breast cancer 

awareness month.

M. Senouci..

slate/ardoise

Our roof is covered with terracotta tiles as are those of our neighbours but 

if you drive north for less than an hour you will start to see slate roofs.

Thick shiny, chunky slates in a fish scale pattern. The one above is in Conques, a remarkable village

with it's huge abbey, amazing tympanum and dramatic setting. It is one of the 'plus beaux villages de France'. This is a good time of year to visit - in Summer it's absolutely heaving.

I'll dig out some more photos to show you another day.

Doors

It would be hard to find a country that does doors better than France - from the grandest to the most humble, patched and repaired doors - I love them all.

cahors market

I had a great day out in Cahors yesterday. First stop the weekly market, then coffee and pain aux raisins, the huge flea market on the square (the picture of the dolls and odd figures above is the only one I managed to take I was so distracted by everything), then more market purchases and finally a gorgeous lunch. All beneath a perfectly clear blue sky.

There were fewer people than normal - school is back so any tourists with children have gone - but still enough for a nice bustle. Today we drove along the Lot valley to Cajarc to pick up my car from the garage and I had to pinch myself - I get to live here! - I don't have to leave at the end of the Summer! Something everyday like picking my car up from the garage means a drive through some of the most beautiful countryside in France.

A bit of late Summer  sunshine and I go all hello birds, hello trees...

market day # 6

Chez Boutonnet - the best chocolatier/patissier in town. 

The almond croissants are to die for. I'm not noted for

my feeble appetite but they are so rich and glorious that I

can only manage a half at a time!

16 rue du Sergent Bories. 12200 Villefranche de Rouergue

coiffure

I smile every time I see this sign!

market day #3

One of the nice things about Villefranche market is that along with the commercial traders there is still room for little stalls where people (mostly old so I don't suppose it will continue this way for long) sell a few bits and pieces from their gardens. Flowers, eggs, some veg.

Mum has been complaining about not finding fresh enough fish so we bought her a trout which frankly couldn't have been any fresher. I've known this boy since he was 4! He was at school with my son so it was quite something to see him in charge of the trout man's stall and doing very well!

market day #2

market day

How would you like to do your weekly shop here?  

Every Thursday from 8am till about noon.

 Fruit, vegetables, olives, spices, cheese, yogurt and milk from the farm, meat, live fish, chickens and fowl,  ditto dead, ditto cooked, bread, honey, fresh butter,  saucisson (pig, cow, horse, donkey (not kidding)) vegetable plants, flower plants, paella from the paella man who has bread, sausage and red wine for breakfast at 8am, eggs from farmer's wives who stand with their produce in baskets at their feet, unwanted kittens, hand woven baskets, buckets, the itinerant knife sharpener who turns up sometimes, hand carved spoons, wine (in bottles or dispensed  straight from the tanker into your jerrican for 1€ a litre). It's all there!

spot the difference

Sometimes it all depends on the angle...! Poor house.

garden salad

Even though we can get locally (polytunnel) grown salad all Winter long, there is nothing like salad straight from the garden.  The first salads of the season are the best of all, taking a leaf or two from each plant and  adding whatever herbs are also making an appearance: sorrel, chives, parsley.  I know the season has changed when salad takes the place, most days, of soup at lunchtime.

The salad in the picture was greens from the garden with a little bit of chopped red pepper, some black olives and the tiniest bit of leftover blue cheese - it made such a difference though - perked the whole thing up.

Serving plate

garden

I'm late with the garden this year - May already...! However the great thing about vegetable gardening in France is that people don't often sow their own seed. For things like beans, radishes etc yes but for chard, beetroot, salad, leeks,  brassicas, tomatoes, peppers and the like you can buy small plants (cheaply) on the market. So if like me you've let things slip you can catch up pretty quickly.

I spent a couple of days this week yanking out weeds, mostly buttercups, from the veg patches and yesterday my friend Claude came with his rotavator and dug in cow muck and made the soil (heavy clay) workable.

I also have three new raised beds where I'm growing salad and greens and it'll be interesting to see how they work  - whether they'll be easier to water and keep weed free. It's definitely a plus being able to tend them without stepping on the soil.

no one home...

endive salad

The weather is wildly variable here at the moment. One moment hot,  the next rainy and cool. Lunchtime coincided with a sunny half hour today and so we were able to eat outside.  I make this salad a lot - it's the best thing to do with endives (chicory) as far as I'm concerned.

Wash and slice some endive ( we were three at lunch and I used two).  Arrange on a plate or shallow bowl and top with some crumbled  blue cheese - it should be Roquefort but I just don't get Roquefort at all. Just too overwhelmingly salty for me which is a shame as it's our local cheese. I prefer the rather déclassé St. Agur (shhh).  Top with some walnuts and some stoned black Greek olives and a little chopped parsley. Dress with a vinaigrette.  I haven't specified quantities, just add the amount of each ingredient that pleases you.

Bon Ap!

biscuit head

stone sculpture sauveterre de rouergue

Is this a carving of someone eating a biscuit...?!

najac

 lovely door furniture

dubo, dubon, dubonnet 

the old post office

the governor's house (under restoration little by little for years)