Ouf!

I'm done packing at last.  I even stopped taking coffee for 4 days, just to calm down.  I am amazed how calm I am.  I'll be taking the TGV from Lille to the airport CDG and then 11 hours-flight.  I hope we won't be 2 stupid people left out at the Bangkok airport when we'll arrive.  We'll be arriving early in the morning, 7 am.  We've purchased 2 huges back packs, with trolleys.  I don't know how we going to carry them.  Anyways, everything is done : the house cleaning is done, the laudry is made.  No gym today.  Just relaxing until tomorrow.

Stats

Great, there's a bug with Blogger, even if I clicked on "don't track my paths" blogger still counts when I'm on my blog, so my stats are just going to be me reading my blog.  It might be gibberish to you if you don't have a blog.  With Blogger, you can count how many people read your blog and from which country they are from, which is really fun for me.  It encourages me to write more.

Ok so yesterday, I said I was really overly excited, in not a good way, but I woke up this morning and I think I know where it's from!  We switched our coffee brand, it's now Malongo, and this evil coffee is really really strong.  My husband is afraid tohave it now. lol

Have a nice day!

Yikes!

Hi there.  I'm totally freaking out right now.  There's only 7 days left, and I'll be on vacation for 3 weeks.  I'm a ball of nerves.  It's going to be hard to get out of our routine, going to the gym and doing the same things.  I have 2 travel guides one for Thailand and one for Cam.bo.dia.  Haven't took the time to read them, I guess I'll have to read them on the plane. 

So to destress, I've been watching a lot of TV.  My husband bought a satellite box (one of many) and managed to get some "evil" channels (m.t.v, E.! and T.L.C),  it's totally draining my time and brain.  He's now thinking of reselling it on ebay.  I was so against the sattelite box at first.  Ha Ha!

Oh and I got a hair cut last Saturday.  It turned out ok but it's too short for the trip.  How I will have to deal with thick curly hair without a hair straightener.  I wish I had normal asian hair.  

A hard pill to swallow

I will be on a plane in 2 weeks.  I was relieved that we had our vaccines before our departure.  However, the doc had prescribed some anti-malaria pills for the trip, Lariam.  I wasn't sure about the dosage so I did a few search on the Internet.  I was shocked by what I've read, looks like this thing has strong side effects: vertigo, weird ring in the ears, hallucinations, anxiety, and worse case, suicide.  There are several websites that are totally against this medication.  Either you get malaria or you ruin your trip because of the side effects...

For those who visited Thailand and  neighboring countries, did you take any anti-malarials during your trip?  I feel like my doctor doesn't really know the side effects, he kinda laugh when he talked about the psychological problems you can have when taking lariam.  So I think I won't be taking them. 

On a lighter note, I went to Lille last weekend.  It was a bad idea.  I just like how the city is decorated for Xmas.  Look how pretty it is.  The down side: so many people, and no parking available.  

 

There was also a Marché de Noël, Christmas Market, but it was so crowded, I had to get out of there quickly, plus the smell of hot wine and melted cheese were overwhelming.

Can't get enough of you NL

Since I have been living in France, I find the urge to get out of the country every now and then and our geographic location allows us to do so.

Last Saturday we were in Lille for a wine exhibit and then headed to Ikea.  I think I'm getting agoraphobic when going in the City. So many rude people in the store.  I even saw a little fight in the women's bathroom: "Hey I was there first." Too much people leads to agressiveness.  This is what we encounter everyday in France, you have fight to survive.  I don't even exagerate.  

So whenever we get a chance to leave France, even for a few hours, we just do. So we chose our favorite destination, the Netherlands. England is relatively close but you need to take a ferry to get there and you need pounds, so the NL it is.

We knew that the weather wasn't on our side, but surprisingly we had a sunny day the second day we were there.                                      

Our 2-day trip:

Breda, Bergen Op Zoom, Middelburg, Vlissingen

                                                      Notice the huge A on the left:  Breda

                                                                          Middelburg

 We've been to the Netherlands numerous times and we will never get tired of it.   and we can say the the Zeeland is one of the most beautiful regions.  If you are looking for a nice getaway from the hectic city life, that is a good place to visit.

Tot Ziens!

White Pizza

Hey there.  I know, I'm not posting as much as I used to.  There's not much to say, I could go on diatribes against the French Government...there is a lot to say about it.  But my blog is supposed to be light and enjoyable to read right?

So on to the real subject of this post : Pizza!  

Before coming to France, I've never done a pizza from scratch.  I learned that from my MIL.  My in-laws had a huge garden, with tomatos full of sun and they were so sweet.  The tomato sauce was a delight.  My MIL used a store-bought kit (Pâte à pizza F.r.a.n.c.i.n.e) to make the dough.  When you read the ingredients: wheat flour, vegetable oil and yeast, for more than 2 euros!  Ridiculous when you think about it.  A pack of flour is only 0,60 euros and dry yeast isn't expensive either.

So about the white pizza, I never really had one before arriving here.  French love their pizza with "chèvre" (goat cheese) and other stinky cheeses.  Some even have potatoes on it.  The crusts may be thin but the toppings are quite heavy.



The Dough (yields 2 medium size crusts, thin ones)

300g of flour
150 ml of lukewarm water
30g of vegetable or olive oil
7g of sugar
8g of dry yeast
pinch of salt


In the warm water, dissolve the dry yeast.  The water must not be too hot otherwise the yeast will no longer be active.
In a mixer (food processor) put the flour, and the water-yeast mixture, add the oil, sugar and salt and start pulsing.  Pulse until it makes a nice ball of dough.  Of course, if you don't have a food processor or mixer, you can kneel the dough by hand for about 10 minutes.

Let the dough rest for 1 hour.  Cut the dough in half and roll with a rolling pin and scretch the dough on a pizza pan.

White pizza topping
Instead of the tomato sauce, you put sour cream (crème fraîche).  Add your favorite cheese and vegetables and meat.

Making your own pizzas is satisfying.  You choose your own toppings and it is really cheap to make.  I would say less than 2 euros for each.  Making your own pizza dough is not difficult at all and doesn't take forever to make.

Enjoy!

Totally Forgot about the candies for the Trick or Treaters

I totally forgot about the candies! our little neighbour rang this evening and we didn't have any treats to give him and his friend. I gave some business pens.  How can I forget!? all the anglophone blogosphere is about Halloween.  

In my defence we don't really celebrate Halloween here, only la Toussaint (All saints), which is on November 1st.  They even have a day off tomorrow.  And lucky for the Frenchies the Holiday falls on Thursday and this is their opportunity to get Friday off as well, so a 4 day weekend.  Gosh! so of course, all the highways will be jam-packed tomorrow, they all heading South of France.  As for us, we will be going to the Netherlands.  Since we are d trying to save up for our trip to South East Asia this December, we won't be going anywhere too far this time around.

Happy  Halloween!.  Make sure to donate to Unicef and stock up on treats!

Brioche aux pommes

We drove by every week near an apple orchard.  I have always enjoyed fresh apples, I don't eat them off season.  I bought 3 kg of cox apples from the orchard but they weren't really good, but they are fine for cooking.  I miss the lobos and Mc Intosh from Canada.

I've done a batch of rolled brioche with those apples.   I was tired of making tarts. 

I got the recipe from this blog : http://www.mykitchensnippets.com/2012/10/cranberry-and-apricot-rolls.html

You must try this!

Have a great week!

Guess who's back?

I've been a bad blogger.  I just don't have anything "blog worthy" to write about.  October has arrived without notice.  We had some pretty warm days a few weeks ago, but now it's raining all the time.  Since we are working on roofs, it is hard to work without being annoyed by the bad weather.

On a totally unrelated subject, two of the male cats are back at the farm.  The "hot" season is gone, and there's no more female cats to chase.  They could disappear all summer long.  They come and they go, I have to let them be.

                                Toby!  I wonder who's feeding him when he's off for 2 months.

Now on the the last subject, I've been scrutinizing the web for months now, to get the best rate for 2 tickets for Thailand.  The prices are pretty steady since May, so I had to buy them on October, or the prices will go up just before Christmas.  It's gonna be a long ride, 11 hours of flight.  I won't be sticking around Bangkok for long, my real destination is going to be my birthplace : C.a.m.b.o.d.i.a!!! I haven't returned since I left 34 years ago.  I'm sure it's going to be an emotional journey.  We'll be going at the end of December, so for now, we must save up every little penny!  

 I wonder if it's necessary to get some vaccines before going there? if anyone has an answer please let me know.

             

Festival de la bière artisanale

As I have already mentioned before, I live in the French Flanders, in the North Region.  We are very close to the Belgian border, so beer is part of the culture.  We didn't have much to do on a Saturday, so we went to beer festival at 2 km from our village.  The weather was nice and warm so it was really pleasant.

 

Festival de la bière artisanale, Micro brew beer Festival, at Ste-Marie Cappel, France

 

Houblons in French, Hop flower

 

 Hop vines are hung all over the village for the festival

Hop flowers, it really smells like beer

 

 Hmm fries!  To sponge off the beer you need fries.

                                                                  Municipal garden at Ste-Marie-Cappel

The festival was well organized.  We had to buy a small beer glass and we got 3 vouchers for 5 euros, you get to taste 3 micro brew beers from producers.  So people would not get drunk.  I shared the glass, I'm not a beer fan, but overall I really enjoyed it.

Busy week

The company is missing employees these past few weeks.  One has left for good, one is on vacation and another one is on a building site.  We don't even consider hiring people.  We have placed an add and some of the candidates were already demanding (a car for work, and high pays) . So for now, we are doing multiple tasks.

I had to climb on the van yesterday to put some woods on the top of the roof of the van, and shamefully I had to get off without being able to stay up there more than 2 minutes.  I was dizzy.  So The Husband had to climb and managed to attached all the wood strips after 15 minutes.  We also went to the gym afterwards, so the next morning our muscles ached.  I realized how hard the job is for the rest of the employees who have to mount solar panels of roofs and lifting the heavy materials everyday.

I also managed to cook a little this afternoon. Pumpkin cake.  The hardest part was to grate the raw pumpkin.  

I used "potimarron", which is a pumpkin with a light chestnut taste.  It is small, maybe 2 kg, so I used half of it.

Use your carrot cake recipe.

Here's mine:

125g of yogourt

3 eggs

 250 of sugar (brown or white)

 375 g of flour

65 g of vegetable oil

1 table spoon of baking powder

half pumpkin finely grated

You can add cinnamon, and other spices if you like, but I find they overpower the taste of the pumpkin, so I don't add any.

Combine eggs, sugar and yogourt together, and add the flour and the baking powder.  Then add the oil to the mixture.  Add the grated pumpkin at the end.

Bake at 200°C/400°F for 40 minutes.  

Use a baking paper, it can be sticky.

I find this it's a great way to eat pumpkin.

Warm Weekend but no fun

I've been wasting my weekend on an agricultural fair.  I was there pretty much for moral support.  The husband had to do the nasty work.  It was a waste because people who were visiting the fair was there for 2 things: beer and fries.  Since we are so close to the Belgian border, the region of North of France is mainly influenced by its Flemish neighbour, genetically they share the same origins in French Flanders and Belgian Flanders. 

The weather was nice last weekend, warm and sunny.  Too bad we didn't get to enjoy it. As for the fair, people are there to buy some junk food, but no solar panels. 

Anyways, I sat there and ate fries the whole weekend­.   Totally shameful! 

On another subject, I've watched a show about Tokyo.  They live in such tiny spaces.  This makes me feel so privileged to have so much space on the Farm.  On a segment, they show some Japanese women on the coffee shop / petting cats shop.  They sit there for an hour, and they can sip their drink while petting some fury cats. Can't believe people would pay for petting animals, but can't blame them for not having enough space in their apartment to own a cat.

Check this out:

clip 1 :http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,104576135001_2000212,00.html



clip 2:

Photo de chats

It's back to rain today.  We had a few nice days, not too hot.  But let's face it, Fall is knocking at the door.
Here's a photo of some of the cats on the farm.  They want pâté now!

Bagel Bagel

I really had cravings for bagels for a while. And living in the country, without a Picard nearby is not really convenient.  Those bagels that we find in this frozen food store are not really good though.  In Paris, you can easily find tasty bagels in Le Marais District, hand made ones.  But Paris is too far for me.  So I've decided to make some today. Good thing I bought philly cream cheese.

I basically followed this recipe (sorry it's in French): Recette de bagel maison

 I added onions, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds.  

This is not difficult to do, except you need to boil them first before cooking them in the oven.  Hope you will try this at home, totally worth the effort.

On a complete unrelated subject, I am in the process of renewing my Canadian passport.  They made things easier for expats.  They have a simpler form that enables you to renew quickly without having to ask a reference person, such as a lawyer or a doctor to sign your form and no need for a birth certificate.

The hard part was to get ID photos that are at specific size.  I had to go in Lille to a photographer.  I really need to find another one, because the one I went to was not too keen to take the photo because of the odd size. At first, the employee said that they don't do this ID photo size, and I said but I did take a photo 5 years ago at your shop.  So he managed to let his colleague do the picture for him.  If you know a good photographer that is nice enough to do ID photos for Canadians in the North region of France, let me know.

Another money pinching tip and a green action

If you have a laser printer, you can have tons and tons of old toners you don't know what to do with them.  Some office supply stores can take your toners in exchange of discount voucher, like Office dépôt in France, they take your toner for 1 euro, you get a discount of 1 euro if you buy something there.  But if you want cold hard cash, I have found a great website : "toner vide dot fr" They are located in Pas de Calais, France. You can use this service if you live in France.

 I never thought that trash can worth that much.  They gave me 2,50 euros per empty toner, but it has to be a brand.  You register online, you put the empty toners in a box, and you weight it.  They will send you a prepaid sticker for La Poste and you don't even have to pay for transport.  I was skeptical at first, but I received the "enveloppe T - colis postal".

On the negative side, they would send you a cheque minus some toners that they have rejected, they even sent me pictures of the so called broken ones.  Anyways, I got 57 euros for 34 empty toners! yeah!  It is better than discard them in a trash bin or at the déchetterie.

Can't believe that I got cash for those toners that were sitting in a box for a year.

 

Penny Pinching

I've told you about my fixation on British TV, these days, I enjoy watching Superscrimpers.  I would never see that kind of show in Canada.  The show gives you tricks to spend less. With the economic crisis in Europe, tips on saving money are always good to take.

From my point of view, money was never an issue in Canada.  People work and work, young or old.  In France, wages are lower but the commodities are quiet expensive. But the French government is partly to blame:

-Tough laws on labour : really hard to hire and layoff employees, the employer must give a redundancy payment to the employee  when leaving the company

-The cost on salaries are so high and a company has to think twice about hiring someone.  You can see often small shops prefer to close for holidays than hire someone to take care of it while the boss is gone.
Some companies are forced to pay for lunch for employees if they can't return home to have lunch at noon.

 - The government gives a lot of money for children:

Allowance/Month

first child : 0 euro / 2 children : 127,05 euros / 3 children: 289,83 euros / 

and for an additional kid: 162,78 euros

And for back to school, kids can receive up to 350 euros to buy school supplies

I saw on TV a French mother complaining about not receiving this allowance earlier.  She received 1000 euros for her 4 children.  She still managed to complain even after having that much cash from the government.

-French people are encouraged to save up their money with "Livret A", you can save up to 15000 euros with an interest rate of 2,25% per year.

Saving is good, but spending helps the economy rolling. 

-Summer and Winter sales in the stores are regulated by the government.  Stores cannot put on sales items whenever they want.  According to region, they last a month with specific dates.  
 

-The government doesn't allow all stores to open on Sundays. Some grocery stores open on Sunday morning, some exception are made, for Paris or other touristic cities.

The list can go on and on.  But a government that has so much control and spends too much is not helping this economic crisis.

But some habits are getting to me, I am being more careful on money since I've been living in Europe.  They are really more careful about using their electricity, they consume less than Canadians.  Most French households don't have a clothes dryer.  I'm telling you, Canadians are very spoiled.  

White Peach Tart, best tart ever

In response to a comment about on post, about food that expats miss the most, 

"As someone who is not an expat it drives me nuts to hear people talk about the food and things they miss. It's another country, it's not suppose to be the same!!!  As a realist I understand that I have no idea what I'm talking about and I realize that it would be a complete shock to suddenly not be able to get things I take for granted."

I totally agree that expats must adapt to their host country, but tast of food from where you grew up is necessary from time to time.  I have more than adapt in my life in France.  I have learned from my French family how to cook French cuisine.  A lot of French do their own jams (confiture).  They also pick some blackberries in the woods or wild pears and apples.  I have picked up a lot from French habits.  Some are good some are not!

Here's a another tart recipe I want to share.  I have made the dough from scratch this time.  Delicious!

Pâte brisée - Shortcrust patry dough

250 g of flour

125 of butter

70 g of sugar

2 egg yolks

50 ml of cold water

pinch of salt

Mix every ingredients together with a food processor until you form a ball.  If it's too sticky, add a little bit of flour.  Let it sit in the fridge for 2 hours.

Then roll to form a nice flat round dough. 

Filling

5-6 white or yellow ripe peaches

I don't recall having white peaches in Canada, but these ones are so flagrant.

1 small cup of cream

1 egg

3-4 t.s. of sugar of vanilla sugar
Whisk all the ingredients together. 

Cut the peaches into quarters and sprinkle with the vanilla sugar.  Make sure your peaches are ripe enough.

Align nicely the fruits on the pie crust and pour the cream and egg mixture on it.

Cook in the oven at 180 °C for 40 minutes or until brown.

You can glaze with a table spoon or two, with apricot jam when the tart is cooked.  It will give a nice shine to it  You can do this with prunes or any fruit you like.  If using prunes, make sure to add enough sugar to balance the acidity of the fruit.  It is a nice way to enjoy summer fruits.

It's hot in here

Whoo! after several months of bad weather, it really feels like summer now.  We've been on a heat wave for a few days in France, pretty much all over the country.  We've been hiding from the sun in our cold  house.  It is a house built in 1821, all in brick, so it is always relatively cold in here.  It doesn't seem like Air Conditioner is mainstream in Europe.

We didn't get the chance to go swimming in the sea.  People were stock on the highways for hours, just to soak in the water.

                                                                       photo: lavoix dunord

We just wasted our weekend hiding from the heat and watched movies at home.  I managed to go jogging a little bit, in the evening.

On a unrelated subject, the work environment is so much better since the "nabot" left.   He even grinned when he learned that he was let go.  Good riddance. 

Food, my favorite topic

A recurring topic in expat blogs is the food that expats are missing from home.  As a food obsessed, I must say I do miss some food in Canada.


But yesterday, we went to the Netherlands, so I stocked up on goodies: blueberries, peanut butter, caesar dressing and so on.  They don't exactly eat like North Americans but we can easily find some food that we've been craving.

We headed to the Zeeland province, in the Netherlands.  The weather was nice, we took a nap at the beach, the water was too cold to swim in it.

And the Netherlands is also the land of Horticulture so I couldn't resist on going to a gardening centre.  Look what I found: Lemon grass.

 

My little garden is almost complete with asian plants now.  I have my thai basil and my lemon grass. 

Annoyance part 2

Gosh! isn't that annoying to get up in the morning and be already stressed out.  I thought that France was on holiday in August.  Since we work at our house, we could get calls at any time.  Our clients are mostly farmers and they don't understand that office hours are from 9am to 5 pm, period!   I have to admit that these clients are the worst, they never pay on time but they expect everything to be free.  Some of our most annoying clients are calling 5 times in a row, expecting us to pick up the phone.  I know, it's not professional not to answer, but when you send a technician for maintenance and he shows up right away, we never hear of the clients after that, no cheque no nothing. 

And yesterday, at 5pm, one other employee called and told us he won't be able to make it today.  Because while he was driving on the highway, the hood of his car opened and smashed the windshield, while rolling at 130 km/h.  He didn't get injured but insisted to get a day off.  This is scary.  I've never heard of this before.  Never get a clio people.

Let's hope no farmer is calling today, because I won't be answering the phone!

Tarte aux abricots

Last week was warm and sunny, it was the only week so far that feels like a really month of July.  And now we are back to cold and grey. 

At least, summer fruits are abundant.  So I've decided to make an apricot tart.  In France, people like to make tarts, either a salty or sweet  one.  Pie shells can be found easily in any grocery store.  It is even cut in round shape, so no dough rolling is required.  It only takes 5 minutes to prepare.

Ingredients:

1 pie shell 

500g of apricots

3-4 t.s. of sugar

2 t.s. of crème fraîche (sour cream or any cream)

1 egg

In a bowl, cut in half the apricots and pour some sugar on it.  Make sure to sweet enough the fruits, because apricots are quite acid.

For the filling, whisk the egg and the cream and add sugar, 2-3 t.s.  You will have to taste it, I am not good with quantities.  Arrange the apricots nicely on the pie.

Cook for 45 min at 200°C.

And Voilà.

ps. Even if you fear of sugar, don't be shy on the sugar because my tart was acid.

pps. you can add some prune liqueur or amaretto in the filling, and almonds flakes on it too.

Desserts

With  "Blogger", I  have daily stats of the visitors of my blog. The statistics are clear, people are visiting my blog for Lemon Curd Recipe! I found that amusing, and I didn't know that Lemon Curd is so popular, especially in anglophone countries, such as the States, and the UK.  I don't think I could ever buy lemon curd in jar at Tesco anymore.  (Haven't had the chance to go to Tesco for at least 2 years).

With a little patience, you'll get the best lemon curd ever.  Here a photo of a Meringue tart I made with lemon curd.

I used an italian meringue recipe :
- 4 egg whites
- 250 g of sugar
- 1 pinch of salt
- 100 ml of water

Whip the egg whites until foamy.  Boil water and add the sugar.  While whipping the egg whites, gently pour over the boiled sugar little by little.

 Pour the meringue over the lemon curd tart, and bake it for 15 min at 180-200 °C

And on to the another recipe, Strawberry Tiramisu.

 This thing is so delicious. It doesn't require any cooking. It doesn't take too long to make it.

For this recipe, you will need:

-a box of ladyfingers (about 20 biscuits)
-250 g of mascarpone
-100 g of sugar
-3 eggs
-1 to 2 t.s. of amaretto
-50 ml of orange juice
-200 g of strawberries

The mascarpone mousse:

Separate the eggs, you will need the egg whites for the mousse.
Whip the egg whites until they get foamy.

In another bowl, whisk the sugar and the egg yolks until the mixture gets creamy and in pale yellow.
Add the mascarpone little by little in the egg yolks mixture.
Add the few drops of your favorite liqueur, like amaretto.

Fold the beaten egg whites with the mascarpone mixture.

Soak briefly the lady finders in some orange juice.  Lay the fingerladies in a mold.  One layer of the biscuits, one layer of the mascarpone mousse, and one layer of strawberries.  It's like a lasagna.

Then put it in the fridge for at least 4 hours, or if you can't wait that long, put in the freezer a couple of hours.
And now enjoy!

Assez! Basta! Enough!

I might have mentioned that we run a business in France.  We had a few ups and downs because of the French Government.  These days, we are totally annoyed by one employee. 

I should explain first, in France, once you get your permanent job contract i.e. "c.o.n.t.r.a.t à d..u.r.é.e i.n.d.é.t.e.rm.i.n.é.e", the employee is untouchable. The employer has little flexibility to fire an annoying employee.  He could take some sick leaves and the boss cannot know the reason or the severity of the sickness.  The French Health Insurance would pay half of the salary, and employer would contribute to the salary as well.  So back to the annoyant employee, he has decided to switch his work schedule without even telling us in advance.  I have reminded him casually that he would be off on Friday, and said that finally he would take the next Friday off, instead.  My husband was back at 8pm and was furious with this employee, because he had disrupted the working schedule without notifying in advance.  So on Friday morning, his girlfriend called and said he was on a sick leave until next Sunday and he has the doctor's note to back his leave of absence.  We have to ask our accountant what rights we have to punish him.  We might have to do a "c.o.n..t.r.e v.i.s.i.t.e m.é.d.i.c.a.l.e", follow-up inspection by another doctor. If the private doctor says the employee is able to work, he must return at work, and the Health insurance will stop compensate him.  So basically, he will get off the hook if we don't do anything.  We will see what we will do on Monday.  

I'm astonished by the way we have to deal with employees in France.  They think they have the right for everything.  And if you ever fire employees, you have to compensate them, at least a month of their salary.

I've been complaining about the unemployment rate in France in some of my other posts, but cleary too much social security is one of the reasons why unemployment is so high here.  In Canada, the work environment is so much better.  The relationship between the boss and employees is more easier, and if you hate your job, you get on with your life and look for another one.  It's not the end of the world.  In France, if you hate your job, you hang on to it, or you find a way to get fired and get some unemployment benefits for at least a year.

Sorry about the rant, but I have to let it out.

ps: sorry for the dotted words, but I don't want some random googlers end up reading this post.

Summer is here

This summer was one of the coldest I've known since I've been living in France.  It is cold and rainy.  We had a few warm days, but I don't think I would be swimming in the sea this July. 

Appart from the cold weather, I'm enjoying some fresh products from farms in my area.  I have given up on the supermarket vegetables.  They are rather expensive and not fresh.  Besides, our neighbor is selling pork meat directly.  She is pretty much feeding all the village with fresh meat every week.  What she sells has nothing to do with industrial meat.  As for my vegetables and fruits, there's another farm that does seasonal greens and fruits.  You can also pick the vegetables and berries yourself on their farm.

At home, I don't even have a garden.  All the nearby parcels, farmers are growing potatoes and wheat.  When you see the pesticides they are spraying you do not want to plant vegetables nearby. 

I had some pak choy growing in the house.  So proud of it, and only one thai basil.  The other seeds didn't grow.

                                                                 pak choy and one thai basil plant

 

Bo Bun, vietnamese cold noodle salad, usually made with beef, 

but I made it with pork

Today's harvest pak choy

 Pak choy stir fry with turkey

Hope you are enjoying some fresh greens as well.  Have a nice summer.

Bilinguism and English TV

I have the chance to be able to watch English TV through my satelite.  It is my little escape from the French world.  It's not that I'm complaining about French, I am a francophone, I consider it to be my first language. But growing up in Canada, especially where I lived, we had English speaking people surrounding us.  I've lived accross the border of 2 provinces, Québec and Ontario.  I have mostly lived in la Belle province. 

All francophones teenagers of my generation went through a phase, where they've decided overnight  to only watch English programs on tv and listen mostly to American pop.  Well, that was in the '90s.  At that time, we thought that English was cooler and we basically learned English with Fresh Prince of Belair or Full House. lol  

This morning I came across a survey of the Globe and Mail : Tell us: Is bilingualism still relevant to Canadian identity?

My answer : yes of course!  how can this be an issue for my country? I can't hide my dislike of Harper, the Prime Minister....When we had Francophone as Prime Ministers, the French language wasn't an issue, and it is mandatory for this kind of of position to be bilingual.  I was shocked by  some commenters of the article : 

On 12/06/21

"  French is a  dying   language......The.. following is... fact.... In North America....... there are.......       more     deaf.... people       who......       know     how    to......     speak.....    sign..... language .....       than     people     who.....     speak French."

I hope he won't google his own words and read my post here.  This is just non sense.  Where I live now (in France, near the Belgium border), being bilingual, trilingual is not a big deal.  I admire Belgians or Dutch people who are able to switch so easily to Dutch, French, English or German.   All I can say is that I embrace bilinguism and I am glad I can speak both languages.

 
Ok, enough of my ramblings.

On to a lighter subject and back to English TV, it is a delight to watch English programs.  I admit, some are crappy but entertaining. 

I watched last night Secret eaters.  Basically, people in the show don't understand why they are overweight or aren't able to lose the weight.  So they were followed by "detectives" and filmed for 1 week and they were shocked by their habbits.  Their food diary of their daily intake doesn't quite match the reality.  So they have it on their face, the food they have eaten through the week was layed on a table.    It is an eye opener.  Well I don't snack but I've reached a plateau and I haven't lost weight for a while.  Frustrating! 

Anyway, if you can watch it on the web, here's the link:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/secret-eaters

Cat crazes

Meet Cookie.  This evil cat made us worried last week.  Like most male cats he would do his rounds of 3 days and come back starved and dirty.  Last Thursday, he smelled horrible and was really dirty.  We even washed him.  He tried to eat and drink but just stayed in front of the bowl.  The next morning his condition deteriorated, so we had to take him to the Vet.  If we have waited he would be gone.  We lost a few cats on the Farm because some are half-domesticated, they would never let us catch them.  Last year, one half domesticated cat died in our house.  It was the first and last time he let us hold him.  

The Vet did some blood analysis on Cookie and he said he was dehydrated.  He stayed overnight in a crate and had glucose perfusions, by intravenous. (see the shaved paw). He had a a glucose pouch attached to his paw.  It was ridiculious funny, I couldn't help but laugh, but the Vet said he could have died just of dehydration. Too bad I didn't take a picture. He has accumulated too much urea in his blood, and this made him nauseous, hence the lost of appetite.  His condition improved rapidly after his overnight stay at the Vet. This cat will be 4 years old on July first.  He was born a week after we moved in the Farm. 

Damn Cookie you scared the hell out of us!

Rien de neuf

I haven't post since posted for 2 weeks.  The main reason for this blog is to keep a journal and practice my writing in English.  To be honest, nothing really exciting is happening here.  We had a few warm days and there were go autumnal weather again.  I can't believe summer is around the corner.  Last night it was 11pm, the sun was still up.  That made me think about Norway, and the light they might have during the evening.  Don't know if they have a hard time sleeping.  I remember when we went to Denmark more than 10 years ago, we went camping and woke up at 5am, because the sun was so up and bright.  We thought it was 7am.

We have the travel bug again.  We want to go back to Wales, in the UK for a few days, but we are not sure yet.  I'm actually planning a trip to Thailand and Cam.bodia, we will go at the end of the year.  We are excited but a little scared.  I've never went back to my homeland since I was born.  A lot of preparations awaits up.  Passeports renewals, vaccines, etc.  I might even ask for my birth certificate, as well as for my parents when I'll get there.  I don't know if I will succeed in getting them, but I will need them if I ever apply for French citizenship. Dun Dun Dunn!

Pure Bliss in Zeeland

Yesterday, we decided to go biking in Zeeland, in the Netherlands for our birthdays (yes I share a birthday with my husband, we were born 1 year and 2 days apart).  It's only a 2 hour drive from where I live.  We have rented bicycles for 12 euros and we spent 3 hours touring in Middelburg. We've been to the Zeeland numerous times, but cycling around was a great way to visit the town, we discovered some spots that we haven't seen before.  The weather was sunny and warm enough.  After that, we headed to Zoutland, at the beach for an afternoon nap in our beach tent.  We finished the day at our favorite chinese restaurant in Vlissingen.

It was market day in the city, fresh fruits and vegetables, flowers and a flea market, a brocante.