We moved into Port 80 on 7 Jan, 2011, so this is another anniversary entry of sorts. This is the longest I’ve ever lived in the same place, beating my previous record of my first house where I lived from birth until a few months before my 9th birthday. For Will, this is nearly twice as long as he’s lived anywhere else. Since we’ve already done an anniversary entry for 10 years in France, the rest of this post is just to recap what we did over the holidays, for the record.
We were invited over to the Beaufils on the 23rd, along with their friend José and Claude. She is a childhood friend of Mauricette’s and lives in Nontron; he lives near Bergerac and they split their time between the two places. We’ve had a few meals with them before and they’re lovely people, although he talks an awful lot. Being the day before xmas eve, we were promised a light meal. We started with savory bread made with cepes, and cubes of La Vache Qui Rit (Francoise says the cow is laughing because you think the product actually contains cheese), served with rum punch. Next up was a potage des cepes, which actually was on the light side. The main however, was not. It was a Tartiflette, which is roasted potatoes, mixed with charcuterie and copious amounts of reblochon, an unpasturised cheese from Savoie. Thankfully, there wasn’t a cheese course, and dessert was pineapple upside down cake, served with chartruese. We left fairly pissed and very full.
And that pretty much sums up the rest of the xmas break. We took it easy on xmas eve, and then got up on the early side on xmas to open some presents and start preparing the meal. We hosted this year – my first time cooking the xmas meal. The guests were Anne & Andrew and Francoise, who all showed up around 11. We exchanged gifts while sipping champagne and eating nibbles, which were smoked salmon and trout roe blinis, with guac for the non-fish eaters. The meal was my traditional Thanksgiving menu, but with a whole capon instead of turkey parts, plus the usual stuffing, roasted veg, sprouts, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. Francoise made dessert which was not quite a traditional bouche de noel, made from chestnut paste. We spent the rest of the day playing cards, and eventually eating a bit more. It was a lovely day and nice to spend it here with Will’s parents.
Lewis and Pary are in town for a month, and we went over to their place on Boxing day. They got a new dog that they don’t like to leave alone, so we brought leftovers including Anne’s nut roast (veggie main) from the day before for Pary. When we arrived, only Lewis was there. Pary had just left for Perigueux, accompanying non-French speaking friends of theirs, one of whom had sliced off her finger tips with a wood working tool. Being the day after xmas, the emergency room was heaving and after waiting an hour, were basically told they could stay but it would many hours before anyone could treat them. So they headed home with new bandages and she went to the docs the next day.
Lewis may have had a few before we arrived and the three of us had drinks and ate. Pary arrived a couple of hours later and we sat with her while she ate. Lewis excused himself and got sick, then spent the rest of the night in an armchair. This gave us time to catch up with Pary who was in good spirits for a change. We didn’t stay late since we were a man down but made plans to see each other again during their stay.
The next day, I made chicken vegetable stock, and then Will’s favourite leftovers dish, turkey tetrazini (or turkey tetris as he likes to say). It’s a casserole of egg noodles, chicken and carrots in a sauce made from stock and cream, mixed with cheese and coated with bread crumbs. We had planned to have Benoit and Virginie over the next night, but since they still had family visiting, invited us to theirs instead. So I made the casserole for us on Friday, and used the rest of the meals ingredients to make appetizers, as Benoit had requested. Instead of mashed sweet potatoes and carrots, I used them to make fritters. There was leftover smoked salmon and trout roe, which went on blinis. I had a leek and parma ham that I sauted, mixed with cheese and baked on toasts.
We went over to B&Vs around 8 and had the nibbles and drinks around their place. Eva and her Benoit were there, along with Benjamin, Benoit’s younger brother and his wife Alyssa and two of their three boys, plus Sylvie, Benoit’s sister. Benoit made meatballs and a duck breast for Will and Virginie made a daal with squash, and deep fried beignets. We had a few vodkas and wine with the meal, so dessert is a bit hazy. By the end of the evening, it was clear that the Pringaults had been spending a bit too much time together, with little arguments over nothing breaking out here and there. We left on the early side and tucked into our present from Eva when we got home.
Dave, Amy and Elvie arrived on the 29th, and we went over to the folks for dinner. I brought the remaining turkey tetris, and Andrew made meatballs, with a pork version for Will. Amy didn’t join us since she was suffering from a sore throat, a virus she picked up from Dave just before they arrived. We didn’t stay late and had an early night. We went around the next evening with Francoise for an xmas meal, prepared by Andrew. We started on the early side so Elvie could join us for a bit, but she didn’t make it quite long enough to join us. Amy was feeling better, so we got to spend some time with her that evening.
The meal was fairly traditional, with a capon from the Milhac butchers plus the various sides including sprouts, roasted and mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. It was all delicious and it was topped off with Francoise’s famous tiramisu. She didn’t have coffee and used cocoa instead, so it wasn’t quite as good as normal, but still lovely. We played cards for quite a while after dinner and eventually headed home around midnight.
The next day was new years eve and Will didn’t make it out of bed for most of the day. He had started feeling symptomatic the previous day and now had a very sore throat and a fever. I was feeling fine, and went about my preparations for the evening’s festivities, our traditional gathering around Manu & Mathilde’s. It was an apero-dinatoire, and made brownies and tortilla swirl canapes. Instead of my usual Mexican version, I went with an Italian theme this time around. I had a bag of rocket leftover from the dinner we didn’t end up having here, and made pesto from it, using walnuts instead of pine nuts. I started with a layer of cream cheese, then chicken, followed by pesto and chopped sun-dried tomatoes. The idea was to have the colours of the Italian flag, but it was a bit hard to tell once they were rolled up. People seemed to enjoy them, so I’ll probably do them again.
We had prepared some lime infused vodka for the evening, and I brought that with a bunch of mixers and champagne. When I arrived, I discovered that in fact, I had brought everything but the vodka, so Mathilde came back with me to get it and say hello to Will. He made the cats very happy by staying home on the sofa, and went to bed early. At the party were the Lorenzos plus Gael & Corrine, Sylvie & Olivier and their girls, Francoise, Mathilde’s cousin, her husband and their toddler. Paul & Nat were meant to be away but had car trouble and came back early, so they were there, along with M&M’s new-ish neighbours, Hans & Catherine. He is Dutch and she in English, and they both speak excellent French. She and I ended up putting on a song and dance show in the later hours, belting out classics at the top of our lungs.
Manu made sushi especially for me, and I did my best to eat most of it. There were lots of other nibbles, and eventually dessert but the evening gets a bit hazy after midnight. Manu helped out a bit with the vodka, but otherwise, I finished most of it on my own over the course of the evening. I was the last to go around 4am and slowly made my way home. I decided a pot noodle was in order, and promptly crashed on the sofa after eating it. Both Will and I were feeling rough the next day, although for different reasons. We watched lots of telly and ate a few meals and then crashed early.
Will was starting to feel better the next day but in the afternoon, I had a scratchy throat which lasted until the next day, and then turned into a cold. Mine wasn’t nearly as severe as Will’s, but we’re both still a bit stuffed up more than a week later. We were feeling well enough to play poker with Lewis and Pary on the Sat night. The luck was on their side, and neither Will nor I had much of a hand the entire night, and eventually Pary won. We had a rematch last night and I won, so things are now right in the world again. They’re heading back to Paris in a week so we may see them one more time. Our only other social event last week was birthday dinner for Anne at the folks place on Monday. Andrew put on a delicious veggie meal of courgette souffle served on puff pastry with green beans topped with crispy garlic. We then had cheese and apple tart for dessert. We were both still recovering so didn’t stay too late.
The only thing worth mentioning is the weather. Each winter has gotten more and more mild, and this is certainly the mildest one yet. Nov and Dec were wet and windy, but not cold. In Jan, the average high temp has been 10C, and not much colder at night. We’ve had a few frost, with temps just below freezing, and last night it was the coldest so far at -3C. Now it’s overcast and bit chilly, but then it’s back to sun and mild temps for the foreseeable.