Good day to you all. Time for another update on our adventures en France. Since the last entry, we have been more or less on our usual routine – poker/swimming for Matt and guitar/work-outs for me – until Thursday, when Sharon suggested we hop in a car and visit Angoulême, a largish town/city about 35 mins from us. We had been a few times before, but only really to either drop people off or collect them from the train station, so this visit was more about seeing what the place has to offer. The devious weatherman had promised us 10 degrees and sunshine so I dressed accordingly -and as a result, was freezing cold most of the day. It may not have been that far from 10 degrees, but there was a biting wind that made it feel a lot colder.
First stop on our trip was to a Sushi restaurant that Sharon had seen before but never eaten at. This was me taking one for the team – they are both sushi lovers, whereas I cannot conceive of a worse form of torture than being made to eat raw fish. Fortunately, they also had some chicken skewers on the menu. Unfortunately, the meal was a duffer all round: sweet sake, even sweeter soy(?!), very mild wasabi, and in my case, dubious-tasting skewers. We assume it had been adjusted for French palates, but we are certainly not planning a repeat visit. That’ll teach us for ordering non-French food in France!
After lunch, we strolled through the streets, enjoying some of the magnificent architecture – Angoulême boasts a spectacular church and cathedral – and checking out the shops. We then stopped off for coffee in a lovely little place that, in the UK, would have been a Starbucks, but in France, was a small, independent boutique that produced its own (delicious) coffee. This set us up nicely for the final stop – an enormous supermarket called Aucean. As mentioned in the last entry, we had arranged to have our 4 French neighbours over for dinner at the weekend, so needed supplies. In addition to the 4 Frenchies, and Sharon & James, Sharon had also invited three English friends of hers along, so we were preparing ourselves for quite a crowd. James gave the Frenchies a knock on Friday evening to confirm they were still ok for dinner the next night, coming back with the news that not only were they really looking forward to it, but that there would be 6 of them! My blood pressure at this point was starting to go up, but we assessed our mutual resources – food, tables, chairs, wine etc – and decided we would manage.
As it turned out, they were only 4 after all – they had had 2 visitors with them, but they had left by Saturday evening, so we were only(!) 11 after all. We served a three course menu: to start, pea and tarragon soup – a new and very tasty recipe, you blend the peas to make a thick and creamy soup, then at the end, add in some additional, whole peas. Yum. The main was chicken thighs, pan-fried and then finished in the oven, cooked with lemon, garlic and stock. Sharon took care of the sides – goose-fat potatoes, cauliflower cheese and roasted vegetables. Also yum. Finally, we had a mountain of cheese and a platter of chocolate brownies to finish us all off.
As for the Frenchies themselves, they are very lovely people, who I am sure we will be seeing a lot more of this year. They are Christophe and his wife-to-be Chrisline, Patrick and Jean-Michel. They share the large house they are in, which has been divided into three distinct living areas, with some communal space as well. All four of them are very laid back and very much enjoying life out in the country, much like us. Also, much like us, they love a good smoke and are big poker fans, so you can guess how the evening went…
As some of them had to be up at 6(!) the next morning to man a market stall, the French contingent left us on the early side (relatively speaking) leaving the limeys to it. I limped off to bed at around 3am, leaving Matt & James in a mono-e-mono poker showdown, which apparently went on for another hour before Matt claimed victory. Needless to say, we lost Sunday completely – shutters closed and blinds drawn to disguise the fact that it was actually a nice day out, and lots of mindless telly. We hit the hay on the early side so I was awake good and early today, enjoying immensely my freedom from yesterday’s hangover. Matt has yet to materialise but surely can’t sleep that much longer… Ok, on with the day: a work-out and guitar playing for me, I think. Tune in again soon folks!