Fromagerie

Mish Mash

I took around 1700 photos over our 5 week stay in France. Most of those were of the Tour using the multi-shot feature on my camera. Here is a mish-mash of some of our favourite pictures in no particular order.

Vizille

Sulkies

Dance Dance France

Crisis Averted

Found this son of Mothera lurking in our house the other night. I'm not usually afraid of insects but this one still has me shivering. It's body was about 5 cm long! Once I smote it it refused to let go of the fly swatter which only added to the fear factor.

Artichoke

Had an artichoke party the other night. For some reason Lydia decided to go to sleep instead of joining us so we only have pictures of Madeline enjoying an artichoke. Yes she ate a whole artichoke by herself! I think it is the perfect meal for her since she likes to eat so slowly.

Food

Throughout all the fun times we've had the underlying theme of fine French food. The girls have been good at eating most everything we give them except for some troubles with cheeses and sandwiches. They are getting better at this as we saw last night. We had a chance to enjoy the raclette we bought from the fromagerie.

Yes tucked back in behind the girls' heads is the wedge of raclette. We paired it with some red wine we got in the south of France.

Other notable meals include: Susan's chèvre omelet with red pepper sauce, my late night lamb sandwich at the Pezenas street festival, Heather learning to enjoy chèvre (goats' milk chess) and the Ravioli pizza we had and plan on having again at the jazz concert.

Yes even going to the super market has been a joy. It was lovely last nigh walking out of the supermarket with two bags of mustard potato chips, yogurt, vegetal elixir from Chartreuse, Panaché (lemonade with a hint of beer) and two bottles of rosé.

Viva La France!

Yes even as I post this am sitting and eating a snack under the free wifi of MacDonalds.

Fromagerie

We took a trip into the mountains today to seek out a fromagerie. We got our raw milk, yogurt and racelette plus a fabulous bonus. We got to watch them start the preparation of gruyere cheese. We only saw the beginning of the four month process. See the pictures of the ladies mixing the cheese and squishing it into the molds below. They told us it takes 100 liters to make 6 kilos of cheese.

I didn't get pictures of the cheese going into the presses. The wheels sit in the press for over 12 hours before they are scrubbed down with bacteria. They are continuously wiped down over the 4 months and sit a temperature controlled room before they are ready to be eaten.

Pezenas

After spending time in the mountain village of Uriage we headed south to Pezenas. While there we visited salt flats, a couple of French markets, a cave, a castle, an abbey, some vineyards and the beach (several times).

The kids were kept busy during the days and the parents had lots of fun during the evenings. My brother-in-law's aunt and uncle were both great landlords and great babysitters.

Here are some pictures. Will post more later.