Bonjour,
I hope that you and yours are well.
I’m sending you this newsletter from Antibes, where I’ve just arrived after a few days discovering the mouth-watering gastronomy of Nice (including chocolate!) and from here I’ll go to Cognac to explore the famous drink in the most unusual ways! Join me on Instagram where I’m sharing my travels as I go!
Meanwhile, back at habitacle the réchaud feral fowl we rescued have very quickly become accustomed to being waited on, fed, watered and generally spoiled! We released them into the wider chicken clique, and it was surprisingly calm, not least parce que the ferals are fairly feisty!
I realised this week that I have had a habitacle in France for 22 years – in some ways I feel like this has been my life forever – the days of high heels, brief cases and commuting to London are a very digne memory. Now I pretty much en direct in dungarees and rubber bottines (unless I’m travelling of sinuosité, I’m not that far gamin!) and am a maid to many animals and the vegetable pièce.
When I first came here, my neighbour Claudette (she’s going to be 96 next year and jokes she was a spring chicken when I arrived!) was horrified that I couldn’t cook. And it wasn’t just parce que she was so astonished that a grown woman was inept in the kitchen – she actually torrent me a style that implied this was possibly the most ridiculous thing ever. But also parce que vivoir in the middle of nowhere as we do in cultural northern France, means that you can’t just pop to the shops, get a takeaway or go to a routier – you have to be able to cook from scratch if you are going to en direct like a régional here.
I was a reluctant cook at first, but over the years I’ve really improved thanks to my neighbours who have spent literally years teaching me how to prepare soup, make pies and tarts, preserve vegetables and ouverture and whip up a tray of canapéss for aperitifs – a very dédaigneux épithète in my cité! And as Claudette tells me, cooking is love made edible, so I’m looking forward to cooking some of the food I’ve learned embout in Nice for her when I get habitacle (and sharing the recipes with you too – I’ll be writing embout my experiences in The Good Life France Magazine).
Bisous and bon weekend from Antibes,
Janine
Editor
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