musee fragonard - a home to perfume

 In the small town of Grasse in the hills behind Cannes is the century old house of Fragonard, creating perfume since 1782.  

The Fragonard museum is open to the public, explaining the history of the company and more.  Fragonard not only tells the story behind the magic of making perfume, they also have a foundation, a charming boutique  and a museum of provencal costume.

Fragonard may have a prestigious name but they have moved with the times and understood the importance of good design and marketing.

Their little soaps are one of my very favourite hostess gifts 

 Another one of my recommended places to stop when you are next on the Cote d'Azur!

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the piano in a french kitchen

I must have grown up some because I am beginning to realise how dangerous it can be to assume.  You see I always assumed I would one day play the piano   ...  the musical piano of course, but also the culinary piano.

'Le Piano' the crown to any self respecting kitchen, hub of the homestead, pride of the family  in all its shining glory.

Strangely these assumptions haven't been realised, and of course I have survived.  I can tinkle out a little tune on the musical piano in our dining room, and I have cooked huge meals for years quite happily on a regular hob and separate ovens, but in a dark, seldom revealed, corner of my heart there is still a little hankering going on!

It's not only the allure of the sleek steel, and shiny enamel, nor even the brass knobs and buttons.  It's also the huge oven space and the challenge of learning how to tame the beast!  

So to console myself and to inspire you to hanker too, here are a few of my favourite piano pics....and a question - please tell me .....

what did you always assume you would achieve or possess one day that simply hasn't come to pass?

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le chandeleur - this week we are eating crêpes suzette

If you would like to be very 'French' today, then make your family some crêpes for tea.  Today is le chandeleur, the catholic holiday of candlemas, and today we make crêpes or pancakes like there were no tomorrow!

My children love to make crêpes for themselves and for their friends, they are so easy to rustle up from scratch, and delicious with sugar, jam or nutella, although my favourite is sugar and lemon juice.

If you want a more grown up version you could try the delicious traditional French dessert crepes suzette, cooked in orange juice and flambéd au cointreau.

 Here is my favourite recipe,  I find it makes enough for 6 people.

ingredients

4oz  or just under 1 cup flour

pinch of salt

2 eggs

275ml/10fl oz milk 

50g/2oz butter

1 medium orange, grated zest only

1 tbsp caster sugar

150ml/5fl oz orange juice (from 3-4 medium oranges)

1 medium orange, grated zest only

1  small lemon, grated rind and juice

1 tbsp caster sugar

3 tbsp Grand Marnier, Cointreau or brandy

50g/2oz unsalted butter

a little extra Grand Marnier, for the fun bit

Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl, make a hollow in the centre and break the eggs into it.   Whisk the eggs well until all the flour is moistened.  Gradually add the milk, whisking all the time, until the batter is smooth and there is no more flour left around the edge of the bowl.  Now you can add the orange zest and sugar.

Melt the butter in the pan, and pour most of it into the batter mix.  Using a piece of kitchen paper, smear the remainding butter over the pan, you'll find it best to do this before each pancake.

To start cooking the pancakes, you'll need the pan to be very hot.  I always start with a mini pancake, one for the pan as my children say.  

Now ladle a small amount of batter into the pan, cook the first crêpe for less than a minute on each side.  You want them slightly tinged with golden brown, but not overcooked so they are too dry.  If you want to pick up speed it's easy to cook the crêpes in two pans simultaneously.  The crêpes should be very thin.  You should be able to make between 12 - 16 crepes.

It's better to keep the crêpes warm, I keep a plate on top of a saucepan of hot water and slide the pancakes onto the plate as each one is finished.  If you are making the crepes for a dinner, you can do this stage ahead of time, then just make the sauce at the last minute.

To make the sauce, mix the orange juice, lemon and orange zest, sugar and Grand Marnier.  Melt butter in the pan, then pour in the orange sauce to warm through.  Place the first crêpe into the butter and fold it in half then into quarters so it is a nice neat triangular shape.  You need a large pan for this step because you aim to end up with all the crepes folded in the sauce.

This is the moment to flambé the crêpes .  The easiest way is to pour some of the Grand Marnier or Cointreau into a metal ladle, and hold it for a short moment over a gas flame, when its really warm put a match to ignite it.  Pour the contents of the ladle over the crêpes and take the pan to the table to share between individual plates. 

Spectacular!!  - if this one doesn't earn you a round of applause, nothing will!

PS  Don't forget , last day for the Diane James Home giveaway!!

thanks to Delia for the recipe

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French laundry day

 When I have large quantities of sheets and linens to wash and dry, I always think of what it must have been like for the women who first cared for these fabrics without the help of washing machines.

I wash all our old linens in the machine then simply hang them out to dry behind the barn.  100 years ago the women  would have been down on their knees at the village lavoir, before carrying the heavy sheets out to dry flat on the grass in a meadow.   Today these lavoirs or wash houses are carefully preserved, but thank goodness nobody needs to take their laundry any more!

I actually quite enjoy caring for the linens, they smell good after blowing dry in the garden and of course they look so beautiful once freshly pressed.  Time I am happy to invest!  Right now I am preparing new sheets for the store.

Tomorrow I start my new series about my stylish French girlfriends!  Don't miss the first episode, how they dress; where they live, how do they cook and of course why they look so great!

A demain!

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French wedding globes

 Les globes de mariés

the French love them, they always have done.

Originally designed as a 19th century wedding souvenir

today they are displayed empty, with nature mortes,

or the base is simply used to present a pretty object

gold letters available here

gris-bleu

sometimes, when the glass dome has been broken, 

the shape is reproduced with wire to great effect.

inmyvolvocar

bord de scene

esprit champetre

Wedding souvenirs, containing important symbols:

orange blossom to represent virginity;

ivy symbolising the attachment between husband and wife;

lime tree for faithfulness;

oak leaves for wisdom and long life;

a dove for peace, symbol of the holy spirit;

grapes and vine leaf to represent abundance and wealth;

in the case of a remarriage a crown of pearls ...

don't forget!
only two more days till the end of the dress giveaway

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flowery french fields

Remember Monet's pictures of poppies in wheat fields?  Those were the days before selective weed killers and maximum return on crops, but in today's farming world our birds and bees have a hard time finding pollen and food.

Farmers have kept a 'green' border to their fields for many years, but more recently  the famous French biscuit manufacturer LU, created a project encouraging farmers to lay aside a small border on their fields to be sown with  flowers.  Packets of seeds were distributed, cornflowers, sunflowers, cosmos, escholzia and many others depending on the region.

LU is a major consumer of wheat flour and this way they hope to improve their corporate image as well as the fashionable bio friendly image of their biscuit.

In the meantime, whatever the motive behind the operation, we get to enjoy flower-edged fields all over the valley, and maybe the best bit of all, nobody stops to pick the flowers, everyone has understood they are there for a reason and the best way to enjoy them is to let them grow where they stand.

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French cuisine - at school

Do you remember what your school lunches used to be like?

  I do,  .....  you don't want the details!

As children in France return to school this week, there is inevitably much talk about the quality of school meals:  how well balanced they are; the portion size, the choice of dishes  - excuse me! .... the choice? !!! 

Yup, children at French primary schools take for granted their bright friendly canteens, the well balanced menus with choices for first course , main course, cheese and dessert!

Schools regularly have 'tasting' weeks or theme days, where children are encouraged to try small portions of new flavours; to tell the difference between regional cheeses or to understand why wholemeal bread doesn't look the same as white baguette.

They also find it normal that every French child in primary education takes a napkin to  school, generally in a hand-sewn napkin bag.  Clean one into school on Monday morning, home to be laundered on  Friday afternoon.  Child's name on the napkin and on the napkin bag.  Motherly pride can get slightly out of hand on this one, and some of the personalised napkin holders would make Martha Stewart look like an amateur.

The school are also meant to display the menus for the coming week,  and you often see parents pausing to study the chart as they drop their offspring at school for the day. 

 

What  happy days the primary school age brings, when the most they have

to worry about is what they get for lunch!

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