Rural Life

The Power of Trees

When we went to the One Acre Wood last Saturday, we found some horrible little Urk had smashed down one of the entrance posts and made off with the really dilapidated wheelbarrow we keep there to move large lumps of wood about.  We were a bit upset and put in a new entrance post.  Next day we went back in the rain and removed the rest of the firewood that was in the covered stack, as we knew cold weather was on its way.

Before we left, we talked to the trees and in particular the King of the Forest and his nearby hench-tree, who has a large dead branch that we keep meaning to cut off.  We asked them to redouble their efforts to keep the wood safe, and gave the hench-tree permission to drop the branch on any invaders, with promises of liquid libations and fish, blood and bone meal if he caught said horrible little Urk.

Today in the paper, we read that a man of 62 was hit by a tree branch yesterday while doing his firewood in the woods at Les Vaux in Chevire le Rouge, and has had to be hospitalised.  Guess where the One Acre Wood is?  We are waiting for a call from the Police about our stolen wheelbarrow, as it had our phone number and stolen from spray painted all over it.  We will need to go and check the damage soon, and see if I need to buy fish, blood and bone meal.....

In homage to our trees, here is the King of the Forest in his spring leaves.

 

Restaurant review and the Chateau at Angers

Something of a two in one today, and not the promised review of the gastronomic restaurant in Bauge either.  Due to some monumentally bad planning on my part, we ended up needing to be in Angers on Monday, but I did get taken out to lunch.

We went to the Brasserie de la Gare, which is just opposite Angers Station and only does food (no attempts to just get a coffee or a beer there have ever worked).  As we were in the big city, it wasn't exactly a workers' lunch, although the place was full of office workers by 1pm.  The basic menu was 14,80 Euros a head, excluding wine and coffee (city prices) and only three courses.  You could have a Greek salad or the starter of the day - that was marinated sardines and was nice where the sardines had been descaled - one of mine hadn't and it was like eating cellophane.  For main you could have a filet of fish with beurre blanc, but we went for the dish of the day - steak with ravioli and a roast tomato.  That was an excellent dish - the steak was good and tender and full of flavour (not always the case over here, as they don't hang their beef long enough), and went very well with the dollop of creme fraiche and the spinach and ricotta ravioli.  For pudding John had creme caramel (lots of caramel but the creme was a bit dry) while I had mousse au chocolat (and a veritable chocolate hit).  The Anjou Gamay was very nice (no pichets of wine at this restaurant) and the coffee was stronger than I have experienced in years.  Not at all bad overall, and cheaper than some options further away from the station.

John then went off to do the job we were in Angers for him to do, while I took myself off to the Chateau, which I haven't been round for about 7 years.  The entrance was good value at 6 Euros, due in part I think to the fact that there is a lot of work going on to restore the Logis du Roi following the awful fire of January 2009.  The main thing to see in the Chateau is the wonderful Tapestry of the Apocalypse - nothing like the Bayeux tapestry,this is vast and colourful and woven tapestry rather than applique, and is full of vibrant reds and blues (the greens are sadly gone the way of all flesh).  If you are a Biblical scholar and know Revelations, then the images would be familiar - the seven churches (of Sardis?), the four horsemen (only two of whom survive in the tapestry), the beast of the land and the beast of the sea, the fall of Babylon and the building of the new Jerusalem.  I am not such a scholar, but I spent a very happy and peaceful half hour in the great gallery admiring the scale and beauty of the work.

I also did the rampart walk and took a few pictures, as it was a rather nice afternoon.  I started at the high tower at the Cathedral end and you can see where I had to go next.

 

To the left is the dry moat where King Rene and his successors kept animals, to the right is the castle courtyard and buildings, shown better in the next picture.

 

You can see there is a nice low level parterre for the ladies to promenade in or for soldiers to practice in, and there is a vinyard just next to the rampart at high level and also vegetable gardens just in front of us, but not looking very pretty.  To the right is the bulk of the chapel and at the other side of the courtyard are some buildings built onto the rampart walls which now house administration and a restaurant.

 
There remains a formal garden at high level which is intended for the herbs and plants that would have been used for cosmetics for the ladies of the court and medicines for dealing with all of the chateau residents.  At this time of year there is little there apart from the box hedges, a few perenials including cotton lavendar and cardoons, and some chard.

Finally, wandering around Angers I found a place to photograph one of the main galleries which houses sculptures, but has wonderful natural light.  Sadly, as it was a Monday, I could not go in to see how well the roof really works, but it looks good from the outside and is an imaginative way of keeping old buildings going for modern needs.

 
Now the tram works are nearly over, Angers is once again a nice city to spend an afternoon wandering around.

 

Restaurant Review: Le Commerce in Bauge

For those of you who know Bauge and who do lunches, you have probably been to le Commerce and either enjoyed a four course worker's lunch or pushed the boat out and had the five course gastronomic menu at about 13 euros including wine.  Well, those days are gone as Le Commerce has changed hands.  It has been redecorated inside and out, and now has a fresh grey and white theme - the dodgy tourquoise effect in the back room has gone and the tables are no longer in horizontal rows seemingly barring any access to bar, loo or back room.

The new owners are friendly and understanding about English foibles, and if you look relaxed and like you are having fun, they won't rush you through your food or try to chuck you out dot on 2pm.  I think the lunchtime menu has gone up and is now 10,80 euros including wine or cider, but not including coffee, and the five course menu has gone.  Now there is just one menu and one choice of main (although I think if you have real problems with it, you might get a substitute), but the plat for each day of the week is listed on a blackboard, so you know what you might get later in the week.

So, what is the food like?  The buffet of starters trolley is a bit smaller than some, but there were about 12 different things.  There was a particularly nice cold leek salad, the mushroom a la creme salad was clearly home made and very good, nice salami, very good herring and potato salad, plus hard boiled eggs, grated carrot, sardines and pots of rillettes.  The plates were quite small, but knowing my ability to pile one high, I think that was good as it meant I had not over-eaten and could face my main course properly.  Yesterday, the main was a quarter guinea fowl with a forestiere sauce (wild mushroom and cream) and very nicely done little fried potatoes.  If I was being picky I would say that the potatoes might have been slightly over salted - certainly check before you make with the salt shaker!

If you wanted cheese, you got a small plate with a piece of camembert and a nice, if mild, other cheese that I couldn't identify.  There was an extensive choice of simple puddings - the one issue with eating slowly was that the workers had got all the chocolate mousse before I got there!  I had a nice fromage blanc, John had an ile flottant that he didn't quibble about, and the chocolate tart looked good.  Coffee was extra, but a proper expresso hit.  The red wine was very good as well.

When it came to paying, they were able to cope with our table having 3 people wanting different bills (you go to the bar to pay), and the fact that not all of us had the full menu.  We weren't shoved out, and felt very welcome.  John and I will certainly be going back.

Chums in the village, and not the British ones either, had said we should try it as it was very good.  Some have had venison, others said the steaks were good, and none quibbled on prices.  Overall, while we were sorry when the previous owners retired, the new owners have taken up the baton and the Commerce remains a very reliable lunch stop in Bauge.  It still doesn't open in the evenings or on Sundays.

Next week I hope to review the new, high class restaurant in Bauge to see what their rather pricier lunch is like - watch this space!

 

Peeling sweet chestnuts - illustrated stage by stage

At this time of year, the search hits for my blog change from those seeking advice on broody chickens to those seeking advice on peeling sweet chestnuts.  While my previous post on this was fine, when I was doing a recent pile of chestnuts, I thought a better illustrated post might be in order.

I have found that boiling up 4 or 5 chestnuts at a time and replacing them as I go gives a good rhythm to the process and doesn't let the nuts get too mushy, however don't use a posh pan as the tanin that comes out of the membrane is phenomenal.

So first get your chestnuts.

 

Then cut off the bottom of the nut - cut through the membrane so the water can get under it and make your life easier.

 

Then cut off the top of the nut - that irritating little tuft of prickles you can see on the cut off bit.

 

Then take off the rest of the hard outer casing - this is easy enough to do with the aid of a knife.

 

Once you have a few prepared in this way, get them into the boiling water - you don't have to do this next stage immediately if you cover the bowl of nuts with cling film, but you only have another 24 hours to do the rest.

 
Once boiled for around 4 minutes, fish them out and they look a bit like this.  You can see the water on the plate is highly coloured - this maroon tainted water is the stickiest, nastiest stuff around and will stain a stainless steel sink!  Anyway, now to peel off the membrane.

 
Doesn't that look easy, peeling away the membrane?  Isn't that satisfying?  Here is another shot.

 

Do make sure you get the bits out of the main crevices at least - that dark line had to come off or it would have made anything bitter.

 
And here are the finished product, ready for eating as they are or for whatever recipies you have in mind, or you can pop them in a bag and freeze them like this for future use.  You will see that not all are as clean of membrane as you would like.  Nature, in her infinite variety, sometimes makes these a right pain to peel!  I hope this helps you to peel yours more easily.

Finally, a word of caution, when you are doing all this, keep an eye out for small holes and critters - normally in the biggest, fattest and juiciest of nuts!