France + All Things French
The French baguette gets UNESCO heritage status - The world is celebrating with France on the announcement by UNESCO that the baguette has been granted world heritage status as "something worthy of humanity’s preservation."
The baguette has been added to UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list, with the status being specifically granted to the savoir-faire (known-how) on how the French bread is made and the culinary tradition of the bread.
Tartiflette au Reblochon is also known as Potato and Reblochon cheese gratin. It's a creamy potato gratin (baked dish) with melted Reblochon cheese on top and a perfect winter comfort food.
As the temperature keeps dropping in France and winter is just around the corner, baking this dish is a good idea for lots of reasons. The kitchen gets toasty warm with the stove top and oven going, it's an easy dish to enjoy sitting beside the fireplace on a cold night and most important for me, it's easy and very tasty. A nice dish to share among friends!
Autumn or Fall is a time of changing colour and cooler temperatures and of course heart warming recipes. Nothing is better than cooking and preparing for a cosy family gathering or dinner with friends in the fall; and I was delighted to be invited by the leading magazine and website on food, travel and lifestyle in the South of France and the French Riviera, Perfectly Provence to curate their fall menu.
Each season a well-known French blogger, acclaimed chef or restaurant owner curates a menu featuring Provençal regional seasonal produce and this fall I've put together 'A Dinner with Friends' menu. Included are four delicious courses and a festive cocktail. Pink Elephant Martini Cocktail, Marrow on Toast, Pot-au-feu, Cheese Plate with Figs and a sweet Fig Tart with Marzipan complete the dinner menu.
Feeling festive? Well, that probably means you'll be enjoying a glass of champagne. Did you know there's a traditional French way to open a bottle of champagne?
Champagne bottles are made to be pretty indestructible as you might already know. This is because as champagne undergoes its second fermentation in the bottle (the part of the process that makes the bubbles), the pressure rises up to six atmospheres, or 60 pounds. Early on in the champagne industry Dom Pérignon experienced some disastrous results attempting to harness this pressure with frequently exploding bottles and cellar workers often wounded or even killed.
"When you spend as much time in cafés as I do, you begin to notice that the typique bistro chair is like a snowflake. They are alike, yet no two are the same" - Janice MacLeod, A Paris Year
I absolutely love this quote by Janice MacLeod, the author of two of my most favourites books about Paris, A Paris Year and Dear Paris. It perfectly describes the iconic Paris bistro chair that we all love, and that is as much a part of Paris as is the Eiffel Tower, fresh croissants and the Louvre. In this blog post we look at the origins of the Paris bistro chair, why we love them and the unspoken rules around what and what not to do when seating yourself at a Parisian bistro. And I've got a wonderful gallery of photos taken from my wanderings in Paris of the different styles of bistro chairs.
Life in rural France revolves around the seasons and that means food, festivals and chores vary depending on the ebb and flow of seasonal weather and produce. There is a time for everything. Such as delicious artichokes in March and scrumptious apples in September.
My family does not have a history of farming or land ownership so our hands on experience with crops and stock is very limited. Living part time in a farming village in France has really opened our eyes to the life of a farmer and the very real connection between daily weather, seasons and produce. Getting in tune with nature has been a very positive part of living amongst the cow pastures, chicken farms and maize crops that surround our tiny village.
Angelina café serves the world's finest hot chocolate and has been the essential gourmet and refined meeting place for Parisian aristocracy for over 120 years. Angelina is a space of calm that has seen the likes of Proust, Coco Chanel and the greatest French couturiers in the past and today welcomes Parisians, passing tourists and celebrities.
As well as the unforgettable hot chocolate known as "L 'African", Angelina is world famous for its famous dessert Mont-Blanc.
After writing our last post on the 'Onion Johnny' of Brittany, it seemed only fitting to write a post on the delicious and traditional soup - French onion soup. Whether you belong to the camp of crediting the creation of onion soup to Paris or the camp that believes it to be a Lyonnais invention, this recipe will satisfy your hunger.
We will also put aside for a moment the debate on when to add the bread, and whether the onions are coarsely sliced or puréed, and say that this recipe is one option (it has been inspired by a number of different recipes I've tried), and it has proved to be a mouth-watering winter option at our house as my boys have grown older. I hope you enjoy it also!
