Grey skies, light rain and nine degrees isnāt exactly great walking weather, but thatās what we all did this morning. Today was the day for each of to do as much or as little as we wanted. Iād already decided to go for a walk along the roads behind Le Plessis with my camera. I had on three layers and a heavy, showerproof coat with an umbrella stuffed in one pocket, my mobile in the other and a camera around my neck - looking like a real tourist.
Heading out along the road that bypasses Azay-le-Rideau I went looking for donkeys. I found them but they werenāt very friendly. I skirted around the edges of a wheat crop to get closer, dodging massive nettles and leaning over a very dodgy barbed wire fence. Giving up on donkey whispering I backtracked to check out some troglodyte signage Iād seen earlier. Thereās a cave hotel behind us, but there wasnāt much action there. I took the opportunity to stop and smell the roses - taking some macro photos of the flora and sound recordings of the birds that sweetly chirp here rain, hail or shine. Iāve been fascinated by the cuckoo noise that can be heard every day. I thought there was an out of whack cuckoo clock in the house at first - itās a dead ringer. I haveāt seen the bird itself yet, it seems to be closer to the river. My French bird book tells me itās Coucou gris (common cuckoo). Other birds Iāve identified in the garden at Le Plessis include a pair of melodic Merle noir (black birds), various Moineau (sparrows), a Pie bavarde (Eurasian magpie) and the Mesange charbonniere (great tit) nesting in the stone wall of Pat and Domās home. Juggling my phone, an umbrella and my camera, I stopped for a few seconds to do a video recording of the birdsong around me on my walk back towards Le Plessis, by which stage the rain was starting to settle in.
The other two wandered in the direction of town, buying some ham from the French-only speaking boucherie/charcuterie - there was a little confusion over whether the order was 250 grams or slices! Goodness, that could have been a problem. Stopping for a coffee they also discovered you have to eat from the menu in order to sit inside. Coffee only patrons have to brave the elements. Other stops included the patisserie for the daily baguette and some pain au chocolat for tonightās dessert, and the twice weekly open air market in Place de la Republique for apples, mushrooms (champignons) and a capsicum. Apparently duck was popular today with the vendor almost sold out except for a few legs. Itāll be interesting to see whatās on offer at Langeais at the market tomorrow as itās meant to be quite a big one - itāll be a wet one too. Iām trying to decide if Iām brave enough to try a really mouldy goat cheese and I think the travelling teen has to try some snails before we leave. I found a few this morning congregating on the fence posts near Le Plessis. Maybe I should duck back and grab them for dinner.
Days like today are great for simply being lost in the moment and thinking about some of the experiences and observations over the past two weeks. At the moment, weāre all sitting in the loungeroom (about a third of the size of ours at home), the Handyman is reading a book about the history of France, the travelling teen is building apartments and populating them with Sims, and me - Iām writing it all down. The ABCās Saturday Night Country is playing on the internet radio; weāve stayed across happenings at home via the ABC every day albeit at strange times of the day. Tony Delroy at breakfast?
Thinking about the food choices weāve had in France since we arrived, it hasnāt seemed to matter if weāve eaten out or bought at the supermarket, itās been really difficult to be super healthy or to simply feel like youāre eating really well. Many of the foods on the traditional menus are heavy on bread, butter, eggs, cheese or cream. Nutella seems to be a mainstay of most creperies, much to the delight of the travelling teen. Getting soy or almond milk outside a supermarket is impossible, so Iām now drinking neat espressos. Ordering a salad without eggs or cheese is too hard when thereās a language barrier and vegetables donāt seem to come in many forms except potatoes as frites (chips). Iāve even taken to eating gherkins to get some vegetable matter into my diet, particularly when eating a ātake awayā lunch from a boulangerie - a baguette with fillings that almost always include ham and cheese, three cheeses or salami and gherkins. Some also sell quiches. Then there are the terrines, cured meats and meat-filled pastries of the charcuterie - my mouth is watering, but not a vegetable in sight.
We certainly take our meat quality for granted at home. Supermarket meat here is atrocious. Weāve tried several cuts and ābrandsā (breeds) of beef and none of them have been good - Limousine seems to be the most popular at the local Carrefour. The local boucherieās beef offerings seem to favour an aged style of meat. His sign also says cheval (horse), but we didnāt ask. The Handyman reported there was lamb loin for 25 euro/kg (A$36) and lamb forequarter chops for 22 euro/kg (6 chops for tonightās dinner cost 15 euro/A$21).
Try to buy a simple water cracker for dips or cheese and the only offering is shelves of toasted baguettes or bread sticksā¦or the trusty baguette. Most jars and cans come with long lists of ingredients, even a simple passata might only be 70% tomatoes. While most of the supermarket fruit and vegetables arenāt expensive theyāre often bruised or limp or come with excessive and unnecessary packaging. āBioā (organic) products are big in the supermarket, but like Australia it doesnāt necessarily mean healthy. Thereās sugar and salt in all these processed foods. Sugar free or salt reduced foods donāt seem to exist here - even the dates I bought at the supermarket had glucose syrup AND glycerol on them. Why?!
The fresh food markets must be kept in business by someone who eats all that seasonal produceā¦I guess weāll find out tomorrow. In places where thereās space, thereās nearly always a veggie patch - reminders that there was a time before the big supermarkets changed the way we eat. Reminder: get some more artichoke plants when I get home.
Alcohol is cheap. The best Chinon red that we found is only eight euros and single malt scotch is 25 euros (at home itās $60-$70). If you canāt eat well, you may as well drinkā¦Touring the wineries isnāt something weāve done yet. We might slip one in when we return to Chinon this week to buy more of the magic face cream I found at the organic supermarket. I can buy it in Australia, but itās considerably more expensive.
The other thing Iāve enjoyed observing in keeping with the great French past time of sitting streetside in cafes, is French style - or lack of it. French style has traditionally been one of those aspirational things, no doubt fed by the marketing machines of the great French design houses. Itās a bit like the mythological aura created around Paris in the 17th and 18th centuries due to some clever marketing that made Paris the most, the best. In the introduction to a book Iāve been reading called āHow Paris became Paris: The invention of the modern cityā (by Joan DeJean) she writes: āā¦every time its cityscape was redesigned in an important way, Paris benefitted from what would now be called a rebranding campaign. In a continuous stream of publications and images, writers and artists publicized the cityās transformation from urban ruin to urban wonder and advertised the city as a destination, the epitome of a sophisticated, cosmopolitan place.ā All hail to the power of writers and artists.
Classy French style no doubt exists in the parts of Paris we didnāt seeā¦and on the many mature female French TV presenters, who dress simply and well. On the street though, just about anything goes. There was little difference between Paris and Tours either. Ugg boots in public are kosher, short shorts with stockings and short boots are popular, and given the cold, head and neck-engulfing scarves are de rigueur. Beige trench coats and black leather jackets on young and old were probably the only other classic trend I could work outā¦Iām not including puffer jackets in that category. Short boots are by far the footwear of choice for women and better dressed men were are in brown, lace-up brogues with a tapered toe (worn with a tailored, narrow fitting, navy suit and a scarf casually thrown onā¦). Navy, grey, cream, white, brown or tan are the predominant palettes - only little bits of black in a shoe, bag or jacket. The warmer season fashions are flooding the shops in a riot of pastels to mid strength 'spring coloursā - pale yellow 7/8 pants seem to be popular window displays - and floral dresses. Summer footwear seems to be strappy sandals or wedges, or espadrilles (they havenāt had their day yet). Handbags are usually big leather ones and if not worn across the body with an extra strap for the purpose, the handles are looped over the armā¦not many shoulder bags to be seen (note that, big bag girls).
The downside of crowd watching streetside from a French cafe is having to suck in second hand smoke. The French smoke pretty much everywhere and thereās not a thing non-smokers can do about it. If theyāre not smoking cigarettes or cigarillos, itās vaporisers, with 'vapā shops common throughout the city. In 2016, you have to wonder about a country that makes smoking so accessible. In a story I heard the other day about the debate on banning smoking in French high schools, it was stated that one third of 17 year olds in France smoke, despite claims that thereās been a 40% reduction in youth smoking in recent years. There have supposedly been bans on smoking in France but itās hard to tell where. I only saw one no smoking sign in the last two weeks. It makes one wonder about the cost of this on the French health system for what will be some time to come. It certainly hasnāt impressed the travelling teen who keeps muttering that theyāre all going to die young.
Life here with our daily excursions has been pretty comfortable on the whole. Yes, itās damp and cold but very pretty. When the sun comes out, itās warm enough to go without a coat. The nights are comfortably cool - a nice change after the long summer weāve had at home. Weāre now hoping we can push some of this wet weather down under before the end of next week. Four more days here at Azay-le-Rideau before we pack up to head back to Paris to tail off one of the best holidays weāve ever had. I think weāll be backā¦the travelling teen can see herself in Paris.
