Un Verre de Vin Rouge

Ma Cave Fleury - Terrine de la maison

Je vais prende un verre de vin rouge et une assiette de terrine. This small wine bar/wine shop in the 2eme, where champagne and wine memorabilia, chalkboards and wine bottles adorn the walls, floors, tables and the pavement outside. Bar stools, wooden tables and standing room create an atmosphere of casualness, where wine and champagne is key. In search of a night cap in the form of a hot drink last night, we  instead ended up here with a glass of champagne and un assiette de fromage. The champagne is from the Fleury champagne house and was sold cheaply by the glass and upon the recommendation of Mde Morgane Fleury we tried a glass, instead of wine. An easy drink but a glass of red would have been preferable to accompany the cheese platter which we really did not need after our dinner. So tonight, un verre de vin rouge it was. A one woman show last night becomes two tonight. Clientele is mixed - young couples, older friends who appear so jovial with their wine and company (ou peut-etre un peu drunk). 

Located at the seedy end of Rue St-Denis, and looking onto a row of peep shows and stores doesn't immediately arouse ones' curiosity, but would I seek it out if I was not staying around the corner? Definitely. A nice place to while away a few hours over un verre ou un bouteille de vin avec de assiette de fromage, charcuterie, foie gras or something more substantial. If visiting in the daytime, there is a little vintage store across the road and in the evening, there are plenty of other drinking dens, like the Experimental Cocktail Bar, a tapas bar and others on Rue Tiquetonne and Rue Saint-Sauveur to name but a few streets. 

Ma Cave Fleury

177 Rue St-Denis

Paris, 75002

01 40 28 03 39

Shopfront

Champagne and cheese

Assiette de fromage

Wine memorabilia adorns the small space

Voulez-vous gouter? Oui.

Foie gras de canard cuit au torchon chutney a la mangue/carvi (Le Vin Quatre)

How is it that we have descended into mid-April already? With each year, time seems to pass scarily faster and every now and again I get a feeling of eeeek. Perhaps it is that I am filling up my days too much and not taking a chance to stop, breathe and well, look around. Although I don't think that is the case, as most days I still wake feeling how much I still appreciate and have time for London, consciously making the time to do the things I enjoy about this city. So maybe time just moves faster as we get older! Ah, les temps est precieux! With Easter suddenly upon us and fleeting mentions of a mini trip into France looking unlikely, I thought I would be content to stay in the UK and just enjoy London.

This lasted about the time it took to scour Ryanair for a destination with the most reasonable balance of flight costs, timing and things to do (read: eat). This brought us to Bergerac, a small French market town in the Aquitaine region in the South West of France in Dordogne. Land of truffles, armagnac, sunflowers and most importantly foie gras. Decision made and flight booked. Limited transportation meant we were rather restricted on what we could do but I was rather looking forward to a chilled and quiet weekend and a chance to catch up on sleep but early train starts, coupled with eating and drinking can be rather demanding. On researching I found several farms producing their own foie gras and offering cooking courses - closest being 13kms from town. I had in my mind thoughts of cycling out there from Bergerac and wanting to watch the process - or at least believing that I did.

Alas, upon asking - we were told unless we were very fit it was unlikely that we would be able to do it. 13kms didn't seem far at all? Doesn't matter though as the farm and alot of places were closed for Easter or not yet open for summer - hence the non response from the canoe company and the non-usage of our bikinis. What we encountered instead were some of the friendliest French people we have ever met, always with a smile and ever so welcoming. A taxi driver who was determined to show us the city by night, a quaint town with great food, sweet wine and a town where all roads didn't lead to Rome, but instead to 'au-Plus-Que-Parfait', a small bar where it seemed no matter what Rue we walked down, we ended there and so there we ended - each night and day. It was also situated next to the best and best value meal we had in Bergerac at 'L'Imparfait'. The Central Perk of Bergerac perhaps where everyone knew everyone, chatting and exchanging stories, where one bartender was happy to tell us how he ended up back in Bergerac after living in London for 13 years, and where the other would freely top up our wine glasses, and google our music requests, yet not so freely tell us his age (21, but hey, 'age doesn't matter - it was the car, not the driver'). A small town where the simple life can and still exists, where you buy baguettes from the boulangerie and your groceries from the farmers markets, where you know your neighbours and share your wine. Et pour moi? A renewed desire to immerse myself in one of these towns for however, but hopefully not too short, a while.

So, foie gras, our main reason for picking Bergerac over the other random French towns that Ryanair flies into. Our first night had us sample both a mi-cuit version and a fried version in a caramel sauce, which, no matter how much tried, it was just too rich to eat much of - the portion sizes did not help. Visiting Sarlat and the famous Saturday market allowed us to sample in abundance for the traders were all very willing for us to test their products. Voulez-vous gouter? Oui. Quality control of course. So we sampled. So much so that for the rest of that day and night all we consumed was almost sugar and seafood.

More-ish, guilty? pleasures. First common perception is the cruelty that the duck or goose must endure to be force fed, in order to fatten their liver unnaturally and then for this to be farmed for sale to people like me, who love eating it. Upon reading abit more, it sounds like some farms do so in a way so that the animals are not in distress. I guess it is a case of believe what you will and choose. I didn't get a chance to witness the process so, for now, I will go on enjoying. It tasted a treat with an ice cold glass of sweet Montbazillac wine on our final lunch at 'Le Vin Quatre'. Google and you will find many a discussion on the process but for some light information, here is the farm I had hoped to cycle to. Cooking class anyone? - I need 8 people. http://www.biorne.com/faq.html - Nous avons eu un bonne weekend.

Perigourdine Salad - gizzards, walnuts, smoked duck breast et foie gras

Foie gras fried with caramel sauce and fig compote. Heart attack on a plate

Cake stop in Sarlat to dry off and warm up from the rain. Citron and Caramel

Tarte de Fraise

The yummiest cake! Dark choc mousse with raspberry coulis. Je veux!

Michelle's fave...pannacotta like with raspberries...soo.good.

Tarte Citron et Frambroise tiramisu

White asparagus - foie gras, smoked duck, parmesan, walnut oil - L'Imparfait

Scallops with yummy pea mash - L'Imparfait

Lotte - a type of fish in L'Imparfait's version of Bouillabaisse

Chocolate Mille Feuille - so many different layers and textures

Le Bistro Du Coin foie gras - rest of the meal was a disappointment

Dos De Lieu Jaumme grille with Sea Urchin Béarnaise sauce - Le Vin Quatre

Poitrine de Cochon - pork belly at Le Vin Quatre

Ahhh the piece de resistance... the best foie gras of the trip at Le Vin Quatre

Montbazillac wine to accompany  - c'etait parfait

Where all roads lead...

Carpe Diem

Sweet dreams are made of this...

Raspberry and Almond Bakewell Cake

In-som-ni-a (Noun) - Habitual sleeplessness; inability to sleep.

Oh is that all. I expected a more textbook definition or hoping for something more insightful. Lately I have become quite the insomniac. For the past two weeks I haven't been able to differentiate whether my non-sleep is attributed to jetlag or well, insomnia. 

The alarms goes off, I hit snooze. It buzzes again. I trudge to the bathroom and declare "I slept so badly last night". My flatmate responds that for as long as she has lived with me she has never known me to sleep well. Hmm. That is over 18months. It never occurred to me my degree of restless and sleeplessness - for not getting my forty winks has really become the norm. It is easier the measure the number of hours I think I slept. If I think I slept 7 hours, then surely my brain would fool my body into believing it had?

Lack of light in my room means I have no inkling what time it is for the most part without hearing or seeing my alarm. I could leave my window pane slightly ajar but I would then have further problems of falling asleep. I like darkness. I get distracted too easily by any sound or light, external to myself. Although, for anyone who knows me, they will say that my lack of sleep is internal to me, to my restless and analytical mind. In university days, I would have said this was true. Now, still true, but too a lesser degree. I value my sleep alot more now... I crave it. On the few mornings I wake up feeling rested, I have energy and look forward to the day ahead. Today was one of them.

Caffeine really affects me. I love the smell and taste of coffee - it is just synonymous to walking, cup in hand on a chilled weekend and so I look forward to it daily. It perks me up. Give me two and I will feel guilty. Three, and I will be bouncing off walls. Caffeine past about 3pm is the death of me - an exhausted body with an alert mind are not the perfect match. Yet stubbornness, cravings and false pretences makes me cave in to my desires at times. I was supposed to give up caffeine for Lent. I am not religious but we at work all decided to give up something so I chose caffeine. It's a vicious cycle and it didn't last but if at first you don't succeed...so I am starting again tomorrow.

A friend sent me an article on foods for better sleep -  foods that help in the creation of melatonin in your body which apparently controls your internal clock - correcting the mismatch between this and your daily routine. In order these are:

Raspberries
Almonds
Sunflower seeds
Cherries
Flaxseeds
Strawberries

I guess it is not as effective if these are coupled with lashings of sugar in the form of a raspberry and almond bakewell cake, washed down with a fresh mug of coffee. Perhaps that was where I was going wrong. More reading to be done. Recipe below anyway.

Ingredients
1. 140g ground almonds
2. 140g butter , softened
3. 140g golden caster sugar
4. 140g self-raising flour
5. 2 eggs
6. 1 tsp vanilla extract
7. 250g raspberries
8. 2 tbsp flaked almonds
9. icing sugar , to serve

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and base-line and grease a deep 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin. Blitz the ground almonds, butter, sugar, flour, eggs and vanilla extract in a food processor until well combined.

2. Spread half the mix over the cake tin and smooth over the top. Scatter the raspberries over, then spread the remaining cake mixture on top and roughly spread - you might find this easier to do with your fingers. Scatter with flaked almonds and bake for 50 mins until golden. Cool, remove from the tin and dust with icing sugar to serve. ƒ

I served it with a dollop of clotted cream to satisfy the scone craving I had been having. Vanilla ice cream would also work.

Lunch is just around the corner..

Cake display in the Teahouse

My flatmate wanted me to do the Oxfam 100km Trailwalkers walk with her. Teams of four have 30 hours to walk 100km across the South Downs. It sounded like a challenge, slightly intriguing, would be a great accomplishment but also tedious. Walking through the night with the unpredictably of weather that is the UK put a dampener on the walk for me. None the less, we thought we would do a trial walk..not 100km but a more reasonable distance we could manage on a Saturday morning. Where could we walk to?

I believe in reward for effort. Whilst I do love walking, I am more akin to strolls, walks in the park on sunny days, through quaint cafe-lined streets and in and out of shops. If I am going to do a long walk and these do not fit the bill, at the least I would expect a nice lunch at the end.

Petersham Nurseries is a place I had been wanting to try for awhile and served as a perfect destination for our walk. Walk-It mapped it as approximately 19km which sounded long enough to test us a little but not too long that we would collapse in exhaustion and not be able to enjoy lunch. The nursery has a cafe, which is the fancier restaurant, which was awarded a michelin star (Head Chef is Australian Skye Gyngell) alongside a shop selling shabby chic like dining and gardening accessories. The nursery also is home to a cute little teahouse, dirt floors, plants, rustic garden furniture in a conservatory. Just my cup of tea. So, destination sorted.

The walk took us three hours through the beautiful streets of West and South London, fresh pollution and roaring traffic of the Great West Road with wild winds and the light pitter patter of rain on our non water or wind-proof clothing. Are we there yet? However, we hit Chiswick and the scenery changed - runners everywhere enjoying the scenery and the waterfront properties along Chiswick Mall which reminded me of going down the coast from Sydney for a weekend. This wasn't so bad. We were doing good time too, but we hastened our pace for fear the rain would change to more than a pitter or a patter.

Walking down Star and Garter Hill and finally seeing the sign for the nursery was welcoming. It wasn't that we were tired or didn't enjoy the walk - I must admit overall it was a very enjoyable way to start the morning. It was more the fact that with lack of interesting scenery coupled with looming grey clouds, it was good to know that the end was near and attainable. 

The teahouse and nursery itself? We picked up our trays and got our beef stew, vegetable lasagne, chicken salad, cake and coffee from the little rustic teahouse and rested our cold bodies and enjoyed. It was just what we needed...simple, hearty and warming.

As for the 100km walk...let's save that for another rainy day..

Petersham Nurseries
Church Lane
Off Petersham Road
Richmond
Surrey
TW10 7AG

Vegetable Lasagne

Chicken Salad - tasty!

Beef Stew

The Teahouse - no bookings

Carrot and Coconut Cake - a little dry

The 'Cafe' - more formal dining, must book

The shop with beautiful plates