Becoming ‘published’ writers …….

One of the things we are loving about our new business as property finders, apart from helping clients find their dream and the fact that building the business in France gives us a much more relaxed lifestyle, is our rapid development into being ‘published’ writers.

Writing has always been part of my previous life, certainly from a career point of view (if you can call responding to catering tender specifications writing) but never before would I say that I have been ‘published’……….

Apart from articles about us in local newspapers  back in the UK and being featured in a recent Daily Telegraph 'e' book expat guide, we have now had an article published in French Property News, one of the UK’s leading publications re all things French ……..

The article is about our home town St Malo, so it is certainly a topic that we can be very passionate about and we hope that it will encourage more and more people to visit and to consider buying property locally and dare I say it to use us in order to do so!

I don’t think we are ready for the Booker Prize yet but if you want to have a read click on the link ….

Its page 62 and 63 you need to turn to to find us.

French Property Magazine May 2012. Within these walls

Fridges for friends - Unexpected but delightful …….. Dinatoire

Not that we want to become removals experts but over the last couple of weeks we have moved fridges for friends.  The first was our own which we had sold to a neighbour so we could make room for our beast of an American fridge freezer that had been brought over from the UK as part of our van load at the beginning of May and the second (last Saturday) a reciprocal move of her old fridge which she was donating to a friend.

Despite an embarrassed Darren – carrying fridges through the streets of the old town crowded with tourists is not his idea of fun and a first floor delivery address without a lift; the jobs were carried out with relative ease.

Now clearly we didn’t offer to make these moves for our own gain but we were offered what was to be a most welcome aperro on completion of the second. For those of you who don’t know, the aperro is a delightful little French custom of early evening drinks supplied with a nibble or two over a set period of time eg. 6.30pm to 8.30pm – easy control for hosts we think! 

So with absolute confidence we planned the second move for 6pm and leaving suitable time for aperros made arrangements to meet friends for the evening at 8. 

What we had missed was the word dinatoire!

Now dinatoire is a word we were unfamiliar with and as it had just spilled over onto the second screen of the confirmation text we had received, one we did not even know had been used.

We now know that dinatoire is a word used to describe dinner – casual and buffet style ……

Cheese and grape canapes

Grey prawns in their shells

King prawns served with a salad of guacamole, radish, cucumber and pink grapefruit

Smoked salmon and crème fraiche blinis

Foie de Morue (believe it or not fresh cod livers) served with toasted bread and cracked black pepper – a real revelation

Melon and cucumber salad and a main course of …..

Porc au caramel (slow cooked pork in a cider and salted caramel sauce) with rice

We just had no room for the fruit platter desert and needless to say we missed our 8pm rendezvous with friends.

Still new friends made and a delightful evening had – and what a great way to learn the meaning of new French word ……

Vive la dinatoire ……….

The beginnings of Canada – St Malo:

We think you know that one of the things we love most about our home town of St Malo is its history.  One of the many highlights of that history are the adventures of the famous explorer,  Jacques Cartier, the man credited with discovering Canada or at least the small region of Québec  he named Canada as a result of his 1534 voyage.

Charged by François I of France to look for gold in the New World Cartier set off from St Malo on 20 Apr 1534 with 2 ships and 61 men.  He arrived off Newfoundland 20 days later.  After what was generally regarded as a successful voyage he set off on a larger expedition in 1535 with 3 ships, Grande Hermine, Petite Hermine and Émérillon, and a crew of 110.

He returned to his newly discovered lands several more time throughout his lifetime but died at home in St Malo and is buried in pride of place in the Cathedral St Vincent in the walled city.

The connection between France and Canada has always been strong of course but here in St Malo there is a terrific sense of pride that this is where it all began and many Canadians make pilgrimages here each year to retrace the steps of the great explorer.  The ‘Place de Quebec’ houses a mini cultural embassy ‘Maison de Quebec’ which hosts seasonal cultural events with many visiting Canadian performers entertaining the locals and the tourists alike. 

The natural link means that many Canadians have made this part of France home and many more have chosen to buy holiday homes here.

If nothing else the common language makes their transition considerably easier ………..

www.brittanygems.com

Eurovision and a week of making merry ………

You’ve probably guessed by now that we love entertaining friends and showing them our beautiful home town of Saint Malo and its surrounding area.  Well we have had the perfect opportunity this week with a visit from Nadia, a very close friend of ours who lives in Scotland.   Nadia is a young looking (and I mean very young looking) 70 and a real foody – she was a joy to have.

First things first I suppose, we were delighted to show her Saint Malo at its best with the most beautiful late spring weather, 27◦C and stunning blue skies and shimmering sea (a far cry from the 6-8◦C that she has been suffering in Fife……

A leisurely stroll around the heart of Dinan, with its charming ancient colombages buildings, a day out to peruse the stunning coastline around the Pink Granite coast, a property watching day surrounded by the Parisians owned villas and mansions of Saint Lunaire and Saint Briac sur Mer and joy of joys visits to as many food markets as we could manage. 

Two Araignee crabs were purchased from Saint Servan and lovingly (and humanely) prepared one evening and with an entrée of crisp fresh French radishes with melted butter and rock salt and cheese as dessert made a stunning supper.

In honour of Nadia’s visit we held a very jolly dinner party with Amelie and Benjamin our bar owning friends and feasted on ‘Chevre Chaud’, Boeuf Bourgignon with gratin Dauphinois, Roquefort and Elderflower Baked Alaska – all ‘fait a la maison’ as usual!

Saturday was a highlight of course with our first Eurovision party.  I am not going to discuss the result with both France and the UK performing very badly in the voting (although our French friends were happy that the French song was placed well above Englebert Humperdinks UK effort) and a winner from Sweden that was hardly memorable, as that was not the point - We had a party ……..

Danielle, Christophe, Benedicte and Patric and Francoise joined Nadia, Darren and I for a very tongue in cheek Eurofest.  Of course the song contest was important to us but so too was the food …… A beautiful  meze of tapas which Benedicte had prepared, Stuffed vine leaves, sun dried tomatoes, anchovies, flat breads, pepper tapenade, lentil dips and stuffed peppers – just lovely – followed by a paella made by yours truly (in our new paella pan I have to say ….) 

and a delicious mousse au chocolat courtesy of Francoise and Tarte aux Pommes from Danielle.  Despite the result we had a great time!!!

We sadly saw Nadia off at Rennes airport yesterday and today ……..

……well a quick refresh of our apartment and then a jaunt to the ferry terminal this evening to collect our next victims – Julie and Blue sitting on a Condor Ferries ‘fast cat’ as we speak.

More making merry we think ……….!