A Good Year For The Truffle

The second weekend into January and Sarlat celebrates all thing Truffle. The Fête de la Truffe  is a major calender event and people descend from all over the world to be part of one of the best French traditions -  to eat fine food and drink fine wine. It's hard work, but someone's got to do it.

It's been a good year for the black Truffle of the Perigord.

There were huge quantities for sale  - more than in previous years and at anywhere between 650 to 900 euro a kilo, a lot of money changed hands,

Et voilà

Noël in Bergerac

There was an ethereal quality to the view surveyed by the statue of Cyrano de Bergerac as he peered down into the 'old' town through the swirling mist drifting from the river Dordogne this evening.

The little covered market was putting together the final touches to the orders for tomorrow nights Christmas eve dinner - the  réveillon - or 'wake up' feast traditionally served late in the evening and frequently after mid night mass.

Oysters

Little  'hampers' of cheese.

But everywhere seems calm and peaceful. There's no mad last minute rush.

Merry Christmas!

Mushroom Season Continues...

The Cepe season continues. It kicked off late, way into September when usually a downpour in August is the trigger. One thing's certain. This has to be one of latest running seasons, which courtesy of an absence of any frost seems set to continue for a week or two longer.

I bought these at Le Marché des Capucins, the big food market in Bordeaux and at 15 euro a kilo they weren't  too eye wateringly expensive. That said, on the way home, just near St. Emillion I saw a roadside stall packed with crates of this particular bolete knocking them out at 6.50 euro a kilo.

The start of Saturday night's dinner - mushrooms and noodles - the best noodles I could find at the Italian stall in the same market. Délicieux

Nature's Bounty - Sarlat Market

October is a favourite month. Karen and I have downtime as the holiday season is coming to an end, although  beautiful Autumn weather usually keeps October relatively busy - particularly the weekly food markets. The Saturday market at Sarlat is one of the best and we always make time to visit.

You can overdose on garlic in the Perigord.

You can overdose on cheese.

OD on Oysters - for a slightly iodine hit.

You can almost certainly OD on good wine

Or chill out at one of the many pavement cafes.

Voilà!

Return of the Pamps

It's taken two years from from the big freeze - Le Grand Froid - for the Pampas grass to recover back to full glory.  It's all a question of scale. In  a big landscape with lots of space, their huge plumes look superb. A real September treat.

Miscanthus sinensis 'Juli' has become enormous.

Its silvery white inflorescences shine in the warm September sun.

Second year for miscanthus 'gracillimus', so nowhere near full size yet.  It's dry and free draining where I've planted it and it may struggle to achieve full size. I thought the same for 'Juli',  however it exceeded all expectation in terms of scale, so there's hope for gracillimus.

Third year for m. sinensis 'malepartus'. I reckon it'll get very big by year five. It grows by the edge of the small pond and receives more moisture.

Miscanthus zebrinus is getting swamped by super lofty Japanese anemones. Five foot tall anemones which will need better staking next year.

Living France

Absolutely delighted to have my blog and garden featured in the Autumn issue of Living France magazine which is on sale now.  You can see the page PDF here.

Marqueyssac (by Phone)

It's been a long time, too long, since we visited the gardens at Chateau Marqueyssac. Last Friday however, we made a long overdue return visit to 'Les Jardins Suspendu' - the Hanging Gardens with panoramic views of the Dordogne valley.

Sadly, camera forgotten and with just one bar of charge left on the mobile phone I managed just a few shots before the power finished. For the full picture go here

 The box is clipped beautifully and the 'parc', with over six kilometres of footpaths and walks has a labyrinthine feel to it, not to mention containing pretty much all of the native flora and fauna found in the Perigord Noir - The Black Perigord - named such due to the vast swathes of dark Holm oak found growing in this region.

But for me, it's the beautiful views,  true vistas over the Dordogne valley that make this a special place. There are bucolic scenes all around the park and the gardens, at 200 metres above the river act as a natural belvedere.  This was a view over to the fortified chateau of Castelnaud. Unfortunately the 'phone's camera seemed hell bent on fixing focus to the trees in the fore and then running out of power. All the same, it's a fairytale view - one of many. If you ever get to go there, take the camera!