Scary sculpture men

There is very little like waking up in the French countryside to the sound of…well, nothing really. It is very quiet where we are. And it helped that the sky was blue, and the sun was beaming down. Okay, it was intermittent, with big black ominous clouds drifting across every now and then but, basically, it was lovely.

Naturally, everyone else was wrapped up for our trip to the market in Lavaur. I was asked a few times if I was cold in just my t-shirt. It was 18 degrees! Seriously not cold.

It was a lovely, little market. It reminded me of how much I love French markets in little towns. Cheese, cured meats, fresh local veg. And honey. Always love the local honey. I may have bought a jar.

Geraldine got very excited when she discovered some fresh cherries. She was sorely tempted to buy the lot. We will be making her cherry clafoutis with them later in the week.

Having bought enough stuff for the cooking classes, we then hopped into the bus to go to the ridiculously picturesque town of Giroussens where we visited four artists and their studios. They were all pretty amazing, but one really took my fancy. I may have been the only one who liked his work. Apparently he ships all over the world. It was my turn to be sorely tempted.

Dirk, pictured, was not impressed. I think he’s a little more traditional in his arty preferences. I said the artist would be pleased that his work at least moved him in some way, even negatively.

When I went inside the studio, Anissa told the artist how much I loved his work, in French, obviously. We would have discussed the works, but we had to head out.

Deep inside the delightful village of artists, there was a rather frightening display of sculptures made from old bits of metal and garden implements. Anna declared they were the scary sculpture men. We all decided they would give anyone quite a fright in the dark.

That’s just a few. There were many more along the side street.

We also visited a ceramics place and a local artistic studio where four local artists share the space. One of them, Kristine Stattin, is from Sweden. She works primarily with embroidery. Nothing like Britta Marakatt-Labba, though.

Eventually, we headed to the top of the town where we had lunch. The restaurant had a car park view that must be the envy of all car parks.

It reminded me very much of the Terrace Restaurant in Domme where we ate back in 2014. Well, except that we ate inside rather than in the car park.

And lunch was delicious. I had the asparagus soup followed by fish. I didn’t have dessert. Some of our group had steak. One of us wasn’t happy with the state of her steak and sent it back. She was then given a new one which she seemed to enjoy.

Meanwhile, Anna, who was sitting next to me, said she felt sorry for the photographer (we had Valerie with us snapping away) who wasn’t eating. Then she was given a steak and sat down to eat it. Anna reckons it was the rejected steak. Better than wasting it, I said.

Anyway, this was my delightfully imaginative asparagus soup.

I made the mistake of sending Mirinda the photo above and she replied “Notice the presentation.” Fair enough, I suppose.

But, it was very soon time to head back to the estate and our first cooking class.

We started with tartlettes aux fraises. The kitchen had been set up into stations, half for the crème pâtissière and half for the short crust pastry. We were split into groups of three and stood at our work stations ready for Geraldine to take us through what we were about to create.

I was teamed up with Kim and Sonja and we started with the crème pâtissière. Then, we all switched so we were making the pastry.

Now, I have to say that this was all quite easy for me so I ended up explaining things to my teammates as we progressed, letting them do the things they wanted to. They insisted that I should strip the beans from the vanilla pods because they’d never seen them before. They really enjoyed the demonstration, mainly for the scent.

After we had prep’d for the tartlettes, we went to the lounge area for a break while the kitchen was set up for us to begin our main course for dinner: niçoise style salad with tuna tataki.

And, while we were sitting chatting and indulging in some saucisson that we had bought at the market, cherry tomatoes and a wonderful pepper dip created by our chef, Anissa’s mum, we had an unexpected and very happy visitor.

She belongs to the owner of the property where we are staying. She was more than happy to have her tummy rubbed by anyone who wanted to. She was an absolute delight and a real eye-opener to how many of us own dogs. There was a flurry of phones being shown with pictures of puppies. Maryna showed us her wallpaper which featured her dog rather than her daughter.

But, it was very soon time to stop patting the dog and head back into the kitchen for our next task: Dinner.

Of course, we started by making our vinaigrette which we put in individual containers and labelled as our own, then began the prep of the salad. This involved something I’ve really wanted to know how to do: the removal of the heart of an artichoke. If I learn nothing else this week, I will feel this has not been a waste. Thank you, Geraldine.

Work was intense as we all beavered away. Dirk and I cooked the tuna while the others finished off their salads. It was a kitchen full of busy little bees. Particularly when you consider that the people cleaning up behind us, beautifully I might add, were the organisers. It was like magic. At one point, as Anissa cleared away my chopping board, I told her I could do with her at home.

Eventually, all was ready and we took our plates to the big dining table, sat down and ate our dinner. We didn’t complete the tartlettes and, really, we were all too full from everything else we’d eaten through the day.

After dinner, as most people drifted off to sit in the lounge and chat, Sandra, Matt and Anna suggested going for a swim. There is a lovely warm pool on the property, and it was truly perfect for an after dinner dip.

An exhausting but amazing day. I have to say, this is turning out to be the best birthday present EVAH!