The Cheeses of the Pays d'Auge

 The little village of Camembert is 9 km from our farm and today Lisa and I went to visit the village and where the reception of their wedding is going to be next July. Camembert cheese is now made all over the world but the story goes that it was in 1791 a Normandy farmer, Marie Harel, invented the cheese and sold it in the local market of Vimoutiers. She had been given the idea of giving the soft, white local cheese a distinctive crust by a priest from the cheese area of Brie, where she had taken refuge during the French Revolution. The circular shape and wooden box were all characteristics that came later but her influence made an impact on other local villages and their cheese making techniques. The Livarot cheese, where I live, is one of the few cheeses that must be made within the locality of Livarot - appellation controlee -  and although similar to Camembert cheese it is much smellier and needs 4 litres of milk to make one cheese in comparison to 1 litre for a Camembert. There is a cheese factory now in Livarot but the cheeses are still prepared mostly by hand involving local reeds to be wrapped round 5 times each cheese and placed in the wooden box giving its name of "the colonel". Both Gen and Patrick spent a couple of summers working at the factory so can  testify to the painstaking work needed to cut the reed and then wrap it round the cheeses! There are still a few farms that continue to make the cheeses but with all the EEC regulations it is increasingly more difficult for them to conform and the use of unpasteurised milk makes it even harder to export abroad. However on the positive side the cheese industry in our little area of the Pays d'Auge is booming and Livarot cheese can be bought world wide.

Livarot Cheese

The Cheese Factory - Le Graindorge

    








 On Saturday I was invited to a concert of  the choir I used to belong to as they have been together for 20 years. It was very strange as many of the same people were still there. There were some who had died, some who looked older, a few new faces but on the whole nothing much had changed including the repertoire! It was lovely to see them and they all remember when I came to choir with baby Genevieve strapped to me and how she never made a sound as I was discreetly breast feeding her under my t-shirt! In the future I will continue my blog from time to time but the weekly posts may well go down to fortnightly!!

Sunset at the farm

Sore backs and gardening

                                           

Holly berries and La Ferme des Vallots

Well that certainly sounds like a boring title but that is exactly what I have and have been doing all week. When we first moved to our farm there was no garden and the removal van was able to drive straight up to the front door. Over the years depending on my enthusiasm, time and money, the garden has been created, evolved and enlarged. There was never a plan, no colour scheme and absolutely no knowledge of plants.  I tenderly looked after seedling which turned out to be nettles in the first year! Since we had very little money, most of the garden was started by cuttings and bits of plants given by friends. The branches that were stuck in the ground with much optimism have grown to be enormous trees and cuttings and twigs of roses planted have grown enormous and returned to the wild. However gardens do like love and care and if they are not loved, the plants that are the strongest and most invasive take over and that is exactly what has happened to mine! The borage and geraniums have taken over and plants that I know used to be there have disappeared including most of my irises. The dreaded elder weed and brambles which I am always fighting against have spread and no doubt the nettles and bindweed will appear in force when spring appears. Andrew and Patrick made a valiant attack on the garden during the summer and cut back lots of shrubs, trees and roses and so my challenge is to recover the flower beds, bring new life to them and allow every flower to have an equal chance of survival.

A branch turned into a tree!

Roses still blooming

  So basically I have been digging out  wheelbarrow loads of  weeds and bringing back wheelbarrow loads of well rotted manure which I am blessed with from previously keeping sheep.I am hoping that this will rejuvenate the plants and the next step will be to start raiding my friends' gardens for new plants. Most gardeners are very generous with plants that they have too much of and so I'm hoping they will not be the same that I'm digging out.  The weather is turning colder and the autumn colours are becoming more vibrant. The fire has been lit for the first time and I have been trying to be inventive with the glut of fruit and vegetables that are around - chutneys, crumbles, soups and cakes are filling the freezer and shelves and my most successful is a beetroot and chocolate cake - well worth a try.

Chestnuts

Blackberries

  Whether I continue with this blog is another question as the title is already very misleading. I met with a couple of friends on Saturday who were a part of the small writing club that used to meet monthly before I left for Borneo and they asked the very same question. At the moment I know that there are people in Sabah who are reading it and some family and friends and I also know that writing my blog has become an enjoyable habit that I never thought I would continue. So the question is unanswered for another week........

Rural France

St Ouen le Pin

The same " Bar des Sports"

When I was in Ranau I often used to think how similar life there, was to life in rural Normandie and in the last week of being back I keep thinking how life here in Normandie is similar to that of Sabah. Of course the people dress and look different but as in all relatively poor rural areas throughout the world, the people face the same problems, challenges and pastimes. Where I live in Livarot there are very few job opportunities and many of the younger generation leave to look for work in larger towns or cities or face at the best a job in the cheese factory or ciderie. There are also fewer jobs now on the farms as they are becoming more highly mechanised but collecting fruit, making jams, tarts, cider etc... and selling the produce in the market is just the same here as it is in Sabah.

saucisse et frites barbeque 

 However despite France being thought to be a highly advanced European country  it struck me that Livarot has hardly changed in the last 23 years since we arrived, compared to the very rapid changes in Ranau that I witnessed in 2 years.

The Old Coaching Inn

12th Century church with stalls

  Today I went to a Foire a Tout, which is like a car boot sale or the bundles market in Sabah except that in a typical French way it is only allowed once a year in each town or village so every village has their date in the calendar booked well in advance. It was in Cambremer, which is the village that we first lived near, when we arrived in France. Andrew and I were looking for an alternative lifestyle and gave up our careers, rented our house out in England, packed the car with three girls under 3 years old plus the dog and headed off to Normandie where Andrew had managed to rent a gite de France for the winter. The drive to the little village of Saint Ouen de Pin, near Cambremer, is imprinted on my mind forever.It was all so exciting and we were going to the unknown and didn't know what would be the outcome. We arrived on a Friday, enrolled Lisa at the Maternelle and she started her school life on the Monday not speaking a word of French which didn't seem to bother her. Anyway the years in between are another story but today I drove to Cambremer and relived that drive so many years ago which started our life in France. Incredibly , Cambremer has not changed at all and retains all the charm that it had all those years ago. I spent a grand total of 4 euro and came back with 6 wooden African spoons and napkin holders, an Indian scarf and a Spanish Sangria jug. None of those things that I realised before going were things that I needed so wasn't it lucky I went!!

A Flower pot man

A parade

Dear Friends of Ranau

Dear Friends of Ranau,
   It's hard to believe that a week has passed since I said farewell to you all. The last couple of days in KK were a mixture of panic, packing and repacking and then of course more farewells to colleagues who I probably won't see again. Emily and I went into a cafe just before we went to the airport and much to our delight and surprise there were Drs Othman and Lungkiam finishing their meal and so we joined them for our last drink in Sabah.The flight with Royal Brunei Airlines was fine and apart from 2 hours wandering around Dubai airport in the middle of the night, the fifteen hours flying seemed to pass relatively quickly, interrupted by food and films. Andrew very valiantly left Winchester at 5.15 a.m. and was there to meet me when I pushed the trolley through with suitcase, guitar, rucksack and wearing my Dusun hat - not the most smartest traveller in London!

Patrick.....

with proud parents!

The next few days were busy seeing family and then of course the highlight being Patrick's graduation in Cambridge. Andrew and I were both students there and have seldom visited since so it was a rather nostalgic visit as well as being a very proud moment for us as parents of a son with a 1st class degree (sorry if that sounds like I'm boasting but it is!) It was held in the Corn Exchange which is normally the place for concerts and theatre productions and with the pomp and ceremony that you might expect. The actual giving out of the degrees was very quick and the speeches were relatively short so we all gathered outside in the street for photos before making our way back to the University for the celebratory drink. Strangely enough I bumped into Kat Thomson, a mentor on the ELTD project who had left from Tawau 6 months earlier and had just arrived in Cambridge the day before - small world!

Sunrise on the Seine

Le Pont de Normandie

 After leaving Patrick to celebrate with his friends, we made our way to Brentwood in Essex to spend the night with our friends of thirty years, Janine and Glenn, which was lovely. The next day was more visiting family and then finally getting on the ferry to come back to our home in France. As I have only been in France in the winter for the past 2 years, it seemed very strange to see so much foliage and growth. It must seem strange to you the idea of seasons but in winter when there are practically no leaves so it changes the whole scenery, Autumn is just starting and some of the trees are beginning to change colour but mostly everything is green and when I arrived home at La Ferme des Vallots I was delighted to see quite a lot of flowers and roses still blooming.

A rose in the garden

Phoebe who seems pleased to see me!

A wren who flew inside today

Today was a lovely warm day and I wandered around the garden collecting pears, peaches and hazelnuts mostly off the ground but a few still ripening on the trees. I'm just getting accustomed to being home and enjoying everything as if through new eyes. The evenings are cool but on the whole it is very nice to be home!

                          Thinking of you all and missing you.

                                             Fiona