Bon weekend from Antibes

Bonjour,

I hope that you and yours are well.

I’m sending you this newsletter from Antibes, where I’ve just arrived after a few days discovering the mouth-watering gastronomy of Nice (including chocolate!) and from here I’ll go to Cognac to explore the famous drink in the most unusual ways! Join me on Instagram where I’m sharing my travels as I go!

Meanwhile, back at home the four feral fowl we rescued have very quickly become accustomed to being waited on, fed, watered and generally spoiled! We released them into the wider chicken gang, and it was surprisingly calm, not least because the ferals are fairly feisty!

I realised this week that I have had a home in France for 22 years – in some ways I feel like this has been my life forever – the days of high heels, brief cases and commuting to London are a very distant memory. Now I pretty much live in dungarees and rubber boots (unless I’m travelling of course, I’m not that far gone!) and am a maid to many animals and the vegetable patch.

When I first came here, my neighbour Claudette (she’s going to be 96 next year and jokes she was a spring chicken when I arrived!) was horrified that I couldn’t cook. And it wasn’t just because she was so astonished that a grown woman was inept in the kitchen – she actually gave me a look that implied this was possibly the most ridiculous thing ever. But also because living in the middle of nowhere as we do in rural northern France, means that you can’t just pop to the shops, get a takeaway or go to a restaurant – you have to be able to cook from scratch if you are going to live like a local here.

I was a reluctant cook at first, but over the years I’ve really improved thanks to my neighbours who have spent literally years teaching me how to prepare soup, make pies and tarts, preserve vegetables and fruit and whip up a tray of canapéss for aperitifs – a very important qualification in my village! And as Claudette tells me, cooking is love made edible, so I’m looking forward to cooking some of the food I’ve learned about in Nice for her when I get home (and sharing the recipes with you too – I’ll be writing about my experiences in The Good Life France Magazine).

Bisous and bon weekend from Antibes,
Janine
Editor

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