Warn me about the downside of moving to France

[martyn94]

I don’t if it’s my browser, or the way this site works, but long links seem to get truncated. The link in my post above ends “Béarâ€￾ not “Béâ€￾.

You may not be bothered anyway: but it may be the nearest weather station to Argèles, if you are interested in there.

[Allan]

[Richard and Sharon]

Ha ha, I was being a bit tongue in cheek about the cheese beano, but thanks for the tips, it could be useful in a moment of need!

Re the weather, I was referring to the link to the "comparateur" posted by Webdoc.

For a clothing sanity check before venturing out, I just type "weather" and the place into google, that gives me a simple and fairly accurate 7 day forcast with sun/cloud, wind and prcipiatation. Of course there are many other weather sites. An interesting one that I like for accuracy and detail is windguru.cz Not just for the Czech Republic, its global. It facilitates customised forcasts for Cap Bear or any other spot that you care to specify on their map.

[martyn94]

[martyn94]

[Richard and Sharon]

Yerk! Heinz tinned spagetti. I fully agree, dreadful stuff. I cringed when overhearing a woman in my local supermarket asking a stacker where she could find tinned spagetti bolognaise. Why would you? She must have been planning to punish somebody or deter her kids friends from ever coming round to tea again!

[martyn94]

Yerk! Heinz tinned spagetti. I fully agree, dreadful stuff. I cringed when overhearing a woman in my local supermarket asking a stacker where she could find tinned spagetti bolognaise. Why would you? She must have been planning to punish somebody or deter her kids friends from ever coming round to tea again!

I guess I agree, if it exists. But there are infinite degrees of snobbery and one-upmanship between tinned spag bol and tagliatelle al ragu. Some of the intermediate stages can be OK, if you don’t come from Bologna. At the worst, they take you back to your youth.

And some tinned foods which might seem superficially similar can be not too bad: decent tinned cassoulet for example. It’s a shame that it rarely gets cold enough round here (and I exert myself enough) to make me think I deserve it.

[Richard and Sharon]

Agreed, and I am too bothered if it exists or not. Maybe that makes me a snob, but spag bol is student fodder and I confess to being happy to eat it when my daughter cooked it for me in her uni digs, but when seen on a Bologna menu, we walk on by, clearly catering to tourists!
As for tinned cassoulet, tres bon! It is a different beast altogether. We have one on standby now, for tomorrow when we arrive from the UK on the train from the airport, too late to buy anything fresh.
I do respect the French for their general non acceptance of mediocre food. This started some 40 years ago when my father was a fisherman in Cornwall and all the monkfish, spider crabs, gurnard and any other "exotic" fish you dont get in your average chippy, got exported to France because the English would not buy it. Because the price was so low to him, we had to eat good fish all the time!

[martyn94]

Agreed, and I am too bothered if it exists or not. Maybe that makes me a snob, but spag bol is student fodder and I confess to being happy to eat it when my daughter cooked it for me in her uni digs, but when seen on a Bologna menu, we walk on by, clearly catering to tourists!
As for tinned cassoulet, tres bon! It is a different beast altogether. We have one on standby now, for tomorrow when we arrive from the UK on the train from the airport, too late to buy anything fresh.
I do respect the French for their general non acceptance of mediocre food. This started some 40 years ago when my father was a fisherman in Cornwall and all the monkfish, spider crabs, gurnard and any other "exotic" fish you dont get in your average chippy, got exported to France because the English would not buy it. Because the price was so low to him, we had to eat good fish all the time!

I stopped in Castelnaudary a few years ago while biking down the Canal du Midi. Cassoulet is not really what I want on a warm day in late June, but it seems to be essentially compulsory there, particularly on a Sunday evening. I don’t know whether mine came out of a tin, but they should have left it in the microwave a bit longer. Apart from that, a pleasant spot. And it’s a pleasant bike ride, at least until they cut all the trees down.

I used to go in the same pub, after work, as the humble fisherfolk in Bangor (Gwynedd, not NI). A couple of times I got big fat monkfish for the price of a pint. I think restaurants had woken up to them by then (it used to be said that they sold them as scampi), but they hadn’t caught enough to make up a box. And a lovely salmon trout once (or sewin, as they call them round there).

[martyn94]

Agreed, and I am too bothered if it exists or not. Maybe that makes me a snob, but spag bol is student fodder and I confess to being happy to eat it when my daughter cooked it for me in her uni digs, but when seen on a Bologna menu, we walk on by, clearly catering to tourists!

I do like ragu (and Bologna), but there’s more than enough fuss made about it: you must/absolutely must not use pork/beef/chicken livers/garlic/tomato paste/milk/cream/red wine/white wine.

[Richard and Sharon]

It amuses me how precious people get about their regional dishes. Ragu, Paella, Cassoulet or Pasties. Cassoulet is claimed by Castelnaudary, Toulouse and probably several other places, each was the first and all the others are fake. Surely these ancient concoctions must have been variable depending on what was available on the day. That remains my excuse for rarely following a recipe with any diligence. Satisfaction comes from breaking the rules and enjoying the results. The canned version sufficed when we got in just after 10 last night, and the temperature in the empty house justified it.
We love most things Italian. and have spent a fair amount of time there. In fact we looking to buy in Italy before we settled on PO. No regrets though.