Christmas more or less snuck up on us this year.
Besides the fact that we’re not getting any younger, I really chalk it up to the fact that Covid19 made it such that the school year was pushed back, beginning in September, meaning that classes (and the related marking, evaluations & such) were also pushed back. So it seems like we were all working right up to the Friday before Christmas.
Is it just me or did it sneak up on you as well?
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Well… our little Cheesy Christmas adventure is coming to a close today.
It’s our last advent cheese of 2020 and we went out with a bang!
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Today’s cheese was another from France’s southwest corner… the Basque / Aquitaine region and included not just a special cheese, but also a special ingredient that has it’s own DPO (Designation of Protected Origin)... the Espelette Pepper…
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Back on Day 19, we had a Spanish cheese (queso Manchego) and I mentioned, at the time, that it was the first non-French cheese to make it into our Cheesy Christmas menu. I also mentioned that there would be one more in the days to come.
Technically, that’s not true. This cheese was produced in France, but it’s roots are much farther east… in Austria…
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Every once in a while I post a #Travel Tuesday post, just for fun. Today is one of those days.
As so many of you have been aware, Covid-19 lockdowns have affected just about everyone in some way, shape or form. One of the big things, here in France, has been the confinement that kept us almost exclusively at home back in the Spring and quite close to home in the Fall. Although we managed to get out and about during the ‘in-between’ times, once the second lockdown hit, we were limited to local trips, for specific reasons and always with government issued paperwork.
That’s why a recent Saturday was a real treat for me.
I needed to go up to Seine-et-Marne (77) for work, back on the 12th, and had all the appropriate paperwork to justify a trip out of my region. Since, on our attestation we have work-related tick-boxes and a tick-box for short periods of outdoor exercise, I took full advantage of both boxes and broke up my 3.5hr drive home with a walk around Chambord Castle.
Join me as I give you the short version of a one-hour stroll around one of the incredible castles of the Loire Valley.
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Anyone up for some goat cheese from the mountains?
That’s what on the menu for today’s cheese…
What an interesting name for today’s cheese… Abondance (‘abundance’ in English).
Kind of neat that it was scheduled for a Sunday as well…. since, as believers, our abundance comes from the Lord.
Let’s talk cheese…
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For today, we ‘left France’ for our cheese of the day.
I’m not sure why this surprised me really. No one said specifically that Cheesy Christmas was a ‘French cheese only’ promotion, but somehow I just supposed that it would be. That being said… it’s one cheese out of nineteen to date, and in the remaining few days, there will only be one other cheese that’s not French.
Vamos…
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Today’s cheese was another of the stinky persuasion… but we weathered the storm better than expected really.
Perhaps we’re getting accustomed to all these ‘little stinkers’. One has to wonder… is that a good thing or a bad thing!?
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Today, we’re back in the Isère region for another mountain cheese – the Carré du Trièves.
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