Our Petite Maison in France

We had been scratching our heads, it's so hard thinking of what to buy.  Not spend a fortune.  Get a decent mix of old and new.  Maintain the integrity ..the age of the property but not allowing it to look too English French. We are of course not English and not French.  A bit of a head spin for us because we aren't used to furnishing old places like this one that's for sure (for sure for sure for sure...)...

We stumbled upon a little furniture shop just below the Langres limestone promontory.  We were on our way to THE DREADED IKEA.   OK so of course IKEA is great for 'stuff' and pretty good for that 'stuff' too but we were clutching at straws thinking we could find actual furniture there.  The desperation of the English speaker in rural France We were DREADING having going to IKEA.  The whole maze thing doesn't work for us.   We are get in get out sorts when it comes to those shops and IKEA has that maze thing going on... 

So being cheap skates and a preference to driving rurally,  we took the non toll road to Dijon IKEA.  Our wonderful area of France has no toll roads unless you head south of us towards Dijon and then they start in their merciless veracity.  We had the time up our sleeves.  We thought... well we didn't think, we punched into the GPS 'avoid tolls' as we do. 

Heading into Langres, still 55 minutes north of Dijon and we spied this little furniture shop directly under the old town of Langres. 

What a delight it was.  Oh my gosh.  I could live there.  And at the end of an hour we had to shove ourselves out because I could have spent an absolute fortune.  Part of the delight as well were the owners.  They were just lovely.  Welcoming, amicable, lovely people and so completely OK with our terrible French.  They were apologetic of their English (which is more common than anything in France) and their English was good.  It is us that should be apologetic but we don't speak enough French to properly convey it.  Anyway .. moving on we were able to scramble together a look for our little house using one major furniture item from their shop (i.e. the dresser), several art works from their shop, the glorious lamp, the little teeny table and 2 chairs.  All by local artisans.  

Oh, as a beside.  The owners came to deliver our goodies on Sunday (their day off).  They came with their unbelievably beautiful little girl who was so very humble.  What a lovely family and what a warm shopping feeling we came away with.  IKEA you serve your duty but by god I'm so glad we didn't make it to your store that day in the Haute Marne.  

Our sweet little boudoir

Rapeseed flowers of spring.  They are EVERYWHERE.  It makes the drive to the supermarket pretty OK!!

OK so check this out....Andy made the coffee table from a little sleigh the previous owners had left along with some huge chunks of wood we had in the barn.  One has these things when one owns a barn it seems!

We'd planned to leave the little table and chair set for outside but it looks too good inside.  It's our corner cafe.  

The lady in the ball gown is a stunning piece of art we bought in the shop below Langres. 

The lamp is my pre birthday pressies.  Months ahead but I did insist. 

And our belle vue.  

Beef fillet with red wine sauce

Eye fillet of South African beef (sorry NZ … the SA stuff is far better IMO) with a sauce of … well lets just say I did the basics of a beef bourguignon (ie good quality lardon, onion, garlic, mushrooms-I use dried cepes- red wine.  I also add star anise to my beef bourguignon). 

Served with roasted baby carrots and roasted celeriac along with celeriac puree.  D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S!!!

Beef carpaccio

I’m a bit of a fan of conjuring up an entrée by taking a little from the main course ingredients and serving them in a different style. 

So.... this time I shaved off a little beautiful South African eye fillet, made a tiny salad of grated raw celeriac, finely chopped tomato and lemon salt, added a touch of truffel oil over the beef at the end and seasoned with salt.  Light, zingy and utterly scruffy.  It's so satisfying on many levels.  One enjoys an entrée with a few little bits from what would otherwise just be added to main course.  Zero calorie addition, zero cost but a lovely taster to start a meal.