Welcome to the 12th edition of my monthly newsletter! Each month, I intend to share a personal round up of the past weeks to give you a glimpse into my French life. I also share links I love, seasonal recipe inspirations and try to answer some of the questions I’ve received through social media as well.
Feel free to let me know in the comments if you enjoy this monthly gazette, and perhaps what you would like to read about next month!
Beautiful Summer basil at the market
August, oh August… Such a bittersweet month you might say. Mostly sweet, with its abundance of sunshine, but knowing September is just around the corner means the end of summer as well. Despite this, it was a wonderful month full of sun, family, food and discovery.
Building in my hometown of Lorient
I’ve done some light complaining the past months about the weather here in Brittany, with an overabundance of rain and a heat wave, but I have to admit that August has made up for all of that. It feels like the weather has decided we deserved a near perfect month of sunshine, blue skies and perfect beach temperatures.
I like to verify how perfect the weather is by the reactions of my human thermometer – aka my husband – as he never lets a chance to complain about the heat, or rain, pass by. Surprisingly, silence from him!
Pedestrian street in Lorient
We’ve spent plenty of time at our favorite local beach, Toulhars, as did countless tourists, who flock to this area of Brittany every summer for its beautiful scenery, calm living and seaside adventures.
This area, especially over the past decade or so, has seen a real surge in tourism in the summer, and not only for the beautiful beaches and seafood, but for the FIL – the Festival Interceltique de Lorient.
Crowd at the Interceltic Festival
What is the FIL, you may ask? Well, known in the local Breton language as “Emvod Ar Gelted An Oriant” this festival which has been running for more than 50 years now, celebrates the Celtic nations and their varying histories and cultures, every August.
Did I just say that my region of France has a Celtic festival each year? Yes I did! Believe it or not, this region is in fact known as a Celtic region!
This typically 2-week long festival was cut short by a week this year, in part due to the Olympics in Paris, and hosts guests from Celtic nations all around the globe, which includes, but it not limited to, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, the Isle of Man, Cape Breton Island and Galicia.
Traditional Breton costumes
This super family friendly festival (a touch less so in the evening, when adults let loose to bands playing until 3 in the morning) welcomes well over 1 million visitors to the city of Lorient during its run.
Countless vendors line the shut down city centre, selling local delicacies, clothing, books, alcohols, beer and food, while the sound of bagpipes plays throughout the day.
There is truly so much to absorb about the Celtic community and history during this festival, and children and adults alike love to don the traditional Breton outfits, and pose for photos with tourists.
For me, the standout of the Breton costume is definitely the headdress worn by Breton women. It is so incredibly unique and gives me an instant feeling of comfort no matter where or when I see it. It takes me “home”, if you get what I mean.
Delicious croissant from our local bakery
The ringing in of the festival also rings in the arrival of my nephew from London. He arrives each summer to spend around 3 weeks with my parents (his grandparents). He absolutely loves the beach and football (soccer, not American football) and there is plenty of that here for him! Of course, he also loves to spend time with his family, and he always has some special requests for us when he comes.
That included having a few BBQs and focaccias, which my husband Marc was more than happy to oblige to! So, as he requested, we had a couple BBQs, the first of which consisted of a medley of local caught seafood including tuna, swordfish, salmon and shrimps all grilled up by the Canadian chef. Of course, we started with a little apero of Champagne and foie gras on toast.
My nephew learnt how to make a typical Breton prune flan
Then of course, we had to have another BBQ as requested, with homemade burgers and fries. Not at all French, but still absolutely delicious. Funnily enough, some local bakeries here take custom orders for hamburger buns, made fresh for you the morning of if requested a few days in advance. While we definitely don’t specialize in this type of bread, Marc still says it was the best burger bun he’d ever had. High praise!
My husband’s focaccia with cherry tomatoes
On a completely different topic, you may have already seen some of my highlights from our weeklong trip to Basque country that we took this month. What a welcome vacation this was, and a little different from our usual “planning”, which normally entails flying to a destination and staying put for a few days.
Beautiful Bordeaux
This time around, we took a road trip and took our time. This included a one day/night stop in the beautiful city of Bordeaux, just a 5hr drive from our home. I created a “one day guide to Bordeaux” on my Substack, which you can find here. If you’ve ever considered stopping by this renowned wine region, I definitely recommend it. You will not be disappointed.
The beach in Saint-Jean-de-Luz
The old center of Bayonne
We then took a few more hours in the car to land at our B&B in the town of Arcangues. This quaint, peaceful town was the perfect landing spot, central to all the destinations we planned on visiting throughout our trip.
We stayed at “La chambre d’Hôtes Lapitxuri”, a resort I cannot recommend enough. The hosts Jacques and Laure were very welcoming, attentive, knowledgeable, and served an absolutely delicious homemade breakfast each morning for all the guests.
The village of Sare
Every meal we had in Basque country was A+!
Each day, we’d visit one or several neighbouring cities which included Biarritz, Bayonne, Sare, Espelette and even San Sebastian in Spain, which was only 45 minutes away by car. Marc was surprised with how easily we were able to cross into Spain, with no customs nor border patrol – but this is the norm within the European Union!
The old center in San Sebastian
The harbor in San Sebastian
I don’t want to reveal too much detail about these stops, as I’m in the middle of creating a detailed report on my Substack for readers. Just know that if you’re considering going, I highly suggest you do! Just be aware you won’t be the only visitor there in summer, to say the least!
Famous Burnt Basque Cheesecake from La Vina
Our little Sophie (our dog, in case you’re wondering) once again spent the week with her visiting cousin from London and my parents at their home in Larmor Plage. Sophie had absolutely no complaints about her vacation and left a 5-star review as well! We received photos each day of Sophie going on adventures, sleeping and generally being smothered by my nephew. Lucky her!
We capped the month off with a little more R&R, spending time with family, and of course, one last summer stop at our favorite crêperie, as a family. As per usual, Marc enjoyed 2 savory crêpes, and in my usual fashion, enjoyed my savory crepe followed by a sweet one. Actually, all of my parents, my nephew and I (all French) took the same route of one savory and one sweet. Marc just always has to be different, I guess!
And now, c’est la rentrée ! (Back to school in French). I wish you all a wonderful month of September, whether you’re going back to school, work or just continuing to enjoy the good life.
I am currently working on creating recipes and content for the holidays, which I will share with you here on the blog and on Substack. If you have any ideas fo recipes or content you would like to receive, please feel free to leave a comment! I’d love to hear all your ideas and how I can create valuable articles you’ll all actually want to read.
Delicious grilled anchovies in Basque Country.
New recipes added to the blog in August:
10 recipes to make in September:
- French Lentil Salad
- Classic French Carrot Soup (potage Crécy)
- French-style Stuffed Tomatoes (Tomates Farcies)
- French-Style Cottage Pie (Hachis Parmentier)
- Classic Stove-top Ratatouille
- Apple Cinnamon Galette
- Classic French Pear Cake
- Apple Jelly
- Normandy Apple Tart (Tarte Normande)
- Roasted Hazelnut Financiers
Favorite questions of the month
I noticed you started a Substack recently, but I’m not exactly sure what it is and why I can’t access some recipes, but others I can. Help!
This is just one iteration of the same question I have received plenty of times since kicking off my new Substack over a month ago.
In brief, Substack is an app/website that allows content creators to publish their work, in an ad-free environment, and to earn revenue by readers purchasing monthly or annual subscriptions. Substack allows subscribers to chat with other readers and the creators themselves and have access to exclusive content and recipes that are not available to everyone.
My website Pardon your French will always remain free to use (with ads) for everyone. It will continue to be updated with new and updated recipes. I am thankful to each and every visitor to my blog, but Substack allows me another outlet for my work, where I can earn revenue and provide an exclusive and ad-free experience to readers.
There is absolutely no obligation for anyone to join Substack, but if you’d like to help support my work and profit from some exclusive recipes, french city guides and articles, you can join us here.
Audrey, we know you love food, but do you have any other passions that you enjoy?
I feel like an easy answer to this question would be photography, which is why my recipes always include so many photos (which thankfully, you all seem to enjoy!). But to be more candid, I have always loved the arts, and more specifically, drawing and painting.
I often find myself with a sketchpad just drawing objects or people around me (or my dog) whether I’m bored, anxious or inspired.
Is there a region of France you haven’t visited yet that you’d love to visit?
There are actually many regions of France I haven’t been to, or visited when I was very young that I either don’t remember, or would like to revisit as an adult.
To answer your question more specifically, I definitely would like to make a trip down to Nice (pronounced Neece) in the South-East of France. Sitting comfortably on the Mediterranean Sea, this Italian bordering city is renowned for its immense beauty, history and charm. The city is also now a UNESCO world heritage site, which only added to its allure.
We’re definitely hoping to visit there sooner than later!
10 comments
Please talk to me about that beautiful galette with salad and melting cheese lightly braised, it looks like. Most beautiful plate I’ve seen this week!!! Thank you, Audrey. P.S. We’ve missed coming to Brittany this year due to the death my mother. Missing her and beautiful Bretagne.
Oh, I am so sorry to hear about your mother, Nikki. My sincerest condolences to you and your family.
The crepe was wonderful and had 2 HUGE slabs of, as you said, slightly charred chevre on top. Definitely ordering that one again 🙂
Love everything about this! The pictures are marvelous and your recipes are so tempting to try!
Thank you, Kay! So glad to hear and I hope you’re able to try out some recipes, I’d love to know what you think. Any questions/concerns, drop a comment and I try to get back to you asap 🙂
My husband made your Tomates Farcies recipe, which reminded us of the ones that we purchased at the SuperU in Maubec. We only had ground veal which was very tasty. Our question – why does the rice have to be 2 inches ? Just curious, though loved the rice and the dish as tomatoes are ripe in Southern Ontario now. Your instructions are very easy to follow and your pictures make us want to try all your recipes. Thank you.
Hello Sharon, and thank you so much for reaching out! I actually had to look back at my recipe, because I thought I had advised readers that the size of the rice had to be 2 inches, and I thought “oh no, what a mistake!” 🙂
Now that I’m clear that you meant about 2 inches of rice as the “bedding” for the tomatoes, I just find that this is the correct amount to adequately soak up the juices that run off the tomatoes, without burning or turning to mush. You could surely use less, and of course depends on the size of your pan.
So glad you enjoyed them, and please feel free to reach out with any ohter questions/concerns.
I have not yet attempted the bpBurnt Basque Cheesecake, but it does seem to be a favourite of many, your husbands tomato focaccia looks delicious, certainly a change from olives. No wonder your nephew loves coming over to France, and to have the foie gras on anything would be my go to. I was surprised when you commented that your road trip was only five hours, most people in Europe would say that is too far. For us here in Oz, well where I live would be from Melbourne to Mildura up on the border. So you must be a reasonable distance down south in France, our son who lives in thenIK was explaining to someone the other day,Myles he was home here for a couple of weeks, that living in the UK and travelling to Europe was so easy, a coulee of hours and you are in France, Belgium, Holland and a few hours later, Spain, Italy etc.we travel that far and we are still in Australia lol… love your posts, and thoroughly enjoy the photos.
Thank you so much, Sally!
Yes, we do live really far up in the northwest corner of france, and travelled down to the very southwest, basically into spain. In total around 7+hrs without traffic. Typically, a roadtrip is 2-3-4 hours and oyu get pretty well into France, so this was definitely one of the longer trips, no doubt!
A 7hr roadtrip for my husband was a typical cottage getaway for him, as a Canadian. He tells me stories of nearly weeklong treks across his country just to get from one end to the other, so it isn’t a big deal for him, but definitely a longer voyage for me 🙂
Was the ride worth all the tourists ? Bordeaux would do nicely, No?
We both agree the ride was absolutely worth it! The traffic was actually the worst on the drive home, but that was somewhat our fault – it was the end of summer holidays, so everyone was on the road returning from their vacations before back-to-school.
Driving within the cities/town in the area was actually not terrible (though finding parking wasn’t the simplest), but absolutely worth it! Bordeaix alone would have been nice as well though, I can’t lie!