We went to London last week. I hadn’t been to London for thirty years. When I was young, my family went to England at least once a year to visit our relatives including my mother’s parents who lived in Surrey. Of course as a child I just followed my parents around, life was easy. This time I had to find my own way. London is not as easy to walk around as Paris. Things are further apart and you need to change more often on the tube. Mind you the people in England are SO helpful and friendly that it makes it easier in other ways. I loved the older generation, so charming. We visited lots of different events and landmarks. The Experimental Food Society show was fun and the Museum of Everything’s Exhibition under Selfridges was so inspiring. It was an exhibition of art created by people with disabilities, you couldn’t tell. It looked like the sort of art that graces the walls of many modern art galleries.

Anyway I had to choose something to write about in this post and I chose the Borough Markets. They are situated under the London Bridge and meander through the roads under the bridge. It has a very different feeling to the french markets. The Borough markets had lots of new and different products as well as the old favourites. It felt more like Australia. There was a vegetarian food stall that was cooking up lentil patties. I ordered one with haloumi cheese and it was one of the best things I have eaten.

The markets had an old world feeling about them, earthy and this mixed with the new food for sale made it an interesting morning. How fortunate would you be if you could go there every week and buy your food.

When I returned home to our little Parisian apartment I felt like baking something earthy like the Borough markets. I had bought some ginger and some bananas that we had left in the fridge and looked perfect for making a cake.  I looked up a few recipes and then used my intuition to put together a batter that would work. The result is delicious and would make a lovely accompaniment to a cup of tea. I hope you enjoy the recipe.

Banana and ginger cake

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On our road trip to the Bourgogne region we booked two nights at Auberge Du Paradis (french for bed and breakfast) in Saint-Amour-Belle-Vue. A good friend of mine had come back from a stay here and highly recommended a visit. We arrived on a Monday. France is not at it’s best of Mondays or Sundays. It is in a kind of “weekend” mode. Which is fine if you have a normal life of work and rest but when you are traveling you sometimes forget that people actually need a day off. The Auberge’s restaurant was not open on Mondays and Tuesdays so I am sure I missed out on an experience there.

The little hotel is quite unassuming from the front but when you wander through the rooms the attention to detail is astonishing.

Everything has had thought put into it, the napkins of the breakfast table, the little touches in our room. Breakfast was such a pleasure to my eyes and my taste. The owner and his wife run the establishment with great pride. He runs the kitchen and makes his own jam, yoghurt, breakfast cakes and fruit compotes.

We ventured out from the Auberge during the day and discovered the little town on Cluny. It has a huge abbey and is also a horse training facility Haras Nationaux . Also all around Saint-Amour-Belle-Vue are wineries and cellars. The french call them “Caves”. We visited a couple and walked under the huge Chateau de Pommard for ages. It is a meandering cellar where 400,000 bottles of wine is stored. I have to admit I am not very knowledgeable about wine, however this was such an experience. At one stage I started giggling because it was so dark and no one was around, It reminded me of a ghost train at the ekka.

We also visited Auxerre on the way back to Paris. We parked down by the river and walked up the cobblestone roads to Saint-Etienne Cathedral  a truly beautiful Church. Then we walked through the little town and bought some produce for a quick dinner when we returned to Paris.

I have seen mushrooms in France that I have never seen or eaten before. This time I purchased some Chanterelle Mushrooms. They are yellow feather type mushrooms and asked the vendor how he would recommend I cook them. He suggested butter, parsley and a light sauté served on  toasted french bread. “Parfait!” for when I return to Paris. They tasted delicious. I wonder why we can not purchase these in Australia?

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We have had a lovely trip to the Bourgogne. We visited Dijon, Lyon, Cluny and Auxerre and took a trip to Annecy near the Swiss border. The scenery is inspiring with the autumn colours starting to show on the trees. We stayed in three very different types of accommodation. The first was Palais De L’Ilse in Annecy. It was in the older part of town and was full of character. Small staircases leading up to a room in the attic with a sloping roof. Annecy was like something from the Sound of Music, with snow-covered mountains in the background. We visited friends there and were welcomed into their home. These are memories I will always cherish.

While visiting Annecy, I realised that the little porcelain people I had purchased at a flea market in Paris were actually “fève“. A  fève is a hidden token that goes in the Gateaux Des Roix or Galette de Rois that I have blogged about before.  My friend had a huge collection of old and new fève.

When we returned home, I was excited to start cooking again. We had purchased some wonderful peas at the market and I had made a chicken stock before I left, so I decided to make a pea soup. This was influenced  by the fabulous pea soup that I had in a Bistro in Paris called Bistro Y les Papilles. In my french apartment I found an old blender and although it didn’t work very well, the soup still tasted delicious.

Recipe For Summer Pea Soup

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