The Road Less Travelled

Sometimes it pays to take THAT road, on the way home. A little reverse psychology works too:)
We so often pass glorious views and I say something like "I need to stop and take a photo of that next time!" and then I dont, and say the same thing the next time.
Today I did stop on the way back from Chateaubernard where we had gone to get the Weed Wacker parts...and of course c'est France...This is France, and all the parts we ordered last week and were told to come back for this week, weren't there...and of course it was THE most important part that was missing.
What is with these folks? Oh, it might be here on Wednesday or Thursday! Riiight, says me. E-mail us when it's here! No telephone, coz my Francais a la telephone is not worth a certificate.

Anyway, I was telling you why I stopped. Our home area is known as Lignieres Sonneville (Lin years sonn veal). It is made up of two places...Lignieres and Sonneville. Two places within a short distance of each other. It is a bit like La Magdeleine (last night's blog) and Criteuil la Magdeleine...both small towns within almost spitting distance...well, perhaps 3-5kms apart.
Lignieres is our closest town with a small number of 'commerces' and Sonneville has a church (Eglise - aye gleece). The photo is taken from a very well placed pull- out area on a road that has no other pull-out areas.
The road is a switchback up the hill, right in front of the church. There are two houses here...perhaps one is a Presbytere, or the Church Manse.

 A closer look.

 And what you dont see in those close- in photos, is this sign.
This is why I have said, so many times..."We must go up there one day!"
Well today  was that day and the reference to the Reverse Psychology was from Waz who  said, almost sarcastically..."Why dont we go up there!" ha ha!.

She who drives turned up this road. Not a wide road, and of course we met one car coming the other way for which we pulled onto the not so wide side of the road. His arm out the car window gave us an appreciative wave...must have been Brits, because we normally get the 'French Nod'.
I would have to do a video of this, but Waz has it down a treat! It is almost a nod and a shrug combined:) Very effective from people who dont smile much naturally. It signals approval as far as we can make out.
Being kiwis, we wave and smile at everyone! I wish I could package the 'looks' we get most of the time. We have a good larf!

So, moving down this road to the Chateau, the road gets skinnier and skinnier. Now we are on a road that I said "I hope nobody comes the other way and we need to pass, coz there aint nowhere to pass!" Thank goodness we didnt meet any other cars or other machinery. Good thing it's Saturday, perhaps.

Pretty as a picture this vine covered countryside and we pinch ourselves that we now call this home.
Old vines have been pulled out, new ones planted....the dark row in this photo is the old vines, which tend to sprout. I guess they will eventually make firewood? The stakes in the foreground are the straining posts for the vines...ohhh look! Top right...Chateau?

 Mais Oui!
The newly planted maize is what you are looking at below rows of vines.

 Getting closer....but around a corner...

 The Chapelle de St Palais. Dont ask me the difference between an Eglise and a Chapelle...I will have to do some research on that topic.
Bare bones Chapelle in a community that barely exists, I would say. It appears to be in the middle of nowhere but vines.

 Look left and we see more of the Chateau complex. We are in our neighbor's territory..Monsieur Frapin, from Domaine Frapin who uses the stone warehouses across the road from us. There have been many comings and goings from said warehouses, in the past couple of days, but we cant make out what they are doing, despite our best sticky beak guesses.

Back to this Chateau Fontpinot. What a lovely place! It is sheltered from the prevailing winds, almost in a valley all of it's own, and we climbed the hill above it to find ourselves on a ridge overlooking the other valleys on the other side. We could have driven down their driveway, but I'm not quite that brash or nosy...almost though!

 This part of the Dependences (day pon donce - outbuildings) appear inhabited. Most of the shutters were open of the Chateau too, and it is in remarkable repair for a change. So many aren't!

 Up the top of the hill looking down through the vines. A bit magical!

 As I said...from the top of the ridge, we looked out over the hills on the other side. To the left...

 ...and to the right. This Maison Maitre, or Master's House, is semi-enclosed with a wall along its eastern border. What a glorious outlook they will have.

But I forgot to tell you what happened BEFORE we did our tiki-touring into the equipment store and the back roads of our neighborhood.

I told you yesterday that we had arranged with the local bar owners, Ben and Celine, to go there to watch the All Blacks vs Les Bleus Rugby match being held at Eden Park, Auckland, NZ.  I also promised them we would bring a picnic (Pique Nique en francais!) of Cheese Scones (Scones au Fromage) with Jam (confiture) and cream (Crème).
I never make them to a set recipe, sorry...except the flour and baking powder ratio.
3 cups of flour to 5 teaspoons of Baking Powder and a teaspoon of salt, Add the cold chopped butter (hmm....how much?? well, it's never the same as I eyeball it, so lets see.... I cut a chunk about 1 inch wide off a 500gm block of butter - how's that for measuring?!).
Because you are going to put cheese in the mix, which is basically fat, you use a bit less butter.
NO SUGAR! you get the sugar from the jam.
I use a pastry cutter to blend the butter with the flour. You dont want a sandy texture. Small blobs of butter should still be visible. This is important to get flaky scones.
Then comes the guessing game with the cheese. I finished up the English yellow cheddar I had in the fridge (in the bowl already) and mixed in some English Cheddar Rouge which I bought the other day. About a cup of grated cheese?? maybe a weeny bit more?
Mix the cheese into the blended flour/butter.
Have a cup of tea or coffee! :)

 Again, guessing games, because when you are familiar with baking you will get a 'feel' for how much liquid you will need in the mix, depending on the ambient temperature at the time.
Make a well in the mix and using cold milk, pour the liquid into the well. I might pour a cup and a half in, and using a regular dinner knife (not steak knife...broad blade one!) CUT the liquid into the flour mix. Cut and turn, cut and turn until it is all incorporated. As it all comes together I can then judge whether I need a bit more milk or not. It is ok to have a damp mix, but not sloppy. Dry isnt good. Moisture will be removed from the mix during the cooking process, so a dry mix gives you crumbly scones in the end. Not nice!
Damp mix, you will knead more flour into before shaping the end product.
The mix should look like this! Below.
It sticks to my fingers. I tip it all out onto a floured board/counter and sprinkle more flour liberally over the top, knead and turn, knead and turn, almost as if you are kneading bread. Have a light hand always!
About 6 kneads/turns and you should have a nicely round one inch thick, not sticky, ready to shape mixture.
Dont slap the mix or you will beat the air out of the dough. Baking requires a light hand always, as I said.
You can GENTLY push down on it with the open palm of your hand to shape to the size you want.
Remember, the scones will rise, but you dont want skinny scones!

 Before I add my liquid, I turn on the oven to at least 220C. If you oven will go to 240C do that. You want the cooking to be quick.
All shaped and in the oven. In the absence of my regular scone cutters, I used this Cognac glass, which made the end result pretty large...not ideal! 2 inches diameter is good?
Place the raw shaped scones onto baking paper so that they almost but not quite touch. If you want uniformly browned scones, then keep them wide apart. I love the scones that help each other rise. When you place them almost next to each other, there is a heat transfer that occurs between the scones when they rise enough to touch and you get a softer shell, which I favor. Each to their own.
I have been making scones for as long as I can remember and while they are easy peasy, they do take attention to detail I find. I am still perfecting mine!

 Voila! I dont brush my scones with anything. Some like to brush with milk or water or even butter or egg...dont put eggs near a scone! They make it into a cake.

 When you take them out of the oven, you can either let them cool in the open air, or you can place them on a cooling rack covered with a cloth. I prefer the latter, as I like my scones slightly steamed at the end. Makes the crust softer.
We bundled our picnic up in a bag and took it down to the bar, just after 9am. Game kick -off was 9.35am
A Grand Crème from Ben, and we were in business. Of course we brought enough to share with our hosts and anyone else who wanted to try them.

 The bar. We normally sit at the bar for our coffees, but chose to sit facing the screen, this time...of course! We tried not to be too noisy in our appreciation of the game!:) Well, I did!

 Ben and Celine were instructed on how to make the finished product edible. Gently open the scone sideways...Celine did it the other way (cut straight down on the scone, bi-secting it)  until I set her on the straight and narrow, lol.
They were interested that we put jam on cheese scones, and then cream! They were a little reticent with the cream to begin with, until I encouraged them to slather it on:)

 I think they liked the finished product!:)
They certainly decided that they might serve Brunch in the future. They are waiting until later this month to open with meals in the restaurant.
Ben is a trained Boulanger, and Celine is a Graphic Designer. She has shown us her handiwork for one of the local Cognac Domaine...Classy!

The All Blacks...seeing we went there to watch the game...scored poorly in the first half of the game, and it was a bit scrappy, to be honest. I lost interest, and decided to chat with the English couple who came in for coffee. I offered the woman a scone with Jam and Cream, but she was unwilling to put the two onto a Cheese scone. She ate the whole scone without anything on it...would have benefitted from some butter, methinx!

Nice to chat with some other English speakers, but we dont really miss that interaction.

We were happy to get home after our trip to the equipment store and consequent Chateau hunt, and get some lunch for ourselves.

The little rose bush given to us by our new Kiwis-in-France friends Michelle and Richard, as a house warming gift, is now blooming; How delicious! It will eventually creep down the side of the planter, I think.

Oh...and the All Blacks won, 52 - 11, or something...The French didnt score at all in the second half. Need to get a bit fitter, you Bleus!

Ciao for now, I'm off to do some more cleaning!