Bonjour French Market Friends,
This coming week in France the focus internally is on the Municipal elections which are held on 15th and 
22nd. 35 000 communes (municipal districts) vote for their local mayors. The first round eliminates the least supported candidates and the second round on the 22nd is the final selection. Political parties team up together to try and keep others out of the running. The French love talking politics, its like a national sport with lots of arm waving and gesticulating to make their points. They will spend hours discussing, or arguing, their points of view. One point I picked up was that they will talk loudly in front of friends about their intended support of a particular party or politician, but when they are actually inside the ballot box they then vote for the party that they really support. With the Presidential elections in 2027, these elections are important because it will show where the majority of the French are leaning – to the Right or to the Left. For the Centre parties it has been difficult to get any cohesion as they try to balance between the 2 extremes.
Back here is our beautiful city we had a successful Cape Town Cycle Tour last Sunda
y. The Start on the Grand Parade was full of music with Cape Minstrel bands entertaining the Cyclists. The race went smoothly and the weather was ideal. Since then we have been baking in a heatwave with temperatures nearing 40C. Luckily it is cooling down to the 20s this weekend. Which is great as we have our Francophonie food and cultural Festival on this Saturday at The Belgian Embassy residence in Newlands. We will have a stand inside the Residence building and will have lots of delicious French cheese for you to enjoy. There will be plenty of stalls serving food and drink, tables and chairs are provided in the garden for relaxing and sharing with friends. There will be plenty of entertainment and music. I look forward to seeing you there.
Our new cheese stock has arrived safely in Cape Town and we have plenty of cheese for you to choose from 
all the regions of France, including kilos of Roquefort from the south west, mature Comte and Emmental from the Jura mountains, handcrafted Brie from the Donge dairy, pungent Epoisses and triple cream Delice from Burgundy, little Munsters from Alsace, Camemberts and Pont l’Eveque from Normandie, Buche de chevre from the Loire Atlantique, Ossau Iraty from the Basque region, St Nectaire, Fourme d’Ambert and Bleu from the Auvergne. There is a cheese to suit every taste.
We have a new truffle mayonnaise product made by the French truffle specialists Maison Pebeyre. This family business started by Pierre Pebeyre in 1897. Pierre was a passionate trader in the regional specialities such as truffles, mushrooms and foie gras. The business grew over the years with the involvem
ent of his son Alain who moved the company to Cahors in the centre of the truffle region. From there the reputation of Pebeyre as leaders in the truffle field grew. His son Jacques took the truffles to the top level restaurants and earned the maison its great reputation as leaders in the truffle field in France. 
We have a range of French pork and duck terrines and pates available, to pair with them we have crunchy salty cornichons. We also have a small stock of Escargots (snails in brine) and we have snail shells. You bake the snails in the shells with a lot of garlic and herb butt
er mixture. They are delicious and taste mainly of garlic.
We have lots of trays of dark red, fresh Persian figs in stock, therefore I am sharing a baked fig and goat’s cheese recipe with you. This is really easy to make and the soft goats cheese gives a tangy flavour. You can switch the goats cheese with triple cream Delice if you prefer. I sprinkle Tariquet Armagnac over the figs but you could also use Grand Marnier or a cognac.
I hope you have a relaxing weekend in cooler temperatures and look forward to seeing you at the Francophonie market celebration.
Regards
Suzanne and The French Market Team