Bonjour French Market Friends,
French
schools are enjoying their summer holidays from July through to start of September. France shuts down for a couple of weeks while businesses take a break and many French families escape the cities and hit the roads, seeking out their favourite countryside villages and holiday camp sites around France. Sleepy villages are awakened by excited children as they re-open their holiday cottages, clear out the cobwebs and settle in for a 6-week break.(Image Acknowledgement to LucaGalbert.com)
Summer Festivals are held in many towns, one of the oldest is the Festival of Avignon. T
his beautiful town was the residence of the French born Pope during a 70year period in the 1300s, when there was a fallout between the Pope and his cardinals in Rome. He was given shelter in Avignon by the French King. His legacy is in the beautiful buildings created, including the Papal Palace and the bridge. These serve as backdrops for the Avignon Festival, one of the top global performing arts festivals held every July since 1947. Actors take to the streets and fill the city with contemporary art. (Image courtesy Les voyages de Mat)
Back here in RSA we celebrated the Junior Boks beating the New Zealand team and winning the World Rugby U20 Championship 2025 in Italy. Its good see all these excellent younger players coming through to become our future Springboks. (Image courtesy The Herald-Maurilio Boldrini / World Rugby.)
In our cheese stock this week we have an array of cheeses from across France to tempt you. Soft Bries and Camemberts from Normandie, decadently rich Delice, creamy and pungent Epoisses from B
urgundy, creamy Vacherousse. Firm textured Tomme des Montagnes, Tomme de Savoie and Morbier from the Jura, raw milk Comtes, Raclette and Emmental. There is plenty of goats’ milk cheese, buche de chevre, little fresh crottins de chevre and the truly delicious creamy goat’s cheese spread flavoured with truffle. In the blue cheese range, we have salty Roquefort, medium flavoured Bleu d’Auvergne, buttery textured Fourme d’Ambert and crumbly Stilton (from across the Channel). Our sheep’s milk cheese includes firm textured, hand crafted Ossau Iraty from the Basque region and Manchego from across the border in Spain. Plus, classic aged Irish cheddar and Italian Parmigiano Reggiano. Come in and treat yourself.
Avignon is located on the left bank of the Rhone River, 12km away is the famous wine region of Chateau Neuf du Pape (CNDP), a fiefdom that belonged to Avignon and where the Popes used to stay in summertime. The bottles are engraved with the famous coat of arms of the Pope, crossed keys and the Papal hat. Wine production in this small region is carefully controlled. We currently stock 2
wines from Domaine Andre Mathieu from this region. (Image courtsey Wikipedia-Album Laincel 85 Chateau Neuf du Pape).
The white wine, Vin de Felibre 2018, is made solely from Clairette grapes grown in their 50-year-old vineyard. Initial fermentation is in steel vats, then halfway through, the wine is transferred to new oak vats for 9 months. This wine has a beautiful golden colour and an aroma of white fruits and citrus. It is smooth and rich with a strong taste of fruit. This wine can be aged up to 10years.
The re
d wine, Le Centenaire Rouge 2019, is made with grapes from a single vineyard that was planted over 100 years ago. Predominantly Grenache, the wine contains thirteen grape varietals that make up the Chateau Neuf du Pape Appellation area. This wine is aged for 18 months in a Foudre. This is a large wooden vat which is often used in the Rhone Valley region. Because the Foudre is much larger than a traditional wine barrel (it can contain up to 1,000 litres) there is less wood or oak flavours in the resulting wine. This wine can be aged up to 20 years.
This weekend my friends and I made one of our amazing wine pairing meals. I was delegated to make the starters. With our locally grown fresh black winter truffles in season, I used truffle flavo
urs as the theme. I created 4 amuse bouches (bite size portions) from ingredients in my shop. See more detailed explanations in this week’s recipe. The first was slices of fresh baguette topped with a thin layer of our salt crystal butter from Brittany, topped with a thin slice of fresh black winter 
truffle. According to President Mitterand, this is the best way to enjoy the flavour of a fresh truffle. The second amuse bouche was egg mayonnaise made with our free range, pasture raised farm eggs and mayonnaise made with truffle flavoured mustard. Spread on a slice of fresh baguette and sprinkled with truffle flavoured salt. They were delicious. I will tell you about the third and fourth recipes in my next newsletter. Whilst these dishes are really simple and need no expertise at all, you can see more details on preparation in my recipe.
I plated these
on micro salad greens sprinkled with truffle flavoured olive oil and decorated with Torres truffle flavoured chips and edible flowers. For wine pairing I chose 3 wines from our shop, the Cheval Noir Sauvignon Blanc from Bordeaux (R190) which paired well with the goat’s cheese, The Elgin Vintners Chardonnay (R450) and the Chateau de Pierreux, Brouilly Beaujolais (R450). We decided that all tasted great, but the Beaujolais Gamay wine was probably the closest match for the 4 different tastes.
We are expecting a dry but chilly weekend, so come in and get a French cheese platter and some French wine and sit in front of a roaring fire and imagine you are in the countryside in France, enjoying summer.
Regards
Suzanne and The French Market Team