Bonjour French Market Friends,
In Los Angeles last weekend, the movie stars, wearing beautiful designer gowns, celebrated the Golden Globes 
awards in traditional glamour, with first time winner at 60+ Demi Moore, giving an amazing acceptance speech (Image courtesy Instagram demi Moore). Within a few hours Los Angeles hit the news again with the devastating fires bordering the city. Horrific images of entire suburbs razed to the ground within the space of a few hours, demonstrated the force of extreme high winds and tinder dry grounds. My daughter, in the
Venice beach area on the west side of LA, described to me how she could see the entire mountain range in flames, thankfully they are still safe. Today, whilst the wind seems to be calming a little, the fires are still burning out of control. My thoughts go out to all the families who have lost their homes. (Photo Credit: Cedrik Sammut via Lost Angeles)
Bad weather conditions are also affecting Northern and Eastern France yesterday evening, where up to 10cm of snow fell, driven by polar winds from the North. (Image of snow in the region near Troyes) In other parts of the country, heavy rainfall is causing flooding.
I’m grateful for our mild summer weather in Cape Town. Here life is continuing peacefully with many of our visitors returning home after a happy Christmas holiday. In our shop we have been catching up on all our admin and restocking our shelves. We have received fresh baked stock of madeleines, canneles, amaretti, almond meringues, cheese straws and palmiers (pigs’ ears)
We have decided to offer a “New Year’s Sale” with discounts up to 25% on several of our cheeses. These discounts apply to specific cheeses for a few days, including Mont D’Or, Epoisses, Reblochon, Pasteurised Brie, Bleu d’ Auvergne, Buche de Chevre, Brie with truffle cream, triple cream Delice, and Vacherousse. We also have a special 25% discount on our remaining Galette des Rois which we have now deep frozen to preserve them in good condition.
In our French wine range, we have received new stock of the beautiful Chateau Neuf du Pape 
red wine from Domaine Andre Mathieu, “Le Centenaire” Rouge 2019. This wine is made only with grapes from an old vineyard that was planted over 100 years ago. Predominantly Grenache, the wine does contain all 13 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.
Also, from the same Domaine we have a White Chateau Neuf du Pape wine. This is the Vin di Felibre which is made from Clairette grapes from vines planted over 50 years ago. The wine has aromas of honey and vanilla and tastes of peaches of the vine and exotic fruits. This white wine can be aged up to 10 years.
For my recipe this week I decided to share a recipe for a refreshing ginger ice cream to serve on a hot sunny day, the recipe is easy, but you will need an ice cream maker. I served it topped with some poached quince on a bed of hazelnut crumble. I suggest pairing with a glass of Louis Roederer Rose champagne.
I hope that you continue to enjoy your New Year’s break and look forward to seeing you again in our shop soon.
Regards
Suzanne and The French Market Team