The Mushrooms In Question

Edible?

We took the questionable mushrooms to the pharmacy in Thivier to attempt to get them identified.
The pharmacists are supposed to be able to let you know if you can eat them or not, though apparently it's more common for them to either a) politely refuse to identify the mushrooms for you, or b) err on the side of caution and tell you they are unable to positively identify the mushrooms so you should just throw them out. My thinking is that pharmacists in France these days aren't the mycological experts they once were, and that the practice of having your local chemist identify your finds is being lost.
The verdict on our mushrooms: unidentifiable.
Fair enough, there are a few different varieties of mushrooms that fit the description, some of which are very delicious and good to eat, and some of which are extremely toxic. We threw them out just to be safe. I was a little sad.

Half Over!?

It's official, today marks the halfway point of my trip.
Strange how time has been working these days. In some ways, it's been flying~ like five weeks has just kinda melted away in the blink of an eye. Seems like just yesterday I was stepping off the plane at Charles De Gaul airport in Paris. In other ways, like when I get sorta lonely, time has been dragging...
I'm really excited to be going someplace new and meeting new people, but I will totally miss my gorgeous barn, amazing king-sized bed, my awesome hosts and this space that has been a temporary home over the last four weeks.

A chateau in Anlhiac.

The river Auvezere.

My room in the top of the barn~ note king-sized bed, and bad-ass bathtub.

This place is in the meadow behind the farm. It used to be a clockmaker's house.

A waterfall on the river Auvezere.

Walking home, with the chateau on the right, and the chateau at Hautefort way in the distance.

The "barn", my bedroom window up top.

The view from the back of the house.

Mushroom Hunting

 Edible.

 Not edible.

 Edible.

 Edible.

 Edible.

 Edible?

Edible?

October 18 Through November 7

So, after spending a wonderful week in Paris with my sister, I hopped a train south to embark on my WWOOFing adventures.
What is WWOOF?
Well, it stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, and quite simply, it is an exchange. In return for volunteer help, WWOOF hosts offer food, accommodation, and opportunities to learn about organic lifestyles, and experience life in the country, and sustainable ways of living. WWOOF is a world wide network of organizations which link volunteers with organic farmers or smallholdings with people who are looking for volunteer help.
Why did I want to do this?
I wanted to get away from the glitz and glamour of the city and experience real life in this country. I think a lot of what happens in major cities can be attributed to fashion and tainted by tourism, and I really wanted to experience the roots of the food in France, no pun intended. I wanted to eat humbler dishes and work with ingredients grown in small gardens by people who care about what they are doing and the consequences of their actions. And finally, I wanted to be able to have some time to enjoy being in a kitchen without the urgency of a professional kitchen~ I wanted to be able to reconnect with what makes me love cooking.

Okay, so I've been with my first WWOOF host for just over 3 weeks now, and have just under a week left. When I first arrived, there were another two WWOOFers from Australia. Now it's just me. The weather has been amazing, a true autumn with leaves changing colours and everything!
Here's what I've been up to:
October 18: traveling from Paris to Le Bourmier, a tiny hamlet attached to Anliac. Arrived mid afternoon, and spent the rest of the day getting settled.
October 19: harvested and shelled walnuts, made a walnut and raisin bread, made a lasagne with a wicked amount of bechamel made using raw milk from a local dairy.
October 20: harvested more walnuts, made pastries and cookies for a tea party in the afternoon, played with kids.
October 21: made borscht, cake, crackers, cookies, and cooked an Indian inspired chicken stew for 30 people. Helped host a poetry/art exposition put on by my host.
October 22: clean-up and walnut harvesting, dinner at a local auberge, Manoir de Bigeau.
October 23: day off
October 24: day off
October 25: walnut harvesting, picking raspberries,
October 26: went to a nearby cave called Grotte De Font-De-Gaume, one of the last caves in the world with prehistoric paintings that is still open for public viewing. Amazing!! Did a grocery run.
October 27: processed both quince jelly and quince paste, and continued harvesting walnuts, made a carrot cake for the Aussie's last night.
October 28: processed a chili apple chutney, had my bet scrabble word ever- 98 points DECADENT
October 29: went to the market in Perigeux and had lunch at a trateur, saw a French reggae band.
October 30: walnut harvest, bean curry for supper
October 31: processed several different chili jellies, made sourdough
November 1: I didn't write anything down for this day, must been tired.
November 2: went to Perigeux market again, ran errands all day
November 3: made marmalade for the first time ever, processed some tomatillo pickles, went mushroom hunting, prepped for a Brazilian themed rotary club dinner (feijoada!).
November 4: finished my marmalade, finished Brazilian meal, came down with a nasty migraine.
November 5: made walnut pastries, picked up live ducks from a nearby farm.
November 6: went to a market at Objat, raked leaves, and collected more walnuts.
November 7: made cabbage rolls for lunch, baked another cake, ran a million errands with my host.

Anyhow, more later. There's things to do... I'm going to hunt for more mushrooms for a lasagne for a dinner party on Thursday!

Worth Every Centime?

Continuing on about L'Atelier De Joel Robuchon...
As I mentioned at the beginning of the last entry, one of the reasons I had wanted to go to this restaurant so badly was because I had an amazing time at Restaurant Joel Robuchon in Vegas last year. I had huge expectations for Paris, based on that, and based on the fact that the restaurant is ranked at #14 in the world.
In some respects, it totally fell short of my expectations:
1) The bread was kind of mundane. In Vegas, the bread alone was worth the trip. I mean there was an entire cart with probably fifteen or more varieties of artisan breads displayed. You could choose as many different kinds as you wanted, and most of them were in mini format (things seem better when they're mini sometimes). In Paris, the bread was two different shapes of the same dough. I just sorta thought the bread should be as special and exciting as everything else.
2) I really feel like a restaurant of that caliber should do a better job of accommodating allergies. I mean, the salad I was given in place of the first course was nice, but it really had no wow factor and certainly didn't have the same value as what Lindsay had. As far as my main course went, just leaving off the potatoes from the dish without a thought to replace them with something was ridiculous. In Vegas, in place of potatoes on my main course,  I was given a beautiful dish of vegetables, almost to pretty to eat.
3) Although I like the idea of having the dining room set up like a sushi bar, it really made the meal feel casual. Our servers were handing dishes over the bar to set in front of us, and picking up our empty plates and cutlery the same way. I prefer when those sorts of things go almost unnoticed, where as in this case everything was very obvious, and it felt a bit like we were being interrupted every time anything was being dropped off or cleared.
 4) In Vegas, both me and my friend were given a pound cake as a gift to take away with us. I'm talking a super buttery raspberry and pistachio cake with gold-leafed nuts, done up in a fancy gift bag. Not one to share, one each. And this was after being treated to several mignardises (little after dinner sweets). It really made us feel super special, and was just an incredible example of hospitality. Ya, I know everything's over the top in Vegas, but it made me expect the same sort of treatment in Paris. And ya, I know we had madeleines and caramels and little glasses of Muscato D'Asti, but it's not really the same thing, is it now...

Don't get me wrong, the experience in Paris was still a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. I had some amazing dishes, but I just wasn't truly blown away by the end of it, and it certainly did not top my Vegas experience.

L'Atelier De Joel Robuchon

As I mentioned before, Lindsay and I went for dinner at L'Atelier De Joel Robuchon on October 15.
This was super exciting for me for a couple reasons:
1) The restaurant placed 14th in the world on the San Pelligrino list of the World's top 100 restaurants. Not too shabby! As well, Joel Robuchon has the most Michelin stars of any chef in the world~ 27!
2) I had the pleasure of dining at Restaurant Joel Robuchon in Las Vegas last September, and it blew my mind! Everything was spot on, from the seasoning, to the wine pairings, to the exceptional level of hospitality.

Paris Photos

Here's a few photos of places we visited around the city during the week... I had considered going back and inserting them into the appropriate posts, but this is easier.

Day 7

Okay, it's raining outside, and I've got a bit of time before my pickle and jam session starts, so I'm going to attempt to start updating this thing. I realize it's a little strange to be writing about October 17 two weeks after the fact, but I think it's important to finish up with the first week in Paris before getting into what I've been doing since I left the city.

October 17
This was my last full day in Paris with Lindsay.
Our first adventure of the day took us back to Marais. We had gone into the neighborhood on Sunday to do some shopping, but seriously the whole area is madness on Sundays. The narrow streets are lined with people shoulder to shoulder. Picture Christmas shopping season at Chinook, except outside. Monday morning is a different story, and it's just a normal neighborhood again.
First thing we did was grab some croissants from the bakery just outside the metro. Not bad, not bad, though definitely not as good as our croissants from Pierre Herme. We ate them as we wandered into the side streets. See, the day before, we found a salon, and Lindsay wanted to get a blow-out... I wanted to get one too, but was more intent on eating the damn falafel already. Finding the salon for a second time was a bit tricky because our route on Sunday had been indirect, twisting and turning at the whims of the masses. Luckily, I've got a good memory for landmarks, and Lindsay is amazing at remembering what side of the street things are on, so together we managed to walk almost straight there (only one wrong turn).