All Good Things...
Fall is turning into winter. This time of year always brings a little bit of melancholy. Autumn days are so precious, so fleeting! The events I am chronicling today and the photos I am presenting are from the height of fall at the beginning of November. By now these glory days have passed away until next year; in the meantime it has become colder and less colorful.
We live on the top of a hill surrounded by fields, but as we descend into town to do our errands we pass through native oak forests. They have their seasons, fall of course being my favorite. I never tire of the colors which change from day to day.
Over the Toussaint holiday (around Halloween) Emily and the kids came to stay. As usual, we had a visit to the charming Porte Peinte (Painted Door) in Noyers where the kids had hot chocolate and we had coffee or tea. This establishment is so much more than a charming salon de thé, it's actually an international arts center hosting workshops, providing atelier spaces for resident artists with a gallery and gift shop. The decor, created by participant artists, is always changing. It's quite a magical place.
We came on a rainy day after doing a little kayaking with the kids. There are games to play, a fire to enjoy and everything that is served is presented with panache and style.
Another exciting event in Noyers in early November was the truffle festival, which is one of three truffle markets in Burgundy. This is an anticipated and well-attended event. Stalls offering crafts and treats of every type are set up all over town.
But the biggest event is the selling of truffles, which are presented with great fanfare. Unfortunately the day was rainy and cold, but it didn't seem to put off the crowds. People came from miles around and paid some very high prices for this delicacy.
Another very pleasant autumn event was a private sale at a local farm. It is owned by the man who put in James and Daniel's kitchen. Besides being a fine wood craftsman, he also owns a large self-sustaining farm where his daughter Isis grows vegetables on a commercial scale and makes various products, such as jams, syrups and sauces with her produce. They also have sheep and make many woolen products, including clothing, bedding and even shoe liners. Her brother, Orestes is a big help around the farm as well as being a talented artist. The family is something of a phenomenon. We met them all last summer when we had dinner at one of their weekly soirées. They are delightful and full of creative energy. Orestes came over to our house and did some drawing with Quinn and Zinnie while they were staying with us. He's just about Quinn's age, so they fell into an easy friendliness.
In mid-November Rick has a birthday. This year Emily and I cooked up the idea of meeting half way between our places, having a nice celebration lunch together with a walk in the woods afterwards. Emily suggested meeting in Barbizon, a very charming village near Fontainebleau. Barbizon is known as The City of Painters, since Rousseau and Millet, famous 19th century painters started a movement here in the nineteenth, called the Barbizon School, promoting realism and turning away from heroic subject matter and the Baroque or Rococo styles popular in the 18th century. Their art focused on daily life and rural scenes, including peasants who had not been deemed worthy subject matter before that time. The town still has an art school and is very focused on artists and the arts. The shops in town are all quite original.
It just happened to be the one nice day sandwiched between a couple of rainy, gray ones. It's an hour and a half drive from Moulins, so since we left right after breakfast, we were able to arrive by late morning. We met Emily and the kids as they were walking down the street. We parked and joined the family. We decided to have a coffee at a very charming café we were walking past. It was called La Juxtaposition where Rick could open his presents.
It was such a nice place to sit with a choice of tables or easy chairs and couches. There was a lovely little boutique with irresistible cards and little notebooks, not to mention pottery.
We had made a reservation at La Folie, a very nice restaurant with a limited vegetarian menu. There were basically two options for starters and two options for a main meal, all made with produce grown in the local garden. Most of us got the zucchini soup, which despite not being a super zucchini fan I found delicious. Emily got beet salad. Most of us followed this with a filo dough tart made with mushrooms and feta. Very tasty. Emily had roasted vegetables.
Both the café and restaurant were located towards the end of the main street of Barbizon. Just a few steps past was the entrance into the forest of Fontainebleau, a vast natural park that spans almost 100 square miles of this beautiful area. There are lots of trailheads into this forest but the one at Barbizon is especially nice.
This forest was the world's first nature reserve. It was a popular subject for the Barbizon School of artists and they became early campaigners for its reform and protection. They advocated the planting of hardwood trees instead of soft and a ban on harvesting trees for commercial uses. For many centuries before then, in fact 40,000 years ago, the forest was populated by nomadic tribes. There are at least 2000 caves in the area with rock carvings.
Millions of years ago the area was actually a sea and thick deposits of fine white sand eventually developed into sandstone boulders which now cover much of the forest floor. People come from all over the world to climb these rocks.
Before leaving town Rick's eye was caught by a very nice hat shop in the middle of the main street. He has a weakness for beautiful hats and, since it was his birthday there was no reason to resist. He bought himself a very beautiful dark blue merino wool porkpie made in Ecuador.
I leave you with a video Rick was able to capture of our faithful sparrow population using the lily pads in our pond as bath tubs.