Essential food for cold weather

Today I write about how frustrating renovating a creaky old house can be, but you’ve often come futher than you thought. Plus I put potatoes, onions, lardons and a whole Reblochon cheese in a pie.

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In the belly of the beast.

I was thinking this morning how quickly this year has gone by, this first whole year in this big old house. This morning, a photograph flashed up on my phone. It was a picture Séan took up in the attic exactly a year ago. All of the roof tiles are off and the beams exposed. It looks like the carcass of a whale. Above the green scaffolding mesh, you can see the whole port, past the Taverne du Port, along the harbour to the Chateau du Port, out into the étang and as far as the spit where several times a day trains run between Sète and Agde.

That first winter of no roof, we had no heating either. Every floor in the house is covered in old cement tiles which were so cold, if you stepped on them in bare feet it was hard to tell if they were wet or just icy. We lit the fire in the study, just as I’ve done today, but today I did it for cheerfulness. Then, it was in the hope there might be one part of the house where you didn’t see your breath.

Last winter, our only source of heat.

Our friend Vanessa was coming for Christmas from her house in Puglia. I messaged her: Bring sweaters! House freezing. Minus five at night. Also, warm slippers. She messaged me back: Don’t worry! My house also freezing! Have slippers.

We put electric blankets on the beds and an extra one on the sofa. Vanessa and I sat watching Christmas movies with the electric blanket beneath us and a faux fur heated throw over our knees. We all had sheepskin slippers which made a shhhshhhshhhhh sound on the tiles as we walked around the house. We called ourselves The Shuffle Club.

Lots of cold, hard tile.