On not resisting temptation
This week, I’m buying old furniture and baking cheese biscuits. Plus, a summer market haul.
I’ve been very self-disciplined for a very long time. This is not my natural state, and I suppose sooner rather than later, my true personality would have to come bursting out. It started with a bedside table.
There is so much work to do on this house, I’ve limited my visits to brocantes and antique fairs, allowing myself only to buy the things we really need, not just yet another pretty plate or old basket, until we have cupboards or shelves to put them in or on.
But we have my nephew’s wedding here in August and the prospect of lots of visitors over the summer, so we’ve finally got around to decorating a bedroom which has been, until now, home only to boxes and stacks of pictures which haven’t yet found their walls.
I’ve picked out a bed (Ikea, naturally – I am a big fan of their beds), and next I needed to find some furniture. First, I bought a small bedside table topped with the local pink marble at our local depôt-vente (https://depotvente-agde.com/) for €35. A depôt-vente is a large second-hand shop where, if you have a wardrobe or a table or a set of china you’d like to sell, they’ll sell it for you for a commission. The one we go to most often is run by a delightful couple and I marvel on each visit how they manage to keep everything in their large warehouse so sparklingly clean and free of dust.
When we first moved here, some genius told me there was a line across the middle of France, and above that line woodworm was the problem, below the line, look out for termites. I am here to tell you this is nonsense.
Next, I clicked onto Facebook Marketplace, that global rehoming system for the lovely, not so lovely, and the unloved. Is it too small? Too large? Too far away to take a chance? Is it knackered? How likely is it that it is infested with active woodworm? When we first moved here, some genius told me there was a line across the middle of France, and above that line woodworm was the problem, below the line, look out for termites. I am here to tell you this is nonsense. Woodworm are perfectly delighted to chomp their way through the south as much as they are the north.
I’ve spent quite a lot of time this week in other people’s garages, trying to keep my game face on as I attempt to negotiate a price, working out how to leave without buying or hurting someone’s feelings, surreptitiously bashing something to see if the telltale woodworm dust falls out (the antique buyer’s equivalent of kicking the tyres), deciding if that’s damage or patina. In all of this, I am channelling Mrs Lishman, our childhood neighbour, who was an antique dealer and swanned about our village in a fur coat, cigarette holder clamped between coral lips, County Durham’s own Princess Margaret. She’d run her hands over some decrepit piece of china or cabinet, “All I need to do is wash its little face!” she’s say, with her gravelly, smoky, am-dram voice. She was the most glamourous person I had ever met.
So far, I have bought a pretty chest of drawers from Servian for €100, a small worktable (travailleuse) to put my sewing things in, and a scallop-edged plant stand. The latter two, I bought from a woman in Marseillan Plage. I didn’t really want the plant stand, but she told me I spoke excellent French. I don’t, but my accent is good and I am so undone by flattery, I quickly found myself handing over €60 for the two. I’m sure I’ll find a place for the plant stand, just as soon as I’ve washed its little face.
Depôt-vente
La Boutique du Chineur
17 rue Pierre-Paul Riquet
34300 Agde
https://depotvente-agde.com/
Sablés au fromage
Cheese biscuits
I have been making these for a long time – they are so good to serve with drinks - and I think I got the original recipe off a company’s website, possibly Président butter? I almost always have everything I need to make them in the cupboards and fridge. You can swap the Emmental or Gruyère for Comté, Cheddar, Parmesan or any hard, strongly-flavoured cheese you have – it’s a good way of using up odds and ends.
Serve them as they are, or with a dip made from fromage blanc or Greek yoghurt mixed with finely-chopped chives and a pinch of salt.
Makes 14 biscuits
100g plain flour, plus more for dusting
A good pinch of salt
60g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small cubes
80g Emmental or Gruyère cheese, grated
A few grinds of black pepper
1 egg yolk, whisked with 4 tbsp cold water
Seasonings
Select from one of these…
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp paprika
½ tsp chopped rosemary
Tip the flour into a mixing bowl with the salt – you’ll need more salt for a mild cheese like Emmental, less if you’re using salty Parmesan - and butter. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until it resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the cheese and whatever seasoning you’re using with a dinner knife. Trickle over the egg and water mixture then mix it all together with the knife. Gently knead it into a ball. Press into a disc, wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least an hour. You can make the dough a day or so ahead if you want, and keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to roll out.
Heat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until it’s about the thickness of a £1 coin. With a round cutter or a small glass, approximately 4cm in diameter, cut out the dough. When you’ve cut as many as you can from the sheet of dough, gently gather up the scraps, roll them out and cut out some more rounds until you have used up all the dough. Transfer the rounds onto the baking sheet, placing them a little apart from each other.
Bake for 13-16 minutes – they should look cooked through and move on the paper, not stick, when gently prodded, but they shouldn’t take on much colour. Leave on the tray for 5 minutes to cool, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. They will keep for a couple of days in a sealed container.
Market haul, July 16 2024
This week’s market haul comprises: ham, a chocolatine (pain au chocolat anywhere but the south west), avocados, cherries, plums and flat peaches, half a boule of wholegrain bread, coleslaw, a stray pelargonium for €2, aubergines, a slab of tomme de vache, some Emmental, lemons, limes, ginger, a red pepper, 13 eggs, as is traditional.
We just bought a little house in Umbria, and I’m so looking forward to furnishing it like this! So far I’ve just bought some very pretty embroidered sheets, since I couldn’t fit furniture in our tiny rental car. But I was happy to see that my most wanted item, a secretary desk, is a common thrift store find in Italy. 🥰
That's a great-looking chest of drawers, Debora. I love a good rummage around antiques and flea markets. There's something very satisfying about buying things you simply like the look of, even if you don't really need them. I went to a very affordable market recently in the unfortunately named town of Pissignano in Italy, and I made the mistake of prevaricating over something that, of course, had been sold when I went back to get it. Buy it when you see it is my rule of thumb now. And keep the house updates coming, Debora. I love hearing all about your beautiful home and garden. Fortunately, you didn’t prevaricate over that particular purchase.