We only stayed in France for three months before returning to the Isle of Man. It’s been fifty years since I spent Christmas on the island so it seemed like a good idea to repeat the exercise and see what I’d been missing!
First of all, though, there was some other business to attend to! in early December we enjoyed a really pleasant evening with Penny and Sarah, friends from the Isle of Man who were visiting Paris. We ate at “Le Procope” in Paris. Founded in 1686 and now Paris’ oldest café, there’s a great atmosphere. The food is excellent and reasonably priced (for central Paris). I tried a Tête de Veau (veal’s head) which, for some reason, I’ve always avoided till now. Frankly, I shall carry on avoiding it! 
There was nothing wrong with the food or the way it had been prepared it’s just that some foods suit us and some don’t. Tête de Veau turned out to just not be my thing. The other three hit luckier than me with dishes that suited them and that they enjoyed. But I had the pleasure of the company of three charming ladies, so I’m not complaining! The evening was fun and it was great to meet friends in a different environment.
And talking of Penny and Sarah, we will have pleasure of their company on December 24th for our Christmas celebration. But more of that when it happens because first we celebrated an early Christmas with M-D’s family near Orléans in north-central France. As our childrens’ families mature, we see less of them than before and, to me, this is quite right. They have built their own lives and we are now only a small part of it. So, since Muriel, Vincent and ‘the girls’ were heading to Corsica for Christmas, we spent an evening with them and had an early festive celebration.
And then came the time to head back to Britain. First, I had to pack the car! Normally, when we drive back from France, the enormous heap of stuff in the garage manages to fit into the limited space available for it in a B Class Mercedes. This time, however, The Tardis failed to expand through the super-galactic space–time continuum where matter becomes anti-matter and requires no extra space and, as a result, several dozen bottles of wine were left behind. However, I think we took the important stuff…
Chocolate Snails – CHECK
Various Liquours (a lot) – CHECK
Cheese Aperitif Cubes – CHECK
Armagnac – CHECK
Duck Breasts (several kilos) – CHECK
Bottles of Wine (enough to float a battleship) – CHECK
Foie Gras – CHECK
Other Alcoholic Stuff (a lot) – CHECK
Strange Frech Sausage Things – CHECK
Calvados – CHECK
Roll of Carpet – CHECK
More Wine – CHECK
Lovely Biscuity Things – CHECK
5 litre Boxes of Wine (enough to sink a submarine) – CHECK
Tasty Cakey Things – CHECK
3 litre Boxes of Wine (almost enough to sink a submarine) – CHECK
Chocolates (weighed by the metric tonne) – CHECK
A Bottle or Three of Wine – CHECK
Selection of excellent Pates and Stuff – CHECK
Some wine – CHECK
Passport, Tickets etc. – CHECK
Now, what did I forget?
A wife, did you say?
No – she was lying on her back in the garage seeing if she could dispose of the excess wine before we left. Apparently it’s an ancient French tradition, so I took her down a plate of snails at dinner time!
Our trip back wasn’t so good either! We left our home, west of Paris, in good heart and with a clear sky. The traffic was gentle and flowed at a steady 80 mph all the way to Calais (200 miles without even a queue of 2 cars). The pretty boat sailed the ocean blue, crossing to Dover in good time. Then it happened!
Landed at Dover at 13:30 – arrived in Crewe where my niece lives (300 miles later) at 19:45. That’s over 6 hours of nose-to-tail traffic jams, closed roads, roadworks, lousy weather and general British road congestion. And, of course, the boat to The Isle of Man was cancelled due to lack of interest and a little bit of rain and wind.
Why is driving in England getting worse and worse every time we pass through? Another few years and it’s going to just grind to a complete standstill.
Anyway, enough of that, you didn’t come here to listen to me muttering away! We finally got back to the island a day late, unloaded the car and got ready for Christmas.
I headed back to the Isle of Man on my own towards the end of June because I had some work to do in our bedroom, so it was easier having the place to myself and not disrupting Marie-Danielle too. When we bought the house on the island, the builder who had renovated it had generally done a good job but, on a couple of things, he had taken shortcuts. One of these shortcuts was that there was water penetration on the top storey and damp was coming through the walls into our bedroom. The builder had tried to hide this by adding a couple of false stud walls with a 4″ (100mm) gap to the outside wall. Naturally, this was just a short-term cover-up and, In August last year (2013) we had scaffolding erected and roofers arrived to resolve the situation. So now it was time to rip out the false wall and let the original wall breathe.
While Christine was over, we did a few walks and a bit of casual sightseeing. The location in the photo on the left is in the south of the island and, on that day, we could clearly see Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland from that spot. It makes you realise how central The Isle of Man is in the British Isles and Ireland.
Then, in August, we housed a couple of French visitors for a week. Twice a year, the Isle of Man becomes home to bikers from all over the world. In June, they come for the Isle of Man TT and in August they come for the Isle of Man Festival of Motorcycling (used to be called The Manx Grand Prix). During thoise times, the population of the island doubles so, local people help out by offering rooms to bikers at a sensible price. It’s fun and it helps the island economy.
We got to meet and greet Mimie Champseix-Léonard and her husband, Serge. A real nice couple from Tarnac in the Limousin region of France. Though they seemed to enjoy exploring the various watering holes on the island, I think they were quite pleased when we asked them to have dinner with us on their final night before heading back to France!
Last night we hosted a little dinner with some friends who have eaten with us before. It was actually a bit like an unofficial meeting of the conseil syndical de copropriété (the elected committee that help administer the day-to-day running of the apartment buildings). The conseil syndical ensures that lightbulbs are replaced, graffitti is painted over, cleaning is done properly, lifts work, doors and locks are maintained, and other stuff like that. They are elected each year at an AGM of all the owners and last night we had Yvon, Louis and M-D who are already on this committee, Pascale who is putting herself forward for election this year, Louis’ lovely wife, Monique, and of course, myself. So after a short spell on the balcony looking across the whole résidence (photo above), and then an aperitif in comfy chairs, we settled in for some serious eating!
Starter was nice and simple – foie gras and roulades de Jambon au foie de canard en gelée au sauternes. And if you are wondering what that is, it’s foie gras rolled in ham which we get from 
Main course was a repeat of something we have done before (for other people), 
After a course of cheese and salad, for dessert, we served another of our old favourites, 
So to walk it all off, M-D and I went for an afternoon ‘constitutional’ along the river Seine this afternoon. The massive locks there are for the big barges that use the river (some of them up to 100m long) for moving mostly sand and shingle. It’s fascinating watching them manoeuvre into the locks which have a height difference of about 4 metres at this point. 
While walking, I spotted a brightly-coloured wood nymph! (see left).
At the weekend, we went up to Lille, where Christine lives and she trumped our Grenadin de Veau Gratiné with Magre de Canard (it’s not really a question of trying to outdo each other, because both recipes are drop-dead simple). Magre de Canard is duck breast – nothing more and nothing less. However, Christine roasted it and served it with a green pepper sauce and accompanied by sautée potatoes. It was more than splendid, it was rapture on a plate (and I ate far more than I should!)
While we were in Lille, we visited the Roubaix swimming pool museum. This is the most amazing place, and has made use of a beautiful old Art Deco swimming pool that was due for demolition due to safety problems.
To cut a long story short, we had a long “apperitif” with Jean-Louis and France while we waited for Christine, and then sat down to eat just before 3pm! Fortunately, the 
By way of marking our return to France, we invited our friends and neighbours, Terry, Julie, Dominic and Kate to dinner last night. We kicked off in normal style with a glass or two of Kir, using a rather nice Chardonny that had travelled back with us in January. When we settled at the table, we started with 
After which, we resorted to one of our regular favourites, 
Our dessert was a chocolate and nut gateau that M-D had made using walnuts from her daughter’s garden in The Loire region of France. We served this with orange slices sprinked with orange zest that had been cooked in cinnamon sugar and, just to give a contrast, we mixed normal oranges and blood oranges as we arranged them on the plate. Naturally, there being plenty of chocolate in the cake, we served Mas Amiel with its dense and concentrated inky black Grenache grapes and its complex nose of tobacco and garden herbs.
Even eating didn’t stop her talking, though it did slow her down a little as our lunch started with foie gras (as you do!) served with a lovely crisp 2005 Sauternes from Chateau Roumieu. Even M-D’s aunt showed a bit of respectful silence for that one! Following that, we got stuck into the main course of 
At this time of year, Vitelotte Potatoes (also called Vitelotte noire, Négresse or Truffe de Chine) are available in France. Vitelotte is a gourmet variety of blue-violet potato that has been cultivated in France since the early 19th century. In fact, they come in white, yellow, pink, red and violet, but the violet variety are the most common and, though they taste just the same as ordinary spuds, they are fun to use, offering a great alternative presentation on the plate.
The main course was served with an excellent Menetou-Salon which, though a red wine, is very light and can easily be served with fish. We skipped the cheese (having filled up on succulent monkfish) but Susanne had brought with her a hand-make chocolate cake from a pâtisserie near Versailles so we did some wilful damage to that, served with a glass or three of Mas Amiel Vintage.
Before leaving the island, Terry and Julie invited us to theirs for a splendid roast dinner. Never has so much good grub been served to so few without collapsing the table! It was delicious and, for me, brought back great memories of pork crackling and roast spuds and parsnips and oh so much more. I suspect we also did some considerable damage to Terry’s stock of wine. There seemed to be a lot of empty bottles rattling round at the end! (Reminder to myself: I need to get Julie’s recipe for the starter… a lovely little salad with a vinaigrette that was as light as fairy wings and as tasty as … well, anything you can possibly imagine!)
Also, before leaving the island, Bruno and Jill invited us to theirs for a dinner. Bruno had prepared a great tajine for us. A tagine is a dish from North Africa that is named after the special earthenware pot in which it is cooked. The traditional pot is formed entirely of a heavy clay and consists of two parts: a base unit that is flat and circular with low sides and a large cone-shaped cover that sits on the base during cooking. The cover is designed to return all condensation to the bottom. With the cover removed, the base can be taken to the table for serving.
Also before leaving, we had a pleasant evening with my brother Steve and my sister-in-law, Jeanette. They’re great at keeping an eye on the house while we are away, not to mention forwarding the mail, looking after my car and much more. For some reason, however, the whole summer had passed by without the four of us having a quiet evening together. So, since Steve and Jeanette had been to Scotland earlier in the year and had brought us back a haggis, I decided to do my famous 
Since being back, we have, of course, been to our “local” – 
The Isle of Man is only about 36 miles x 12 miles at its longest and widest points. Today, about 85,000 of us perch on this rock in the middle of the Irish Sea, and every summer we are subjected to hundreds of motorbikes racing through the streets of our towns and villages and around the island on the 37.7-mile Snaefell Mountain Course. Their average speed is over 130 mph and in places they exceed 200mph!
Never mind the visitors, the TT races themselves are extremely dangerous (over 250 rider deaths to date on this circuit). Imagine riding at over 200 mph on tiny, narrow, twisting streets, roads and lanes flanked by stone walls and buildings, dodging manhole covers and stray dogs! Some, including a few former competitors, have called for the race to be banned, but for the most part the riders love the TT. They know it’s dangerous, but they also know it’s the absolute pinnacle of motorcycle racing. It’s the ultimate, and if you’re good enough – and you’re brave enough – then you go for it, regardless of the risks. Personal responsibility and the love of speed triumph the desire for safety here.
Oh yeah – I almost forgot about “Mad Sunday.” One day every year at the TT, they open up the 37 mile course to the public. That means anyone on a motor bike can try his or her luck trying to match the professionals for speed (and insanity!). Imagine, if you can, a Formula 1 or NASCAR event where they let 50,000+ fans onto the track, charging around in whatever vehicle they came in. In recent years, to try and reduce the carnage (and maybe also to give the visitors even more thrills!) the roads have been made one-way for about 8 miles over the mountain section of the course. Big, powerful road bikes hitting their top speeds of 170mph-180mph is not unusual on this section.
Last Saturday evening, we invited our neighbours, Terry and Julie plus Dominic and Kate from over the road for a meal. We decided to mix the best of the Isle of Man with the best of France (as you do!) so (after polishing off a couple of bottles of Champagne with the aperitif) we started the meal with one of our favourites – beautiful fresh Manx scallops, and prepared the excellent 
As we always do, we served the meal French style (dessert last) and I dug around in M-D’s wine cooler and came up with a really nice bottle of 2008 Côtes de Bergerac. The Côtes de Bergerac is a deeply smooth sweet white wine that complimented our 
However, one place that never fails to please is 
As we were out walking the other day, we met one of the local “characters” – a lady by the name of Pauline who, it turns out, is involved in the monitoring of Basking Sharks, which are often found in the plankton-rich waters around the Isle of Man. The Basking Shark is the second biggest fish in the world (second only to the Whale Shark) but it is truly an endangered species. It is a slow moving filter feeder that has a greatly enlarged mouth and highly developed gill rakers. These enormous fish have been measured up to 12.27 metres (40.3 ft), and weighing an estimated 19 tonnes, yet these gentle giants are not aggressive and are harmless to people.