Les Poissonchats

Quite recently I stumbled across a website advertising a very cool project, to do with art and culture and a French chateau, so inspiring, but then I read that I was encouraged to choose an eco friendly way to travel there and that I could ask the hosts about carbon offset programmes. I don’t know how much in earnest such remarks are, being aware that this is the tide of the times, it’s fashionable even to write suggestions like those, but it does have a patronising touch to me and reminds me of medieval pardoners, selling indulgences against any possible sin, just in a more modern sense. And I see businesses and people out there talking all about sustainability and inclusion and what not, yet curiously it’s less about what I must do but more so about all the things I ought to buy or subscribe to in order to be in. Needless to say it rings false.

So, I have to confess I’m not a modern woman in that sense. I wouldn’t precisely describe myself as being altogether yesteryear either, but I do not believe that tomorrow we’ll be all dead. I also don’t believe that the world would a better place if we were all to drive electric cars and eat no meat. I don’t believe that women are better politicians nor leaders. I also don’t believe that men are better politicians or leaders. I don’t care the least whom you share your private life with, I do hope though that there’s passion and love involved. I don’t believe in cold showers to save mankind but am perfectly fine if you do, especially if you do it because cold showers make you feel good. I don’t believe that the world is going to the dogs and even if it were, I don’t believe repudiation and regulations will keep it from going there. Also I don’t believe that buying things will set wrongs right.

I believe in human beings, and that most of the time we’re good and sometimes we’re not. I believe in forgiveness and in kindness and smiling at strangers in the street. I buy vintage clothing because often old things are of better quality than new things. I believe in leftover cooking and buying seasonal and local food. I also believe in eating lobster and foie gras but I wouldn’t, not in my wildest dreams, ask you to eat cabbage soup for four weeks in a row in order to offset the joy of culinary delight. To be fair though I probably think culinary delights are not for everyday (because then the zing is gone, isn’t it). I don’t eat meat since I’m very small but I love to cook some for you. You’ll generally not find any industrially produced meat on my table but chicken and duck from my neighbouring farmer as I believe in small farm holdings. I also believe that good things don’t need changing and that amity and compassion have the capacity to set wrongs right. I really loath everything plastic. I use incandescent light bulbs because they’re the next best thing to candle light. I believe that a table full of good food and wine and a bunch of friends around it can make a difference, regardless of how they got here.

It’s happiness that breeds true goodness, not guilt and shame and privation. And in the clamour and shouting of this our modern zeitgeist I gaze at the sea, the waves that forever come and go, the tide rolling in and out, it will always be there, its light and colours forever changing, yet it will always be there.

Ok that’s about it with my lenten rant I hope, I’m off to the sea soon, another little road trip through France in our old-fashioned Volvo car, hoping for a few days of fun and oysters by the beach, and a walk among the beautiful pine trees. I’ll get some vintage window fittings (crossing fingers it’ll work out!), meet new people, hopefully come across this or that little family vinery on our way there. And bring home new flavours and textures to share with you.