Home of the Tarte Tatin
Aussie in France
by Rosemary Kneipp
1y ago
The Tarte Tatin or upside-down apple cake is a very popular dessert in France, usually served warm with fresh cream. It is one of my favourites. We are driving from Blois to Gien, where we are taking back a secondhand dishwasher which, sadly, does not work. We are usually more successful with leboncoin.com. At least the sellers are going to give us our money back but this is our second two-hour trip! As we go through the town of Lamotte-Beuvron, I look up from my knitting (we are going to see my little grandson next month) and see a typical brick and stone building. It’s a hotel called Tatin ..read more
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Costa del Sol – Tarifa, Casares and Benalmádena
Aussie in France
by Rosemary Kneipp
1y ago
Tarifa We leave Cadix in the rain with no regrets, heading for Tarifa. It’s still raining when we get there but it clears up sufficiently after our coffee to walk around the village. Unfortunately there isn’t much to see. As we drive up the Mediterranean Coast from the industrial port of Algeciras, we keep seeing the Rock of Gibraltar and the weather keeps improving. The Rock of Gibraltar Cesares We leave the motorway to climb up to the white hilltop village of Cesares. We take the very steep descent on foot to the village centre. We are obviously off-season as there are no restaurants open an ..read more
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Cadiz
Aussie in France
by Rosemary Kneipp
1y ago
The coastline at Cadiz After leaving the monastery at Jerez de la Frontera, we head for Cadiz where we discover it’s carnival time! Many people are in home made costumes grouped around comedians and very talented singers. What a pity we can’t understand. Paseo at sunset Next morning, the town seems much calmer and we are able to visit the sights with only light spitting. Inside the old fort there is an exhibition on munitions explosion in 1947 that took hundreds of lives and left thousands injured. Inside the fortCadiz cathedral 1 comment(s) for this post: William Kendall: 07 Mar 2023 Beautif ..read more
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Jerez de la Frontera
Aussie in France
by Rosemary Kneipp
1y ago
Inner courtyard of the Alcazar at Jerez de la Frontera We leave Marbella and the high-rise coastline of Costa del Sol without regret and are very pleasantly surprised by Jerez de la Frontera, especially the Alcazar, which is balmy and peaceful. The peaceful gardens of the AlcazarMosque at the AlcazarView of the Palacio de Villavicencio After our visit we choose a nearby restaurant- Bar Juanita – which at 1.30 pm is practically empty. It starts to rain so we go inside. By 2 pm, it is crowded! We choose various tapas and raciones and feel very much like locals. Lunch at Bar Juanita On the way ou ..read more
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Marbella
Aussie in France
by Rosemary Kneipp
1y ago
Marbella is like the Saint Tropez of Spain – not that I’ve ever been to Saint Tropez. Not quite my style. But we want to stay a couple of days on the Costa del Sol which we have never seen before going to Cadix and Marbella has an old town which sounds better than endless high rise apartments with balconies overlooking the sea. The historic centre turns out to be rather kitch but we like the little park with its ceramic benches and fountain. 1 comment(s) for this post: William Kendall: 05 Mar 2023 Idyllic and beautiful. Write a quick comment The post Marbella first appeared on Aussie in F ..read more
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Troglodyte houses in Andalusia
Aussie in France
by Rosemary Kneipp
1y ago
I live in a region in France – the Loire Valley – known for its troglodyte houses so it was rather fun to discover the same concept in Spain, but with an entirely different result. The cliffs here are clay and the cave houses in Guadix have white chimneys. Altogether, there are about 2000 troglodyte houses inhabited by 3000 people. It’s believed they date back to 1492 when Grenada was taken over by the Catholic kings, causing the Moors to flee to the surrounding mountains where they dug houses in the clay hills. The name Guadix comes from the Arabic Wadi Ash meaning the River of life. 1 comm ..read more
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Inside the Cordoba Cathedral Mosque
Aussie in France
by Rosemary Kneipp
1y ago
The courtyard in the middle of the cathedral-mosque The Cordoba cathedral mosque or mezquita-catedral de Cordoba is quite extraordinary. The architecture and decoration are sumptuous. It has changed religions several times over the centuries and is an incredible mix of Moorish and European architecture. The great mosque was built in 785 on the site of a Visigoth basilica. It was then expanded many times up to the late 10th century until it was able to accommodate 40 000 people. It was turned into a cathedral in 1236. The structure remained much the same until the 16th century when a Renaissanc ..read more
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A Gift of Rabbit Ears
Aussie in France
by Rosemary Kneipp
3y ago
Today is the anniversary of our first Covid19 lockdown in France. We arrived home from our holiday in Crete at 2 pm, just two hours after the closure of all non-essential venues, with outings restricted to one hour a day for exercise and essential shopping. At the present, in Blois, mask-wearing is compulsory in built-up areas, while restaurants, cafés, bars, hypermarkets, museums and all cultural venues are closed and there is a curfew between 6 pm and 6 am. Vaccination has begun but we are too young and too healthy to qualify. The view from the Wedding Room at Blois Town Hall This morning, I ..read more
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Friday’s French: se rappeler, se souvenir, mémoire, souvenir – part #2
Aussie in France
by Rosemary Kneipp
3y ago
In 2014, I wrote a post about the difference between se rappeler and se souvenir which has remained very popular with readers. However, I have had to update the framework of my blog since then (WordPress) and the answers and comments have disappeared. Remembering the dead on armistice day So here are possible translations of the four sentences in bold type: I try to remenber not to use “de” with se rappeler = J’essaie de me rappeler qu’il ne faut pas utiliser la préposition “de” avec se rappeler OR J’essaie de penser à ne pas utiliser “de” avec se rappeler. Which reminds me that rappeler has ..read more
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Happy New Year for 2021
Aussie in France
by Rosemary Kneipp
3y ago
“The best laid plans of mice and men …” John Burns never said a truer word! We started the year with lots of travel plans and the first was a trip to Crete in March to break the winter blues. Covid 19 at that time was still a minor issue, although we did wear masks in the airport. After three most enjoyable days at a home exchange in Chania, we moved to Agios Nikolaos, by which time bars, restaurants and cultural venues had closed. Even though we were in an apartment, it wasn’t much fun. After visiting a 3500-year-old olive tree, there wasn’t much left to do and lockdown was about to start in ..read more
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