A Taste of Garlic

City On A Hill is Ed Ward’s blog about his life in Montpellier.

It starts off, in February 2008, with him moving from Berlin and, for me, really gets going with the wonderful Streets from April 2009.

Streets is everything that a well thought out blog posts should be and left me with the feeling of actually having visited a “street made for horses, not even carriages.”

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I’m not really sure how I stumbled upon l’antipodeuse.

I’ve certainly not been following it but, one day there it was on the browser (I may have clicked on another blog’s blogroll) and I was immediately hooked!

I am a fan of photoblogs anyway but, for some reason, l’antipodeuse stands out from the others.  Perhaps it’s the clean simplicity of the site?  Maybe the range of the subjects?

Or maybe the pure quality of the photographs?

To try and explain what I mean I’ll use La Poisonnerie de Carfour as an example.  Looking at that photo, I get an incredible urge to cook a mackerel (or three), stuffed with herbs and a slice of Lemon.

l’antipodeuse is Mary’s blog and, as you may have guessed, Mary is a Kiwi and, unsurprisingly, comes from New Zealand. But then, all the best Kiwis do!

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The Adventures of an American Family in the South of France are detailed in this blog, Conjugating Irregular Verbs.

It is Aidan’s blog and Aidan is an American who lived in Ireland (see her other blog here at Our Years in Green) before seeing the light and moving to France.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against Ireland (or the Irish); indeed, I think that they were cruelly cheated out of a World Cup place (yes, Mr Henry – I hope you’re hanging your head in shame!) but I have heard that the croissants are crispier, the andouillettes are smellier and the local wines are slightly more drinkable over here…. in the land of the baguette and the beautiful 2CV!

Before I dove into this blog, I did have to ask the question whether I would enjoy reviewing a blog by someone who says of eating escargots… “I cannot stomach the idea of eating one of those slimy, antennae waving crawlers who leave a silver trail in their wake. UGH!”

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Anyone who starts her blog with an article about Lardons and Croutons has got to be a pretty decent person in my book!

To follow that up with posts on Cascades, Pork Chops and Peperonata and Precisely Planned Chutney and Impromptu Duck Confit before finishing at The Friday Night Market in Léran shows pure genius.

Or have I just found a blog by someone who is as much of a piggy as me?

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I recently reviewed Chez Mr. le Marquis du Galipot and noted that it contains one of the greatest posts that I have seen on any blog (Life in France type blogs or otherwise) ever.

A post that details someone’s true story; a post written with compassion and in a style that reminded me of some of Bruce Chatwin’s shorter pieces.

I asked the owner of Chez Mr. le Marquis du Galipot (a man who calls himself IWMPOP for some strange reason that you will have to read the review to understand) for permission to re-publish the post here and he very kindly agreed.

So, here it is (courtesy of http://marquisdugalipot.blogspot.com)…..

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Chez Mr. le Marquis du Galipot is not your typical Life in France blog.

It doesn’t follow the same shape as most other blogs that I keep an eye on and, at first viewing, might seem hard to follow.

I liken this blog, in a way, to a second-hand bookshop where the books are piled everywhere and you have to delve a bit, in order to find the treasures.

I like second-hand bookshops and I don’t mind delving and… you know what?  I somehow don’t think that Mr. le Marquis du Galipot (or iwmpop as I’ll call him from here on in – don’t worry; I’ll explain it all in a moment or two), would actually mind that description too much?

Let’s hope not, anyway?

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I sometimes wonder what it is about a blog that makes me want to review it.

Of course, if that blog covers my main interests of Citroen 2CVs, Lingerie, Wild Mushroom hunting and food in general (I live a very quiet life and I don’t get out much!) then all the better but, unfortunately there are precious few blogs like that these days (I think their owners were all rounded up and taken away to places where they, and the rest of society, would be more comfortable?)

But with this blog, I knew instinctively that I had to review it!

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And, still in the Hérault, I thought that it might be nice to pop in and visit (electronically, of course), The Duchess of Earl.

The Duchess (as I’ll call her from now) was (to use her own words) born in South Dakota, came to study in France in 1994, met her English husband (the Duke), lived in Cannes, Paris, Toronto and Gloucestershire and finally settled in the Languedoc in 2000.

She now has two little girls (the little ladies) who are growing up bilingual and with three cultural variations, just to make it more fun as a parent…

So, what does The Duchess have to say that might interest me?

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I knew that I had to review The Evening Hérault as soon as I saw this post about Club Bastard (I think I may be a member of that club.)

If I had any second doubts (about reviewing the site, not about being a member of that rather auspicious club), these were washed away when I saw this post about Our Top 10 French Swear Words!

This, I thought to myself, is my kind of site!

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Life in France has been going, as far as this blog is concerned, since April 2005.

The blog covers the family life of Mary and Mike and their two children Celia and Nathan in the Hérault.

There is a nice comfortable rhythm to this blog:  The children start school in September, there are Autumn walks and bicycle rides to be enjoyed, then it’s Nathan’s birthday and then Christmas.

Holidays are taken, places are visited and somehow, along the way, a bathroom gets renovated (perhaps twice?)  And, in the summer, there is the swimming pool.

Sounds boring?  Well actually it is far from that!

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Desperately searching for a Life in France type blog that had even the slightest reference to Citroen 2CVs, Mushrooms or Lingerie, I luckily stumbled upon St Bloggie de Riviere!

Now, I’ll freely admit that there’s not many posts on the above subjects (in fact, there are none at all!  An omission that I’m sure will soon be rectified.)

But, there are plenty of lovely posts about a real life in France (Sarah lives near Montpellier with her two boys (13,8) and a cat called Ulysse.)

And really, anyone with a cat named Ulysse must have something interesting to say!

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ZOQY stands for Zeitgeist – Opinions – Questions – Yatter and it certainly is an apt name for Richard Randall’s very interesting blog.

Richard lives in Villeneuve les Corbières and the posts on his blog range from news, food and travelogues through reading, wine and back to food again.

Plenty of YouTube videos add to the enjoyment of this blog.

A useful start to exploring this blog would be to take a quick look at the Blog Identity post and meet Zippy (or Zoqy as he should be known.)  From there you may wish to continue to try a little glass of wine (assuming that Zoqy doesn’t get there first!) and then, you might want to sample some Crap Food!

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La Vie Cevenole belongs to Tammy and is her blog about (to use her own words), life in the Cevennes mountains, as a confirmed city-dweller with an abiding if naive affection for the great outdoors – or at least for a terrace with a panoramic view.

It is stuffed to the gills with gorgeous, sumptuous yummy recipes such as…. Rosemary and Garlic Marinade, Wild Boar Stew with Chocolate and Pinenuts and Scrambled Eggs with Black Truffles so I don’t think any visitor to this blog will go too hungry.

There are also some well considered and thought provoking posts (almost rants) about How I know I’m not French and The Scent of Dirty Hands (the latter post being about Thierry Henry’s handball – personally I think he should have the offending hand lopped off and auctioned on e-bay – people will buy just about anything, these days!)

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These Days in French Life is Riana Lagarde’s blog (going since November 2004) about, in her own words….

her life as an American food and travel writer, a reformed shopper, now living a rural, “slow” non-consumerism life in the south of France with her French husband and daughter. Poorer than dirt, but living like kings from the riches of the earth.

Riana blogs about Living A Slow Year.

What’s this?  Well basically, it’s getting by without buying anything (apart from food essentials.)  To cope by using what abundance they have: what their preserved last summer, their garden, foraging, bartering, trading, living off what mother nature gives them.

And, you know what, it seems to work.

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Olives and Artichokes is a, usually bi-lingual, blog about cooking, eating and gardening in the Midi, southern France.

You can tell that France is a big country, and not all of it is “blessed” by the sort of weather I get in Brittany , by the post from last Friday (4th December), which starts…. Some rain at last! – I woke to a strange sound this morning – it was raining, and it rained for at least two hours. It’s the first proper rain we’ve had since October and it will be very good for the garden.

As well as being an interesting site (the cooking and eating posts, of which this is a great example… Sunday Lunch in the Garden, are especially interesting to my greedy guts!), the site is an excellent way of learning French (most articles being in French and English.)

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A Languedoc Journal is the blog of Alex Hampshire; a man whom I would describe (from the contents of his blog alone), as a younger version of Victor Meldrew.

Alex writes about his life in the Languedoc and sometimes (like the naughty little tinker that he is), uses the F word.

Most of the time, however,  his posts are just funny and obscenity free.  My favourite has got to be this one… Have a Little Fun – now, I’m going to have to try that out for myself!

He seems able to put his own quirky slant on current affairs, making them seem as trivial as local gossip whilst, at the same time, exaggerating trivial local events into global catastrophes!

When he’s being funny, though, he can be very funny.  This blog posting from May this year tickled my fancy….

If you receive an email from the ‘Department of Environment & Health’ saying not to eat tinned pork because of swine flu, just ignore it -

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