Normandy, France - Part 2

We were staying relatively close to Rouen, so a few of us drove into the city for the day.  It's a really lovely place, with some gorgeous old buildings and a lot of history.

Place du Vieux Marché

This is the main market square in the centre of Rouen (where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake). There are streets leading off the square with lots of shops and restaurants, and they're all very picturesque.

Tick tock

This is the Gros Horloge astronomical clock which dates back to the 16th century.  It's situated over a shopping street and so there are always crowds of people wandering backwards trying to take a picture of it, which is a little bit awkward when you're trying to get past.  I was unfortunately one of those irritating photographers.

This is another of the narrow little streets in the city centre, with the cathedral in the background.  At the other end of this street I had an amazing ice-cream (which was much-needed thanks to the ridiculously hot weather).  I also couldn't help but get four giant macarons from one of the many sweet shops in Rouen.  Seriously, if you want macarons, Rouen is the place to go.

Rouen cathedral

Here is as full a picture as I could get of Rouen Cathedral - these pesky 13th century architects don't make things easy.  We had a look inside, which was a welcome shadowy relief from the sun, and the interior is just as stunning.

My next and final France post is dedicated solely to food, my one and only true love.

Normandy, France - Part 1

Right now I'm sitting in a freezing cold room in a student house listening to the rain and the wind battering the windows.  Understandably, I'm reminiscing about last summer, which I spent in Normandy in France.

Chateau Gaillard

Unfortunately, this was the weather on our first day there.  I had managed to convince myself that I would be leaving rainy Britain for gorgeous, sun-soaked France, and had packed accordingly.  That is how I found myself venturing out under the dark clouds in a vest top.

The view from Chateau Gaillard

The 'chateau' in question is actually a ruined mediaeval castle up on a hill, so it's not somewhere to ogle luxurious interiors and gorgeous ballrooms.  However the chateau looks down over the Seine, so it's worth going just for the view - just about, anyway.  We attempted to push a wheelchair up an immensely narrow, rocky path to get to the chateau.  Needless to say, it didn't work.

Blue sky!

Luckily the weather improved pretty soon, so we visited Lyons-la-Forêt, which is really pretty.  The photo above is of the main square which has lots of lovely half-timbered buildings and a market hall.  For such a picturesque place it wasn't at all busy or touristy either time we went there. 

Just the little cottage where we stayed... Er, no.

This is Parc de Clères, a zoo based around a 14th-century chateau, which itself was pretty stunning. The zoo part is nice because it's fairly open, with peacocks and wallabies wandering around on the grass.  Here I finally saw a peacock doing the proper tail-displaying thing, although as usual it was too late to take a picture. 

My France posts are fairly photo-heavy, so I'll spread them over several posts. Next up is Rouen!

Harry Potter Studios Tour

It has to be said - I am a major Harry Potter fan.  I've reread the books to the extent that most of my copies no longer have covers, I can quote the films by heart and I'm frankly quite proud to say that I went to a midnight showing of Deathly Hallows Part 2 the same day I was due to go on holiday.  So I think it's fair to say that I am highly biased when it comes to describing this day out.

"You're a wizard, Harry."

As you might be able to tell from the rare blue sky, we went in the summer, so it was understandably busy.  However, this wasn't really an issue.  It's absolutely enormous, and there's so much to look at which means that people are very spread out.  We only had to queue once at the very start in order to actually go on the tour, and while we were queuing we got a look at Harry's cupboard-under-the-stairs.

It seemed like pretty much every outfit worn ever in the films was included in this tour, so you're fairly certain of seeing your favourite character in some incarnation. Seeing the little Hogwarts uniforms worn in the first film was funny - they were so small!

"Wangoballwime?"

Seeing the props from throughout the film series really brought back some of the details I'd forgotten, like the Yule Ball.  I definitely want this for my next party.

This book is the Property of the Half-Blood Prince

I make no bones about it; I'm a Snape apologist.  I know he was a horrible bully at times and I know he was cruel, but he's got such a tragic back-story!  The Prince's Tale always reduces me to tears.

"I must not tell lies."

One of my favourite bits of information from this tour was the fact that in order to create Umbridge's kitten plates, they actually had to film hundreds of real kittens to be green-screened onto the plates. Best job ever?

"The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price."

The amount of detail included in these films was honestly amazing, and it made me see them in a whole different light when I rewatched them later.  The wand-room at the very end is well worth a look - it's like Ollivander's, with thousands of wand-boxes all stacked up on top of each other, and each box has the name of someone involved in the films, including cast and crew.  I was tempted to stay there forever until I'd found as many recognisable names as I could, but I was lured away by the gift shop which followed.  I was remarkably restrained, but I couldn't resist a gorgeous cream Ministry of Magic mug.

Lemon and Marzipan Cupcakes

I saw this recipe in the Guardian's Cook section and pretty much instantly fell in love with it, thanks to the combination of two of my favourite things - marzipan and cake. I've made these three times now, and hopefully I've worked out the best way (for me) to do them.

Most photogenic lemons in the world?

Yum

There is a lot of marzipan in these, but I'm definitely not complaining.  The original recipe only makes 10-11ish, so last time I doubled the quantities. This meant using up an entire block of marzipan, half grated and half broken into pieces.  By the third time I tried this recipe, I figured out the best way to grate the marzipan - keep it in the fridge until you need to use it and then grate it directly into the bowl.  The first time I did this the marzipan had softened slightly (it's squishy at best anyway) and was pretty tricky to grate, and then the second time I grated it onto a surface where it all collected and compacted back into a lump. By the way, the marzipan chunks are without doubt the best bit about these cupcakes, but the actual chopping/breaking bits part is seriously sticky, so either turn your phone off or make someone else answer it if it rings.

Pre-baking stage

One thing about these cupcakes is that the marzipan seems to have a habit of sinking to the bottom, which means that as tempting as it is to have one of these as soon as they come out of the oven, it's better not to because half of it tends to stick to the bottom of the cupcake case.  Once they cool they stick together better.

Post-baking stage

I wasn't entirely sure how much lemon juice and how much sugar would be needed in the drizzle suggested in the recipe, so I went with a glazy-drizzle I've used before consisting of quite simply icing sugar and lemon juice.  The ratio I've been using is one tablespoon of lemon juice to 25g of icing sugar and it's worked out fine.  The drizzle may not look very decorative but it's simple and complements the marzipan perfectly.

Chatsworth House

I have to confess I'm a bit of a sucker for a nice posh house and my love for period dramas and films does nothing to help that.  In November I finally went to visit Chatsworth House, which is one of England's best-loved stately homes (and star of 2005's Pride and Prejudice and this Christmas's Death Comes To Pemberley).

I actually did the unthinkable and travelled there on public transport.  At the time I was coming from Nottingham, so my journey involved a half-hour train journey to Chesterfield, a bus journey from Chesterfield to Baslow and then a slightly muddy walk along the public footpath leading through the park. For me, navigating all this on my own was quite an achievement, particularly when hampered by my terrible sense of direction.

The Painted Hall

For Christmas the house was decorated in a Narnia theme, including wardrobes and Mr Tumnus's house.  The Painted Hall was the palace of the White Witch, which you might just be able to see despite my slightly dodgy phone photos.

Poor Aslan...

The attention to detail was pretty great - I liked the mechanical mice nibbling at Aslan's ropes but I'm not sure what visitors who hadn't read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe might have made of it!

More decorations!

I loved these multi-coloured bunting decorations streaming down from the domed ceiling. Simple but effective.

A lovely Chatsworth view

It's impossible to visit Chatsworth without mentioning the beautiful gardens.  As you can probably tell from my photos, the weather was not the best and made for a slightly overcast day, but the autumn colours were gorgeous.  This is the view over the Canal Pond.

Autumn trees

Unfortunately I couldn't spend as much time looking around the gardens as I would have liked to (thanks to buses being fairly infrequent) so I chickened out of getting lost in the maze and skirted around it instead.  Still, this gives me plenty to do next time I visit, which I definitely want to do in the summer.  

Mulled Wine Cupcakes

I've become embarrassingly obsessed with baking cupcakes over the past year.  Yes, they're a bit twee and yes, they seem to have died along with the 'Keep Calm and...' trend, but they're one of the few things I feel confident baking.  I found this recipe in my mum's Marie Claire and thought I'd give them a go.

Ta-dah! A beautifully dark and terrible photo of mulled wine.

I'll be honest here - I am not very good with wine.  Firstly, I know virtually nothing about it, meaning that I've lost count of the number of times I've stood in the middle of the wine aisle on the phone to my dad asking what dry actually means.  Secondly, I have the unfortunate habit of going out to a party or the pub and thinking, "Yes! Wine is exactly what I want!" only to find myself two glasses in and well on the way to getting completely hammered.  Anyway, my point is that I've never done mulled wine before.  Luckily for me, it's pretty straightforward. Shlop everything (wine, orange peel, cinnamon stick/s, star anise)  into a pan and heat. Unfortunately, the wine smell is fairly strong, and by the time I'd finished making the cupcakes I had a headache and wanted to chuck the whole lot away.

Yuuummm...

However, I resisted the temptation (mostly because I'd gone to so much effort in the first place) and ended up with some fairly decent cupcakes.  My decorating skills, however, are somewhat lacking and so almost every batch of cupcakes I make look like the cakes kids bring back from school cake stalls.  The actual cake was dense and rich but not overwhelming, and the subtle mulled wine flavour went really well with the cocoa powder in them.  Hopefully I haven't thrown the magazine containing the recipe away, because I may well give them another try next Christmas.

Christmas in London

OK, so it wasn't technically Christmas itself, but the run-up.  I have a big thing about London - I love it.  Yes, it's crowded and (to me) huge and slightly overwhelming.  But it's also buzzing and atmospheric and picturesque, and so I managed to persuade my mum to go to London for the day with me.

Putting our Christmas decorations to shame

It feels like whenever my mum and I go to London, we always end up visiting the V&A Museum.  The fact that it's free and has abundant seating helps, of course, but this time we went to see the Masterpieces of Chinese Painting exhibition.  I'm definitely not an art buff, and I didn't really know what to expect, but the art exhibited there was gorgeous.  I particularly liked the landscape paintings, and I found one I would have been happy to take home and hang on my wall.

Byoootiful

For lunch we went to the Comptoir Libanais on Exhibition Road just across from the V&A.  We'd already been to the one on Wigmore St, so we knew there would be something there that we'd like.  It was absolutely packed inside but we only had to wait a few minutes before there was a table free.  Above is a picture of our drinks - apple, mint and ginger and my favourite rose syrup, lemon and lime.

This is my main course, although it's pretty enough to be a dessert.  It's lamb kofta with yoghurt, fried onions, pitta bread pieces and pomegranate seeds, and it was gorgeous.

Seemed like a good idea at the time...

Looking back, visiting Regent Street only five days from Christmas seems like a slightly stupid thing to do.  In our defence, we (along with half of the UK, it seemed) were on a quest to visit Liberty's after seeing an episode or two of the documentary series about it. Anyway, I like to think it brought out some Christmas spirit in us.

We made it to Tate Britain, but by then we were absolutely shattered, so we spent as long as we could in the cafe where I had the world's cutest cappuccino.