The (nearly) $100 Roast Chicken

Firstly some background on Bresse Chickens with credit to Wikipedia….

The Bresse is a breed of chicken originating from the Bresse area of the Rhône-Alpes region of France.

The birds are highly valued for their gamey depth of flavour, yet with fine, tender flesh and delicious, clean-flowing fat. Roughly 1.2 million are raised annually, but such is the demand inside France that few birds make it out of the country.

The most typical examples, known as Bény, have a distinctive red crown, white feathers and blue feet, making up the colours of the French flag, making it an ideal national mascot.

Poulet de Bresse are reared to exacting standards by small farms in a small designated area around the city, protected under French and European law (Appellation d’origine contrôlée) since 1957 - the first livestock to be granted such protection. AOC status was granted based on the unique characteristics of flavour given by local soil and grain, as well as the dedication of the local farmer's association to protecting quality. For example, stocks are limited by the size of the farm - with a minimum allocation of ten square meters for each bird.

Hopefully that will help to explain why we were fascinated to try one…we’ve been buying ‘poulet fermier’ mostly (a local farmers chicken that is raised organically in lots of space and very tasty and slightly more expensive although still very affordable) but having heard so much about the famous ‘Bresse chicken’ (one of Hestor Blumenthal’s favourites apparently), we found a lovely butchers and proudly asked for a Bresse Chicken.  We were presented with a lovely looking chicken with crown and head intact (I can confirm the red crown and white feathers) and feet still attached (I can confirm blue feet) – the lovely man asked if I wanted them to which I must have made a face as he laughed and discarded them and then asked if I wanted the giblets to which I of course said yes (I know better than to turn giblets down in France – don’t wish to be totally frowned upon!) and so he proceeded to cut them out as they were of course still attached – he asked if I wanted them back inside the bird or on the side and if I’d like him to tie the bird up for roasting…….well as you can imagine all this took some time and we were totally sold on the bird at this point and as he or she had been so totally personalized there was no going back.  And then we were presented with the bill – CHF 77.50 for a bird weighing 1.8 kg (less than 3.5lbs) – we were both absolutely stunned and a little horrified but to our credit (or perhaps proving our stupidity) we played it cool and smiled and thanked the man, paid for the bird and left (never to return).

We are having this tomorrow and although it’s bound to be a one off experience we are both actually quite excited to be trying our first Bresse chicken and feel that it’s money well spent on research – after all if they’re that good, perhaps it’s a breed that we can one day raise in France!

Tony will be heading back home to France on Monday so next week may be a little touch and go as we get used to not being with each other – it’ll be tough especially after spending the past 4 ½ months literally living in each others pockets!  But we’re both very happy with Geneva, I’m enjoying my job (hope they’re enjoying me!) and we think the next few months will be the toughest as we work out the logistics but if we can limp through to the New Year (preferably limping with a few visits and the odd snowboarding trip in between) we think we’ll have it worked out by then and hopefully Tony will be getting happily stuck in to the renovations and improvements ‘chez nous’ in France.

I shall leave you with a few photos – we had a day off on Thursday to celebrate Jeune Genevoise which apparently is where people from Geneva used to fast – not being from Geneva we didn’t think it important that we should fast and so we popped over to France for lunch – a beautiful town called Yvoire just 40 minutes away and sitting on Lake Geneva (or Lac Leman for us locals!).  Quite a treat as you can imagine to have a bank holiday on only my second week of work!

With love to all – a bientot!

Learning how to live in the ‘City’

For those of you used to Cayman, you’ll understand that Geneva even with only 200,000 people is a big city – for those of you in London, Hong Kong, Paris, New York or Miami (or almost anywhere else), you’ll think I’m talking nonsense….so I’m talking to those of you in Cayman!!

I shocked myself today when I got on a tram going home for lunch and almost on auto pilot I purposefully didn’t make eye contact with anyone and clutched my handbag tightly under my arm.  It didn’t even occur to me what I’d done until I got home and thought about it and mentioned it to Tony.  As sensible as this behavior is in any city, it saddens me somewhat given I’ve been used to Cayman and of course more recently rural France where I’ve been told off in a supermarket for asking where a product is before saying ‘bonjour madame’!

I think this new behavior will serve me well but I do miss making eye contact and saying ‘bonjour’ to everyone you meet accompanied by a handshake or a kiss (depending on whether you’ve met them before – a handshake if you haven’t, a kiss if you have….or 4 kisses if you live in our area of France and 3 if you live in Geneva!)

We’ve now completed our first week in Geneva which we’ve thoroughly enjoyed although I think Tony is very much looking forward to not only getting stuck in to the renovations but harvesting what’s left of the garden – we’ve been tracking the weather and depending on what our neighbours have had (we did ask them to help themselves in our absence) I have a feeling Tony will still have nearly 100 sweetcorns, 40 pumpkins, a ton of aubergines, green peppers, cucumbers, leeks, celery, beets and still to come cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower & brussel sprouts – he’ll be busy!

On Sunday, I scouted out a local church and asked Tony to come with me to check it out, it was an evangelical Baptist church and I really enjoyed it – all very casual (not just in Geneva standards, for example I was over dressed in jeans!!) and there was a sermon by a missionary who’s been serving in Senegal – digging wells all over the region and dodging the ebola virus – absolutely fascinating listening to people who really dedicate their lives to making others’ lives better and of course spreading the gospel.  I sat next to a lovely lady and when we got chatting I discovered she was from Jamaica having moved here from Miami 5 years ago and works for the United Nations – this is such a fascinating place and like Cayman in the melting pot aspect but just 4 times the amount of people in the pot!

So it’s my second week of work and we’re celebrating ‘Jeune Genevoise’ with a bank holiday on Thursday – I’m still not sure what that is but I shall be happy to celebrate it!  I’ve also been asked if Tony and I would like to sign up for the annual company skiing weekend in January – I had to think about that for all of about 5 seconds on my first day before deciding we should really show willing and join everyone on the mountain – Tony and I are as good at skiing as we are at ‘apres skiing’ so I think we shall have fun.

I’ve found an apartment which has views of the mountains and despite being on the 4^th floor, there is no elevator in the building so I guess I’ll get to keep both warm and fit!  That said, there’s obviously room for anyone that wishes to come and visit….

On that note, I shall leave you with a couple of photos of the water shoot that can be found on Lac Leman (apparently only called ‘Lake Geneva’ by expats and foreigners!!)

With much love from us here while it’s still warm in Europe – I’m not sure I can keep the positive vibes going as winter sets in…….only time will tell!