Bonjour!

Our summer holiday this year was in France. We tucked the bees up with some sugar solution before we left – they were hungry girls – scoffed it down, and put in some varroa treatment and then closed things up to head off to Brittany. Brittany for anyone who is challenged on geography is at the top of France, almost opposite Cornwall. All sounds good so far?

Cornwall is known for its temperate climate, Brittany is opposite Cornwall. Can you see where I am heading with this?  So, 26 degrees on the journey out and 26 degrees on the journey back. The middle bit? Well, lets just say we wished we had more socks.

Having said that our holiday was a proper memory making one – ice creams, crepes, sand, collecting shells, boat rides, paddling in the sea, buying and tasting french honey…..That last one crept in, we couldn’t resist trying the competition!

The picture above is of Chantal. She is a French beekeeper!

We bought a jar of her honey, having tasted everything she had it seemed like we should, especially since all four of us had a try of each jar. We had a set honey from Chantal, it was gone in two days with salty butter and fresh crispy French baguettes. We had a lot of sympathy for her, she had a young daughter in the front of that van who was probably getting to the point of wild after hours in the market whilst her mum sold honey!

And this was Jacques, he was selling for a bunch of different people, and had a Seashore Honey! I mean, whats not to like, who would say no to Seashore Honey? Unfortunately it wasn’t sweet with a hint of salt like I might have been expecting but again having tickled him and the whole queue with my French, we had little choice. They were actually laughing at me, even the boy beekeeper was embarrassed at me saying over and over again Mercy Beau Coop and Bonjour (in that order) as we left. We had to buy a jar. Pricey though, not like ours.

Jacques’s expression, I realise now, does not convey the humour of the moment…….

The final jar we bought was due to having tasted very strange honey and needing to remove the taste of it. We found a stall in a market with green honey! We asked them where it was from and they had said, via google translator,  that it was horse chestnut. Now then, we were not the right people to hit with this, possibly inaccurate information, given that we are our own purveyors of Conker honey.  I would though, pass on this advice, don’t try it unless you have a very open mind. It was bitter, and green.

Like Absinthe.