Water Temperatures at Notaires

I have seen from the forums that there is a great deal of interest in the environmental conditions at the various carp lakes.

Raspberry Pi and circuit board

I am pleased to announce that Notaires Lakes now has live online monitoring which can be seen here. The system is based around the famous Raspberry Pi “computer on a credit card”. We have sensors for air and water temperature, air pressure and humidity.

One sensor is in the swimming pool (for interest, although it’s also providing a reference point) and two are in the lake margin under the willows; one just under the surface and the other about a foot deep. With the sensors shaded by the willows they should be unaffected by direct sunlight and are in the current of water flowing out of the lake spillway.

Water Temperatures

Even with the only two days of “in water” data, the trends are fascinating. The variation in temperature between day and night is 3 degrees. The other particularly useful sensor is the atmospheric pressure sensor, or barometer. Guests can check the current trend, rising or falling each day, and adjust tactics accordingly.

One guest recently emailed me to ask what the weather was doing that day. Well, now you can check online for yourself in an instant!

Chris and Steph Dagg, Owners at Notaires
For more information on the lake follow the link - Fishing Holidays

Young Angler James has Huge Haul at Notaires

Notaires provides the perfect balance for a family angling holiday, here's why James Geeson thinks so...

General Comments: We stayed as a family of 5 with Chris and Steph for a week in mid july and had a wonderful time. Our 3 boys enjoyed the swimming pool and the animals as well as the wi-fi!

The fishing was excellent, led by our son james (13) who is the mad keen angler who found and booked this holiday for us. James fished every day on the main lake by the house at the nearest swim. He caught a lot of fish! 64 in total ranging from 12lbs up to 34lbs with the average size just over 20lbs so a great weeks fishing.

James

The fish fought hard and were in good condition, nearly all mirror carp but we did get one grass carp and a common as well. The smaller kids did some float fishing and landed plenty of small silver fish. James got his PB for mirror, common and grass. We barbequed most evening and the weather was fantastic. Chris and Steph were very helpful and friendly answering our questions and helping us find a tennis court to use in the nearby town.

A great week had by all and I would definitely recommend this venue to hardcore anglers as well as for families wanting a mixed holiday. Thanks again to Chris and Steph.

Details of your catches: 65 carp to 34lbs - 1337lbs of carp, fishing days only.

Your best tactics/bait/rigs: Simple rigs with single or double boilie and some on pop-ups seemed to work well casting across the lake to the margins.

Want the Real French Experience? – Spotlight on Notaires

The Limousin Stone Farmhouse

The Notaires Lakes are located deep in the French countryside in the region known as the green heart of France. Your accommodation for the week is a renovated 200 year old Limousin stone built farmhouse with a swimming pool overlooking the carp lake. Peace and quiet are guaranteed. 

38lb

The fish stocks have been added in stages to ensure their health and vigour and now range from 15lb to a terrific 41lb, with the average in the high 20’s.

Notaires is set in its own 75 acre estate of lakes, woods and fields in one of the quietest areas of France. This makes for a unique holiday experience; the calm, quiet atmosphere is appreciated as a counterpoint to the busy modern life in England. If you stretch your legs round some of the hidden fields you could well catch sight of deer or boar as well as buzzards, kestrels and sparrow hawks.

Outside is a generous garden that overlooks the lake and features a 200 year old oak tree, great for providing natural shade when you’re sitting or eating outdoors.

"Absolutely fantastic place, I cannot wait to come back. The gite has everything you could need. Clean and warm and welcoming.Steph and Chris are lovely - we were made to feel very welcome and were shown all their beautiful animals.

Thanks for a fantastic holiday. See you next year."Jordan Hay and Family, May '13

Fantastic venue. All fish were in great condition. Chris & steph are fantastic hosts and always is a pleasure to stay!Tony Crane, Nov '12

Both lakes are in a beautiful and tranquil setting, roughly rectangular in shape but narrowing at one end and both are fringed by mature beech, oak, willow and alder trees. The willows create plenty of cover and provide bays to fish to on long summer days whilst the large oak and beech trees provide welcome shade for both the carp and fishermen.

There are no nuisance poisson chat and any crayfish are kept under control by the resident catfish. Vehicle access is possible to both lakes, so unloading fishing gear is nice and easy.

The Lake

Master Bedroom

For more information, articles and feedback on Notaires follow the link - Fishing Holidays

Spring Flowers at Notaires Carp Lakes

Spring Flowers at Notaires Carp Lakes

March 3, 2013DavidNo comments

Winter has been long and wet though not particularly cold this year, so it is a pleasant surprise to see the crocuses starting to come through so early at Notaires. The ‘warm’ wet weather has been good for the fish as the aquifers are refilled after the drought of the least two years and there have been plenty of opportunities to feed the carp with the lakes not freezing over at all this winter.

Even so, the fishing was excellent last year and the lake record was repeatedly raised until it stood at 45lbs 8oz to Matt.

We started a fish chipping campaign in 2012, using micro RFID chips. The person who catches a carp not previously tagged gets to name it. This has proved very popular with guests. A summary of the fish that have been tagged so far can be seen below. (Note, these fish form only a small proportion of all those caught in 2012.)

fish tag id	No. of times caught	FishName
010300dc0c0c	1	Tiddles
961001200052972	1	Poppy
961001200053048	1	George
961001200053106	2
961001200053119	1
961001200053241	1	Shamu
961001200053331	3	Willow
961001200053439	1	Frankie
961001200053443	5	Harriet (31lbs)
961001200053532	1	Bam Bam
961001200053574	1	Bubbles
961001200053577	3
961001200053695	1
961001200053745	4	Big Ben (32lbs)
961001200053934	1	Two Spot
961001200053954	1
961001200054069	1	Buzz
961001200054289	1	The Daddy
961001200054313	1	Jeta
961001200054433	2	Ellery
961001200054441	4	The Horse (45lbs 8oz)
961001200054458	2
961001200054470	1	Nemo

The larger tagged fish feature more often in the catch reports (due to their appetite?)  and while twenty-three carp have been tagged so far there are still another seventy or so waiting to be caught, tagged and named. So, what are you waiting for!

Fishing Holidays at Notaires

The French Presidential Elections

Sarkozy

I’m quite enjoying the run up to the French presidential elections, even though none of us Daggs can vote in them. That situation will have changed by the next Presidentielle though. As soon as Caits turns 18 in April, I shall go to the Mairie in Nouzerines and get the paperwork going for her, Benj and me to become French nationals and thereby obtain the right to vote. Rors is still too young and Chris is quite happy to stay British for a while longer.

Here’s the full list of candidates in this year’s Presidentielle:

• Nicolas Sarkozy – Union pour un Mouvement Populaire
• François Hollande – Parti Socialiste
• Marine Le Pen – Front National
• François Bayrou – Mouvement Démocrate
• Jean-Luc Mélenchon – Front de Gauche
• Eva Joly – Europe Écologie Les Verts
• Dominique de Villepin – République Solidaire
• Corinne Lepage – Cap21
• Nicolas Dupont-Aignan – Debout la République
• Nathalie Arthaud – Lutte Ouvrière
• Frédéric Nihous – Chasse, Pêche, Nature et Traditions
• Philippe Poutou – Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste

Bayrou

There’s one I’d like to add: Nicolas Canteloup. He’s an impressionist who excels at politicians. He has a 10-minute slot after the news every night where he does skits on political figures. Chris and I actually understand most of what he says now. Our project of watching telly every night is really paying off. Not only are we now a lot more in touch with French affairs, but it has definitely helped our French. We chortle away at all Canteloup’s digs at the big guys and gals. Sarko is obsessed with Rolexes and conducting an affair with Angela Merkel in this alternate political reality; Hervé Morin (who recently dropped out of the Presidentielle) is always shown in his kitchen and Hollande generally makes references to flour as a weapon somewhere or other when he appears. (A disgruntled woman threw a bag of flour over M Hollande recently!) Canteloup has his finger on the political pulse and would make a brilliant president in my opinion.

Melenchon

I’m following most of the candidates on Twitter. Melenchon is chief Tweeter, closely followed by Sarko. However, some of them aren’t into newfangled technology like Twitter and either don’t have a Twitter account (or at least I haven’t found it yet) or Tweet about once a day. They’re missing out on good publicity in my opinion. Twitter is effective. I’ve signed up on a few of their websites too. I’ve already had a begging email from M Hollande. He wants me to give him a fiver to help his campaign (or possibly dry clean his suit to get rid of any remaining flour). Low income expat with no suffrage rights donating to millionaire politician? Sorry, I don’t think so! He also asked if I wanted to deliver leaflets etc but I politely declined. I’ve heard rumours he wants to restrict the autoentrepreneur status to a three year max, which is ridiculous, so even if I could vote, I wouldn’t be supporting him. I’m following him, and the others, out of intellectual curiosity only.

I was startled to discover that Marine Le Pen is only 42. I thought she was older than me. She hasn’t worn very well, poor dear, despite being wealthy. Now, her big idea is to reintroduce the French franc. That would be plain silly, since only a few days ago, the 17th of February, to be precise, saw the last acceptance of francs by the Bank of France. People queued for hours with bundles of old notes they’d discovered in attics, down the back of sofas, under floorboards etc to exchange them for Euros. Ten years later French people are finally turning their backs decisively on the franc. She’s missed the boat.

Hollande

Finally, a quick look at slogans. Despite denying during his interview on TF1 20h journal that he had a slogan, Sarko is clearly going with La France Forte (strong France). It’s appearing everywhere. Hollande’s is Le changement, c’est maintenant (The time for change is now). (Not that he’d give me change from five euros.) Le Pen is apparently La voix du peuple (the people’s voice). Bayrou claims that Un pays unis, rien ne lui résiste (nothing can defeat a united country). The other slogans are all suitably vague and jingoistic – Aimons la France (we love France), Pour une France libre (for a free France), Le vote juste (the fair vote), Prenez le pouvoir (take power). Only a few are unsubtle like Arthaud’s Une candidate communiste and Poutou’s Aux capitalistes de payer leur crise (capitalists must sort out their own mess).

Sarkozy and Hollande are leaps and bounds ahead of the rest at this stage. Bayrou has referred bitterly to the Sarkhollandisation of this election. So will it turn into a two horse race and slanging match? Maybe, but I’m optimistic it will be more interesting than that. When anything exciting happens, I’ll let you know!

Steph Dagg

Carp Fishing in France at Alder

Mademoiselles and Bells

The Notre Dame, Paris

It’s official!

A circular from the French Prime Minister’s office on 21st February has decreed that the term Mademoiselle (Miss) is to be phased out of official documentation. France has never had an equivalent of Ms so it’s always been a choice between Madame or Mademoiselle. (Men have only ever had the choice of Monsieur.)

However, feminist groups such as Osez le feminisme and Chiennes de garde are a little suspicious. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to realise that this has happened all of a sudden just before la Presidentielle(presidential elections). Is it just vote grabbing, or is it kosher? We’ll have to wait and see if it is properly implemented. The women’s groups also hope that everyone will follow the government’s lead and stop using Miss.

The circular also says that the demand for maiden names on official forms should be eliminated too. Darn skippy it should. What you used to be called before you got married has no relevance to anything, and certainly not to setting up a business or paying your cotisations or opening an electricity account. It’s your current name that matters, regardless of if you’ve kept your own surname or taken your partner’s. I for one finding it infuriating to get letters from French administration addressed to me as Stephanie Oakley. That’s not me. I stopped being her 25 years ago when I became Stephanie Dagg. I was perfectly happy to take on Chris’s surname and such was my choice. So it’s irritating when some foreign bureaucrat overrides it!

I dare say it will take a while for this change to come through fully, but it’s all for the good.

And now the bells. As part of the celebrations for its 850th birthday next year, Notre Dame in Paris, which Caiti and I visited the other week, is getting new bells. Its original ones were melted down in 1791 and 1792 to make canons during the French revolutionary wars. More than sixty years later, in 1856 the cathedral got some new bells, but they didn’t make the same sound as their predecessors. So they’re going. Nine new ones have been commissioned. They’ll be made from tin and copper and recapture the authentic sound of Notre Dame’s carillon. Go to the website www.notredamedeparis.fr and you can download an MP3 file to give you an idea what the bells will sound like. Rather nice, I think.

Steph Dagg, Fishing Holidays at Notaires

2011 Catch Analysis for Notaire’s Carp Lake in France

It can be difficult to deduce the trends from the catch reports at a family venue like Notaire’s since the angler usually isn’t fishing as flat out when compared to a Drive and Survive venue. Whilst there were a couple of difficult weeks, both of which occurred after massive temperature swings (seeing as much as 10 degrees increase per day),we are very pleased to report that yet again no one blanked at Notaire’s.  (Chris reaches down to tap the wooden table!)

The chart of the best fish reported shows that, apart from a couple of outliers from the very hot days, most anglers landed a best fish between 35 and 40lb.

Equally this wasn’t at the expense of the total catch (remember, very few family anglers can fish 24/7.) Dave Mutton landed the best result with a catch of 33 carp, closely followed by the Hayden party with 85 carp between 3 anglers.

It’s not so easy to chart the distribution of the fish as the catch returns sometimes came as numbers of fish and sometimes as total weights of fish caught. However, the table above shows that the major cohort lies in the 20-30lb range and that there is a significant number of fish in the 30-40lb range. Our winter feeding programme should see plenty more of this latter group of fish moving into the 40lb+ bracket.

In conclusion, we hope to see you at Notaire’s where you can enjoy arm-aching fights with the younger fish, have the chance to better your PB with carp in the 40lb range, and spend quality time with your family.

At Notaire’s you can have your cake and eat it!

Fishing Holidays in France at Notaires.

Pandas in France – Huang Huang and Yuang Zi at Zooparc Beauval

Steph & Chris Dagg run Notaires & Alder carp lakes in France. Through this personal Blog, Steph is going to describe her experiences of moving to France and living the dream of many UK carp anglers.

France now has a pair of pandas at the Zooparc Beauval. We visited there last summer and at the time we commented on how OTT the Chinese section of the park seemed to be, with statues, pagodas, lanterns but very few animals. Little did we know Beauval was gearing up for pandas. Certainly there was no mention of them at the zoo. But then they don’t sell batteries so they’re fairly clueless. A bit of advance publicity ‘sur place’ wouldn’t have come amiss.

Anyway, Huang Huang and Yuang Zi arrived on 15th January to great excitement. They were the first pandas to set paw in France for eleven years. They were transported by FedEx in a specially painted aeroplane, and then by road in specially painted vans with a police escort from the airport to Beauval. Yes, you read that right – police escort. Your guess is as good as mine as to why! Whether it was to keep the pandas in, or panda-nappers out, who knows. But it was successful and the pandas arrived safely and probably very puzzled at their new home. The public will be let loose on the pandas on 11th February. They need a few weeks to settle in.

Huang Huang and Yuang Zi are here for 10 years at a cost of around €750,000. Beauval is remaining tightlipped about the exact sum. So expect a hike in the already fairly hefty entry charge. The money is apparently going towards protecting pandas in the wild in China. And heaven knows they need it since they are the world’s dopiest animals.

I saw Edward Heath’s pandas, Chia Chia and Ching Ching, at London Zoo in the 1970s. They just sat and ate bamboo, as you’d expect, and were generally the most boring animal in the zoo. I have been completely underwhelmed by pandas for a long time.

Whilst there is no doubt that they are very striking and harmless animals, let’s face it they’re hopeless. The female comes into heat for between 3 and 7 days once a year. So if either she or the male has a headache during that brief space of time, that’s it, the chance for making a baby panda has gone for another year. I saw a TV programme about pandas in an American zoo. The zookeepers were desperate for the pandas to breed and were monitoring Mrs Panda constantly for the telltale signs of her arousing herself from her usual semi-comatose, bamboo-munching state to being hormonal. The second they reckoned she was ready, they unleashed Mr Panda. He made a couple of extremely feeble attempts to mount her then gave up. Mrs P went all huffy and then the pair of them sat and sulked in opposite sides of the cage. (I hope this doesn’t remind you of anything!)

So the scientists swooped. They first knocked out Mr P and got busy with rubber gloves and syringes and extracted some semen, and then knocked out Mrs P and gave her AI. What a palaver. But it worked and a miniscule baby panda appeared 5 months later. It weighed 5 ounces. Baby pandas are 1/900th the size of their mama. I mean, come on. How pathetic is that!

Human babies are around 1/15th to 1/20th of their mum’s size. Admittedly, delivering one of them hurts like blooming heck and traumatises you for life but it’s possible. Llama cria are roughly 1/8th to 1/10th of their mother’s weight, and you don’t hear them complaining. And what’s more, if a panda has  more than one cub, she has a breakdown. She is incapable of looking after two at the same time, so just leaves one to die. Pandas are severely survivally challenged. They really need to get their act together.

Taking Advantage of the Big Freeze at Notaires Carp Lake

They say it’s an ill wind that blows no good and the north wind certainly blew in with ill intent here at Notaires recently, freezing the upstairs pipes and causing havoc with the heating.  Even the drain pipes froze up overnight as the temperatures dropped below -10 each night for two weeks, even reaching as low as -19. The fix for the drainpipes was to fill a backpack sprayer with hot water and use it as a hot water drill to melt the plug of ice each morning.

On the plus side a well frozen lake meant that we could reach the overhanging willow branches that were dipping down into the house lake on the far side, this area is a great fish attracting area with both shade and rich natural pickings for the carp but with the consequence that the carp made a run for the trees when they were hooked (and as the records show there were plenty of carp caught on fishing holidays in the house lake this year, but that is for the next post).

We had thought of using the boat to reach the branches but a boat and a chainsaw sounds like a fast trip to casualty, this only left the option of partially draining the lake and slogging around in the mud, even then each year we have been defeated by the onset of cold weather before the slow drainage had reduced the levels sufficiently, so here you can see the results as we trim back the willows and do a 360 degree pan around the banks from the center of the lake.

Blessing the clocher in Nouzerines

Steph & Chris Dagg run Notaires & Alder lakes. Through this personal Blog, Steph is going to describe her experiences of moving to France and living the dream of many UK carp anglers.

Last Saturday morning Chris and I went to a rather nice ceremony at St Clair’s church in Nouzerines. It was a little service to bless the new clocher (bell tower). The weather was foul but at least it was dry inside the church, although it certainly wasn’t warmer than outside! We did wonder slightly why the powers that be had decided to celebrate in the middle of winter. The tower was actually finished last summer!

Père Arnaud Favard is the priest for this parish. He has a wonderful singing voice and is very strict about the musical standards of his flock.

We always have to rehearse beforehand! He took us through the various chants and hymns and only when we were good enough, could we proceed to the ceremony proper. (He does the same thing every year at the St Francis Day animal ceremony.)

The Président of Patrimoine Nouzerines, the fundraising body that has been the driving force behind the church renovations, opened the service and then there was one of the now perfect hymns and a prayer. Fellow English expat Christopher (not my Chris) played his piano accordion to liven things up. Then the priest gave a short sermon, explaining the different symbols that are usually to be found on top of every church’s bell tower in the form of the weather vane. There’s always a cock, as opposed to a pig, cow, sheep, carp etc, since this creature is the symbol of rejuvenation and new life. By crowing at dawn, the cock celebrates that night is over. Symbolically this represents him heralding the end of any period of physical or moral darkness. He always stands atop a globe to represent the world. Most church weather vanes also feaure a girouette – the wind indicator itself. Père Favard told us how important that was in the past, a real indication of what weather was heading our way. The Maire gave a short speech too.

One of the hymns had been about people coming to church from all four points of the horizon. These aren’t the points of the compass as you’d expect, but in fact east, west, up and down. Churches are on an east-west axis. The alter is at the eastern end so that the congregation sits and looks towards the rising daylight and life. In contrast the priest looks west, facing death. In Limousin statues of Christ always face west for this reason. The up and down represent heaven and hell. The weather vane draws eyes upwards towards heaven. He didn’t go into the hell thing in much detail!

After more expert singing, we finished the ceremony outside with the physical blessing of the clocher. The rain briefly held off while the priest read out the benediction (see below) and we sang the refrain beautifully. Then he threw holy water towards the bell tower before rushing back into the church to start ringing the bells.

We’d said the Lord’s prayer along the way. For the first time I saw the words of it in French, but I stuck to saying the English version. It occurred to me that our heathen youngest son doesn’t know that cornerstone of the Christian faith in either language! I guess that’s a bit of a giveaway that we don’t go to church all that often. I remember how Benj blurted out loudly once, when we were at a service, I forget for what reason: “Gosh we’re in Church. Is it Christmas!” Don’t you just love kids!

Famous French Cheeses - Cantal

The ever popular Cantal

Steph & Chris Dagg run Notaires & Alder lakes. Through this personal Blog, Steph is going to describe her experiences of moving to France and living the dream of many UK carp anglers.

Cantal (15) is one of the three départements that make up the Auvergne (the other two are Allier (03) and Puy de Dôme (63)). It’s one of my favourite parts of France. We had a great holiday near St Flour when Rors was a toddler, and the other two about 9 and 11 or so. We were staying in the most spartan gîte we’d ever come across. It had electricity and running water but those were pretty much the only modern conveniences!

There wasn’t a kettle or a tin opener or any cups bigger than thimbles. We hit the hypermarché to put that to rights. It was a rather gloomy old house with a menacing stuffed squirrel on a shelf as you went upstairs.

We met some great people. The Cantalais are very friendly. Chris and Benj had gone fishing so I took the two little ones for a bike ride. It was blazing sunshine when we set out but a thunderstorm loomed out of nowhere so we took shelter in a village shop, since we were in flimsy cotton clothes and it was lashing. I asked the assistant if it was OK for us to hang around there until the deluge stopped. But it went on and on and on, so the shopkeeper offered to run us home and said we could put our bikes in the storeroom to keep them safe till we came back for them. And she was as good as her word.

There was an elderly farming couple in the tiny hamlet of Farges, where the gîte was. They made cheese and invited us down to watch the process one afternoon. Then another time Madam la Fermière arrived on the doorstep with all the ingredients to show me how to make the perfect truffade, Cantal style without ham but with extra cholesterol. It was delicious. So although the landscape is bleak and rugged, I always think of Cantal as a warm place.

Anyway, to the cheese.

Now a quick test. Can you remember from last Tuesday which family of cheeses Cantal falls into? It’s group 4, pressed cheeses or fromages à pâte pressée. Cantal is a very old cheese and dates back to the Gauls.

Henri de La Ferté-Senneterre, a marshall from the Auvergne, introduced the cheese to Louis XIV, or possibly the other way round, and that’s what made it famous. There are two types – Cantal fermier which is made from raw milk, lait cru, and Cantal laitier, the mass market version made from pasteurised milk. The milk in either form comes from Salers cows, but only when they’re being fed on hay. When the cows are grazing on grass in the summer months, then their milk is turned into Salers cheese. Now I bet you didn’t know that, did you! And Salers cows really know how to do horns.

The hard cheese is made into one foot wide cyclinders and aged for anything between 1 to 6 months. It gets a different label according to how long it has aged, namely: Cantal jeune (aged 1-2 months), Cantal entre-deux or Cantal doré (aged 2-6 months), and Cantal vieux (aged more than 6 months). Apparently a lump of Cantal vieux will keep for eighteen months!

Tastewise it reminds me very much of Cheddar. It gets stronger as it gets older, so the Cantal jeune is very milky and creamy, whereas the indestructible Cantal vieux is described as ‘vigorous’. I’m not one for strong cheese so I’ve tended to steer clear of it, but plenty of people do enjoy it. It has a 45% fat content and makes good fondues and gratins.

But I love a chunk with baguette and chutney, and it goes very nicely with fruit cake too.

So another interesting and tasty cheese to try.

Famous French Cheeses - Camembert

Steph & Chris Dagg run Notaires & Alder lakes. Through this personal Blog, Steph is going to describe her experiences of moving to France and living the dream of many UK carp anglers.

Camembert is one of the family of fromages à pâte molle et à croûte fleurie (soft cheeses with a floury crust). It’s less fatty than its pressed cheese cousins since it contains more water. It contains around 320 calories per 100g which is pretty good for cheese.

A typical 250g Camembert is made from two litres of milk, so lots of healthy calcium in every slice, and also a good dollop of phosphorus too.

There are vitamins A and B2 as well.

Generally, the longer you keep Camembert, the better it gets provided you don’t go past the eat by date on the packet and don’t leave it to shrivel up in the back of your frigo like we sometimes do, only rediscovering it the next time a full-scale fridge clean out is called for due to there being a funny smell. Which is usually the Camembert! If you eat it affiné, ie about 3 weeks after it’s been made, it’s light and delicate. When it becomes à point about a fortnight later, it’s altogether a more determined cheese. But wash it down with a swig of good strong red wine and it’s extremely palatable.

You can eat it in many different ways. Straight out of the packet on baguette is always nice. But slices rolled in breadcrumbs and then deep fried are my favourites. I once had these with a redcurrant sauce as a starter many years ago, and I can still remember how lovely it was.

I’ve never done it, but apparently it’s delicious if you cook the camembert in a moderate oven in its wooden box (assuming you buy the posher varieties) until the wood is starting to blacken. You then take the crust off with a knife and dip bits of bread into the melty cheese underneath. Something to try but keep a fire extinguisher handy.

I’ve read that Camembert chocolates and camembert sorbet are highly acclaimed gastronomic delights but I can’t say they sound very appealing.

Onto the cheese’s history. Legend has it that it all began with Marie Harel, a farmer in the village of Pays d’Auge at the end of the 18th century. She kindly sheltered a refractory priest, Abbé Charles-Jean Bonvoust, when he was on the run from the guillotine-obsessed authorities during the Revolution. He was from Brie originally, and to show his gratitude to Marie, he gave her the recipe for his native cheese. She combined this with the cheese she traditionally made and voilà, Camembert was born. Except this isn’t true. Camembert already existed. There are references to it that date back to 16th century. Nice try Marie!

The railway helped Camembert become famous since it could now be easily transported to markets in Paris. Once Napoléon said he liked it and officially called it Camembert, its success was assured. The famous round wooden boxes for Camembert were invented in 1890 by Ridel. These allowed the cheese within to breathe and thus be transported further afield to conquer foreign markets.

Until 1910 Camembert actually had a bluish mould on it. This ended with the discovery of penicillium candidum which produced a more attractive white mould. And it’s said that the cheese became the unofficial symbol of France when it was included in the daily rations of soldiers in the Great War.

So, rather an interesting cheese all round.

Winter Carp Fishing & the Big Freeze

Well it looks like we are well into some really bad weather and the forecast is for more to come as the big freeze from eastern Europe now spreads across the whole of Northern Europe.  Temperatures have really fallen and I doubt there is anywhere in France that has not been affected… I know as I witnessed -17 degrees  in south eastern France only last week. What an amazing difference a year makes as last Feb and March we were basking in really warm temperatures for the time of year.

At the moment  we don’t know of a lake in France that isn’t frozen… and I have no doubt that some early bookers who are anticipating going in Feb and early March will be getting a tad nervous. But never fear. We will never knowingly send anyone to a lake that we know is frozen or likely to be frozen, so the venue owners will keep us updated and watch the forecasts closely.

All our owners are happy to amend dates and we can change the ferries too  so we can ensure the anglers get a real chance of some fish. So if you are travelling early for your trip make sure you give us a call the week before or keep in contact with the bailiff or owner by email for constant updates. Fingers crossed all will be fine, but remember all is not lost just because the weather has taken a bad turn. So If you are worried about your trip being affected  just give me a call…

A few of the lakes have sent in some interesting video updates of the frozen lakes, so take a look at this one from Notaires and you will see exactly what I mean… those summer fishing holidays seem a long way away!

The Great Pig Experience

Steph Dagg, owner of Notaires carp lake in France, explains their plans to expand the non-carping side of their business.

As our previous visitors to Notaires will be aware, we are building up an old style farm with a selection of animals (ok they didn’t have llamas on an old fashioned farm but that is another story). Currently we have llamas, alpacas, sheep, turkeys and  chickens (and pets such as a dog, some cats and guinea pigs). Now we are planning to expand into old breed pigs. In preparation for this I attended a pig experience day held in Poitou-Charente by David  and Lorraine at Le Logis old breeds farm (www.lelogisfrance.com) . Prior to this course I hadn’t been closer to a pig than the supermarket meat counter.

It was an old fashioned drive across France (I say old fashioned because the centre of France has no east-west motorways, so it was a case of travelling from town to town like England in the 1960s). It took 3 ½ hours to drive 150Km west to Poitiers and then 30 minutes to drive the last 60km south on the motorway) to arrive at the pretty Charentais farm. After coffee and introductions we went out to get hands on experience,  starting with feeding and welfare. We tiptoed past one of the farrowing stalls where one of the sows had given birth to a litter the previous night. Lorraine explained how critical the first 24 hours were to the welfare of the new litter.

We first met the Berkshire pigs that Le Logis is becoming famous for and it was immediately obvious that these animals were a cut above the cows and sheep that I had met before.  The pig is rated the 4^th most intelligent in the animal kingdom, only behind chimps, dolphins and elephants. The Berkshires trotted over to greet us, vocalizing amiably (it would be an understatement to justsay grunting like in a childrens story). They tucked into their food and played around with the buckets afterwards. Lorraine explained that they loved to play with toys and that an overweight pig could be slimmed down with a toy that had some treats concealed within.

We topped up their shelters with straw and I was amazed at how clean and tidy they kept their sleeping quarters. I know some teenagers who could learn a thing or two from them (mentioning no names).

Lorraine talked us through the various breeds that they have at the farm, not just Berkshires but Gloucester old spots and the rather fetching Oxford Sandy and Black, also known as the Plum Pudding pig!

All too soon it was time to drive back to Notaire’s but with plenty of time for planning where to raise the pigs; in the wooded section below the house lake where they could have a very naturalized life or should we use them to turn over the cereal field next to house where we could spend more time with them. Watch this space and I will keep you posted on our progress.