Winter has arrived, better get the Raclette going...

Last night we had Raclette for tea. Raclette is a type of cheese, and also a meal using this cheese a base. It's a typical cold weather dish which comes from the Alpes and it looks like this:




It basically consists of you melting cheese using a fire or special Raclette machine and then pouring the melted cheese over boiled potatoes, cured meats and gherkins. It was quite tasty.

It's December now (the 2nd according to my Advent Calendar that mother kindly send over) and today I saw the first evidence of it being winter - frost! The rest of Europe, and certainly England, is inches deep in snow, whereas down here in the South of France its still over 10 degrees during the day.


The First Frost.

I went to the Christmas markets on Tuesday and was bitterly disappointed. They're nothing like at home; no hog roast, no German sausage, no beer tents... they're was hardly anyone there and it didn't feel the least bit like Christmas. In Manchester you have to fight your way through the crowds, queue for ages for your hog roast barm and it always feels Christmasy.

And yesterday I had a nice day with Merlin. Took him to McDonalds for dinner, and then to the cinema to see Raiponce (Rapunzel) - the new Disney film, Tangled. It was in 3D and I absolutely LOVED it. It was brilliant. Merlin wasn't took impressed though, don't think he's a big fan of princesses!