A postcard from Etretat

Étretat is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in north-western France.

A postcard to South Africa from Etretat. 9 May 1987.

This part of the French coastline was spectacular and we walked the cliff edge and the beach at Etretat. 

A close look at the photo below has Fred in the righthand foreground as the 'pack-horse' on the beach, he carried Barry in the backpack and used to carry Shawni too when she got tired, which was often.

Kersten family visiting Etretat.

A little Normandy magic

As much as I remember my first experience of the Ile Flottante for desert, I have no recall of this little magic intervention for Barry. Makes me wonder on a whole lot of levels.

My photo album record for the Robert the Devils Castle.

Milk from a cow and the delicious 'Ile Flottante'

Our Normandy farm stay, May 1987 with the family Leroy.

Some of our touring was hard work in France, challenging with 2 very young children but this trip was a delight.

We were made so welcome at the farm stay, living and eating with the family. They were generous and certainly confirmed our belief about the 'gourmand' nature of the Normandie people.

I see from my letter that the littleys were in a room with one of the daughters, how quaint.

I remember Shawni watching the cow been milked, her amazement at been given this warm full cream milk in a bowl, with sugar added and a spoon for breakfast.

The sunday lunch has been a lifetime memory for me because of the total surprise and the deliciousness of the desert. The captivating 'floating island' desert, a soft meringue floating in a lake of creme anglais, a heavenly thin custard.

I never tried to replicate this desert, it has always intimidated me but I ordered it regularly during our few years in France. Maybe it's time to try making it after all these years.



Ile Flottante:
Ingredients

1.5 cups of milk

split vanilla pod

3 eggs, separated

115g caster sugar

Make the 'islands':

Method
Beat the egg whites in a clean dry bowl, with a little pinch of salt, until the eggs have firm peaks.
Continue beating the eggs, while slowly adding the remaining 40gm of sugar.
The eggs can now be put into boiling water to cook or, quicker and cleaner, cooked in a microwave on low power for 45 seconds. An alternative is to poach spoonfuls of the egg white mix in the hot milk for 2 minutes, before adding the egg yolks to make the custard. (Note: the egg-white can be cooked as a normal meringue if preferred - in a very low cooker for an hour or so - popular, but not really very traditional...)

Make the custard:

Method
Heat the milk over a low-medium heat, with the vanilla pod. Heat until slightly bubbling, then remove from the heat.
In a bowl, mix well the egg yolks and 75gm of the sugar, then pour on the hot milk and mix well. Pour the mixture into a clean saucepan, and heat over low heat for 5 minutes, stirring continuously. It should not boil during this time. After a fex minutes the custard will have thickened (about the consistency of double cream).
Pour into a jug and remove the vanilla pod.
The custard can now be put into bowls, and the islands placed on top. The ile flottante are now ready to eat straight away.

Finding Martie in my letter this morning

This old photo makes me smile, little Shawni waving from the kitchen window of the house we rented in Marly-le-Roi in the mid eighties.

I would write my letters at a small kitchen table near where Shawni is standing in the photo, mostly with a mug of tea in hand. Looking at my letters again this morning I saw my comment to Mom about Martie. 'She is such a good person, I really miss having her around." Bernie had organised a canoe paddle for Fred and Martie used the opportunity to put together treats for us all.

Martie and I chatted a little earlier about all the decisions that she has to make about her pending spinal surgery. Not an easy time especially when she feels so drained from all the discomfort and how it is limiting her days.

So Martie dear friend, twenty years later, you are more than a good person, you are remarkable and I so value all the years of friendship.

We do not write letters anymore but if I was sending you one it would be a thank you, it is still a privilege to be your friend.

Spending time with family

Our home in Les Ombrage, Marly-le-Roi with the 'summerhouse' we used for visitors.

Living in Europe during 1987 we had the opportunity to meet and spend more time with Fred's Dutch family.

Their first visit to our home in Marly-le-Roi got Fred and I into a spin to complete the outside room or 'summerhouse' as I called it and to make it liveable and warm. The building was about 400 years old and when we went back to Paris a few years back I was disappointed to see the building had been pulled down.

We had gone to IKEA, a favourite store we frequented to the north of Paris, bought many meters of dark blue fabric and I 'spent the rest of the weekend sewing 12 curtains'.

I am impressed. Fred wove the tiebacks, hung the curtains, finished the skirting, we moved the beds in and I decorated with 'odds and ends'.

Our first visitors from the Netherlands were Fred's Uncle Piet and Tante Grada Kersten, and his Tanta Lies and Uncle Wim. I write to Mom that 'all of them very nice people'.

They had a special zest for life and we enjoyed our times with them. 'They are really so full of fun and very easy to please.'

I love that I seem surprised that they praised my cooking and said it was very French.

I have been inspired by these letters to get back to some of my favourite french recipes that I cooked during those years.

So last night I made french onion soup for Ian and Julie here in Cape Town, with its topping of melted gruyere on ciabatta.

Still good so many years later.

I have a couple of photos of the family during their visit, not good photos but everyone looks well and content.

Fred with his family in 1987.

Post script:
I was going through photos and cards and found this birthday card to Barry from Tante Grada thanking us for their few days with us in Paris.

Fred's aunt writing to us from Holland

My Parisian houses

My framed cross-stitch tapestries hang in our Cape Town flat.

I have been completely absorbed in finding out more about my grandmother Nellie's family, that it is now time to get back to my letters.

April is a special month for birthdays and anniversaries in our family.

So I dipped into my pile of letters that Mom preserved for me and the letter of the 30th April 1987 triggered lots of memories.

Fred and I had gone into Paris to buy pieces of original ceramic art to celebrate our 8th anniversary. I was sharing it with Mom and sent her a portion of the brochure so she could see what the ceramic houses look like.

The pieces are still in my lounge, one or two got broken or a little chipped but otherwise they have survived the decades.

Sometime later I found a cross-stitch pattern and made up two pieces as they looked very similar to the Parisian houses we had bought. The cross-stitch tapestries hang in the flat here in Cape Town and I still enjoy looking at them.

For our anniversary in 1987 we had dinner at a French Bistro on the Seine River. I mention to Mom that it had a great atmosphere and we had lovely seafood.

A few days back Shawni sent me photos of their evening out to Hippopotamus at the Museum Hotel in Wellington to celebrate their first anniversary.

She and I are a function of the masterchef phenomenon and share a love of yummy food beautifully presented.

Her menu choice: Beef fillet, beef cheek cannelloni, braised short rib with truffle mash and roast marrow.
Craig's choice : Venison with pickled beetroot, poached prune, salted caramel ganache, chocolate chilli crumble.
New Zealand oyster's to start and French Champagne. Yum.

I wonder what my Mom would have thought of that menu!

Finding a record of the divorce...

We are linked by blood, and blood is memory without language.

Joyce Carol Oates

I spent hours on my laptop last night following leads to find out more about the disappearance of Kathleen Argyle, my maternal great grandmother, from my grandmother Nellie's life.

And then I stumbled on a site that has divorce records.

William Argyle divorced Kathleen in 1902.

Oh my.
I had a moment of feeling shocked that she had not raised Nan, her little Nellie, she had not died but had got involved with Arthur Merchant, the co-respondent sited in the divorce.

Reference:	J 77/772/3487
Description:	Divorce Court File: 3487. Appellant: William Argyle. Respondent: Kathleen Arglye. Co-respondent: Arthur Merchant. Type: Husband's petition for divorce [HD].
Date:	1902
Held by:	The National Archives, Kew
Legal status:	Public Record
Language:	English

In the 1901 Census when Kathleen and little Nellie were living with her parents in Chirstchurch, Arthur Merchant was 23, the same age as Kathleen and a soldier from Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, at the Shoeburyness Barracks.


By 1911, Arthur and Kathleen are living in Eastleigh, about 30 miles north-east from her parents in New Milton, they are married and have been for 7 years. 

What is puzzling to me is the response to the question of the number of children. Kathleen has noted 3 children, one living and 2 dead. We know that her first daughter Edith died, but Nellie is certainly alive and well in South Africa at this point and William, which I am assuming is their child is 5. Does she not know how to deal with a child not living with her? And this little boy called William, the name of her divorced husband, all a bit odd.

Arthur is now a Blacksmith's Striker in the Carriage Department of a Railway Company. A striker would have been the blacksmith's assistant, working with iron using a furnace, anvil and hammer. 

Nolene's thoughts on the new insight about Kathleen:
'As William divorced her (appears to have been for infidelity) that may explain why he had custody of Nellie and was able to take Nellie to South Africa…………….Perhaps William went out to South Africa to establish a base and when he came back to the UK to collect his family he discovered that Kate had been seduced by an irresistible Royal Artillery soldier……………….'

Arthur John Merchant  in the England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966 I am fascinated about all the information one can glean about our ancestors. Here is another snippet that Nolene sent to me from the National Probate Calendar, which is an index of wills. So Arthur died in 1957 and William inherits his estate. It looks like Kathleen died in June 1949 aged 71. She did not know her daughter nor did she meet her granddaughter, my mother Daphne Estelle who would have been 16 in 1949.  I will never know the real story but it has been an extraordinary search to learn this amount about Kathleen Guster/Argyle/Merchant.