Chicken nugget curry?

January 4, 2011

tags: Ashes 2011, Australia, Cote D Azur, Currencies Direct, dahu, Food & wine, La Rosiere, Living In France, The Alps, The Ashes 2010, Valbonne

The call from our son after 4 days away asking how to make a chicken nugget curry persuaded us that it was indeed time to come home to the Cote d’Azur. My own wizardry in the kitchen is well renowned and in no way should be construed as a deliberate attempt to avoid cooking duties, and clearly my son retains the same genetic ability, to boldly cook where no one else will.

This is the first split infinitive I have ever allowed in this column, but even that is not sacred if there is a joke there.

Last night was the first days play in the final Ashes Test series, this time in Sydney and will be the first days play that I have not witnessed on my sofa or actually there as in Brisbane for the first match. Despite the rain (sounds like the cote d’Azur recently), England are once again on top, so my presence by the TV screen was not required to ensure a good England performance.

The locals at La Rosiere took great delight in telling me about the dahu. This sounds like wind up to me, or a really good scrabble word.

According to what I was told, and now believe, the dahu is a small mountain deer found in the local area in the Alps. It has both its right hand legs considerably shorter than its left legs, to give it the ability to remain horizontal without strain when grazing on the steep slopes. A perfectly feasible piece of Darwinesque evolution on first look, but for me it raises a number of questions; what would happen if you had a dyslexic dahu? Would it keep toppling over? What happens if it wants to turn around? Do they all face in the same direction all the time, or could there be left and right-handed dahu? Maybe male dahu have short left legs and females short right legs? What happens if they find some flat ground, would they all walk with a limp? What happens if you get a gay dahu?

I have spent the night wrestling with all these questions. Does anyone remember that film “Flight of the Phoenix”? It is an old movie where a sergeant major type sets off to walk out the desert after surviving a plane crash, but because one leg is slightly shorter than the other he arrives back in the same place 5 days later having walked in a very large circle.

beer gets in the way of a good view from the terrace at L'Ancona restaurant at La Rosiere

The trip back to the Valbonne started in bright sunshine but very cold and took a mere six hours where god again blessed us with cloudy grey weather. Much more of this and I will be looking to take a vacation in England to get some sunshine. Actually we will be back in UK in 10 days or so for The France Show, named after myself of course, staged at Earls Court or Olympia and sponsored by Currencies Direct, who are kindly providing accommodation. I trust my usual suite at The Dorchester will be available.

Chris France

Buying a house in France, moving money? www.currenciesdirect.net/chrisfrance

Latest local news? http://www.fr2day.com/

Best Estate Agency in Valbonne? http://www.rivierarealty.net/

Best French Riviera Property Agent?

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