Kitchen tour.

I was recently very impressed by fellow-blogger Molly's tour of her garden in Wales. Unfortunately I can't reciprocate, as I simply don't know the names of the plants, so, instead, I thought I'd give you a small tour around my bijou kitchen.

On a central beam, I pin up all sorts of wierd bits and pieces of paper. My motoring fines, parking tickets, and even soup packets from Jamaica. And yes, we did consume the contents!

This is my Pastis glass and water pitcher. I can't drink Pastis from anything else, luckily this type of kit is standard boot-sale fare.

When I first came to live in France I couldn't stand the taste of Pastis, but as it was offered just about everywhere I had to train myself to like it. I bought myself a bottle of 'Ricard' and over the following months drank a little each day. My method worked, and I'm now a dedicated aficionado.

All foodies love cook-books, and as the 'chef' of the family, I am no exception. This is only a very small selection, and they're all quite standard. A few veggie books in there, and lots on 'preserving' and 'charcuterie'. Elsewhere I have some really beautiful Indian food books; a quick delve between their pages is almost as envigorating as a short holiday

The store cupboard. With all our fresh and preserved vegetables from Haddock's, meat in the freezer, and all the tins, dried-pasta, rice, etc, we have enough food in the house to survive at least a month's siege. Please note the jar of Spanghero 'Rillettes de Canard', one of the true delights of the south west, and only 99.9% fat. Delicious.

I was going to offer more kitchen views, but isn't it amazing how cobwebs show up so well in photos!