Hello hello, welcome to Episode 85 of Life On the Brink!
Have you, like me, read countless stories of people who uprooted their lives and moved to the south of France, enjoying days of sunshine and yummy food? Well today I'm speaking with Judith Keys, owner of My Food In France, an online cooking membership and community, who did just that!
Originally from Northern Ireland, Judith has lived the past 10 years in Provence, and she's recently combined her loves of cooking, baking, and living in France to form a lovely new business adventure.
*Find Judith at My Food In France!*
In this episode we talk all about:
-why and how she moved from the U.K. to the south of France
-French food culture
-connecting through cooking
-farmer's markets and lavender fields
-favorite go-to meals and cookbooks
...and a lot more!
Plus, Judith shares a delicious and heartwarming Little Joy, along with an album of music that's just FUN.
For the complete show notes, click here!
For full transcript, click here!
Site: lifeonthebrink.live
Social: @anna_on_the_keys
Hello hello, welcome to Episode 85 of Life On the Brink!
Have you, like me, read countless stories of people who uprooted their lives and moved to the south of France, enjoying days of sunshine and yummy food? Well today I'm speaking with Judith Keys, owner of My Food In France, an online cooking membership and community, who did just that!
Originally from Northern Ireland, Judith has lived the past 10 years in Provence, and she's recently combined her loves of cooking, baking, and living in France to form a lovely new business adventure.
*Find Judith at My Food In France!*
In this episode we talk all about:
-why and how she moved from the U.K. to the south of France
-French food culture
-connecting through cooking
-farmer's markets and lavender fields
-favorite go-to meals and cookbooks
...and a lot more!
Plus, Judith shares a delicious and heartwarming Little Joy, along with an album of music that's just FUN.
For the complete show notes, click here!
For full transcript, click here!
Site: lifeonthebrink.live
Social: @anna_on_the_keys
Welcome to Life on the brink, a lovely little place filled with inspiration and creativity that is dedicated to enjoying life one day at a time. I'm Ana. And together, we're exploring the beautiful things in this world that fascinate us. And often discovering something new. Hello, hello, my friend, welcome to episode 85 of life on the brink. Happy March. We are now just a few short weeks away from the start of spring, which is exciting. I've been doing a lot of work and our new home. And now out in the garden. We've inherited many, many beautiful plants. So spent some of the weekend pruning the roses. That was more painful than I anticipated. But it's all coming together, I hope that you are doing well enjoying your days and hopefully making some delicious food. But in the event that you haven't been inspired to cook or you want to get more into cooking, you know, I love to talk about cooking on this podcast. And today I'm talking a lot about it in combination, in tandem with another subject that I'm very passionate about, which is France. I and I'm sure many of you, I know many of you are francophiles and I love to draw inspiration from the French culture and language and food, the cuisine especially. And so today's episode is right in line with that I have a wonderful conversation for you, between myself and Judith keys, who I've met recently. She originally is from Belfast and Northern Ireland. And then she worked for some years in Scotland. But she in recent years has moved to the south of France, and has recently begun a business venture all about food and cooking. It's called My food in France, and we talk about it in our conversation, but it's basically a cookery a membership and online membership. That is also a community. And it's full of cooking classes. And basically you learn how to cook in your own home, become more comfortable with your kitchen, and learn to make things from someone who has a lot of experience in the kitchen and who's passionate about it. I've read a lot of books about people that are either real or fictional who have moved to France, either to Paris or the south of France. And this is this is one of those people it's so fascinating to talk to her. And in our conversation we talk all about different foods and experiences and a little bit of what it's like to transition to that culture in that language. So go ahead and make yourself a nice cup of tea. Maybe something with lavender in it as we celebrate for Vons. Or of course a cafe or a shockula showed I hope I'm saying it right. Because this is going to be a very yummy episode. This is my conversation with Judith keys all about her life and her food in France All right, welcome Judith. Welcome to Life on the brink. Thank you so much for having me Anna. So you are owner of my food in France and you uprooted your life and moved to the south of France in 2013. And it's just been a journey from there. So this is fascinating to me. Love to know how this happened. How you came to live in France first of all, so my family have had a love affair with France for a very long time. My My dad was a French teacher after going to Paris as a think he was 17 when he went to Paris for the first time to do some sort of work experience thing and worked in a missile under a threat or I can think of what that is an English and I would say an old people so an elder in in Paris when he was 17 and he fell in love with France and the French language then and I think he passed it on to my sister and I for sure we both absolutely love France and we both spoke French from a very young age as well and I studied French at university at college and and yeah, and then my parents they took early retirement here. We had come on holiday here are lots of times over my, throughout my childhood. And I suppose it's just been a big part of our family. We love the culture and the people and the weather and the food, obviously. So yeah, so my parents retired here, and my sister had already moved permanently here, she had this dream of, you know, starting her little small holding or farm and raising her kids and the sunshine, you know, and in this beautiful countryside, setting where we are, so I was actually the last one to come. Oh, wow. You know, we were all here, actually. And I used to come and visit my family. And I really miss them because we were far away. And, you know, I used to come as often as I could. And then I finally decided to move. Oh, my goodness. Well, that's so that's so interesting, because I've always felt like, I wouldn't, I couldn't live somewhere, you know, far away because of my family, I would miss them. And so that's just a perfect combination. We are lucky. I mean, I lived for a long time and dependently in Scotland. And I worked there for 12 years, studied and worked there. And you know, I was far from my family. But I did okay, you know, I love them. And I came to visit, I suppose I just wanted a change something in me, I was working in a nine to five in a corporate environment in this big global law firm. And I wasn't a lawyer, I was team coordinator and manager and that type of thing. And I realized that I couldn't move up any further I watched the lawyers all move up from you know, trainee to solicitor to associate to I mean, there's probably different grades of lawyer in America, but I could see them all moving up the ladder, and I was in a position where I had reached manager level, and I couldn't really go any farther. So there was that. And also, I just didn't, the corporate environment wasn't in line with who I was. I didn't feel like I really was meant to be there. I had fallen into the job really? When I finished school, you know, I just when I finished college, I just got the job because I needed to work. And then was there still no 10 years later. Wow. So I, I had that job. And I had just bought a house as well. And I was doing all the right things that you're supposed to do. Right. And I, I just thought no, this I have to get out. It was a sort of, it was a moment of I don't know, I think I'd bought the house six months earlier. And I just was scared and just thought no, this, this is not for me. So I, I took some time to come to France for six months, I was really lucky. My work allowed me to take some time. And I took six months and came to France to be with my family and thought well, I'll try it. I'll go and see what it's like. And I loved it. And I just I mean, I wasn't working. So it was very, it was rose tinted glasses in a way. You know, I didn't have the real life experience. But you know, I had the weather and all those things I said before the food. You know, it's a beautiful part of France, where we live in Provence. So gosh, it was just, it just was so perfect. So I you know, and then I met my husband, Pierre, as well during that six months, so that made a big difference thing. Oh my gosh, so So your husband is French? Yeah. And so your your children are? Do they speak French and English or? So I yeah, I have two kids, two little boys. The youngest one is 17 months, so he's not really he's just starting to talk. But though the older one Yeah, he's he's six and he's pretty much bilingual. Yes, I tried to stay just in English with him all the time. That's what the science says is bad. So you know, if if your mother tongue is English, you stay in English. The same for Pierre my husband, he needs to stay in French and then that's less confusing for their little brains, you know? But I ended up you know, I'm my husband's English is not great. So I ended up I'm in French with him a lot. So I ended up talking to my kids in French as well as just you know, and they're fine. They can cope for that. Wow. Well, that's that's incredible to to grow up with two languages like that in a in with parents that speak different languages. Well, so tell us a little bit about your relationship with cooking and food. How if your job wasn't for you how you landed on Cooking. So cooking again, I suppose it's a it's a passion that I've always had, because of my family, and especially my grandmother's, and my dad's mother was an amazing Baker taught me lots of amazing recipes from a very young age. And I think I fell in love with it, then there's pictures of me as a kid, like making mud pies when I'm, you know, two and three and putting them in the oven. And no, I just have always had a real love of food and cooking. And when I moved here, I wasn't sure what I was gonna do when I moved here permanently. And I actually started to work as a virtual assistant, the VA or OBM. I don't know if you've heard of that before. But yeah, yeah. So you know, helping, actually worked with a lot of female executive coaches and supported them with their marketing and lots of different stuff really varied work. And I did that for a few years. And I loved it. But Anna, I fell back straight into it was like, I was at a desk again, from nine to five. And I thought, you know, I can really do this, I'm good at it. I'm like making money. And it's good. But the same thread came back up again of, I think you used a word just before we came on the podcast about a creative outlet. And there's something in me that just thought no, that this, it's been sort of pushing out of me all my life, this need to do something with food. And it was when I was pregnant with my second little boy, that the foodie business was born, I decided to just go for it. So I launched my food in France and decided to make a business with my passion. Just growing, it's still growing. So beautiful. Yeah, yeah, of course, of course. Now, how I assume that, because it's online, you can have clients from all around. So how has it been adapting into, I guess, the food culture of France. So the culture here is very different. And I love there's certain things that I love about the foodie culture here, I'm certain things that I find still quite difficult. I don't know about where you live, and but where I come from, I live in a bit. I lived in big cities all my life, and you could get any type of food at any time of day or night. Just go out and get whatever you want. Yeah, it's pretty varied. Where I live. It's not a city, but there's a lot of variety. Yeah. And in France, they love French food. That is pretty much you know, I'm sure in Paris or Marsay, there will be more variety. But where I live in the middle of nowhere here in Provence, there is very little choice. We have there's like pizza vans everywhere. But that's about this sort of the highlight of the variety. They quite like pale as well. But yeah, it's very French food and very much set. times of the day, when we can't get food, say you went to a restaurant at three o'clock in the afternoon, they're all closed. You can't find anywhere to eight to three o'clock in the afternoon. He can't go to a restaurant at half, seven in the evening and asked for just dessert. They you know, you get that they don't understand. Oh, no, you have to have starter main course cheese course dessert with wine, you know. So, it's taken a lot of getting used to for me. But I have also introduced a lot of the things that I love to my family, you know, to my French family and I and my husband loves you know, I make lots of Thai food and Chinese food and Mexican and Irish as well, you know, and I'm British food from where I come from. So he's he's used to lots of different things now. Wow. Well, what, I guess my idea of French food is kind of niche and I'm sure it's much more colorful and broad. Is there anything that like has pleasantly surprised you about like, just the variety within that French food, pleasantly surprised me, probably. I mean, I know around where I live here. There are some more new chefs coming up and cooking with a bit more of a fusion style. So there still will be a lot of French influence on the food, but you'll have maybe some sort of Asian influence on it. There's a really beautiful restaurant in my town nearby. And it's really nice fusion of Asian and French cuisine, which I didn't know you know, I just didn't know what it was gonna be like, but it's gorgeous. And she does it so well. The chef Oh, she is unbelievable. So that was really interesting to me. And just to see how they use traditional ingredients in different ways, also has been surprising, but generally it is very, very traditional. And you will find that even in. So we have a little all bears restaurant and my village here. And it's run by two amazing women that I love, and they're so nice. And they, they tried to do different things, you know, unhealthier versions of things and stuff. And they just, you know, it didn't really work to begin with, and they sort of had to go back to basics and like learn, you know, traditional French food because they were much more into trying new things, and it just didn't land very well, you know, people are used to what they're used to, but I do think it's changing. And, you know, definitely in the big cities, I'm aware that because of where I live, you know, the small little place, you know, I'm sure in the big cities, there's a lot more vibrant culture than where I am. So take what I say with a pinch of salt. Sure, sure. And I'm sure the the quality has got to be lovely as well. I am completely enamored with my local like market, the farmers market. It's not open right now. But how do the markets work? Where you are in Provence? Where is it a daily thing, a weekly thing? What do you do all of your shopping there? I'm very curious. Okay, so we have our locals time, the local market is every Thursday morning, so my local time is called Neons. And ye o n s, if you want to look it up, that's where I live, and then the markets every single Thursday, and it goes on throughout the year. So in the summer, it's a big deal. It's actually one of the most beautiful markets and France was voted one of the My gosh. So there's, I mean, it's a population of 3000. And meals, it's not a big time, but it's just the setting is so beautiful. And the markets, you'll get a range of food, you know, fresh produce fresh meat, fruit and vegetables. But you'll also get, you know, bread and all that type of thing. But you also get you know, gifts and soaps and clothes. And you know, just everything and lots of touristy things in the summer, you'll get sellers come in from different places that don't usually come. My brother in law actually has a stall on the market. He goes every day in the summer, and they sell fresh juice. So yeah, absolutely, that he has been doing that for 15 years now, I think, oh my goodness, it's just fantastic. So that's our local one that every day pretty much there is a market somewhere close by to me. So I could, you know, on a Tuesday, it's invisible, which is not too far away. So if I wanted, I could go there. And I tend not to shop at the market in the summer, just because there are so many people it becomes massive. Oh, it's so touristy in the summer. It's also extremely hot. So you need to go at like seven in the morning if you want to avoid the crowds and the heat. But I do I do go more in the winter. But I'm guilty of not going as often as I should I go for the ease. Now. It's two kids, I would imagine. It's hard to go round the market with them. It's much easier. Just imagine, you know, push them around and the drawing. Oh, that's so funny. So now with with cooking, both in your experience as an instructor, a teacher and just in your foodie life. What would you say to someone who wants to enjoy cooking but just doesn't I personally love cooking and like it's a joy, and I love learning about it. But I there are people in my life that you know, everyone needs to cook. Ideally, you cook and yes. But doesn't really know where to begin. How would you approach that? So for me, it's about good ingredients. And I think you're talking about the local farmers market is probably a really good place to start with someone if you were to take them there. And you know, get them to pick out one or two things. I mean, this is what I do with my kids quite often to try and get them to enjoy vegetables. I'll say right, let's go to the market and you pick a vegetable that you think looks nice. And we'll prepare it together and we'll you know you think about what you might like to do with it or how you would like to cook it or we'll look up some recipes online or in my books, you know, get him actually doing something tactile with the ingredient so everybody has a favorite dish or a favorite thing that they love to eat So I would start there, that's another another way in is, you know, what is your favorite thing to eat. And let's find the main ingredient of that goal and get that and find what you can do with it. So say someone loves steak and chips, you know, go and find a steak, that is really good, you know, find a good quality steak, find good quality potatoes. And you know, just how easy it is to make that delicious, actually, for a beginner even. So it's definitely about good ingredients, but also picking their interest. So finding, finding what it is they love, or getting them involved in the process from the start. So like, yeah, as I said, with my kids, taking them to the market, getting them to choose what looks fun. And I mean, I remember the first time I did it with my eldest, he picked out a massive big fennel bulb, because it had the little, you know, the green for arms on top. And I think we did some raw, we cut it in half, and at some role was just a little bit of olive oil and salt, and he loved it. And then we cooked the other half we roasted on and it's wasn't as nice for him roasted, he actually prepared it raw. So it was just then you start a conversation and you say, Well, why is that? And what is the seasoning? Or is it to do with texture, and there's so much that you can talk about well that I can talk with one ingredient. And I think if you get into a conversation about it, that can really help. And there's also just lots of really simple dishes with you know, one or two ingredients that you could get someone to try and show them how simple it is to do. I think soaps a really good one for that. You can just chuck everything in it up by all the vegetables you like. And you know, it will be nice. Yeah. Yeah. And I love what you said that starting with good quality ingredients. I mean, your end product is going to be good. So yeah, it's like when you bake a cake, you know, you just think I'm putting flour, eggs, sugar, you know, maybe chocolate chips, that can't really be not, it's not going to be horrible. All the ingredients are delicious. It's gonna be nice. That's so true. So being a mother yourself. Are there any dishes that you find yourself going back to over and over as like sort of go twos for a quick dinner or something that you enjoy making a lot? Yes. You know, I'm not ashamed to say but pasture is the easiest. Oh, me too. Yeah, you know, it's easy, and it's nutritious. Well, it depends what you add to it. But you know, it fills them up. They sleep well. I love seeing the meat, the big plate of pasta and meatballs. And you know, that's an easy one. My kids, I'm really lucky to both love soap. So I'll quite often make vegetable soup, or just buy good quality stuff. But you know, and they they love that. But I think pastor pastors have just so versatile and so simple to make in lots of different ways. You know, so the versatility of it is easy for me no matter what way I make pasta. They'll like it. You know, they'll maybe have a ship of pasture. They prepare but you know, you can you can pretty much do it. Anyway and they'll they'll enjoy it. So pastures probably my go to my go to Yeah, I love pasta as well. I'm definitely entering a new era of pasta love. Yeah, what's your favorite pasta dish? Oh, gosh. Well, in the past couple of years I've gotten into making it fresh. And so when I do yeah, it's it is getting easier. So I'm getting more confident with it. But a couple of times I've made like, like a thin spaghetti. And then in the summer I'll get make a fresh pesto that I feel like there's nothing better with basil and the cheese and sometimes I'll add lemon. Like it's just yeah, that is so good. Have you ever made an yaki? I haven't made them no, no Kay is absolutely delicious homemade if you can give that a go as well. Try making your own yogurt is surprisingly simple. And it's so much nicer than the shop what's really okay, in the back of my mind, I'm gonna give it a go. Well, and do you have any? Any cookbooks that you'd have found are just like really consistent and you love going to those France French food or otherwise? Yeah, I have. My go to French cookbook is recipes from there is a really well known French writer called Jones. You'll know. I'll send you the details are short, put it in the notes. And his daughter has written a cookbook all about what mainly features mainly the recipes from her family life. And then her dad would have made for her and her family at when she was a child. But it's also peppered with stories of their life and her childhood and about her father, who's this famous writer. And it just has really classic problems style dishes in it that I love. And every time I make them, they work. And I love that and a cookbook, sometimes you'll buy a cookbook and you love it because you love the person, you know, the the chef or you love the idea of what's in there. And sometimes the recipes don't work that well. But this is one that none of the rest. It's just every recipe has worked perfectly. But they're just really classic French problems sell dishes. I also for I love desserts and cake. And that means I'm always looking for new inspiration in the cake world. So I find there's a British lady called G and I can't remember her surname. But if you look up, Jane's patisserie, and she's thriving at the manatee is everywhere. I'm seeing her all the time. And I know she's been doing it for maybe seven or eight years. So it just shows how long it takes to finally make an impact, you know, but it's very sweet and very just a lot of she does lots of cheese cakes and cookies. And she's she's got two cookbooks at night. And yeah, she's just just easy, simple, delicious recipes, good ones to do with the kids and not very French. But oh, but I love that I'm gonna look up both of those. Yeah, and I love that you are so intentional about cooking with your kids and like getting them involved in the kitchen. I have good memories of being involved. And I think I had like an unnatural, sort of like uncommon, I should say, attraction to cooking and I wanted to go to the grocery store with my mom and she didn't understand why. But I definitely I think growing up not only at least just in a home where there was cooking, being able to see the ingredients become complete dishes, I really had a an appreciation for it. So at some point when I have children, that's something I would love to to incorporate just as you have just like getting them involved in the shopping of the food, the the tastes and textures and how to prepare it from such a young age. I love that there is a there is a magic to watching ingredients become something completely different. I think that was what I remember about being with my gran was watching her turned such simple ingredients into a cake. I couldn't believe that you know what was in the bolt or a cake. That is unbelievable. And I was the same as you I was fascinated by that. And wanted I mean, I remember as a kid pretending to front my own cookery show in the kitchen. And now I am sort of I am I'm doing it, I can't believe it. You know, and I'm just really pride that I've that I have had the courage to actually just take what I love and try and create this business with it. And it's, it's fantastic. I love it, it makes my job fun. I just love it great. And I want that I think that's why I want to I love talking about it. Because I hope in some way that it might just inspire someone else to maybe take that leap and just have a go. I mean, this is I do have a minor privileged position in that my other business that I used to have still I still have that in the background, I still work with some lovely clients, you know, so I haven't completely left all that behind. But that is the dream is to be able to stop that completely and just completely concentrate on the food. Yeah. Well on that subject. I'd love to know more about my food in France, how how does it work? And I can tell from your website, there are like different levels. And then you do different like individual cooking classes and the coconut lime cake. I think it was the last one you did. sounded so so good. It was so good. It's one of my favorite recipes. So I suppose the the main thing I want to say about it first is that my fit in France it was very intentional that I called it that because you know I live in France, but I don't just cook French food. So it's my food and France. It's the stuff that I love and I want to share with people that I find useful, you know, having a young family or on date nights or you know, for entertaining or just comfort food this time of year, or the cake you know definitely was not a French classic. It's just one of my favorite recipes. So it's very much the things that I love, but I also draw from the people And my membership as well. So I'll quite often say, you know, what would you like to learn? Is there anything in particular, is there a technique you'd like me to show you, and I'm not professionally trained, it's just, you know, lots and lots and lots of experience. And living here in France being surrounded by good ingredients and great food. It just, it helps for me, you know, it's just it's such good inspiration. So yeah, so the idea is, you can come along to an individual cookery class. So we could do, I do run bespoke ones, I don't often talk about this, it's a bit like a secret weapon cookery class. So say you want to do cook something really beautiful for your partner, or for family, or whoever for yourself, and you've been dreaming about learning how to do it, come to me, we'll do a class together if I know what the dishes I can teach you. So I love those. And I've done quite a few of those where we've cooked it in advance. And you know, they've learned the techniques, and then they've gone on to make it or we've cooked it together just before the person arrives, and then they can present their beautiful dish to their family. So it's been it's been really good during those. And you can also come to the group cookery classes. So my membership and the membership, you get a cookery class every month. So we'll all get together and cook. But I also advertise those outside the memberships. So if you want to come in and do a cookery class, there'll be one a month that you can come and join and cook with us. So you sign up for it separately, and you get the ingredients list and things and all the things you need for the class. And it's just really, really good fun. And I was worried about the online thing and whether I would be able to create a connection with people over zoom. But I think we all very well learned how to do it since the pandemic, but it's amazing how cooking can create a connection no matter where you are. So we all cook together, we all create something together, it's really fun to talk during the class, but then also have something to show for it at the end. Yeah, we come away from the class with a dish or in your own home, you haven't go anywhere. And then you can just sit at the table and eat it together. You know, it's we don't eat together on the call. But say you're you know, you can sit down and eat your this beautiful dish with your families on Saturday, tomorrow, actually, I'm gonna be doing and there's a really famous French Michelin starred chef called Ellen DeRose. And she works at a Paris I can't remember the name of a restaurant now. But I have her cookbook, and we're gonna be making her mushroom risotto tomorrow. The class is so so good. So yeah, so it is, it's really cool to do the classes online. And you can join Yeah, just as a one off, and whenever you join a cookery class, so you don't want to sign up for the membership, you can join the class, and you get a month free and the membership anyway, if you'd get a class, so you can come and see what it's like and the membership. We do little challenges. I share extra content in there. So I've got some interviews with, you know, local producers. And you know, I'm hoping actually the girls I was telling you about earlier who run the little restaurant in the village, I've got an interview with them coming up. So there's lots of extra foodie content in the membership that so you get access to that. If you join the membership, and it's pretty reasonable. It's 27 pounds a month. I don't know what that works out in dollars, but But yeah, it's pretty reasonable. And there's lots that goes on in there. And yeah, it's just a nice little, it's quite small still at the minute, which I love. Because, you know, people can ask me lots of questions. And I have lots of time to dedicate to people who are in there. So if you're interested in joining now is a good time to do it before it grows, because you get lots of me. And we also I'll do a few little, maybe two or one or two cookery demos a month in there where I'll just go live in the Facebook group and do a little demo. And it's just really fun. It's just a really nice place to be on the internet. That's what my friend, my friend Lucy isn't in the group. And she sent me a message recently and she was just like, your little group is just like the most wholesome place on the earth. I just thought, Oh, I love that. That's what I wanted to be. That's what my Graham felt, you know, spending time with my grandma when I was a kid just felt wholesome. Yeah, nourishing, and that's what I want it to be like for everybody who's in there. And I bet it's a really good resource for someone who is trying to cook more. I always feel like the best way to want to talk about reading. I always suggest to join a book club that is like have similar interests. And so I feel like this is sort of like a cooking version of like a book club to come together and then and just get more comfortable. Will with a thank Allah. You know, people ask me so many questions throughout the class before the class after the class, they share pictures of the dish they've made, all that all those classes that we've done 11. So far, they are all recorded, and they go into the vault, so you have access to all of the classes. But there's also just a hole. I think there's maybe 30 or 40 recipe cards in there. So it's built up over time. And I've just added five new ones into the group this weekend. They're also available to download on the website, actually. So I'll put the link for that there's five little extra free ones that I've just released today. And so I'll share that with you. But I've put those into the membership this weekend with a challenge that they have to make one of those five recipes this weekend. So yeah, one of them is Joe knows, so one of his classic French desserts. And so Kathy, who's in the membership, she's already said she's going to tackle that one this weekend. Oh, that's so fun. I love the community that you're building in there. It's really fun. So I have a couple of sort of like one off questions more about France. What would you say is your favorite thing about living in France? If you have one? Oh, yeah, I've got lots of really good things about living here. I want to say the weather that's such a boring answer. But you know, I come from Ireland, well, Northern Ireland, and then I lived in Scotland for years. So you know, cooled and dark winters that went on for months. So I have to say living in the South of France, we don't get those really late, late nights that we would have got back home in the UK, but um, you know, in the summertime, but it's just, I love the feeling of warmth in the summer, enable our wave a river that flows through the village here. So in the summer, we can just go down and just get in the river if it's too hot. It's just so lovely. I also think I have to think of something more interesting than the weather. Is it? Is it true that there's lavender everywhere in Provence in the summer? Pretty much yeah, I just I love lavender. And so last year, I went to a local lavender farm. And I thought you know, there there are places when this is just growing. And I have one plant myself outside. But I love growing lavender and sunflowers, which I've also heard is a thing in the summer in the south of France. I just I can't imagine. Yes. And there are so many sunflower fields and lavender fields near where I live. This is like not far from here is the pea does. So if you look that up. It's s au LT LT so it's pronounced so that is lavender country. It's about oh my goodness, right from here. And it's just, there's just lavender everywhere. It's absolutely beautiful. But you can get in trouble. My husband once stopped at the side of the road to pick me some lavender. Bring me home and that the farmer came and nearly beat him up with lavender. Like this is my livelihood. And so many people come along and just take a little bumps Oh, you're you'll see people stop. I mean, I have pictures of me walking in the lavender or setting in a lavender field. It's just it's so picturesque. You definitely tell the tourists are here, you know? Yep, that would be me. Yeah. And so you would be just right. It's just It's beautiful to make the most of it. And now I would love to know what has been like the most delicious thing you've discovered since since living in France, I suppose since maybe since visiting as well. I can I can tell you immediately what oh, yeah, cheese cheese. So annoying. And he is. There is a cheat here that I love. It's like my god I was gonna get to go to chase. I need to look this up. I should I should know it's a SAN Felice. Yeah, or a Semak Salah and they're very similar. And they are quite strong. But absolutely amazing. Cheese's. They're non pasteurized, so you have to be careful about when you can eat them. And they are with a glass of red wine. Mind blowing legal. So when I was pregnant with my eldest, Marissa, yes, I couldn't eat say Masala or Simon finished yet there for nine months because they're unpasteurized. So you and I still to this day, remember my father in law coming to the hospital. I'd had the baby I'm bringing me a second masala and a bottle of red wine. And I had a bug so thanks. So I had some Sitemaps a little bit red wine. And it was probably the best foodie experience I've ever had after nine. Well, yeah, I think I'm sure the midwives probably wonder what had happened in the room the smell of that. But think of what was going on. Oh my gosh, so good. Wow, is that like a local cheese to that area or just in France or? I mean, you can get those two cheeses, yeah, they you'll get them all over France, it's not a local one to hear our local cheese is called a PICO Dong, which is a goat cheese, but it is much, much stronger to harder cheese. And you can get varying degrees of it as well, you can get a really, really strong, dry version of it. You know, that's almost like it would nearly crack in your mind. That's the one that my husband loves. I can't I can't I haven't reached that level. Yeah, I cannot do it. But he absolutely loves that. Wow. I'm just wondering if there's anywhere in the states that might have anything close to that? Oh, I bet you bet. I'll be looking there's a I live close to this cheese shop that has a really good variety for this area anyway, and so I'll we'll have you have to send me the information on that. And I'll talk to them. And yeah, see if you can get some imported or yeah, there's an equivalent. Yeah, or something similar. I love a strong cheese. So that's, that's exciting. Cheese is exciting. Oh, well, this is this is just lovely. I do want to make sure that everyone listening will know where to go. I'll leave links to your website, in the in the blog post and everything. But is there anything in particular you'd love to share? To anyone listening? Specifically where to find you? Or special information? Yeah, you could the best place probably as the website. So it's really simple. It's just by fit in france.com. You can, if you want to get in touch with me directly. It's Judith at my fit in france.com. And I'd be happy to answer any French booty questions, I have a new little side venture that I'm starting for anybody who's thinking of moving to France, or is already living in France. So an English speaker here, it's called by best friend in France. So it's a little sister project that I have started. And so there's a free Facebook group for that as well. There's actually a Facebook group, a free one for the foodie stuff too. So just look up by fit in France on Facebook. And you'll find it a free group as well. So come and join us in there. So it's you know, there's, there's less, there's not as much cookery content in there. But there's definitely foodie chat and stuff going on, you know, come on, come on in there. It's free food grip. But I think what was really important to me with the new group, too, was to create somewhere for expats to come get some sort of social and emotional support with the move or living in a different country. Because there's lots of groups, you know, that are focused on the sort of admin side of things and French taxes and the health system and all this stuff that is quite complicated and very useful, you know, that has its place, but I couldn't find anything about, you know, the loneliness that can happen when you live here. At first, I find it very hard, you know, the first couple of years, I could speak French, but I still find it quite hard not being surrounded by my home comforts and all that type of thing. So it's a dream, but it's, you know that it is some parts can be difficult. So I wanted to create a space for people to come in and talk about, you know, just to share a bit about their journeys and their lives in France. So that's, that's a whole new thing starting as well, which I'm loving. So yeah, so my foot in France, or come and find me at my best friend in France if you're if you're thinking of, of making the big move. Oh, I love that. All right. Well, I always ask my guests on the podcast if they have a little joy, which can be something that is either a physical thing or just an experience that you had that has really brightened up your week. So do you would you like to share a little joy? You actually touched upon it earlier Anna without realizing he talked about the lime and coconut cake. That was that earlier cookery class I held this week. And it was just such a joy to cook together with the people who are on the class with me. But I think what I loved the most was when they shared their pictures after and I saw you know, I saw the finished product and I got that sort of joy vicariously through them. So not only did I make the cake myself, and I love that process, and it's sort of therapeutic to me to take my time and you know, do some If unintentional, and make it really beautiful, and just enjoy the process of making a cake, but to see them create that, and also really enjoy it, and then, you know, their families enjoy it. It's just it's so cool. It's so, so cool to create sort of a ripple effect. So that was my highlight of this week. I think that's beautiful. Yeah, cooking is is nurturing in so many different ways. And so creative as well, I think it's, it can be a real outlet for creativity. And, you know, that's why I love. I love things like desserts and cakes that you can, you know, I ran a cupcake business actually, when I lived in Edinburgh. So there has always been this thread of foodie stuff throughout my life. And I ran that business and I loved making cupcakes because there's just, you can make Anathan and everything. So you know, so many different flavors and decorations and I saying and yeah can be really fun thing to do. Or Thank you, thank you for sharing. And if you'd like you can also share an album of music either that will sort of make this fit the episode or just something that you have been listening to lately. And if you need a second you can you can think on it. I have been listening to a lot of Harry Styles recently. I I shouldn't be embarrassed to say that but I sort of am. But I love him. I I've come to realize that yes. Music and I have to admit it. And also, you know who else have been listening to they have just won a breadboard here. Have you heard of wet leg? No. They are really good. And I have been enjoying their album. I can't remember the name of the big song. That's, that's called shares long. I think it's French. There we go. But it's called shares long and I'd say yeah, I'm really loving them. Really, really loving them. So check them like tonight. Okay, okay, well, I will share some of that in the blog as well. Okay, well, thank you so much, Judith, for coming on the podcast. This has been so inspiring and delightful. Oh, Allah. Thank you so much for having me. I've really, really enjoyed talking with you. All right, there you go. I hope you enjoyed our conversation, it was so cool to talk with Judith and to get to know her life. So as I've mentioned, I'm going to leave in the show notes, which is at life on the brink dot live. I'm going to leave links to her website, as well as pictures and links to as many of the things we talked about as possible. Again, you can head to my food in france.com to find out all about the membership opportunities and check out the Facebook group, which there's one for membership, but there's also one that I have now joined, that is open to all. So I encourage you to check out all of those different things. I've gone ahead and shared the Spotify link to Harry's house, because I feel like it's a great album. And it's very fun. And before I go I just want to share two more quick things. One is that if you're listening to this on the date comes out. Tomorrow, the monthly free newsletter is going to come out. So you can just subscribe to that on the website. It there's a little box down at the bottom of each page and you can sign up for it. It's free. And it has updates for every episode and blog posts and some extra stuff as well. You can sign up for that on life on the brink dot live. And then I just wanted to share a review a recent review on Apple podcasts. I so appreciate it when you my friend the listener will give some feedback. I love that. And this is a latest comment or I guess it's a it's a full review on Apple podcasts. It is from Xandra z so of course I know it to be Xandra Zahra from two episodes back. It is entitled Ana is a great interviewer. Thank you so much five stars. Ana is so refreshing. She's upbeat and relatable, but doesn't go on boring Rangers about what she had for breakfast. She keeps me focused on the episode while we're on the episode clear, while still making you feel like you're part of a relaxed conversation. Love her. Well Sandra, I love you too. And trust me I do go on about my breakfast but not always on the podcast. Thank you so much to you and to everyone who has left a comment or even just a star review or star rating on Apple podcasts. It means the world to me so if you have Have a couple spare minutes and especially if you're listening on Apple, feel free to let others know why you enjoy listening to this podcast. It is a delight a treat to read your words, you have no idea. So either way, feel free to sign up for the newsletter. And I'm going to continue on this biweekly schedule for just the time being, as I'm still very much in the midst of house constructing and renovating, so I'll be back in two weeks with a new episode. I hope you have some fun in your kitchen. All the best. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Life on the brink. If you're enjoying these episodes, please feel free to leave a star rating or even better leave a review on Apple podcasts to help spread the word. For podcast show notes and extra inspirational posts throughout the week. Head to the blog at life on the brink dot live. And if you'd like a little extra dose of inspiration in your life, sign up for the monthly newsletter, which lights up your inbox the first Friday of each month. Thank you so much for listening. And until next time, friends you have a lovely week. Bye