Canicule: Keeping your French Cool

Farm custard desserts for a Canicule menu at Camont

I remember those first years, when I arrived in the Lot-et-Garonne along the Canal de la Garonne on my floating home—The Julia Hoyt, through a haze of hard work and constant learning: barge handling, shopping, cooking, and a new language. As a friend once told me, the French had a new word for everything! And even the long hot summer days had a new name- Canicule, the Dog Days.

While those summer nights were memorable for the long twilights and convivial drinking on the deck, the dratted hot days transformed into stellar vintages of local Côte de Buzet and Bordeaux area wines. 1989 was a very good year. But what I remember the most was sitting in that wheelhouse door, with my head over the walkway and pouring buckets of fresh clean canal water over my too-long hair and head (and thus the short barge crop was born!). It was the only way to cool me down so I could cook for our first barge charter guests. There was no AC, no swimming pools (if you don’t count the canal), and barely enough ice to chill a bottle of rosé.

What do I cook when it’s too hot to cook?