Welcome to Summer-Hanging Out French style.
Champétre: French Dreams for July
Weather Report: HOT!
Like taking a cannonball approach to diving into Summer, the first few weeks have been brutal in the French heatwave sense—too hot, too strong, and too much sun. It’s not just the extreme weather that seems so debilitating, but the rudeness from a perfect build-up to summer with a rainy May and gentle June warming to “Danger, danger! La Canicule! Hide out in your shuttered homes and drink water!” After the disastrous 2003 deadly heatwave that caught France by surprise with over 15,000 deaths (and 70,000 in Europe total) over two weeks, government warnings now pepper social media and daily papers hourly, and everyone does indeed talk about the weather ALL THE TIME!
Perhaps it’s age and prudence, I like to think more of the latter than the former, but I take more precautions and adapt my routine to an early morning/late at night rhythm, spending time outside for errands and chores, with in-between hours working in the relatively cooler stone walls of my 18th-century farmhouse. Being a freelance at-home worker has its advantages. So when I caution newly arrived friends to rest in the middle of the day, it’s not just to suit my own beloved nap schedule, but to conserve their health as well.
The flip side of these too-hot days is that certain things are reserved for July’s kitchen: cold melon soups, cold beef and tomato salads, and lots of fruit sorbets, like peach Bellini or watermelon granita. I still cook early in the day if it has been cool at night, with the doors and windows open to the morning air, and a quick pastry tart in the oven for a later supper. Paid subscribers will find July’s edition of A Gascon Year-Juillet as a downloadable PDF below the paywall at the bottom. There are twenty recipes for easy Summer cooking and lots of short stories about this life in France.
Linens
Summer life at Camont is less about wearing flowing linen dresses and more about washing and hanging the bed linens. This week, I have a whole house of residents— two writers and two artists. Plus me. That's five beds to change and wash, plus towels. And napkins. And tea towels.
On Monday, when the weather folks announced a perfect, sunny day with a light breeze, we gathered all the sweaty heatwave bedding and started doing serial loads to change over. France’s mini-size appliances get a deservedly bad rap when compared to generous American-style machines. With smaller capacity and a different hot water system, they run longer and more often to handle all the linens at Camont. However, what balances the climate change load (as well as the utility bills) is my handy, solar-powered clothes dryer—the laundry line.
Hanging Out in Camont’s Garden
Over the years, the laundry lines have been relocated, replaced, and expanded. I now have three locations to hang out at Camont. This week, they were all pressed into service. And this is what I want to address, my friends.
Without ever having hung laundry on a line, does one know how to do it?
Over the last few months, when I needed a little extra help with the chores, I relied on friends and helpers to help hang the laundry. Whereas I must have learned “on the job” somewhere along the line, I don’t think I ever thought that just throwing a freshly washed sheet across the lines, crumpled and folded over itself, would bring good results. Seriously. Perhaps I should start Madame Hill’s School of French Domestic Arts. Graduates would then be eligible for a satisfactory adult life. Need more inspiration? Here is a great Instagram account— Clotheslines Poetry . You get extra points for color-coded loads, delicate smalls, and artful hangings across old Italian facades.
Madame Hill’s Top Tips
When removing the linens—sheets, pillowcases, towels, anything really—from the washing machine, give them a good, strong thwacking shake out. Before hanging, tug smaller items from the corners to straighten the fabric weave. Shake again!
Next, pin the small items onto the lines from one edge, do not fold over the line! Use one clothespin in each corner, then add the next item to the corner of the previous one and continue this process. Each clothespin anchors two items at the corners. Eh voila, fewer pins needed and less work.
When hanging larger items, such as flat sheets, let the entire sheet rest in the laundry basket. Pull up the shorter side and pin it in place, again pinning just the edge to the line with a space of about 2 feet between pins. Next, find the bottom of the same side and pin it to the previously pinned corner. Then, make your way along the entire bottom edge so that the sheet hangs by both the top and bottom edges. Now give it a good shake at each corner so it hangs free and straight. Do not double the sheet over the line, as when you go to remove it, your nice flat sheet will get all messed up and likely fall on the ground or grass.
Now, here’s the critical part. As you remove the sheets from the line when they are dry, fold them as you go. Unpin one corner, then one half, and fold over to the far corner. Hold together and unpin before releasing the center pins. You essentially will have folded the sheet in half, then in quarters. Now you can fold it again and then smooth out the long rectangle, folding it into shelf-size bundles as you go, smoothing and pressing with your hand as needed. Do you need a video?
Wow, that seems more complicated than it really is. It’s just logical to fold and smooth as you remove from the line, rather than bundling and throwing them in the basket before trying to untangle them again after you’re inside the house. It’s a small thing, but once mastered, you will be the envy of all the clothesline poetry photographs on Instagram.
Now, for all my darling paid subscribers, here is July’s kitchen workbook PDF, A Gascon Year-Juillet. There are 20 recipes, including some of my favorites —Melon and Lemon Verbena cold soup and a favorite cold beef salad with tomatoes, onions, and cornichons. Not a paid subscriber, yet? This is a good time to do it now! I’ll be making a few summery recipes this coming week.
Best from the laundry line…
Kate