Bienvenue Chez Moi

Prunes

2011-07-25T16:10:00.000+02:00

I've been lazy as an old slug lately. I'm sure the rainy, grey weather has something to do with it. I've got to figure out someway to get some of my energy back. But really, 55°F in mid-July just isn't fair!!! Because of this stupid rain, running has been difficult and unpleasant. I'm going to have to get used to running in the rain if I want to have an activity this winter.

I learned that my gym professor had a stroke, at 45! She had 2 operations and is starting to recognize her family, but I doubt if she'll be giving gym classes in September. It's awful. It's called an AVC in French which stands for "accident vasculaire cérébral". Anyway, it scares the bejeezus out of me.

But on to the subject of this post: PRUNES! Prunes are plums in French. Dried plums, aka, prunes are called pruneaux in French. I've had quite alot of prunes around lately. They're in season right now. So I made one of my favorite tartes and tried my hand at making jam.

As for making jam... It turned out kind of runny but I didn't want to put alot of sugar in it. Monsieur Titi tried some at lunch and made a swinched-up face because the jam is sour. But he's the one who doesn't want to eat anything too sweet. I won't bother explaining how I did it because it's not really very good.

As for the Tarte aux Prunes. This recipe always turned out great. It's easy and can be adapted for several kinds of fruit. You might enjoy trying it.

Here's the recipe:
Tarte aux Prunes

Ingredients:
One pre-made pie crust; I use a pâte sablée or a sweetened crust

20-25 ripe and ferm prunes (plums)
Plum jam
8 Palets Breton or other crunchy-type vanilla cookie
Brown sugar
25 grams of almond powder

Preparation:
Heat oven to 180°C (360°F)
Cook the crust empty for around 12-15 minutes, follow instructions on the package.

During this time, wash, and cut the plums in two, take out the pit and place them in a dish.

Spread evenly the plum jam over the bottom of the crust, like this ... I'm not sure of the amount but you don't want a ton of jam, just enough to cover the bottom.

Then crust the palets brétons in a plastic bag with a rolling pin and spread them evenly over the crust.

Then place the plums, bottom side up, on the crust. Squeeze them in nice and tight. Pour in any left-over juice in the dish. Cover with brown sugar and the almond powder.

Cook approximately 35 minutes until bubbly and brown. Enjoy!

My Fantastic Cheesecake!

2011-07-16T12:17:00.000+02:00

A couple of posts ago, I wrote about my new springform pan. I also received some wonderful suggestions for good cheesecake recipes. On Thursday, Monsieur Titi and I had our joint birthday party. Here's the cheesecake I made. I want to thank NADEGE for her recommendation! After my hesitations about making a cheesecake, I realized that it's really easier than you'd think.

I made a few tiny modifications to the recipe but basically followed it. The results were fantastic! Our family was "bluffées" or really amazed at the cake. You'll see the recipe below.

Served with strawberries

Mascarpone Cheesecake with McVittie’s Crust

Crust :
200 grams McVittie’s Original biscuits (these are the closest thing to graham crackers that I've found in France)
100 grams butter

Filling:
500 grams cream cheese
500 grams mascarpone
1-1/4 Cup sugar
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs or 6 medium eggs

Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F). Remove all ingredients from refrigerator so they are at room temperature.

Tightly wrap the outside of a 9-inch springform pan with 3 layers of heavy-duty tin foil. Butter the inside of the pan and cover the bottom with cooking paper.

Crush the McVittie’s biscuits in a plastic bag with a rolling pin. Mix with softened butter. Press this mixture onto the bottom of the prepared pan, but not on the sides. Bake crust for about 12 minutes. Let cool.
Decrease oven temperature to 165°C or 325°F. Bring a pot of water to a slow boil.

For the filling: Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese, mascarpone and sugar in a large bowl until smooth. Beat in the lemon juice and vanilla. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating just until blended after each egg.

Pour the cheesecake mixture into the pan. Place the springform pan in a large roasting pan. Pour enough hot water into the roasting pan to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan. Bake until the center of the cheesecake moves slightly when the pan is gently shaken, about 1 hour (in a ventilated heat oven). The cake will become firm as it cools. Take springform pan out of the roasting pan, and set the roasting pan aside. Place springform pan into oven, turn off heat. Leave door open. Let cool for 1 hour.

Take pan out of the oven and remove foil. Let cool completely on a wire rack. Refrigerate (covered in foil) at least 8 hours and up to 2 days. Serve at room temperature.

Une apologie aux masculin et feminin

2011-07-09T15:57:00.001+02:00

Une apologie (an apology) in French is a discourse which defends or justifies a person or a doctrine. It is not to excuse oneself. So I'll not excuse myself for making an unforgivable error in my last post.

Une moule is a mussel, a shellfish. Un moule is a pan in which one bakes or makes other types of formed foods.
What I bought recently was UN MOULE -- a springform pan, not UNE MOULE -- a mussel. I bet Amazon Com would have had trouble sending me a mussel.

There are nouns in French, which in the masculine gender mean one thing, and in the feminine mean another. There aren't a ton of these tricksters, but they do exist. Just one little example: un manche à balai (the handle of a broom) and une manche à chemise (a shirt sleeve).

I will NEVER get this masculine and feminine business straight. Whenever I use a noun in French, it's pretty much a crap shoot whether I'll get the gender right. My French friend, Mag, assures me that it's not that big of a deal, but she knows the difference. ARGHHHH!!!

Yesterday morning, we went out to a u-pick fruit farm. I went specifically for blueberries (myrtilles). And, I got strawberries (fraises) and blueberries. I didn't get any pictures while we were picking. But it was a lovely, cool morning. The strawberries were 4€ the kilo and the blueberries, 3.50€. I wound up with 2 kilos of strawberries and 3.25 kilos of blueberries.

I didn't want to make jam, so I froze the blueberries for later use. The strawberries I used to make a sauce for my upcoming birthday cheesecake. And I tried a recipe I found on Internet for a strawberry cake. My springform pan arrived today, so I wanted to give it a dry run.

Ready for the freezer

A little crispy around the edges.

Strawberry Cake

Yield: Serves 10 Cook Time: 50-55 minutes

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature (90 grams)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk (I used 1/2 cup of crème fraîche)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 pound strawberries, hulled and sliced (I used 500 grams, which is a little more than a pound)

2 tablespoons turbinado sugar, for sprinkling on top of cake

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan or pie plate. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl. Set aside.

2. Put butter and 1 cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add in eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.

3. Gradually mix in flour mixture. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Arrange strawberry slices on top of batter. Sprinkle turbinado sugar over berries.

4. Bake cake 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake until cake is golden brown and firm to the touch, about 50-55 minutes. Let cool in pan. To serve, cut into wedges. Store cake at room temperature, for up to two days.

I should have gently mixed the berries into the batter, because being on top allowed them to dry and burn on the edges.

Adapted from Martha Stewart

Une Moule à Charnière

2011-07-06T11:00:00.000+02:00

I've been wanting to buy a pan like this for ages. I keep looking whenever I go to a large grocery store but never seem to find what I want. Finally, I gave in and ordered a "moule à charnière" or springform pan from Amazon UK. The word "charnière" means "hinge", so these are hinged pans.

La Moule à Charnière aka Springform

I got inspired to try my hand at a real cheese cake because Philadelphia cream cheese has been launched in France in regular grocery stores. This is so exciting!!!! I've been waiting for 22 years!

The catch...
It only comes in little pots of 150 grams and costs 1.69€! There are still no large blocks as we find in the US. Normally, for a real cheesecake, you need about 500 grams. For a good cheesecake with some ricotta, you need at least 350 grams. That's a little pricey.

So I should receive the pan by Saturday. Next Thursday, for my birthday, I'm going to try my hand at making a cheesecake. I will, of course, keep you posted.

If anyone has a REALLY GOOD recipe, I'd love to have it.

Trouver chaussure à mon pied

2011-06-29T16:52:00.002+02:00

It's sale time in France --- les soldes!!!! I desperately needed a new pair of running shoes. My little toes are sticking out of my old ones.
Monsieur Titi promised me that we'd go sports clothes shopping during the sales. It's been so hot here that we didn't get out until today.
But there was nothing to worry about, still lots of stuff on the shelves. I found "mon pied" or my happiness in this New Balance beauties. They're a 41 (or probably about a 9-1/2 in the US). I've got BIG feet! They only weigh 300 grams! And, they were 1/2 price! Only 69.95€ rather than 140€.
Can't wait to go out running to try them out.

It might interest you to know that in French, we say "prendre le pied" (take the foot) to mean that we had a good time, or made ourselves very happy. I've heard that this expression comes from the time of the pirates who'd get their share of the booty at the end of an expedition. It would be dealt out in the measurement of the time = the foot. So, you see that the French used the foot as a measurement too, before they adopted the metric system.
And, when we say to find a shoe for your foot (trouver chaussure à son pied) it means that you've found a perfect fit (usually in men...).

Visiting Expats in my Area

2011-06-25T14:02:00.000+02:00

In France, there are several on-line networks for expats. Many concern Paris and the job market. There is one, however, that operates in many areas all over France and shares really good information. It's the Survive France Network.

I saw that there was a fellow, James, who lives in the Loiret. So I had to know where. Turns out he and his wife, Mag., are about 40 kilometers away from me.

They were nice enough to invite me over for coffee and dessert last Sunday. I found their house easily and also found two lovely people. Mag is from Brazil originally and James from the US.
We had a nice chat about all sorts of things. It's always wonderful to meet expats in my area. I hope they'll come here to see me.

Monsieur Titi thinks I'm nuts. He says "Are you going to go visit every anglophone in France?" But I think, "Why not?" A French person would never go visit a total stranger, even if they were dying for French company.

Would you go visit someone just because they were American, or English, or South African?

Remembering Coluche

2011-06-19T14:00:00.000+02:00

I wasn't in France yet when Coluche died. This June marks the 25th year of his death. He created Les Restos du Coeur (an association to feed the needy).
I've tried over the years to listen to his many recordings and videos. He's one of the best comics --- and social commentators --- ever. As far as I know, his work has never been translated, but for those of you who can understand French, here's one of his sketches about being polite --- La politesse.

Enjoy!

Paint, Dinner and an Unknown Plant

2011-06-16T14:42:00.000+02:00

The house is painted! The painters are gone taking with them their noise and smell of paint. Finally, we can close the shutters at night without worrying if the paint's dry.

The wood and shutters look so nice and so new now. Here are some pictures:

Old color on left, new color on right

What a mess!

A dark picture of the finished work

What else??? Hmmmmm... Oh yes, my 2 group English classes had a year-end dinner at a local restaurant. We were 20 and had a nice evening chatting. For associations or even companies, it's very common to have a dinner amongst employees/students/members before everyone goes off on summer holidays.

Here's a group picture:

I received a couple of books and this beautiful plant as gifts from the students. But the woman who bought the plant couldn't remember the name. Does anyone recognize the type of plant???

Unknown gift plant

Vallauris

2011-06-11T16:26:00.001+02:00

Monsieur Titi plays ping-pong with a fellow named Philippe. A couple of weeks ago, we'd been invited to a party where I met Philippe and his wife, Marie. Philippe got to talking about Vallauris pottery. I'd never heard the name nor was I familiar with the town.

Last night, we went to another ping-pong party to celebrate the end of the year. Philippe and Marie were there and Philippe brought me a Vallauris plate. He said that it wasn't really worth anything and had been hanging around in his garage for years. I was thrilled and I immediately fell in love with my new treasure.

This is a little bigger than 1 foot long

This map should show you a little red spot in the south-east corner

This got me interested in the history of the pottery and so I went hunting.

I learned lots of interesting things. Vallauris is on the côte d'Azur in the Alpes-Maritimes. The recorded history for the area talks about the ceramics trade as early as 1500.

The most well-known ceramics manufacturer was Jerome Massier and sons. They produced dishware throughout the 19th C. They invented metallized glaze which gave their pottery such a unique look.

In 1948, Picasso came to live in Vallauris, attracted by the limitless possibilities to explore art in the ceramics media. He lived there until 1955 but continued to collaborate with the artists there for many years. There were dozens of other artists living in Vallauris at the time; some of the most well-known were Charon, and Suzanne Douly-Ramie.

by Picasso

by Capron

Monsieur Titi told me that this kind of pottery was found in every grandmother's house and was the kind of stuff most people got rid of or sold at garage sales. I'm sure that people considered this horrible and ugly and now are furious that they didn't save any of it. This dish is so kitsch and reminds me of ceramics my Mom had from her trips to Mexico in the 1940s. Everyone will be surprised at my beautiful dish, but I love it!

Tian? What is Tian?

2011-06-05T10:02:00.000+02:00

One of Monsieur Titi's and my favorite veggie dishes is a tian. This is a southern Mediterranean dish common to the south of France. The word "Tian" is the square or rectangular earthen-ware dish which traditionally holds the veggies. Thus, Tian became the name of the entire dish.

I don't have an earthenware dish, so I used a metal baking pan. There's really no set recipe for this dish. Everyone in France probably has their own way of doing this. Here's what I do.

Assemble all the ingredients. Yesterday, I used 3 good sized eggplants, peeled; 4 medium zucchini, 6 tomatoes, seeded; 2 red bell peppers, 2 onions and 6 buds of garlic. My pan is a little bigger than 13"x9".

First, get all the veggies ready to go. Then, cover the bottom of the pan with good olive oil. Heat oven to 180°C or 360°F.
Do one layer with eggplants, zucchini, onions, pour olive oil and sprinkle with "Herbes de Provence". Do a second layer as the first.
When finished, put the red peppers and tomatoes and pour a little more olive oil on top.

Ready to go into the oven

The idea is to bake the veggies for a very long time. I start out with a relatively hot oven. After about 30 minutes, I turn the heat down to around 150°C (300°F) for a good hour, then 30 minutes or so from the end, I put the oven at 125°C (250°F). The tian will cook about 2 hours total. At the last decrease in temperature, I put rounds of fresh goat cheese on top.

Hot out of the oven

A close-up.

You can see from the above photo, that the veggies are all carilmelized. Serve hot. And enjoy!!!

Home Improvement, etc.

2011-05-28T21:33:00.001+02:00

Life seems to get much more active when the good weather comes and we get closer to summer holidays. There's so much going on right now. The main events were 1) la fête des voisins (neighbors day) and 2) finally getting the outside of our house painted.

La fête des voisins was started in France many years ago and has since caught on pretty much all over Europe. It's held on the last Friday of May and encourages neighbors to get together to share a meal. We had ours last Wednesday with 2 couples who are probably our closest neighbors. I didn't get any pictures while they were here, but they brought us 2 beautiful flower arrangements.

Last year, we contacted several painters to give us an estimate on repainting the wood and shutters on the outside of our house. There's lots of wood and many shutters. Finally, we signed the estimate and the painter came today to leave us a color palette to choose our shutters' color.
They are a sort of a blue-green which is nice. Monsieur Titi wanted to make a radical change but I convinced him to stay with the same general tone. The painter starts on June 6 and should be done with in the week. Hooray, it's been 12 years since this has been done.

Our choice

Lots of possibilities

The last little bit is a recipe for a Lemon Cake that I made for the neighbors' party. I don't have a Bundt pan so I just used a large round cake pan. Enjoy!!!!

Lemon Lovers' Pound Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup butter (no substitutes), softened
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
5 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon lemon extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sour cream (I used Crème Fraîche)

ICING:
1/4 cup sour cream (crème fraîche)
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in lemon juice, peel and extract. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; add to the creamed mixture alternately with sour cream. Beat just until combined.

2. Pour into a greased and floured 10-in. fluted tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

3. For icing, in a small mixing bowl, beat the sour cream and butter until blended. Gradually add confectioners' sugar. Beat in lemon juice and peel. Drizzle over the cake. Store in the refrigerator.

The annual Association picnic

2011-05-22T22:11:00.000+02:00

Today, the Twinning Association had their annual picnic. Here's a group photo. Not everyone was there but we had a decent turnout. We had a barbecue and then had a scavenger hunt.

Agnès (left) and I organized a nature scavenger hunt in English. Each team got a sack with a list, a map, a pencil, a pair of scissors and an English/French dictionnary. It was fun and got the people out and moving after a long lunch.

The winning team got a gold medal (in paper) and a round of applause.

One of my young students,Judith, who is not in the picture, was in England last week with her school. You can see her little sister in the photo with her 'I love London' t-shirt. Judith was very happy and had a great time. She also said she understood quite alot of what people said. She also bragged that she translated for her school buddies. It's nice to hear that a kid gets excited about learning a language.

That's about all my news for this weekend. Hope you had a good one!

Les Bleus

2011-05-18T11:11:00.001+02:00

My dear friend, Beth, and her man-friend were here over a long weekend. It's been 7 years since she's been in France and the last time we saw each other. It was so great to see her, and spend time with her. I can't even write down how much fun it was.

Now that she's gone, I've got "les bleus" or the blues. I hadn't realized how much I miss having really good women friends. In the past 4 months, I lost one of my best friends here to a move to Normandy. I saw one good friend in October and now Beth. But these friends are few and far between.

I don't have any pictures to show you of what we did last weekend. I'll wait for her to send me the ones that she took. We went to visit Chinon which is farther west in the Loire Valley and well known for its excellent wine. We had lots of laughs and silliness.

Here's a picture from Google.

Now I'm back to real life.

Salmon Loaf and Aznavor

2011-05-08T21:59:00.000+02:00

This weekend, we had my parents-in-law over for lunch. For the apéro, I made them a salmon and zucchini loaf. It was really good. Monsieur Titi had bought a kilo of frozen salmon squares. Not knowing what to do with them, this seemed to be a good recipe.

Very yummy!

Salmon Loaf

250 - 300 grams fresh or frozen salmon
1 good sized zucchini (but not so big that it has seeds)
20 taragon leaves
100 grams grated cheese (gruyère)
10 cl milk
10 cl crème fraîche or yogurt
5 cl olive oil + 1 tbs. for the skillet
200 grams flour
2 tsps. baking powder (levure chimique)
3 eggs
salt and pepper

Wash the zucchini and grate it largely. Heat 1 tbs. of olive oil in a skillet and sauté the zucchini at a low temperature until all the water is evaporated. Set aside.

Heat oven to 200°C

In a large bowl, beat eggs with alittle salt. Add the milk, the crème fraîche and the oil. Beat well.

In a medium bowl, blend together flour and baking powder. Sift it together. Add to the milk/eggs mixture little by little. Add in the taragon and cheese and mix well. Salt and pepper.

Cut the salmon into small cubes. Prepare the loaf pan by greasing and flouring or by greasing and lining with cooking paper. Pour 1/2 mixture into the pan. Put 1/2 salmon on top. Pour in remaining mixture and top with remaining salmon.

Cook for 50 minutes or until a knife or toothpick comes out clean. Let cool 10 minutes before taking it out of the pan.

I love roses. I have several different kinds. The earliest bloomers are the Charles Aznavors. Here are a couple of photos I took last week.

Ils Adorent les U.S.

2011-04-30T21:10:00.000+02:00

Some of the French are pretty nutty. There are hundreds of American country dancing clubs, which have led to some sort of frenzy about the US in general. The poster above is just an example of these "American festivals" that have become so popular over the last few years.

I have a hard time appreciating country dancing. I grew up thinking it was stupid and redneck. Country music was for people who had no culture. The most I've ever appreciated country music was during the "Blues Brothers" movie when they play in a country bar.

I could never get behind the style of cowboy hats, fringed shirts, short skirts and cowboy boots. Country music, to me, represented the worst of everything American. Willie Nelson just doesn't do it for me.

Now I find that the French are crazy about all things American country. Who would have thought that these normally sane individuals would pay any attention to "boo hoo" music, to lame impersonations of indians and to imported US cars?

Sorry to sound like such a complainer, but when I watch the country dancers give their demonstrations, and people ask me "Oh, what do you think?" It's hard to be polite.

Maybe I should go to this festival to get a good laugh. But no one would be laughing with me.

La Fonderie des Cloches

2011-04-26T22:24:00.000+02:00

I'm feeling better now, after a couple of days in bed and a long Easter weekend. It's time to get back to my weekend with the English.

On Saturday, April 16th, a few of us went to St. Jean de Braye, near Orléans, to the Bollée company, a bell foundery. The Bollée have been making bells since 1715. First, they were itinerant bellmakers. Then in 1828, they settled down in the Loiret where they've been ever since. The current owner is the 8th generation of "clochers". There are only 3 existing bell makers in France.

Adam in front of the door bell

We learned a ton of technical detail about casting bells. Guess who did the translating again? The guide was amazed that I knew the translation for "fumier de cheval" (horse manure) and "chanvre" (hemp).
One thing I found particularly interesting was that bells are made so that they have one unique note. They don't just make noise, they make music. If a bell is made and doesn't have it's perfect note, it's destroyed. The Bollée company recently made a 4-ton bell. When finished, it did not ring true. And they scrapped it. The orderer was not happy, but that's life.
Bells are made in exactly the same was they've always been made. Now as for getting the perfect note, it has something to do with the diameter, the thickness and the height of the bell, but now I've forgotten.
Needless to say, it was all quite fascinating.

Our tour guide

One of the first steps in making the mold

The mold being separated from the false core

The above picture shows the outer part of the mold and the inner part. The gap between the two is what will be filled with molten metal (copper and pewter mixed) to form the finished bell.

A typical (loud) bell

Loud bell ringing

The atelier (workshop) unchanged virtually since 1828

Some happy campers

I'm sick

2011-04-22T17:09:00.000+02:00

Monsieur Titi bet me that I wouldn't hold up for the whole weekend while the English were here. Even though it was exhausting, I participated in everything we did. I don't have a delicate consititution, I hardly ever get colds.
Now I'm sick. I started getting a sore throat on Tuesday, but I went running anyway. Wednesday I had an important appointment and had to go, but I was feeling OK. Thursday, I had bronchitis and today, I've got a raging cold.
How annoying. But Monsieur Titi can say "I told you so" or "Je te l'ai dit."

Reposting the photos

2011-04-20T16:51:00.001+02:00

The problem with my photos not showing seems to be a known bug according to the help section. I had to go into the HTML code and take out the mention "Height = 0" and "Width = 0" for each picture.

If you look on the Help Desk and search for "photos not showing on post", you'll find this topic. Hope this isn't happening to you!

The front of the Château de la Ferté St. Aubin

My house guests --- Heather and Adam

The back of the château from the lake.

Getting ready for lunch

The kitchen, the cook and the owner

Madeleines, hot out of the oven

Unguarded Madeleines

House Guests and Fish

2011-04-19T17:34:00.000+02:00

My mom always had lots of sayings for just about every occasion. One of hers that I remember was "House guests and fish in the refrigerator are the same. They both smell after 3 days."

That's how I felt yesterday when my English visitors left yesterday at 5 a.m. But really, no! We had a lovely time (or should I say "Luuuuvely" as my visitor did), we visited several places in this area that I had never seen before and we ate and drank our little hearts out.

Here is the agenda of our 3 days together:

Friday: Le Parc Floral at Orléans including the butterfly pavillon. Then, lunch at the château de la Ferté St. Aubin, after which a madeline making demonstration in their 18th C. kitchen and a tour of the château by the owner.

Saturday: Free morning to sleep in and for me to make a dish for the evening party. In the afternoon, we went to La Fonderie des Cloches near Orléans with a few other people.

Saturday night was the grand get-together where we were about 70.

Sunday: The morning was open and we used it to catch up from the night before. Then we went to Guédelon, the 12th C. château-fort being built in the Yonne, near Auxerre.

Sunday evening we went to a pizza restaurant with some other folks and then to their house for chocolate cake and champagne.

Monday morning, up at 3:45 a.m. to be at the bus by 5:00. The bus left at 5:15. I went home back to bed, then cleaned house and passed out at about 3 p.m.

Now, for some more detailed info and pictures:

I didn't take any pictures of the Parc Floral , because I had left my camera in the bus. Suffice it to say that the flowers at this time of year were just getting going, so it left us wanting to come back in May to see more.
The Butterfly Pavillon was fantastic. I'd never seen anything like it. Gorgeous butterflies of all sorts, flitting about on the tropical plants.

At the Château de la Ferté St. Aubin (just south of Orléans) we had lunch in one of their reception halls. We had a nice lunch, watered with Côteaux de Giennois white wine and a Bordeaux red.

The front of the château

The back by the lake

Some of the people in front of the stables

Heather and Adam, our guests

Getting installed for lunch.

The first thing we did in the château was assist at a madeline-making demonstration. The kitchen here is one of the oldest functioning kitchens in France. The cook was super, no-nonsense and right to the point. The owner was of course, very proud of all this and explained a lot of details about the restoration.
You must keep in mind that this is a privately-owned French château. It's small but a huge undertaking for an individual.
Neither the owner, nor the cook spoke much English. So guess who got to translate not only the cooking demonstration but also, the entire tour of the château? Without any preparation nor notice.

The 18th C. kitchen, the cook and the owner.

Coming back from the ovens with the hot madelines.

Waiting to be eaten

Because I was so busy trying to translate while the owner led us through the rooms, I didn't take any more pictures. But it was charming and pretty well restored. I enjoyed the visit as I think did the English visitors.

In my next post, I'll tell you about La Fonderie des Cloches (the Bell foundry). It's one of three still existing in France using completely traditional methods.
And guess who got to translate that trip?????

The English are Coming! The English are Coming!

2011-04-14T12:09:00.000+02:00

I belong to a Twinning Association as you probably know. Our twin city is Great Ayton in the North of England near the Scottish border. Every year, we either go there or they come here. This year, they are landing. We've got tons of activities planned all weekend, so I'll have lots to post about next week.

When you live in a foreign country, you learn something every day. I carpool with 2 other women to my Thursday gym class. I was telling them about the English coming and I said "Les Anglais débarquent ce soir". Meaning, the English are landing tonight. I thought that was cute and a sort of play on the WWII landing in Normandy.

But NOOOOOO! I found out from these women that when a woman says "les anglais débarquent" it means you're about to have your period!!! It's an old fashion expression and I'm not sure young women would say such a thing.

Luckily I didn't try out my phrase on some guy.

So, as I said, you learn something every day!

Yesterday, I ran with a different, younger friend, Pascale. We did about 1 hour. She runs a lot faster than I do, and I was exhausted afterwards. Mag's (my regular running partner) been off running this week because her knee is hurting. I sure hope she gets better soon, because if I keep running with Pascale, I'm going to have a heart attack.

While I was getting into the car, I saw the most amazing bird couple. The closest picture I could find is of the Hoopoe from Northern Africa. I've never seen a bird like this and I was dumbstruck!

The Hoopoe

So you'll hear all about our busy weekend next week.

Déjeuner sur l'Herbe

2011-04-11T11:54:00.000+02:00

Yesterday, we had our first real lunch outside under our ornamental cherry tree. Our friend, Renauld, was here. We all were enchanted by such a beautiful day. And we had a very nice lunch, too.

This "déjeuner sur l'herbe" was not like the famous painting. I was not naked and the guys were not in suits.

The original painting by Claude Manet.

Today, I went running alone. Mag called and said her knee was hurting her and that she wanted to let it rest. I was bummed, but Monsieur Titi convinced me to go by myself. I did 6+ kilometers (about 4 miles) in 1 hour. I took it nice and slow and it was good.

And, I want to show you our mailbox. It's pretty ordinary from the front. All mailboxes in France are of a standard size whether they built-in or free standing.

Here's the back with the lock on it. So ?????

Surprise! The birds build their nest here so fast, we can't keep it cleaned out. There aren't any eggs yet, so I hope the birds get used to having mail dropped on them.

Now, because I love our garden right now and I can't get enough of our ornamental cherry trees, here are some more pictures for your to enjoy. The cherry blossoms don't last very long, they've already been out for a week. I'm sure by this weekend, they'll be all gone.

En Avril...

2011-04-06T13:42:00.000+02:00

It's only the 6th of April and we are having early summer weather already. It's wonderful, but a little suspicious. The plants and trees are about 2 weeks ahead of schedule, everyone is madly buying and planting geraniums, but all the old-timers know that there'll be another freeze.

Monsieur Titi plays ping-pong with one of the "haut-responables" of a large supermarket near here. He was saying that the store is betting on another frost, so that everyone who already bought geraniums and other flowers will have to buy them again.

In France, there are sayings for almost everything. Here's one for April:

En Avril, ne te découvre pas d'un fil.

Which simply means, no matter how nice it is outside, don't think it's summer. Keep your clothes on and your summer plants covered.

What's the weather like where you are?

I must be crazy

2011-03-30T16:03:00.000+02:00

I go to a gym class twice a week. It's pretty lame but it makes me get out of the house and sweat a little. Well, there's this woman, Mag, in my Thursday class. We got to talking and it turned out that she wanted to get back into running again after years away from it. I wanted to kick up my exercise a bit too, so I said, "let's go"! or really what I said was "Allons-y".

We're about the same age and I figured, about the same level of physical shape. She's much smaller than I am, but I might be a bit stronger.

So we've been running for a week. Not every day! But every other day. Usually we run around the park at the Château de Sully. The first time out we ran for about 35 minutes. Since then we've been averaging 45 minutes. I feel good afterwards, but by evening I'm exhausted.

We chat alot and need to take breathers equally as often. So it's a good match.

Here's a pretty picture of the château so you can see our local attraction. Are any of you off on some sort of springtime quest?

Fêtons Carnival

2011-03-23T12:04:00.000+01:00

Just about everywhere in the world, spring is celebrated by some sort of huge party. Here in France and many other catholic countries, it's the carnival. I'm sure this tradition started long before the religion because everyone needs to celebrate at the end of winter.

We went to the carnival in the little town where my parents-in-law live. There are many other carnivals more spectacular and grandiose in France, but this one was cute and pretty good for such a little town.

This is a Portuguese marching drum band. There are many portuguese people living in France and in this area. These guys were pretty good.

Then there were the baby twirlers. They were adorable.

At this point, the battery on my camera went flat, so I can't show you the rest of the parade. Afterwards we went back to the PILs' house for a sauerkraut and beer dinner.

It's Spring!!!!! Yawn!

2011-03-19T15:23:00.000+01:00

Wakey, wakey. Time to crawl out of your holes and celebrate spring.

I'm hibernating

2011-02-04T13:00:00.000+01:00

Dear blogger friends,
I've got no motivation and all I want to do is waste time and sleep. So I'd better stay in hibernation until Spring. The winter is just too long this year.
Hopefully, I'll have more to say when the sun comes out.
Stay warm and happy.
Talk to you all in the spring.

Bisous (kisses)

Tarte aux Noix

2011-01-22T14:37:00.001+01:00

Tomorrow we're having my parents-in-law coming over for lunch so I made a tarte aux noix, or a walnut pie. It's very similar to pecan pie but this recipe has cream in it. I don't remember pecan pies having any cream.

Also, one of my english students is an avid hunter. He dropped this by the other day. This is the left shoulder of a small Sanglier (or wild boar). It's currently marinating and will be roasted and eaten tomorrow.

Please don't get freaked out!

This is my walnut tarte hot out of the oven this morning. It smells heavenly. I'm trying to keep Monsieur Titi out of it before tomorrow.

Oven mits are called "maniques" in France. I have no idea where that comes from or why, but I laugh every time I use my mits.

Tarte aux Noix --- Walnut Tarte

Make in a 28-cm tarte plate

1 pâte sablée or a sweet short crust.
300 grams of walnut meat chopped (10.58 oz.)
4 tablespoons honey
40 cl crème fraîche liquide (or 120 oz. whole cream)
4 egg yolks
150 grams sugar (5.29 oz.)

Heat oven to 180°C or 360°F. Spread out the crust in the tarte plate. Keep refrigerated until needed.

Chop the walnut meat but not into powder. Put aside.

In a non-stick casserole, make your caramel. Put the sugar into the casserole and let heat on medium-high. Stir when you see that the sugar begins to melt and lower heat slightly. Stir constantly until the caramel becomes golden brown. Don’t let it burn!

Take the casserole off the heat and slowly stir in the cream, little by little. This will probably cause the caramel to crystallize. If so, put back on heat and reheat until the caramel melts again. This will take quite awhile so be patient!

Off of the heat again, stir in the honey and the walnuts. Afterwards, slowly stir in the egg yolks and mix well.

Pour into the pie crust and put into oven for 10 minutes. Then decorate with ½ walnuts on top. Put back into the oven for 20 minutes. Let cool completely but don’t chill.

A little cheesecake never hurt anyone

2011-01-20T21:46:00.000+01:00

Here's the latest photo of Rafael Nadal posing for an Armani ad. It made me happy so I thought I'd pass it on to you.

Thanks for all the feedback about my blog template. I really appreciate your thoughts!

Bonne nuit!!!

Waiting for Spring

2011-01-16T12:16:00.000+01:00

Hello Folks! We've got sun today. There's nothing better than a little sun after days and days of gray and wet.
I'm playing around with my blog template to find one that I really like. What do you think about this one?

A fellow blogger kicked me in the ass (politely) and said that I should write so my followers wouldn't be concerned for my well-being. And she was right! I get upset when I don't see someone on Facebook for a day or two. Crazy how we get attached to people we don't even know, really.

My only New Year's resolution (even though I don't make them) was to read more in French. I'm currently reading "The Pillers of the Earth" in French. It's a good book and I don't think there's anything lost in reading a translation. Have you read the book? I saw a BBC mini-series and it was quite good, but the book is, of course, much more detailed.

Nothing much is happening here right now. People are busy finally this week because it's the "soldes" or the winter sales. I received my first purchase yesterday. Three sets of new sheets! How exciting. And the sale price was just half of the regular price. So, I'm taking a break now from making beds this morning.

You may not know this, but in France, the sales are regulated by the government. There are specific dates for the winter and summer sales. Below is a map of the sale zones. Merchants are now allowed to choose a "floating" sale period that can be any week they choose. This is quite the revolution for a country trying to ensure fair competition practices.
The winter sales last 3 more weeks, but all the good sizes and styles will have been picked over by then. It's best to go shopping the first week to find bargins.

I hope you're having a good mid-January weekend and have some sun where you are, too.

No Resolutions for Me

2011-01-03T16:43:00.000+01:00

Yes, that's right. I don't believe in making resolutions because I never keep them anyway. So what else is there to talk about right after New Year's day?

Pacha's birthday!!!!!!!

In his favorite armchair.

He's 12 today, which is 84 years old to us. He's pretty spry for his age. He partied hard over the holidays and was exhausted yesterday after everyone left.

Too much cake!

And, here's one picture of the entire family on NY's Eve except for Monsieur Titi who's taking the picture and without my nephew who is probably off getting into some kind of trouble.

Bonne Année to you all!

Greeting cards at New Year's

2010-12-28T21:29:00.000+01:00

French have for habit and tradition to send out greeting cards for the new year. They rarely send Christmas greeting cards, but rather these "cartes de voeux" (voeux meaning wishes).

Traditionally, the French would go and visit friends, neighbors, family, business associates, even the poorer folk in the village during the first 15 days of January. As people moved more and as businesses set up branch offices all over the country, people started to send their personal "cartes de visit" around during January. These business or personal cards slowly developped into decorative cards. This trend started in the 17th Century in France.

Now it's acceptable to send cartes de voeux up through the end of January. Most people send e-cards but older people appreciate getting cards in the mail.

Here are some examples of early cartes de voeux.

Embroidered

A favorite from the 50s. Click to enlarge.

The growing use of greeting cards in January started to happen during the last years of the reign of Louis XIV, as shown by the poet La Monnoye in this ode to a carte de voeux. (the translation is my poor attempt in making this poem accessible to you all.)

Often, however light, I leave with the person who carries me,
Just a word in my own way is worth a long speech;
I have started to use, under the Great Louis,
those thin, long, flat, narrow cards of a delicate tissue.

The fingers of the less wise treat me badly;
calling me a thousand different names, I appear every day;
to surprised gentlemen I'm a great help;
Le Louvre (the king's palace) never sees my face at its door.

A rude, rough hand comes most of the time
to take from my hand to the most honnest people.
Private, administration, I'm born for the city life.

In the hardest of winters, I always have a naked back
And, however useful, as soon as they've seen me,
I'm neglected and I become garbage.

Le Sapin de Noël

2010-12-23T14:11:00.000+01:00

Monsieur Titi went out yesterday and hunted us a Christmas tree. He only caught one of them, the littlest and scrawniest of the bunch. But then all Christmas trees deserve a little love.

I decorated it as best I could. But I couldn't put lights on it because they are too heavy and I didn't want the poor thing to fall over.

Trying to make it stand up straight

Naked and shivering

Oh, so much more beautiful

This is not its best side!

Père Noël et le Marché de Noël

2010-12-19T21:34:00.000+01:00

Friday evening was the Marché de Noël in Ouzouer. There are Christmas markets all over in almost every town. This one's been going for several years now. There aren't alot of stands but most of the exposants have made their own products.

It's also a time to see people from around the area that you haven't seen for awhile.
Here I am getting a hug from Père Noël.

Our association (La Comité de Jumelage) always has a booth and has a bake sale. Also, there is always a basket with English goods. People pay 1€ for a guess at its weight. At the end of the market, the winner is chosen. This kind of raffle is called a "tombola" in French.

One of the prettier stands

Father Christmas's Yurt

Friends' girls posing with Santa

I stayed about 2 hours. It was freezing cold, but spirits were high. We stayed warm drinking hot spiced wine (vin chaud) and gossiping. I don't know how much money was made by the association on the bake sale, but it's always a lot of fun.

Do you participate in any Christmas markets in your area?

No Comment

2010-12-12T11:31:00.000+01:00

Yesterday:

During the night:

This morning:

A new machine!

2010-12-10T15:00:00.000+01:00

We just got our new lave-linge delivered. It's the European brand of Hotpoint, Indesit. It's pretty simple and wasn't expensive. But we've got a 5-year guarantee on it, so we should be worry-free for awhile.

Monsieur Titi went to the store where we bought the sick and dying machine to see if we could get a deal on a new one. The salesperson offered a 5% discount on a machine. But with the price plus the guarantee, it was 650€! Way too much. The new machine cost 428€ with the guarantee.

Monsieur Titi told the person that they were not very commercial and that they'd just lost a customer. It's rare when he gets stubborn like that, but I can assure you, he'll never go back into that store.

The first cycle is busy turning. I've got tons of laundry to catch up on.

%#&@#§€ !!!!! Washing Machine

2010-12-03T16:18:00.000+01:00

My washing machine (or Lave-linge in French) died this past weekend and I'm not sure when we'll get a new one (or get this one fixed). It's only 3 years old and it's already been repaired once, just last year. We had the repairperson out from the store where we bought it, and he said it was indeed, dead. He took it with him to give us an estimate. But I figure that if the repairs are over 200€, it's better to buy a new one.

One of the main things we did wrong was to NOT get the 5-year guarantee. With this cold weather, washing undies out by hand isn't too much fun. Not being able to have clean towels is also pretty gross.

Rotten machine! I hate you!

Is it winter, already?

2010-11-29T14:41:00.000+01:00

Yesterday afternoon, it started snowing, and it continued throughout the night. This morning we woke up to 30 cm. of snow. The trees are so ladened that they are breaking under the weight.

We're lucky to have electricity. Many of the small towns around us don't have any at all, and haven't since yesterday evening. The cold is supposed to continue and will drop to -6°C tonight.

To put my down-time to use, I've been madly writing Christmas cards getting them ready to send by Dec. 1st.
I'm only sending out about 15 cards. But they are going all over the world.

How many cards to you usually send out each year?

I also made a yummy Pumpkin Orange Cake because I was bored and because Monsieur Titi wanted a dessert. I doubled the recipe because I still had 2 cups of pumpkin purée in the freezer from last year. I also used chopped dates instead of raisins and put the batter in a rectangular cake pan instead of the loaf pans suggested.

Pumpkin Orange Cake

Ingredients:
1 large orange (peel and all except seeds)
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 1/3 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/3 cup water
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped raisins

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

Cut orange into wedges, and remove seeds. Place orange, peel and all, in a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the pumpkin, water, and the ground orange. Mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and cloves. Stir into batter just until moistened. Stir in nuts and raisins. Spoon into the prepared loaf pan.

Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes, then remove from pan, and cool on a wire rack.

Turkey? No, Catherinettes

2010-11-25T17:06:00.000+01:00

While most Americans are in an eating frenzy today, the French, especially the young women, are doing something much more refined. They are dressing up with silly hats on their heads. Why on earth would they want to do that? Well, it's to show that at 25 years-old, they are unmarried (and of course, still virgins).

Does this tradition leave you perplexed? Well, it's all Sainte Catherine's fault. November 25th is Sainte Catherine's saint day. Sainte Catherine, for those infidels out there, was a martyred virgin many, many years ago. She became the protectrice of all the young virgin girls to show them that virginity and the love of God was far more important than getting it on with the neighbor boy.

The tradition grew to the point where in France, any 25-y-o unmarried woman gets to show off by wearing a silly hat. Most of these strange hats are in a green color scheme, I have no idea why.

Here's a cartoon about Catherinettes from Penélope Joliecouer.

"Since it's the patron saint's day of the youngest of unmarried women, the 25th Nov. (seemingly) is when the unmarried girls of more than 25 y-o must wear a personalized hat, the more ridiculous the better, because as everyone knows, it's a curse and a handicap to still be single at that age, even when no one gives a damn. -- the stupid bitches!!!

Ah yeah! But us, the Catherinettes, we can fart in bed!"

Salon de Gastronomie et Vins

2010-11-23T23:23:00.000+01:00

The annual Salon de Gastronomie et Vins (gastronomy and wine fair) was held this weekend in Orléans. It's held every year at the same time so that people can make purchases for the upcoming holiday season. Last year, I went with Mme. T and her husband. You can read about that here and see lots more pictures. This year, we missed the weekend, so Mme. T and I had to go by ourselves on Monday.

Last year I bought way too much however this year I was much more reasonable. Another thing that helped me keep reasonable was that my credit card has expired and I haven't gotten to the bank to pick up the new one.

We got to the salon just a little before lunchtime and had a stroll around. Then we picked out a regional restaurant for lunch. We got sat (by the host) at a long table. Just as we were perusing the menu, 2 older men came and sat down next to us. They were all excited to find out they were sitting next to 2 americans. I think they were having fun flirting too. We chatted a fair amount and then went out separate ways. You can see me and Mme. T in the back. The two women in the foreground came later and must have been working a the salon because they seemed to be on a time schedule.

Here's Mme. T in front of a stand selling terrines (jarred ground meats like pâté) of various game (sanglier, biche, cerf, etc.) and ready-to-eat dishes in jars like couscous, tajine and colombo.

I bought a bottle of Armagnac-based apératif, a bottle of orange-flavored cooked wine, some spices and a terrine d'autruche (ostrich). There's an ostrich farm not too far from here but I've never been.

I was sorely tempted by the chocolate stands there, but I resisted.

Sunday

2010-11-21T11:48:00.000+01:00

I guess this says it all...
Bon Dimanche!

French Gastronomy Added to UNESCO Heritage List

2010-11-17T14:28:00.000+01:00

Today, French gastronomy and French cooking were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list after 3 years of deliberation.

Baguette anyone?

Escargot in parsley garlic butter

Moules

Typical traditional French restaurant "Wines and Traditional Lands"

Isn't this exciting?? Now every time I eat Foie Gras, Moules or Escargots, I know that I'm supporting a living heritage that the whole world recognizes. Do your part to support this world heritage, come to France and eat!

Meeting Sue, Making Brownies

2010-11-13T15:52:00.001+01:00

I met a lovely woman yesterday named Sue. She found me through a France expatriate network called Survive France (SFN). SFN is pretty useful for various aspects of French life but most of the people tend to live in the south or west of France.

Monsieur Titi is always completely amazed that I would invite someone over to the house whom I've never met. He finds the English/American tendency to hook up easily with people very strange. In the French culture, you just don't do that. You have to be introduced, then get to know each other a bit somehow before inviting each other over.
Sue and I are only about 1-1/2 hours apart. We had a really good chat. Sue is very involved in radionics and health analysis. I'll reserve my opinion about diagnosing health issues through pendulum readings. However I did give her a sample of my hair and I'll let you know what the results are.

I hope to be able to stay in contact with her.

For lunch, I made a nice broccoli-salmon quiche and a new brownie recipe. The brownies turned out pretty darned good, if I do say so myself!

Here's the recipe:

Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Makes a 9x13" pan -- feeds 2 (ha!)

115 - 120 grams of dark baking chocolate (4 oz.)

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup walnuts

Microwave chocolate squares until melted, stir to smooth.

Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Add eggs, 1 at a time, just until blended. Add melted chocolate, beating just until blended.

Add flour, just until blended, then nuts and chocolate chips.

Pour into a prepared (greased and floured) 9x13" pan. Bake at 175°C (350°F) for 35 minutes or until set in the middle. Let cool thoroughly, then snarf!

Hope everyone's having a nice weekend!

More About Paris

2010-11-07T15:30:00.001+01:00

I just got some more pictures from Gini today by email of our time in Paris. Remember I talked about talking a picture with the CRS? Well, here it the group, making fun of their collegue, and me.

The next day we went on a guided tour of the Palais Garnier (l'Opéra). Everything is so gorgeous and so amazing, I couldn't copy enough pictures to show you. Have a look here for a good collection of photos of the inside of the palace. The tours are both in English and French. I can highly recommending taking one if you're in Paris.

Wednesday evening, we went to a very nice restaurant called Le Gaigne in the Marais. Le Gaigne doesn't mean anything, it's a play on words of the chef's name, Gagnon. It's at 12, avenue Pecquay, 4th.

We had the gourmet menu, 5 dishes with wine. The first dish was a terrine de lapin and foie gras.

The second dish was a bowl of autumn veggies with a potimarron purée. Double yummy!

The third dish was colin (a lovely white fish like cod) on a bed of home-made macaroni and comté cheese. Triple yummy!

The main course was a Coucou (of this I kid you not) with the white meat in a corn sauce, and the dark meat in a wine sauce with topamnibours (jerusalem artichaukes). Quadruple yummy!!

And because we were such piglets by the time dessert arrived, we forgot to take a picture of the St. Honoré of quince. Dessertly yummy!!! The photo below is of a St. Honoré dessert from Flickr. Ours looked pretty much the same with a little less cream on it and with quince inside.

Me out in front of the restaurant after the meal, making a face, as usual.

And this is the very first weekend, when Gini was here at my house. We went to Sancerre, one of my all-time favorite little towns with delicious wine.

Paris in the Autumn

2010-11-04T21:35:00.015+01:00

I love Paris. Did I ever tell you that Paris is the absolutely most beautiful city in the world? It's spacious, gracious and elegant. Everytime I go to Paris, I remember how much I miss living there. Didn't someone say "When good people die, they go to Paris"?

OK, enough of my gushing. Gini and I had such a good time. She was able to come to France on a long lay-over in London while traveling to Turkey. How lucky I was to have been able to spend time with her in our beloved city.

We spent 4 nights and 5 days. I found a cute little hotel near the Centre Beaubourg called "L'hôtel du Cygne" (the hotel of the swan). It was on Rue du Cygne in the 1st arrondisement. We both took lots of photos, but of course, I didn't get one of the hotel.

The first day we wandered all over Montmartre and visited the Cathedrale de Sacré Coeur. We climbed up 300 steps to the top and had a look from the dome over the city. Hope you're not afraid of heights!

To the northwest

How many more steps to go?

Looking out over the city

At the end of the day, we found a cute restaurant which wasn't too touristy near Montmartre. A good glass of Chablis and a nice salad rounded out the day.

A well-merited dinner

The next day we went SHOPPING!!!!! I had been coveting a pair of ankle high boots by Geox and a long cardigan. I found a cardigan that I liked at the BHV (Bazar d'Hôtel de Ville). I found the boots I wanted at the Geox store on Rue de Rivoli for 140€!!! So I forgot about them. Then as we were going back to the hotel, Gini saw some signs and lo- and behold, there was a Geox outlet store a block away from our hotel.

I found my dream boots for 98€! Of course, I bought them.

That evening, we went to a play. Most people visiting Paris wouldn't think of going to a play due to the language barrier. But thanks to Mme. T, I found a play called "How to Become Parisian in 10 Lessons" in English. A Frenchman (Olivier Giraud) does this one-man play all in English. There were people there from all over --- France, as well as Britain, Spain, Germany, Brazil, USA, etc., etc.
Here's a short promotional video about the show.

It was a very funny piece. You had to have lived a little in Paris to really get all the inside jokes. I highly recommend it if you need something to do in Paris.

On our way to the theater, we stumbled upon one of France's most endearing traditions -- la grêve (the strike). There were tons of people all over the place, marching up the road to Bastille. All the roads were blocked so there were no cars anywhere.

The tip of the iceberg

I didn't get a picture, but there were people perched up around the first floor of the Bastille monument. No one should come to France without experiencing something so uniquely French.

Gini took my photo standing beside a CRS policeman, but I don't yet have a copy. The CRS are the crisis intervention force and are usually decked out in slick armor and riot helmets. These guys were standing around joking and they were very nice when we asked to take their picture.

CRS stands for Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité and this force is part of the Police Nationale.

By the end of day 2 we were pooped and glad to find our hotel.

I'll tell you about the last 2 days as soon as I can get some pictures from Gini.

Two Year Anniversary

2010-11-02T14:31:00.001+01:00

Thanks to Fly in the Web and Keith from A Taste of Garlic for reminding me that it's this blog's second anniversary. I have missed you all very much but I've been so unmotivated. But now that I've gotten a good kick in the rear by Fly, I wanted to get back to you all.

October's been a crazy month and I've been gone alot. First to Paris for a week, then to London for several days. I've got lots of photos and stories to tell you. I just needed a kick in the old "keester" to get going again.

My friend, Gini, was here from the US. We had a "girls week out" in Paris. She's been several times, especially the first year that I moved. She came over to help me get settled. We walked all over Paris and did lots of unusual and fun things. We avoided doing typical tourist stuff, because we'd both done all that before. And of course, we did a fair amount of shopping.

I'll write more about this trip and the trip to London in the coming days.

Mmmmmmm Mushrooms!

2010-09-27T12:08:00.000+02:00

On Saturday, Monsieur Titi and I went out to hunt champignons (mushrooms). This is a year for cêpes and we found a ton, even though there were other people in the forest hunting too. We found more than we could carry. So on Sunday, Monsieur Titi went back out for a little while and found even more cêpes.

Working hard cleaning the cêpes.

A small amount of the bounty.

Cêpes or Boletus Edulis, are wonderful, tasty mushrooms especially found in south-west French cooking. They are easy to clean, just cut off any dirt or rotten spots, then brush them clean. If you find that the mousse underneath the caps is too thick, you can cut this off. Don't ever wash fresh mushrooms as they'll give alot of liquid when cooked. Once cleaned, these darlings can be sautéed up with garlic or frozen as they are in a plastic freezer bag.

Up close with triplets.

This weekend, I also made a delicious apple cake with some windfall apples.

Amazing apple cake

Here's the recipe:
Amazing Apple Cake

250 grams brown sugar
250 grams flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 eggs
125 grams of melted butter
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
125 grams of walnuts -- chopped
650-700 grams chopped apples

Preheat the oven to 165°C or 325° F.
Prepare a 8x11" baking pan, grease and flour.
Cream together the sugar and the eggs, then add in melted butter and vanilla.

Mix together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon. Add this to the egg/sugar mixture. Mix well then add the apples and walnuts. This will be hard to mix in and you might think that there's not enough batter. But once you get the apples well covered, you'll see that they give off enough juice to make the cake. Spread into the prepared pan and cook 45-50 minutes. Eat warm or cold.

Notre resident praying mantis

We've had a praying mantis around the patio the last week. This is called une Mante Religieuse in French or a religious mantis. I'm not sure what she was doing hanging around, but with the rain and the colder temperautres, she's disappeared. I'd never seen one so close before.

Ci-gît l'été

2010-09-22T11:56:00.000+02:00

ci-gît l'été

Here lies the summer. It's over, now I have to wait a year for summer to come round again. It makes me sad. Just a word about the French: ci-gît is the traditional and ancient way of writing "here lies". This epitaphe is usually found on French gravestones.

That's all rather gloomy, I apologize for my lack of enthusiasm for the coming Autumn tomorrow. Autumn is bringing rain and colder temperatures. I'll get over it, but for now, BOO HOO!!!

Cats and dogs

2010-09-15T16:02:00.001+02:00

I saw this cartoon and thought it was cute. I really don't have much to say today. It's raining and I'm trying to get my first few English lessons together for my Thursday night group class but I'm running out of ideas. How many ways can one present how to introduce oneself and to give personal information? Boring!

Anyway, just wanted to say hi. Hope all is well with you.

Busy, busy, busy

2010-09-10T17:02:00.000+02:00

I haven't spent any time on Internet, and consequently on my blog or yours, since last Friday. It's been so busy lately, we've had so many projects over the last week.

Agnès, the president in the middle, Françoise, the secretary at the right and me on the left

Let's see... Saturday was the forum of the associations where all of the groups get together to show people what kind of association they are. Then that night there was a pic-nic and fireworks for everyone. Monsieur Titi was on the ping-pong stand and I was on the Twinning (Jumelage) stand promoting the English classes.

Then Sunday and Monday we went to the PIL's house to paint the woodwork on their garage and their front fence which is wrought iron. We got home on Monday night and I was exhausted! But the PILs fed us very well.

Tuesday I had a nice visit from a blogger friend here in France. Her name is Claude and you can see her blog here. Claude was taking her mom for a little visit to where her mom was born and raised. The village is about 45 kms. farther east but they had to go right by my house to get there. Claude was sweet enough to let me know so that we could meet.

Madame Claude from the Sarthe.

Claude's mother.

Wednesday Monsieur Titi and I spent all afternoon running around to appliance shops to look at their hobs and get references and pricing. Of course, everything is hideously expensive, but I think we've found a hob that won't be too bad and hopefully reliable.

I also went to sign up for gym classes. Since it's September, all of the classes, associations, etc. start up again for the school year. Our gym teacher was on maternity leave last year, so I didn't do anything for exercise. It'll be good to get moving again.

Yesterday, Madame T. asked me to go with her and her visiting belle-soeur (sister-in-law) to site-see at some of the little châteaux nearby. Her sister-in-law is from Tennessee and has never traveled outside of the US before. So Mme. T and DH are trying their best to show her a wonderful time.

We went to Beaugency and Meung-sur-Loire which are both to the east of Orléans. Unfortunately, the château and museum at Beaugency were closed for renovation. We could only visit the church. We walked around town and had lunch at a brasserie.

In Meung we got to see lots of fun stuff! For those of you who are Francophiles, Meung is pronounced like the word for hand "main". The château was open but there were only a very few visiters. The woman at the entrance was really nice and told us lots about the château and future plans for its renovation. She even let us use her private toilet because we had to pee!

The most fun we had was scaring ourselves down in the château's dungeon. There was barely enough light to see where we were walking. The stones on the ground were slippery and they had a recording of a storm going and had left a few decorations up from last Halloween.

BOOOOOO!

Today, I finally got a chance to do some grocery shopping and clean the house. And to get back on the Internet to catch up with everyone.

Hope you had a great week!

A hole in my kitchen ...but none in my heart

2010-08-26T14:41:00.000+02:00

There seems to be a hole in my kitchen counter. But not in my heart. Today is Monsieur Titi and my 15th wedding anniversary. M. Titi reminded me of it at the beginning of the week. I can never remember the date unless I look inside my wedding band. We aren't doing anything special but I did make a dessert (recipe below).

The hole in my kitchen is because our stove-top induction table (table de cuisson induction) started shorting the kitchen out last weekend. Monsieur Titi spent quite a bit of time figuring out how to take the stovetop out so that we could get it repaired.

As these sort of stovetops are quite expensive (in France between 700 and 1000€), we decided to see if this one could be repaired first. It's gone off to the appliance doctor and we're waiting for his call with the estimate.

Now I'm trying to figure out main dishes to make using only the oven or our handy plancha. If you have a good casserole recipe, I'd love to have it. Sadly, most of the recipes I have for the oven are desserts. Here's another recipe for you to try out with all these wonderful fruit.

Clafouti aux Prunes (Plum clafouti)
This recipe can be done with just about any fruit. Choose the liqueur or alcohol that you use to marinate the fruit to compliment the flavor.

Ingredients:
750 grams of fruit (here plums -- mirabelle)
2-3 Tablespoons of alcohol or liqueur (I used a mirabell "goutte" meaning "drop" which is distilled fruit alcohol)

100 grams flour
A pinch of salt
4 eggs
150 grams sugar
75 grams butter
40 cl. milk
25 grams sugar for topping

Wash and pit the plums. Put into a bowl and stir in the alcohol. Let marinate for 2 hours or overnight.

Heat the oven to 180°C or 360°F. Melt 50 grams of butter and set aside. Use the rest of the butter for the pan. Sift the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Make a little indentation and put in the eggs. Mix thoroughly then add the melted butter and sugar. Mix again thoroughly. Add the milk in slowly, then fluff up the mixture using a wire whisk. The more air in the mixture, the better it will be.

Put the plums in the pan with any juice. Pour the mixture carfully over the fruit so as not to move the fruit around. Bake for 30 minutes, take out and sprinkly the sugar over the top. Return to oven for another 15 minutes. The clafouti will be very fluffy but will sink down quickly. Eat after it's cooled down.

The Last Hurrah

2010-08-20T11:12:00.001+02:00

Yesterday, summer was here. I decided to invite Mme. T. and Laura over to have one last hurrah for summer. These past 3 months have gone by so quickly. Laura and Mme. T. both live in the same little town close by here. Mme. T. brought a Sangria Blanco (sangria made from white wine with lots of fruit) and Laura brought some yummy salmon snacks and a gift for me!

Laura also brought her two boys with her so that they could enjoy our pool. And they did! They spent most of the afternoon in the water. This is after a hard play where they're sharing ice-cream cones with Pacha.

It was great to chat and laze about in the warm weather. I'm trying to soak up as much as possible before winter comes.

For dessert, I made a tarte aux prunes, or a plum tart. If you have too many plums this is a very good, simple tart. In French, a prune is a plum and pruneaux are prunes. Got it?

Tarte aux Prunes à ma façon

One pâte sablée or a short crust that has sugar in it.

18-20 plums depending on their size. My tarte took about 16, but the plums were very big.
Plum jam
8 Palets Bretons or any thick absorbant sort of sweet vanilla biscuits.
Brown sugar
25 grams of almond powder

Heat the oven to 200°C. Bake the crust empty. If you don't know how to do that, just look at the wrapper on the crust.

Lower the oven temperature to 180°C. Wash the plums and cut them in-half. Put them in a bowl while the crust is cooling.

When the crust is ready, cover the bottom with a layer of plum jam. Then crush the vanilla biscuits (palets bretons) and spread them evenly over the crust. Put each half plum face down (skin facing up) and pour any juice remaining in the bowl.

Cover with brown sugar and the almond powder. Bake for 30-40 minutes until brown.

I Hate Bricolage!

2010-08-11T22:34:00.000+02:00

Bricolage = home improvement = DYI = hard work!

We're busy painting the shutters and the exterieurs of the windows in our garage/grange.

There are three windows with shutters, two large porte-fênetres (French windows) with their shutters and two very large doors opening up into the main part of the garage and into the smaller added-on workroom. At the back of the following picture, you can see a large sliding wooden garage door which needed to be painted as well. Luckily there's enough room in the added-on workroom to put the shutters. This protects them while drying and also during the awful rain we've been having today.

Each window has tiny little glass panes with wood, so I've had to put masking tape around each little window. It's been about 5 years since we've painted all of this and the woodwork is in sad shape.

Monsieur Titi always swears that I never do anything around the house when it comes to bricolage. This is patently not true! I remember painting those same darned windows and shutters myself.

We aren't finished yet, but I've put 2 coats of varnish on all of the above and hopefully will finish up tomorrow with the top coat and the anti-rust paint for the ironwork on each and every window and shutter.

This doesn't give me much time to visit my blogger friends, but it's best to go into the winter with the bricolage done.

Le mariage et une tarte aux noix

2010-08-06T11:41:00.000+02:00

Last weekend we were invited to a wedding here in our little village. I give English lessons to the mother of the groom and she was kind enough to invite us.

Monsieur Titi and Marion

In France at weddings there is a chain of events that happens, usually all on the same day. First of all, the couple and their families stand before the local mayor to get married by civil law. Then they go to the church where everyone is invited (here over 200) and have the religious ceremony. After that is l'apéro!!! or le vin d'honneur as it's more properly called. At le vin d'honneur all of the folks who were at the church are invited. After that there is the dinner which usually lasts all night long. A smaller number of people are invited to this (here about 150).

The bride and groom (squinting into the hot sun)

I've been to a couple of French weddings before this one and most are quite happy and fun. They aren't really as obsessively perfect as many American weddings are. This wedding was rather austere. It was quite simple and I was surprised at the lack of tons of flowers and decorations. And the religious ceremony was a real Catholic mass. I'd never gone into our little church before. It's quite big!

The unruly French getting ready to be amused.

We had fun and talked to lots of people at the vin d'honneur. Then we came home and ate sandwiches for dinner.

The next day, I made a Tarte aux Noix or a Walnut Tarte for lunch. It was really good! If and when you have tons of walnuts and don't know what to do with them, try this recipe. It's marvelous.

I wanted to make the tarte in my 28-cm tarte pan, but when I got done with the filling, there wasn't enough to fill the crust up, so I slopped it into a US pie plate (9 inch). Next time I'll double the filling.

Tarte aux Noix

for 6 people: As I said, I'd make a double batch if I were using a large flat tarte pan.

1 pâte sablée (a sweeter crust than pâte brisée)
150g of chopped walnuts and a few really nice halves for the top.
2 Tablespoons of honey
20 cl of crème fraîche
2 egg yolks
75g sugar

Heat oven to 180°C or 360° F.

Spread out the crust in the pan and pick it with a fork to keep it from puffing up. Put it back in the fridge so it doesn't melt.

Roughly chop the walnut meat. Don't crush them into powder! Set aside.
In a non-stick pan, caramalize the sugar to a light golden brown. Be careful not to brown it too much as it will become bitter.
Take the pan off the heat and slowly pour in the crème fraîche while stirring constantly. Be careful that it doesn't splatter. Also, you might find that the caramel becomes hard and isn't disolved. Put the pan back on the heat and keep stirring until caramel melts and blends into the crème.
Take the pan off the heat and add in the honey and the chopped walnuts. Stir well and add the egg yolks, stir again. Pour this mixture into the crust.

Put into the oven and cook for 10 minutes. Then place the walnut halves on top to decorate.

Continue baking for about 20 to 30 minutes ( +/- depending on your oven. Mine took 20 minutes).

Cool and try not to eat it all yourself.

Une Tarte Normande

2010-07-27T12:11:00.001+02:00

Monsieur Titi has his father and a neighbor over today to help him pull out a couple of tree stumps from our back yard.

Monsieur Titi gets the neighbor to do all the work.

After he'll be making them a barbecue lunch. I made them potato salad and a Tarte Normande, or a apple tarte in the Normandy fashion.

For those who don't know, any food in France having "Normande" in the title originated in Normandy, which is on the "French" Channel just across from England. The normandy folk grow apples and have many cows so traditionally much of the milk products came from that area. Because the Normandy cooks used their milk products in their cooking, the recipes are often full of cream, crème fraîche and butter. Thus this tarte. An apple pie with cream in it.

Here's the recipe:

Tarte aux Pommes Normande

Ingredients: for a 24 cm tarte plate.

One pie crust (pâte brisée)

3/4 lovely local apples

3 eggs

100 grams of crème fraîche (that'd be a little less than 1/2 cup)

100 grams of sugar

100 grams of almond powder

1/2 cup of Calvados (apple liqueur from Normandy)

some sliced almonds for the topping.

Heat the oven to 180°C or 360°F

Roll out the crust and pick it with a fork, then put it into the plate

Peel the apples and cut them into nice even slices. Place them in a pinwheel pattern on the crust.

Beat the eggs and sugar. Then add the almond powder and beat again. Add the crème fraîche and the Calvados. Pour over the apples. Sprinkle the sliced almonds over the top, if desired.

Bake for 30 minutes and let cool. Then dive in!

Les Agapes

2010-07-19T14:46:00.001+02:00

This past weekend was dedicated to celebrating Monsieur Titi and my birthdays. We were born 2 days apart but not the same year. So we always have our birthday parties together. It's easier for everyone and it's more fun. I call it our "Agapes" because in the plural this word means a large, joyful meal between friends.

Over the past few years, our tradition is to have a weekend party, starting with afternoon swimming, apératifs, then a nice dinner, which I and M. Titi have prepared. Then the next day, more swimming and a big barbecue lunch.

Will this be enough?

This year I made Eggplant Madilzano, Bruschetta, salmon and une poelée de légumes, magret de canard and home-style potatoes. Then we had cheese and 2 cakes which we bought from the pâtisserie. Monsieur Titi cooked the salmon and the duck on our planchas, which are flat cooking areas which are portable and which don't need grease.

A beautiful summer evening having our Kir Royaux and des amuses-bouches.

A gift-bottle of champagne

Monsieur Titi trying to cook in the dark. We do have lights on the patio, but none really bright enough to see. So Jacqueline held the flashlight. Here you can see one of the planchas.

Getting ready for dessert in our dining room. It got too cold to stay outside, so we came in to warm up.

I'll give you the recipes for the Madilzano and the Bruschetta because I really liked both. Although, I had no idea that Bruschetta was such a bother! It's hard to pile the cut up tomatoes on top of the baguette. Anyway, we had a lovely weekend and now we are both very tired. But there is lots of food left over so dinner will be easy tonight.

Eggplant Madilzano

Ingredients

3 medium eggplants
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup finely ground walnuts
1 pinch salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup olive oil

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Brush eggplants lightly with olive oil, pierce the eggplant skin with a knife, and place them in the oven. Roast until the skins are brown and the eggplant is soft, about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, cool slightly, peel, and cut into chunks. Set aside in a bowl to drain off some of the liquid.

Place the eggplant chunks into the container of a food processor, along with the garlic, feta cheese, walnuts, and olive oil. If it doesn't all fit, do this in batches then stir together. Process until well blended with just a few small chunks. The consistency should be thick. Transfer to a bowl, and season with salt and pepper. Serve as a side dish or appetizer.

Bruschetta
Ingredients

12 roma (plum) tomatoes, chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons minced shallots
1 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
salt to taste freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, cut into slivers
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 baguette cut into 1/2 inch slices
1 ball (250 grams) mozzerella

Directions
In a large bowl, toss together the roma tomatoes, minced garlic, shallots, basil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and 1/3 cup olive oil.

Place the slivered garlic and 1/4 cup olive oil in small saucepan over medium heat. Slowly cook and stir 2 to 3 minutes. Discard garlic.

Toast the bread slices, and brush with the olive oil heated with garlic. Top slices with the roma tomato mixture. Then top with mozzarella and grill slightly until melted. This helps hold down the tomato chunks.

France Bans the Burqa

2010-07-16T09:49:00.000+02:00

So what do you think?

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

The Yearly Bath

2010-07-10T21:56:00.000+02:00

Pacha's motto is "I have a bath once a year, whether I need it or not." He's a big dog! And he's got lots of fur. When he's wet, he takes hours to dry. So baths are few and far between. Normally we schedule them for mid-summer so Pacha can dry off in the sun.

Dirty dog

We wash him in our bathing suits because we're covered in fur by the time we get done. Warm water and shampoo, plus a long massage, what happiness!

Yahooo! Happy dog.

Back in his armchair, Pacha is dry and pretty clean. Well, at least he doesn't stink too much.

A Day with the Ladies

2010-07-08T11:56:00.000+02:00

Rosie, Mme. T. and I got together yesterday for lunch. Mme. T. is going off to the US for 2 weeks and we wanted to say goodbye. We hadn't seen Rosie since February, so it was time to touch bases again. Rosie has been horribly busy with her Chambres d'Hôtes (B&B). You can see it here.

Mme. T went to lots of trouble making us a super lunch, even though she's madly getting ready to leave.

We had a great talk and many promises of seeing each other in August when Rosie gets back from her trip to the US.

It was so nice to spend the afternoon talking about everything under the sun.

A Scared Visitor

2010-06-28T13:51:00.000+02:00

When the nice weather comes, and the temperature rises, we open up all the doors and the windows in the house. There are a couple of inconveniences with that; little scared creatures finding their way indoors and not knowing how to get out.

Most often, we get small bats in the evening. They follow their sonar and will swoop in and out of the house without too much trouble. Sometimes they hide behind the shutters and we find them the next morning.

The most scared are the little birds. Yesterday, we got a little moineau (wren?) who was flying about madly up in the stairwell and the mezzanine. He landed on a window high up in the ceiling and sat there for hours. He finally got so tired that he landed on my desk and I was able to catch him and put him outside.

He seemed no worse for his adventure and quickly flew off into the trees.

LES CONS !!!!

2010-06-25T13:41:00.000+02:00

I can't believe it!! This is so typically French!! Last night while I was out to dinner with the English classes, some "con" stole my "Go USA" sign!!! Monsieur Titi said that someone in the neighborhood was offended by my sign. Hmph!

Can you believe it?

Supporting the USA

2010-06-24T11:16:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I watched the entire match between the US and Algeria at the World Cup. I believe that it's the first match I've ever watched all the way through. Donovan's goal was outstanding! They are in the 1/8th finals and will be playing again Saturday night against Ghana (I think).

So now that France has been disqualified, Monsieur Titi and I are fervent USA supporters. I decided to show our support by putting up a sign on our front hedge for the world (or at least the few people who pass by on our street) to see.

It's unusual in France to see open support of anything. People don't put up French flags (except the towns on Bastille Day) or silly signs like Americans do. I thought it'd give our neighbors something to talk about. Monsieur Titi will be red with shame when he sees the sign.

Also, tonight the English classes are having our annual year-end dinner. About 15 people will be coming to my house for the apéro and then on to the restaurant. So I thought they might enjoy seeing American craziness up close.

Who else is a USA supporter?

Association Picnic

2010-06-17T10:36:00.003+02:00

Last Sunday, the Association de Jumelage had their annual start-of-summer picnic. This is for all of the members not only the people who take my English classes. However, most of the folks who came are in one of my classes.

It was a potluck for the starters and the desserts, with the barbecue and drinks being furnished by the Association.

We brought Pacha along because he doesn't like staying home by himself and also, it was a beautiful day. People were surprised to see him but they finally got used to having the dog around. He behaved himself and didn't steal any merguez.

The journalist from La Republic came before everyone was there, so the photo is missing some of the attendees. But it's a good picture of Pacha! You can click on the link to see our largest regional newspaper.

Can you find me? Monsieur Titi?

And one little message for my student Philippe, if he reads this post. Here's your picture!!!! But what's with the beer-belly? He's on the left!

We had tons of yummy desserts especially a wonderful Cheesecake that Francine made. I have the recipe but I haven't tried it yet.

I made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting. Monsieur Titi said that the frosting looked like dog-doo, so I decorated them with cherries.

Monsieur Titi's all ready!

2010-06-10T17:00:00.001+02:00

The last 24-hour countdown has started until tomorrow at 15:00 France time. Then the Coupe de Monde (World Cup) will start. And Monsieur Titi's got everything set up and ready to go. He's got his game sheet and his marker for recording the winner and the score. The refrigerator is full of beer and he's got plans to see the first two matches tomorrow night with his dad. France is playing ~~Paraguay~~ Uruguay (Thanks, Beaver!) in case you haven't heard. France is supposed to have a tough time because France has never beaten Uruguay. The Bleus better win or the whole country will go on strike.

This ad is playing now on TV and I find it awfully romantic and a bit homo-erotic. But nevertheless, it shows you how much in love the French are with their football team.

I'm not a huge football (soccer) fan but I would like to see France's team win some of their games. Hope you are ready for the next 15 days.

Mme. T stops by for cookies

2010-06-02T17:04:00.000+02:00

This afternoon the sun started to finally come out and the temperature is warming up. Mme. T. dropped by to say hi. We ate "healthy" oatmeal cookies and picked the first cherries.

Healthy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1 cup flour (spoon flour into dry-measure cup and level off)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar

1 large egg

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups rolled oats (not instant)

1/2 cup dark raisins (or dried cranberries)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and set the rack on the lower and upper thirds of the oven.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and granulated sugar until smooth. Mix in the brown sugar, then the egg, applesauce, and vanilla.

4. Stir in the dry ingredients, then the oats and raisins.

5. Drop the batter by rounded teaspoons 2-inches apart on the baking sheets and use a fork to gently flatten the dough.

6. Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, or until they "look dull on the surface but are moist and soft". Rotate baking sheets during baking for even heating.

Storage: Once cool, store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.

Brochettes de Poulet aux Epices

2010-05-25T17:23:00.000+02:00

I mentioned on my last post that we were having a bbq yesterday. I also promised that I'd give you a good recipe for Chicken brochettes. In fact, this recipe is Monsieur Titi's. He discovered it and everytime we have this dish, he prepares it. Amazing! These are the brochettes mounted and ready to go on the fire. I put onion, peppers and eggplant this time. The eggplant on the barbecue was non-conclusive.

Here they are slowly cooking. Takes about 15-20 minutes depending on the size of the chicken cubes.

Finished, served on a bed of lettuce with a nice Rosé wine.

Brochettes du Poulet aux Epices

For 4 persons

500 grams chicken breasts (boned and skinned)

1/2 Yellow pepper

1/2 Green pepper

1/2 Red pepper

1 violet onion

Marinade:

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

3 Tablespoons lemon juice

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

3 Tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon crushed garlic

1 teaspoon curry powder

1 teaspoon 4 Spices

½ teaspoon cayenne powder

Mix together all of the ingredients for the marinade. Cut the chicken breasts in large cubes, mix into the marinade and let sit for at least one hour.
Peel the onion and cut into eighths and then separate the layers. Cut the peppers into squares.
Put together the brochettes. Take a long skewer and place a piece of pepper, a cube of chicken, a layer of onion, etc. until the skewer is full. Don’t squeeze the ingredients together tightly or they won’t cook uniformly.
Place on the grill of barbecue and let cook for 15 minutes, turning regularly. Serve with a salad and / or rice.

Holiday weekend and wood for the winter

2010-05-23T11:41:00.000+02:00

It's a three-day weekend and tomorrow is France's national Barbecue Day. I bet no one knew that. Actually it's Pentecôte (pentacost) but I figure that most French people will be outside taking advantage of the glorious weather we are having. Now according to Wiki, Pentacost takes place 7 weeks after Easter and it when the holy spirit came and visited the apostles. But it looks like the bird is crapping on their heads. Oh!

Monsieur Titi was supposed to go away this weekend for a ping-pong championship. But that wound up not happening, so he's here. That was lucky because the wood that we ordered for the fireplace got delivered yesterday. Here are the wood guys discussing with M. Titi the logistics.

Here's the wood all piled up nice and neat. We have to get covers for it to protect it from the rain. We bought 12 stères. A stère is one meter by one meter by one meter of wood. This measurement was declared unofficial by the government in 1977. Now wood in France is officially measured by metric cube. However, everyone still talks in stères around here. In the U.S. wood is measured in cords. A cord of wood is 4 ft.x 4 ft.x 8 ft.

This is the first delivery of 4 stères. They had to make three trips and had to come by back roads because the truck exceeded the weight limit for the main road.

Rather than dumping the wood out on the ground in a big pile, the wood-guys stacked all of the wood up. I thought I'd be helping M. Titi all day today. Whew! Glad I got out of that.

So, now, Monsieur Titi is running madly about trying to get ready for our barbecue this afternoon. This is a dry-run just for us as my PILs are coming for a real barbecue tomorrow. He's going to make marinated chicken brochettes and I'll make a yummy Pear Tarte. When I have pictures, I'll give you the recipes!

Have a great French BBQ Day and enjoy your day off tomorrow.

What happens to the time?

2010-05-13T12:36:00.000+02:00

I'm not sure where time goes exactly. It just seems to speed up every day. My Mom used to tell me that time got shorter as you got older. I'm starting to believe her.

I have been busy, nonetheless. Guests last weekend, ALL WEEKEND!

And I decided after three years of not fitting into my gadzillions of clothes in my closests, that I needed to get rid of them and forget about the me who fit into sizes 6-8 (38-40 French sizes). Getting rid of clothes that I've had for, sometimes, years, has been more painful than I realized. Not only had I imagined that they were all very chic and worth tons of money, but that someday I'd wear them again. How delusional!!!

There's a dépôt-vente (a consignment store) that's opened up near here recently. I called and made an appointment and took down about 100 things that I thought might be appropriate for spring and summer. Out of all that stuff, the owner only wanted about 10 items. She took a few nice Levis jeans, and a few summerish dresses. The woman flashed on two of my favorite dresses which had been dry-cleaned and were in the plastic. While inspecting them, she found spots on both of them! So she refused them. How frustrating.
She didn't want any suits because she said she couldn't sell them. And of course, I have TONS of suits.

Overall, she found my clothes out of style, or too classic, or too upscale for her clientele. I never imagined that I was a classic dresser, but I guess I am. But then, I have to remember that when I was wearing most of this stuff, I was working in a big corporation, traveling alot for work and meeting clients. That stuff just doesn't fit my country lifestyle now.

She keeps the clothes at the store for 2 months with a price that's been agreed on by both of us. If the item sells, she splits the money with me. If not, I take it back. Fair enough! She also said that in September, I should bring her my winter clothes.

All the rest, old t-shirts, jeans, etc., I'll be taking to the Secours Catholique (like the Goodwill). The Secours Catholique has a branch that encourages women to take material and restyle it. It's called Tissons la solidarité (Let's knit solidarity). They just had a fashion show in Paris last week. You can see pictures of that défilé here.

So after I get over feeling fat, old and totally overwhelmed by life, I'll start finding clothes again that are more tailored to my lifestyle, and big, fat butt.

Now for something lighter, the neighbor (with whom we do not get along) has rather exotic fowls. One of his birds is a rather large swan. The swan has been squatting our pond and has made it his own. Pacha goes crazy when he sees him and runs around the pond barking. But the swan just ignores him and paddles. Sometimes, he'll madly flap his wings as if he's going to take-off but then doesn't.

Have a great weekend, and I'll try to get around and visit everyone's blog.

French Fooding with an American Recipe

2010-05-05T11:02:00.000+02:00

Fooding is a word that the French created to express an event that centered around eating, cooking and enjoying oneself. See this site! The French have a mania with taking English words and adding "ing" to them and then using them as the suffix to an adjective or as a nominal adjective: such as cocooning, footing; and the places one goes, dancing, pressing, etc.

This last weekend we had a friend over for Sunday lunch. Since he is a typical French person, he'd never tasted carrot cake. So I decided to surprise him with a traditional American recipe. This took quite a while to prepare but it was well worth it! This was one of the best carrot cakes I've ever had.

First step: assemble the ingredients

Out of the oven after 50 minutes!

Ah! Delicious and no need for a cream cheese frosting.

Wonderful Carrot Pineapple and Walnut Cake

Ingredients

3 eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk (make your own by adding 1 tablespoon lemon juice to the milk and let stand 15 minutes)
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups shredded carrots
1 cup flaked coconut
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 (8 ounce/226 grams) can crushed pineapple with juice. I bought a 350 grams can (drained weight) and used about 3/4 of it with most of the juice.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8x12 inch pan.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream softened butter and sugar, then combine eggs, buttermilk and vanilla. Mix well. Add flour mixture and mix well.

In a medium bowl, combine shredded carrots, coconut, walnuts, pineapple.

Using a large wooden spoon or a very heavy whisk, add carrot mixture to batter and fold in well.

Pour into prepared 8x12 inch pan, and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 50-60 minutes. Check with toothpick.

Allow to cool for at least 20 minutes before serving.

The North Sea and Dracula (England part III)

2010-04-23T22:18:00.001+02:00

Saturday, a bunch of us set off by train to go to Whitby which is on the North Sea. The train took about 1 hour and wound it's way through the North York Moors. We saw many pheasants, rabbits and sheep with their lambs in the fields.

Whitby is a lovely little port town. It was a whaling town at one time and now depends mostly on tourism to survive, although there are some great fish shops too.

Whitby's mainly known as the home of Dracula and the Goth Festival. The Goth Festival is held twice a year and honors the birthplace of Dracula. It's on right now until April 25th in case anyone wants to check it out.

Whitby is closely associated with Dracula because Bram Stoker who wrote the original novel spent time in the town while on holiday there during the summer of 1890. While he was there he was researching and writing a novel that would eventually become Dracula. The most important piece of information Stoker found while staying in Whitby was in a document he found in Whitby library, An Account of the Principalities of Wallacia and Moldavia by William Wilkinson. This document contained a reference to a 15th Century prince who had earned himself the nickname 'Dracula'. In a way, Whitby can be seen as Dracula's birth place.

Not only did Stoker spend time in Whitby himself, he also set a significant part of Dracula in the town and used it as the place Dracula first steps ashore in England in the form of a big black dog which jumps from a ship called The Demeter which had run aground in Whitby.

North Yorkshire fashion. All the young, thin women (and some not so thin) were wearing these leggings with shorts, or not, over them.

The winding streets of old Whitby.

From the old town of Whitby, 199 steps lead up to the parish church of St. Mary, whose churchyard on Whitby's East Cliff gave Bram Stoker the inspiration to write his world famous book, Dracula

Whitby's skyline is dominated by the ruins of St. Hilda's Abbey, high on Whitby's East Cliff. Spreading below Whitby, a maze of alleyways and narrow streets run down to the busy quayside.

A glorious day on the North Sea.

Looking across the harbour toward East Cliff, you can see the view that inspired the fertile imagination of author Bram Stoker, who stayed in the Royal Hotel on the western side of Whitby while writing his famous novel.

Now for some real vampire food; Kippers!

Here are the little fishies just out of the smokehouse, ready to be sold. The guy was really grumpy but the kippers were good.

Dracula's resting place.

Another Gift!

2010-04-20T12:31:00.000+02:00

I saw this book in an English bookstore while we were in Durham. There were several French people asking me to recommend books or English authors to them. They wanted to know if the level was good for their abilities, etc.

Then I saw this book on the shelf. I know Stephen Clarke from his wildly amusing "A Year in the Merde". Some of the more advanced students have read all or parts of that book.

I picked this one up and showed it to a couple of the French folks and said, "now this looks interesting!" One of my long-time students said, "I don't appreciate your sense of humor." I knew he was kidding.

This morning our lady post deliver came by leaving another package! When I opened I laughed out loud! It was from Von, again! I'm not sure how she knew I had looked at this book, maybe I mentioned it to her in an email. But I was so surprised. And, a little embarassed because she's spoiled me rotten this week.

KISSES to you, Von! Now I can torture my students tonight with some of the great quotes from the book.

Here are some samples:
Joan of Arc:
'Of the love or hatred of God for the English, I know nothing, but I do know that all of them will be booted out of France, except those who will die here.'

Fougeret de Montbron 1706-1760 (French write and Anglophile):
"We are the only nation in the universe that the English do not distain. Instead they pay us the compliment of hating us as ferociously as possible. We should be flattered -- every foreigner in London is called a "French dog.""

Samuel Taylor Coleridge:
"Frenchmen are like gunpowder, each by itself smutty and contemptible, but mass them together and they are terrible indeed!"

Stendahl:
"The French are the wittiest, the most charming, and up till now at least, the least musical race on Earth."

Mark Twain:
"In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French. I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language."

Claude Gagnière 1928-2003, French writer:
A man who speaks three languages is trilingual. A man who speaks two languages is bilingual. A man who speaks one language is English."

I have always depended on the kindness of strangers

2010-04-19T16:26:00.000+02:00

Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers. Blanche Dubois says this in A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennesse Williams. It seems to be appropriate to describe the generousity of the people on Internet, the faithful bloggers from all over the planet.

Von is one such generous, faithful, kind person. She sent me goodies!!! Bless her heart!!! Von lives in Devonshire, England. She has a blog called NoClue that you can see here. When I was planning on going to England, I had asked bloggers what they thought I should bring back. Von suggested clotted cream, scones, and strawberry jam. I can only get the jam here. I can make scones, but I never have. And the clotted cream was a mystery to me.

The English lady with whom we stayed explained to me what clotted cream was, but it wasn't available up in North Yorkshire at that time. Von gave me a English grocery store address in Paris that does carry the clotted cream, so I can easily order it.

Now I've received a package of scone mix, a box of shortbread, TWO boxes of fudge with clotted cream, a tin of kippers, and a Cadbury chocolate bar. Oh boy! We've already tried the shortbread and it was just yummy.

Thank you, dear Von. I'm in your debt. Anytime you want something from France, just let me know.

Durham City (England Part II)

2010-04-17T18:45:00.002+02:00

In the morning, we woke up to a wonderful smell -- fresh baked bread! Heather had made us a brioche for our breakfast. We also discovered Yorkshire tea, which does "make a lovely cup of tea". (from the package)

We also got to meet the dog, Sam. He is 2 years-old and so cute! He's what they call a "working Cocker". He was so curious and became a good friend while we were there.

Heather and Chris had to work so couldn't go along with us to visit Durham.

click to enlarge

On the first day of our trip to England, there was an organized visit to Durham City. Durham is about 1 hour from Great Ayton. Durham is a very interesting city, it has one of the best universities in England, and an 11th C. cathedral and castle.

When we got off the bus, we walked to the Millenium Place. This statue shows the casket of St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne and the monks. St. Cuthbert was one of the founders of the cathedral and is honored there.

We walked through the old town and up to the Durham cathedral. This magnificent Norman cathedral was founded in 1093. It was confiscated by Thomas Cromwell, who suprisingly didn't wreck it, and turned into a Church of England cathedral in the 16th C. This cathedral is one of the largest in England.

I couldn't take pictures inside, but it was really fantastic. Beautiful stained glass, a huge nef and lovely wood work. If you'd like to find out more about it, click here.

I almost pryed this doorknocker off the front door to take it home with me. It would look really nice on my front door! I've never seen one quite so unusual.

The cathedral, once being Catholic, housed a monastery. This is a photo from inside the cloisters. As you can see, we had lovely weather.

After the visit, we were walking back down to the center part of town. I saw this little fishy wandering about with a sign advertising a restaurant and the fish and chips. I had to have a photo! This is a get-up you'd never see in Paris.

Monsieur Titi and a friend, Didier, wanted to try out a real English pub. We finally found one. Monsieur Titi and Didier were both quite pleased with the quality of the beer. I can't even tell you what they had, as I'm not a beer-drinker. I had a glass of white wine instead.

This is from below the cathedral from the River Wear. The original city was built in a place encircled by the river giving it natural protection.

It was quite a long day, but we had a lot of fun. We toddled back to our hosts' house for a nice supper.

Our next visit was to Whitby on the North Sea.

What I brought back (England, Part I)

2010-04-14T10:56:00.000+02:00

Monsieur Titi and I got back from England on Monday night, pretty late. Taking the bus sucks (to put it politely) and next time I will take the Eurostar or an airplane.

But after 16 hours on the bus to get to Great Ayton, we were welcomed with open arms and hearts by the lovely Yorkshire folks. The visit was busy and full. It's going to be hard to describe everything even in several posts. So this first post I'll talk about what I brought back.

Books! Tea! Curry, spices, and pastes! Shortbread! Chocolate! Wine! Apple juice! Muffin/cupcake cups!

Here's a group picture of pretty much everything we bought. We did buy two cute things for my niece; a little purse with the British flag in sequins and a lovely purple shiny scarf, that I didn't take a picture of.

Some of the various English goodies

I bought 325 muffin cups/cases. They are so hard to find here I figured it was best to stock up. All the French people were amazed at this purchase as they hadn't ever really seen anything like them before.

I bought some really good curry and madras spices from Julian Graves Ltd. These spices are "created" by the celebrity chef, Lesley Waters. I'd never heard of her, but I wanted something really exceptional. The Tandoori and Tikka pastes I got from Marks & Sparks in Durham. I haven't tried them yet, but I'm going to this week.

The Fantail Shortbread is a present for my PILs. I thought they'd appreciate good English shortbread. The Cadbury's chocolate was purchased at a reststop on our way back and turned out to be a really good thing to have at home. I didn't realize Cadbury chocolate was so good!

Teas! I went a little crazy. I bought some really good Taylor's of Harrogate teas; English Breakfast, Scottish Breakfast and Chai. Our host family introduced us to Yorkshire Tea from Taylor's. It's really good and I bought a package of that too (not on the picture). I brought back a special Yogi tea for my friend, Madame T.

When we went to Whitby (a future post), our host family recommended the kippers. The smoked kippers and kipper paste are from a traditional smoke house in the center of Whitby. We bought several pots of paste to bring back to the family here. We didn't dare buy the kippers because the smell would have been horrible!

Fortune's Kippers, established in 1872

I saw the Boots stores and so many other places I wanted to go into. Had I had 5 days to do nothing but shopping, I might have satisfied my cravings, but I had to make a choice. But I want to thank all of you who suggested what to buy and what to look for. The suggestions really helped.

Our host makes and sells apple juice at the local markets. He recommended "hedge-row" wines made by a local winery, the Skinningrove Country Wine Company. Here's a picture of the Blackberry wine we brought back. We haven't tasted it yet, but I'm sure it's very good.

A close-up of the label

What to look for when in and around Great Ayton

And, here's a bottle of Chris' apple juice. Adam is their 10-year-old son. Chris sold over 150 bottles at last Saturday's Swainsby market. It's really good and we brought back 6 bottles.

I'll introduce you to our host family, Chris, Heather and their children, Jennifer and Adam. They were really wonderful and spoiled us terribly. Heather baked for us every day as she used to be a professional bread baker. They grew up in the area, left to work around London and came back to the Yorkshire area about 8 years ago.
The kids were adorable and I encouraged them to come to France to visit. We left their arms tearfully. Even Monsieur Titi was a little sad to leave.

At the pub, waiting for dinner

What to bring back?

2010-04-05T15:00:00.000+02:00

Next Thursday, Monsieur Titi and I are going to England for 5 days. I've been to England several times as an adult, and M. Titi's gone over 3 times when he was in school.

But we are not going to London. We are going to Great Ayton. This is a small town in the northeast corner of England not too far from Scotland. We're going with the Association de Jumelage (for whom I teach English). The town here (Ouzouer) is twinned with Great Ayton. So off about 70 adults and children go to spend 5 days getting to know the area. Many of the members of the Association have been up there before. But this will be a big adventure for M. Titi and I.

Great Ayton is almost on the North Sea and right at the top of the North Yorkshire Moors. It's part of Middlesbrough. It looks like it's only about 1 hour to Scotland. We'll be visiting Durham and some kind of big rocks at a park. Most of the time, we'll be spending time trying to understand each other's English and having fun.

For you Brits, what should I shop for while there? I know that I want to bring back some Indian spices, curries, etc. But what else are must-have goodies from there?

Lasagne au Poulet

2010-03-28T12:18:00.000+02:00

I'm sure that I was a fat, old Italian woman in a past life. I love Italian food and there's nothing better that I like doing that making tomato sauce, pasta and especially, lasagna.

Me in my past Italian mama life

Yesterday it was a rainy icky day, so I decided to make a chicken lasagna. I had a couple of liters of homemade tomato sauce in the freezer and some chicken breasts.

Chicken tomato sauce reducing

Monsieur Titi is always ready to eat lasagna, so he was willing to go out in the rain to find two important ingredients; mozarella and ricotta cheese.

In France, all of the lasagnas I've ever seen, whether in restaurants or in the traiteurs, are always made with a bechamel (white) sauce. This is just not on as far as I'm concerned! I insist that good lasagna be made with a thick layer of ricotta cheese in the middle and melted mozarella on top. I add eggs to the ricotta to make the layer nice and thick so that it holds together.

I ground the chicken breasts in my food processor. That's something I've never tried before but it worked very well. Now I know how to make ground chicken and turkey for all occasions.

After having cooked the chicken, onions, garlic, mushrooms and red peppers together, I added in the tomato sauce and let it boil a long time so that it would become thick.

I use ready-to-cook lasagna noodles. They are so handy, and I hate to pre-cook the pasta first. After that, I layered the noodles with the sauce and as I said, in the middle layer, I put the ricotta/egg mixture, then more noodles and sauce.

On top went the mozarella and up! 45 minutes in the oven. Et voilà! There was loads left over for tonight and probably for tomorrow as well.

News from France

2010-03-25T11:23:00.000+01:00

Well, isn't this something? I haven't heard anything about this on French news television, but then there's been quite alot going on this week what with the huge victory of the Socialist party over Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP in the regional elections, and Sarko's response to that victory, notably to stop the "carbon tax" on cars, to outlaw the burqa, and to stop family allocations to parents who cannot control their children.

What do you think about starting up maisons closes (brothels) again? I guess if there were men as well as women in the brothels, it might be okay.

Simone Veil -- L'Immortelle

2010-03-18T11:17:00.002+01:00

Simone Veil is being made a "Immortel" today at the Academie Française. She's the 6th woman to become one of the most honored people in France since 1635. The Academie was created in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu and includes writers, poets, politicians, doctors, etc., who have impacted France and it's way of life.

Simone Veil is the favorite personality of the French people. She's one of the most principled politicians in France (or probably anywhere in the world). As Giscard-d'Estaing's Health Minister, she's most known for fighting for the law to give women the right to abortion in France. She argued this law through the parliament in 1974 and it became law in early 1975. You can read all about her here.

She also has created a large hospital in Paris dedicated to the treatment of breast diseases.

She grew up in France and was deported with her family to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1940. Only she and two of her sisters survived World War II.

She noted that she'll have her internment number inscribed on her official baton for the Academie Française.

Happy Grammar Day -- a day late

2010-03-05T10:54:00.001+01:00

I know, I know, I live in France. I speak French 95% of the time. But I don't study French. I don't know the grammatical rules and the spelling rules comme ma poche. I do love the English language. It makes me giggle and sometimes, guffaw outloud.

Yesterday was National Grammar Day. Now, that must have been only in the U.S. It was not National French Grammar Day or la journée nationale de la grammaire française.

Here in France, words and expressions taken from English and used (crazily sometimes) in French are called Anglosnobbisms. Here's just a tiny bit of a list from an anglosnob website list.

Parlez-vous anglosnob?
addict --- dépendant

address book --- carnet d'adress
after-shave --- après-rasage
airbag --- sac d'air, coussin de protection, coussin-choc
air conditionné --- climatisation
alternative choix --- (lorsque plus de 2)
applet --- applette, mini-application
aquaplanning --- aquaglisse
all right! --- tout va bien! Bon! Bien! D'accord!
baby-sitter --- garde-enfant

baby-test --- test de développement
backbone --- épine dorsale infrastructure,
background --- historique, passé
backspace --- recule
backup --- copie de sécurité
bacon --- lardon?
badge --- marque-nom, insigne

Did you make any horrible mistakes yesterday in your grammar?

Here are a few examples to make you laugh:

In Like a Lion

2010-03-02T09:30:00.001+01:00

March did indeed come in like a lion. After two awful days with no electricity and no water, and a Sunday morning of winds of 160 kms., we've come out the other end of cyclone Xynthia alive, the house intact, and only a few fallen trees.

Yesterday, luckily, was a nice day with temperatures of around 14-15°C. It was warmer outside than inside the house. We cut a tree that was hanging over our driveway, we burned tons of branches and started removing part of another tree that had come down. We had decided to go over to my parents-in-law's house to take a shower and to have something hot to eat, because we didn't know when the electricity would be restored. Just as we were leaving, the electricity came back on. We have a fuel furnance/hot water heater, so it takes hours for the water to heat up.

We had a good hot meal and a good hot shower and now the house is just about back to normal. There are still trees to cut and clear, but it's okay. While struggling to cut down a tree yesterday, Monsieur Titi said "How on earth did we cope with the 1999 storm?" In that cyclone we lost over 350 trees and we were without electricity for 8 days. I guess I was 11 years younger then!

Now all I have to do is get over my sore back from hauling around large branches.

Hope you are all alright!

Cocorico !

2010-02-15T15:01:00.000+01:00

France is number one in the Olympic Games as of today with 2 gold medals! Congratulations to Jason Chappuis and Vincent Jay! The mighty French coq gaulois can strut his stuff until tonight until some other country overtakes us with more medals.

Joyeux Saint Valentin

2010-02-14T10:19:00.001+01:00

Hope you are having (or had) a wonderful V's day and that you are with someone you love. This cartoon pretty much sums up the modern state of Valentine's Day. This is from the Guardian and is by Ros Asquith.

Monsieur Titi and I did nothing very special last night. We drank some nice wine and ate nems and a lentil casserole that I'd made the day before. We watched a stupid French made-for-TV movie about ergot poisoning in bread in a small French town. Then off to bed at about 10.30. My, isn't that romantic?

We are invited over to the parents-in-law's house for a homecoming dinner for SIL/BIL and 2 kids. They've been gone all of a week for a ski vacation. So the family needs to reunite and celebrate the return of the lost tribe. Do I sound a bit snide? Nah! Impossible. My belle-famille are joined at the hip and can't breathe without notifying the others what is happening. They can't go for more than a few days without seeing each other. As an only child, this has always been a huge shock for me and is rather suffocating. Ok, I'll quit complaining!

I did make dessert though. I made my wonderful, decadent Tiramisu. I've posted about it before. You can see the entire recipe with detailed instructions here.

Here are a couple of pictures to make you hungry!

Here are some of the main ingredients. The coffee has been sugared and Amaretto has been added.

The egg yolks, sugar and mascarpone must be beaten until fluffy and creamy and almost white.

And the finished dessert, ready to go into the fridge for at least 24 hours.

Ad for Canal+

2010-02-10T17:22:00.000+01:00

Canal+, or Canal Plus, is a very large pay-TV chain which has 5 dedicated stations and also has distribution rights to hundreds of others in France. The programming is really good, and they were the first to show US and UK series in English. I've been a subscriber for years.

This is a recent ad campaign for the quality of the scripts on Canal+. Enjoy!

A Surprise Package

2010-02-06T11:41:00.000+01:00

You may know by now that I love surprises, especially when mystery boxes arrive in the mail! Over the past couple of weeks, I've ordered some clothes and linen for the house during the sales here in France. So I naturally expected packages to be arriving. But then a small box came that looked very official, and there was no return address that I could see. Hmmmmmm?

When I opened it, it was from my first cousin in Oregon. We pretty much grew up together although she is a bit older than I am. We haven't seen each other since 1994, but we send Christmas cards and such. I'm in contact with her granddaughters, because one is crazy like me and lives in Italy. And the other wants to come to France to study cooking. Chips off the old block!

Here's what my dear cousin sent me:

Wooooo Hoooo!!!!!