Last week I needed to make a terrine for my wine tasting class, something to go with red wines. Something sturdy, but with plenty of moelleux. Now there’s a word that has no real equivalent in English, and it’s used all the time in French, to mean melting, mellow, creamy, soft, or even sweet. It’s [...]
Archive for February, 2009
Terrine Confessions
February 26, 2009Waiting For Spring
February 22, 2009Le printemps arrive. Reveling in the coming season, Beppo stays close to the flowering mimosa, reminding himself of the joys of lengthening days spent lazing in the sun, or hunting for spring mice, fresh from their winter’s naps.
The garden bravely sends forth its first scouts. Today they’re being chilled by the mistral, but probably tomorrow they’ll [...]
Valentine Camarguais
February 20, 2009The Camargue is not all pink flamingos, black bulls, and white horses. Those are there too, and we’ll talk about them in a day or so, but for now, let’s nestle into another Camargue, the part that’s made of old walls
an even older staircase
an inviting hallway
and a welcoming bed.
I leave the rest to your imagination, may it [...]
My Opening Farewell
February 16, 2009It’s coming. The moment we’ve wondered about, dreaded, longed for, avoided, embraced: the moment we leave France. Every day recently we’ve asked ourselves whether today will be the day we decide, and every day the answer has been no, let’s do anything but make that final call. Let’s do crossword puzzles, take a trip, do [...]
A Chicken In Every Pot
February 8, 2009Or if not a chicken, a coq, a pintade, a duck, or a pigeon.
That’s your reward if you find your way, as we did today, to La Bruyerette’ s farm kitchen restaurant, hidden in a tiny hamlet deep in the countryside.
All they serve is poultry, and all the poultry they serve is raised right there, [...]
Life Suddenly Unlocked
February 4, 2009A blue pen was the key, a blue pen that inexplicably says HiFi on it in silver letters, that was the key that opened a door that had been closed to me since we arrived in France.
In English I think of myself as a writer, because I want to write and so I do, like I [...]
Aujourd’hui Tous Unis!
February 1, 2009Do you like licorice? Ever buy any from Haribo? You probably won’t find any that was made on January 29, at least not in France. Haribo workers were out in the streets, along with between 1,000,000 and 2,500,000 million other French people, depending on whose numbers you trust, to voice their unhappiness with the state [...]
