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Posts from the ‘Around France’ Category

Oct 8

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No. 15: Salade de chèvre chaud

salade de chèvre chaud croustillant

salade de chèvre chaud croustillant

Before I moved to Paris, my only experience with goat cheese was those small white logs of pasteurized cream cheese-like stuff, hermetically sealed in a thick, clear plastic casing, with annoying plastic green leaves pressed along the sides.

Thankfully in France there are somewhere around 400 different types of cheese, so one can only assume a large number of those are chèvre. The Frenchies seem to be crazy for chèvre, and so am I.

Nearly every time I go out to lunch with a Parisienne (female), one of us orders a salade de chèvre. As everyone in Paris (male or female) is concerned about their weight, somehow the goat cheese salad has become a mythical weight loss entrée for at least the women. (Calorie-wise, I’m not so sure.) Calorie count or not, all those French goats and their delicious cheese, make it very easy to add salade de chèvre to my list of 365-things-I-love-about-France.

There are two main goat cheese salads in France: salade de chèvre chaud and salade de chèvre chaud croustillant. My favorite is croustillant, but the main thing is to make sure it is chaud (warm). There is something about the contrast of the warm cheese with the cold salad greens that knocks the socks right off my tastebuds.

On a simple salade de chèvre chaud the cheese is usually served crouton-style on thin, toasted slices of baguette. On the more decadent salade de chèvre chaud croustillant, the goat cheese comes wrapped in phyllo dough with a slight hint of honey and rosemary. Heavenly!

Here’s an anglicized recipe from Mademoiselle Slimalicious (one of my new favorite blogs, written by a French expatriate in Australia). Bon appétit!

Vocabulaire:

chaud: hot, warm

chèvre: goat

croustillant: crispy, crusty 

Oct 3

No. 10: Chagall

La Danse 1950-1952

La Danse 1950-1952

I am a huge fan of Marc Chagall.

I was lucky enough to see the Chagall exhibit at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris at the end of summer, and it was stunning. I adore his vibrant palette and enthusiasm. Boy, could Chagall do color! As Picasso said, “When Matisse dies Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what color really is”. Je suis d’accord, brother.

Although Chagall was born in Belarus, the French considers him first a French artist, and then a Russian painter. While he did spend the majority of his life in France, much of his work reflects and was inspired by his memories and dreams of his homeland in Vitebsk. But, fortunately for all us admirers, many of his most famous works can still be found in France.

Le Paysage Bleu, 1949

Le Paysage Bleu, 1949

The expos. A remarkable thing about living in Paris and France is the exceptional access to great works of art. At this exhibit, I fell in love with his fiddlers dancing on the roofs and his ghostly figures gliding through his magical sky, the green and yellow dancers and whimsical forms, the purple roosters and blue violins, the stuff that dreams are made of…his hopes, longings, and losses—a delightful and thought-provoking display of some of his major works.

A night at the symphony. The Palais Garnier, Paris’ famous opera house, is also the home to his famous, fanciful ceiling. Although there was a whole heap of debate and some very disgruntled Frenchies when he was first commissioned to paint it in 1963, it has become a much beloved part of any evening at the opera or ballet.

Palais Garnier, Paris

Palais Garnier, Paris

The windows. You may not know that a set of Chagall stain glassed windows is housed in Reims at the gothic Notre-Dame Cathedral. I was oh so pleasantly surprised to find them when touring Champagne country. Someday soon I hope to make it to Metz to visit Saint-Etienne Cathedral to see, as one French friend has told me the most “flamboyant” of all of Chagall’s windows.

Reims Cathedral

Reims Cathedral

The sets and costumes. On top of that, I just learned from my lovely daughter and dancer, Kitcat, that Chagall also designed and hand-painted the madly imaginative costumes and sets for the1942 production of Aleko, for the New York Ballet Theatre and did the same for New York’s Metropolitan Opera’s production of the Magic Flute, later in the 1960s. (Do I have to go to New York to see them? Does anyone know where they are housed?)

Fish

Fish

Clown costume, Aleko

Clown costume, Aleko

Most definitely on my radar this fall, is a trip to the Carrières de Lumières, via Marseilles, to see the “Monet, Renoir… Chagall: Journeys around the Mediterranean” expo…and, of course Nice is my Mecca. Someday I hope I’ll visit the Musée National Marc Chagall.

Vocabulaire:

Je suis d’accord: I agree

Oct 2

No. 9: The Eurostar

EurostarAnother thing I love about France is the Eurostar. Why? Well, when you get fed up with the Frenchies, it’s reassuring to know that a culture I understand a little bit better is a mere 2 hours and 20 minutes away by high speed train. For those with nightmares of dying a soggy death in a tunnel under the English Channel, you only have to close your eyes and hold your breath for a scant 22 minutes.

Inside the Chunnel

Inside the Chunnel

carte_eurostar

Sep 30

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No. 7: Orléans

orleansOur newest favorite escape from Paris, when Superman and I are longing for some fresh air and greenery ,is to hop the intercity train to Orléans.

For the past 4 years, we have been listening to the Pimsleur Language Series on our iPods trying, with varying degrees of success, to improve our French. The characters in the lessons are always talking about traveling to Orléans. So finally, we took out a map and decided to find out what the people at Pimsleur were buzzing about.

Well, it just so happens to be a pretty swag city, and an hour away by train from Paris. If you catch the 8h30 train you can have a mini-vacation and be back in time for dinner.

orleansbikeOrléans is located on the Loire River and for some travelers this is the jumping off point to tour the Loire Valley. We like to go just for the pleasure of hanging out in the historic city, biking on the fabulous Loire à Vélo trail (a subject for another post), and for the endearing riverside cafés and half-timbered houses. (The NY Times has also cited Orléans for its “alternative” nightlife, trendy restaurants, including a relatively new, Michelin starred resto—might it be time to head back?)Orleans4

And of course, you can’t step foot tin Orléans without hearing a whole lot about Jeanne d’Arc. If you are a lapsed history buff like me, you might need a refresher on who exactly Joan of Arc was. She was the little lassie who threw on her armor in Orléans and stood against the British invaders during the Hundred Years War. Her devotion to God stirred the French to victory, and Orléans was liberated; of course, as these things never do seem to end well, the English later burned her at the stake for heresy.orleans3

(You can thank the handsome tour guide at the Maison de Jeanne d’Arc Museum for this history lesson, along with this little know fact: the Jeanne d’Arc’s pageboy haircut was also the inspiration for the ubiquitous bob haircut, which was so popular in Paris in the early 1900s!)4929719_f520

Sep 27

No. 5: Annecy, Alpes-Savoie

Ma belle fille, Button

Ma belle fille, Button

The closest I’ve been able to recreate my natural habitat of Colorado was a breathtaking late spring visit to the lakefront city of Annecy (pronounced: ahn-see) in the French Alps. The scenery is drop-dead gorgeous and travel brochure ready. It tops the mountainside towns of Colorado, say Vail or Aspen, because of its romantic canals, enchanting bridges, crystal clear lake, and its fondue savoyarde (Beaufort and Comté melted and mixed with the local Crépy wine, with an added splash of Cognac thrown in for good measure—c’est délicieux).

12th-century Palais de l’Isle, Annecy

12th-century Palais de l’Isle, Annecy

Often referred to as the Venice of France (un peu exagéré), it is actually a mix of several cultures, namely French, Swiss and Italian. The Swiss are represented in those adorable gingerbreadesque chalets—flower boxes and all, chocolate, wheels of cheese, raclette, tartiflettes, and all things cheesy that Switzerland does so well. The Italians make their mark with authentic wood oven pizza, mercifully light on the cheese, and the glut of mouthwatering gelato shops peppering the historic heart of town.

Raclette Fumé

Raclette Fumé

A nod to Italy: colorful and creamy gelato

A nod to Italy: colorful and creamy gelato

Annecy is one of the most popular cities in France both with the French and with les étrangers, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend coming and staying here to get a way from it all. The throngs of tourists come to admire the beauty as well as be admired, and the traffic can be a nightmare. Early mornings are definitely the best and I imagine the off-season is delightful. That said, I would recommend staying just outside of Annecy (at any time of the year), and making day trips in, exploring the countryside, and hoping over to Geneva for a quick visit. We stayed in a gîte in one of the many hamlets that dot the landscape. Our gîte was amazing and cozy and starlit. In the middle of the woods, with quaint mountain roads to cycle through, a hot tub, a barbecue, and a huge yard for Tazzie to feel at home. Ça fait du bien par où ça passe !

Gite with Japanese Garden, Annecy

Gite with Japanese Garden, Annecy

Lac d'Annecy

Lac d’Annecy

Vocabulaire:

Ça fait du bien par où ça passe !   Just what the doctor ordered!

les étrangers: the foreigners

un gîte: a holiday home available for rent, fully furnished and equipped for self-catering, usually less expensive than other lodging

raclette:  a Swiss dish consisting of cheese melted over a fire and then scraped onto bread or boiled potatoes; also the cheese used in this dish

tartiflettes: a creamy and comforting oven bake of potatoes, cream and bacon – originating from France’s Haute-Savoie region

un peu exagéré: a little bit exaggerated

 

Sep 25

No. 2: The Colors of France

Macaron

Dyes

Paints

Shades

Washes

Blushes

Flushes

Pigment

Tinge

Tone

Dash

Drop

Streak

Stain

Flash

 

Colors

Coustellet (Avignon) Marché

Coustellet (Avignon) Marché

One of the things I love about France is color.

Aubergine, Provence

Aubergine, Provence

Un bouquet de piments, Provence

Un bouquet de piments, Provence

Which upon reflection seems a bit ironic coming from a girl who calls Paris home—the small town where the natives only wear dark black, medium black, light black, murky black, mournful black, gloomy black, sometimes dreary grey, or, if they are feeling especially adventurous, a reliable navy blue, or peut-être, chocolate brown.

Paris street style by Vogue

Paris street style by Vogue

I guess the reason the colors of France strike me as something to devote a whole post to is because in the City of Light, there is a whole lot of darkness.

Le Centre Pompidou

Le Centre Pompidou

So when you see the flushes and blushes of color among the sea of blackness, you can’t help but beam and sometimes even be bedazzled.

Giverny, Claude Monet's Gardens

Giverny, Claude Monet’s Gardens

Vocabulaire:

peut-être: maybe, perhaps, possibly, perchance

Sep 25

No. 1: France, je t’aime!

IMG_8040So how can France, herself, be the first of the 365-things-I-love-about-France, as she is obviously the focus of this entire blog?  Simply put, there would be no blog if not for my great fortune of having landed in France to begin with.

Paris has been our on-and-off home since the summer of 2009. To be honest, even though we made a conscious effort to quit the US for a while in exchange for an experience abroad, France was not our first choice. In fact, none of us knew much about Paris or France. With the collective knowledge of the countless romantic Hollywood moments we’d watched on the big screen, and the storied love-hate relationship between our two countries, we arrived in Paris excited, apprehensive, and pretty darn green.

Since my husband, Superman, and I had been exposed to all the negative stereotypes about the French and France, we weren’t overly keen to make this leap. One might even say, we were terrified of the French, but nonetheless, as good liberals, willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Unfortunately, in the beginning, our reality in Paris wasn’t so far off from the cauchemars we had secretly and frequently imagined, before we left the States. The postman was cruel, the French teachers abusive, the shopkeepers hardened and smug, the dog poop piled high on the trottoirs, and the average Frenchman more happy to play a game of sidewalk chicken, than break a smile or lend a helping hand. No matter what day you checked on us, one family member was undoubtedly lying in a heap on the bed sobbing uncontrollably.

But thanks to the support of the girls’ bilingual school community and a thimble full of kind French friends, things began to shift. Ever so slowly, happiness began to trickle in. France and all things French seemed to get under our skin and creep into our hearts. We began to fall in love with this complicated country.depositphoto.com

And now, after two years we feel incredibly grateful for this experience and, at least I, feel more at home in France than I ever did in Colorado. Which is not to say that the rose tint has not begun to fade when I look out at my French world. But even though I may no longer be a Polly Anna in regards to the wonders of France, I have begun to panic at the possibility of saying goodbye to this country yet again. En ce moment, I can’t imagine living anywhere but Paris and I am rattled by the possibility of only having a short 365 days left among the French.

This blog is a way for me to fondly share both the things that make living in France so downright astonishing, and the things that drive us expats mad, yet in their own strange way, make this bewildering country a place I feel enormously fortunate to call home. While our Paris life will, by default, be the focus of my writing, I also plan to share the daily marvels and exasperations of as many corners of France as I can.

Thanks for following along as I countdown the 365-things-I-love-about-France.

Alors, ça commence..allons-y!

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