I have some catching up to do

Boy, do I wish I took a computer with me on our trip.  I've had a few people ask about it, and I find that already I am forgetting things.  Frankly, it isn't as much fun to play catchup as it is to write my thoughts when they occurred.

Nonetheless, my aunt has asked.  My friend has asked.  My other friend has asked, and my husband has asked.  I promised, and so, I'll do the best I can over the next few days to tell you everything that happened.

When we arrived at the airport, of course we were tired, and a little bit confused.  There were some familiar things with the language, but it wasn't all computing for me.  We made it through customs, had our passports stamped and walked through the door where most people hoped to collect their luggage.  That was the first time we were grateful that we only travelled with carryon.

No sooner had we been ushered through those doors when we were faced with a really big crowd of people, all trying to figure out what was going on.  There were two soldiers with lightweight rifles doing their best to usher everyone to another side of the room.  We took our two bags and moved outside, as it seemed there would at least be a place to run to if we needed.  We didn't know if there had been another terrorist threat (there had) or if there was a problem with the building.  We only knew that there was a whole whack of people all trying to move in more or less the same direction.

Outside, we welcomed the opportunity to breathe a little easier.  But that didn't last long either because there were lots of flashing lights coming our way, and I do not like flashing lights.We needed to find a way to leave the airport.  We had planned on taking the train, but how to get to it was the question.

And Martin found the answer.  He is the one who realized that the other side of the airport seemed to be open still.  So we dodged a bit of traffic, moved around a number of people as confused as we were, and walked over there.  From there, we found our way to the train station, which was located in the airport.  I bought tickets, and away we went.

Did I say how glad we are that we just took carry-on?

Oh yay...an English keyboard!

Oh, I shouldn't get so excited but I can type more than a hundred words in English, and less than 50 in French.  So yeah, I'm a little excited.

I have stories to tell!  And I only have until Martin comes to find me to tell them.  Where to start, where to start?

I could tell you about the beautiful mountain views--and the amazing, and somewhat frightening precipices we saw on our way from Greoux en Bains to Grenoble, where we are today.  Wow, it was stunning.  It was also lovely to pull over and have a little picnic with local cheeses and bread and wine.  We found a table of sorts, watched birds that are unknown to us and spent a nice hour there.  It is brisk and a bit chilly up there, but still our weather is holding at about 15-20 C. 

I could tell you about how my French is starting to fail me.  Yesterday it didn't seem that I could be understood by anyone.  The accent is different here and my ear is not so tuned.  I felt stupid too actually, because I am missing the hard questions like "d'ou venez-vous?"  (where do you come from?),  But I can make a hotel reservation, make small talk with the friendly servers, and some of the harder things.  Oh well.

I could also tell you about how we found a place that let us have a spa for 10 euros each.  We had private use of a whirlpool, a steam room and a sauna, as well as some lovely chairs to relax in and some full body COLD showers.  At home, it costs around $50 for a visit...so this was a treat for us, and very relaxing.

We haven't really done much shopping, but the markets are great fun.  We have found a few small treasures, and there is one thing that I wished I picked up but didn't.  I saw them before I knew what to do with them...small creme brulee dishes in the most gorgeous shade of red.  There was something different about the glaze.  However, we learned how to make creme brulee two days later, and as soon as we did, I wanted the dishes.  Unfortunately, there was not another opportunity to go there, and I've not found anything else as nice.  Ah well.

Oh, I SHOULD tell you about Joel Durand chocolates.  Now, it is true, I am a chocolate lover, but this man has taken it to a whole new level.  He has combined flavours like szechuan pepper and dark chocolate, lavender or thyme or rosemary and chocolate, and they all work brilliantly.  It's complex and interesting...he is my new favorite chocolatier (sorry Bernard!).  I'm going to try and order some more.

Well, that's all the time I have...but I have appreciated the chance to share some things.  I fear that I will forget all about it by the time I get home, and there is so much more to tell.   For example, I think my mom would be quite surprised to learn that I have butchered my own rack of lamb, handled the cleaver and still have all my fingers...but that is for another day.

bye for now...we are on our way to Geneva.  Can you believe it?

Between then and now

We have decided that we should have brought our laptop along.  When we went to Germany a few years ago, we found internet cafes and libraries everywhere.  We are not having the same success here.  However; we have free wifi every hotel we have stayed in and so have been able to do many things on our cell phones.  Not everything though... like blogging.  It has had to wait until we hit special hotels; and this is one of them.

We are in  Greoux-les-Bains, a lovely mountain village that we stumbled upon rather by accident.  While our hotel has more of a "chain" feel, it also has a few lovely extras, most notably a bath that is of a comfortable size.  We are looking forward to exploring the village, which has templar knight connections, tomorrow.

We have had a lovely time exploring the south of France.  Surprisingly, it is a wee bit hot for me...days have been averaging around 24 degrees.  But it is a more intense heat, and I have almost become one of Peter Mayle's English visitors (he said..."What is it that changes from the color of a dead rat to the color of a dead lobster in three hours?)

But now it is time to head north to Alsace, so we will be staying here for another day and then heading towards Grenoble.  There is no internet in the room this time, but there is...a computer that I am grateful for, in spite of its odd keyboard layout that is sure to wreck my typing abilities for all time.  Did they have to move all the letters?

Pictures and more updates will come as they can.

Before you stuff it you need to clean it!

So today we had our first cooking class with Chef Pascal and it was grand.  First, we did the simple stuff--julienne some carrots, slice some onions, start to get acqainted.  Then he gave us each a quail...quite fresh.  It still had its head and feet attached.  First, he says, we clean.  And so we did.  We beheaded  it and whacked off its feet.  We burned away any pin feathers that remained.  And then we proceeded to carefully debone it.  To my great surprise, I actually managed to do it AND keep the skin intact, which was a necessary step.  We carefully cut the breast away from the skin and cleaned that well.  Then we stuffed it with carrots, onions and grapes.  With the bones we made stock for sauce...no butter here, he said, for this was Provence.  We also made pumpkin "cappuccino" as a first course, and to be served with the quail we made potato tartin with fresh foie gras.  To finish--raspberry tiramisu.  The three students all ate together and marvelled at what we had done.  None more than I.  The real question though is can I do it AGAIN when I get home?  Can I even find quail with the head still on?

This afternoon we are in St. Remy.We have done some shopping, and we watched a tournament of boules  (at least I think that is what it was called).  There is a fair on, and it is a very festive atmosphere.  In just a bit we will head back to our glorious little piece of paradise.  Our hotel is in the country, on a large but very casual estate.  I have had ample opportunity to practice my French, and have been told that I am doing well.  I have no idea if everyone is just being very polite, but I am content to think perhaps I am able to communicate a bit after all.

Tonight we meet the rest of our group.  Today there were only three of us; tomorrow and the rest of the week there will be nine.  Part of me will miss the attention that a small group allowed but there it is.

I am sleeping well here; Provence is agreeing with me very much!!

Paris is Pqris on a French Keyboqrd

I am sitting at our charming hotel trying to type on a French keyboard.  I do this sometimes at work but somehow the letters have moved around on me here.  That, or I am still not awake...

Our trip has already been interesting.  Part of the airport was closed as soon as we landed and had our passports stamped.  It would have been easy to panic but we did not.  There were a LOT of people being herded out and my French is not sufficient to comprehend more than a snippet here and there.  Martin decided that we could walk over to the other terminal and this is what we did.  Then it was time to navigate the trains into the city.  I started to relax after we successfully got tickets and directions.  We have enough French to manage and we are, naturally, making all sorts of mistakes.

We were tired but we knew better than just to go to sleep.  We checked into our hotel, and then we showered and changed.  After that we went exploring...we had lunch at a little bistro, and quickly moved inside just before our sandwiches arrived.  It poured and poured...and we were safely inside drinking wine.  What a delight.  It also made us slow down a bit.  Our walk later took us to the Eiffel Tower, where we declined repeatedly to buy any of the miniature versions that were being hawked everywhere.  We saw the boat that we will cruise on for our last night in France, and we enjoyed the busyness and atmosphere of little side streets.  It was perfect...until we started to trip over ourselves with fatigue.

We returned to the hotel early and fell asleep in moments.  12 hours later, we are feeling like we can handle the world again.  Today we are tackling public transportation again, as we are travelling south to Avignon and then a bit further south to St. Remy de Provence for our cooking school. 

I love adventuring!

Mais, oui....

Going Home, Encore

Last week, my sister-in-law Joyce died.

It didn't help that we knew it was coming, that the cancer eating away at her insides was going to win over her determination to keep it away.

It still hurts.

She was terrific--I loved her, primarily because she loved my brother.  She adored my parents.  She even liked me.  She is the only person I know who could consistently eat more sushi than I can, and I can eat a lot.  We made that our thing.  The last time we had sushi together was in April, and in fact, I had gone home specifically to do that with her.   It was yummy.

She once came to visit me, and we toured all around the city.  I showed her where I had moved to, and she watched my boyfriend (now my husband) and the way he was treating me, and she told me she approved.  My favorite part of that trip was 'having tea' with the Famous Five.  We were taking pictures of all the sculptures, rubbing Lester's foot and laughing, and when we saw the pictures we were quite bemused that the policemen on the hill thought we just might be up to no good, for they showed up in many of the snapshots.

I went home in April because I wanted to make sure that we had a chance to say goodbye.  I wanted to thank her for being such a great addition to our family.  I wanted to tell her how much I appreciated that she loved us all in spite of our quirky ways.    I had questions for her, things I wanted to know.  We had one or two things to work out and we took the time to do that. We talked about many things,  including the fact that she was dying.  We all are, we decided--life is, after all, a terminal condition.  We smiled a bit, toasted life itself with our sake.

She had a really great laugh.  Her smile was ready, for anyone at anytime.  I can't believe that I won't see that smile anymore.

I miss her.  I will never forget her tears at sushi, because we were talking about my brother, and how he was going to get through all this.  She knew that he needed her.  We all need her.  Things will never ever be the same.

I'll never forget her celebration of life service either.  My brother was terrific.  He was vulnerable but poised, crying but strong, tender but determined that we would all know why he loved her.  We had a few extremely precious moments to ourselves before the service that I will never forget.  There was a gigantic spray of yellow carnations on her casket.  They were, he said, for us to take home to remember her by, and so we all filed up to remove some of the blossoms.  I loved that so much.

Here's to you, Joyce Brown.  You were a heck of a gal.