Open Book Comes to Normandy
I love living in France, holding French citizenship, and enjoying everything that a life in France comprises. I’ve written much about this of course, most of it involving the procuring and preparation of food and those behind this valiant and noble effort. I will mention that this love affair is eternal, despite the current roller […]
Victor Hugo and the Pride of the Norman Farmer
God bless Victor Hugo. I cannot count how many times this author, poet, and statesman has brought me back from the abyss with his thoughts and images. We’re plunged into political chaos here right now, so I turned to M. Hugo and he’s come through again: “However strange the present moment may seem, however […]
Zizanie in Paris
Go to the Recipe Greetings and many apologies for my absence the last couple of weeks. I’m blaming it on the Olympic Games which will start this coming Friday. Why not, I figure, everyone else is blaming everything on them. The truth is that Paris is in a state of “zizanie” or chaos, and […]
The JO Opening Ceremony
I almost regretted driving out of Paris at 5 a.m. the morning of the Opening Ceremony for the 2024 Olympics, to begin a trip planned a long while ago. Reason had told me not to stay in the city, but I was like the kid looking backwards as we left, catching my last glimpses of […]
A Final Olympic Episode
I worry a bit that news of Paris 2024 is on overkill, yet it’s just all so much fun and exciting that I have a final episode for you, from my personal Paris 2024. I’m not much of a sports fan, which is the understatement of the century, but when I was invited to the […]
The Rhythm of Life in France
It didn’t take me long once I’d moved permanently to France to figure out the French schedule of life. It helped having a little boy in school, because thanks to him, I learned that every six weeks he would have two weeks off school. I remember a sense of terror at learning this, however, for […]
Nutmeg, More Precious Than Gold
In the 14th century, a pound of nutmeg was purportedly worth three sheep and a cow; in the 17th century, the little, fragrant nut was valued higher than gold.
Thanksgiving 2023
What matters is that we are all cooking and enjoying time together at the table. List or no, one thing I never forget is to make my grandmother’s crescent rolls, which have anchored every Thanksgiving I’ve known. They require a light hand and a lot of space, for once they’re shaped, they rise for hours; […]
French Comfort Foods
So as Mother Tongue is the comfortable language (which maybe makes us think of Mother), comfort food is that which inspires comfort in the individual. Which means it’s hard to categorize a culture’s comfort foods. But I’m going to try, with a short list of foods that give me comfort and, I’ve observed, give my […]
Cook From Your Heart
I cooked for a French family to earn my keep while I studied as an apprentice chef in Paris. At first, I was completely petrified. Me, cook for French people?! I’d been an enthusiastic cook since I was a teenager so I dove in. Though I was immersed six days a week in a classic […]
