I have been taking a little, well perhaps a little more than just a little, sojourn in France today. Well not exactly… but I certainly feel like I have been miles away somewhere in a magical place of my own making….
DAYDREAMING
TODAY I completely lost myself in a wonderful blog that I discovered completely by chance, Le Trip: Jill's Blog. I learned some French. I immersed myself in Aix en Provence. I travelled back in time. I drank in the sights & the sounds and I longed to go.
It wasn’t necessarily the most beautifully created or most prosaically written blog I have ever come across in my blogland travels but there was something captivating about it that just drew me in and I couldn’t stop reading & scrolling & reading, for what seems like hours… and daydreaming and imagining...
The stories of regular Provencal life. The real and wonderful photography of the everyday. The wonderful snippets of her life and her past. The vignettes around her seemingly ordinary life. And of course the sights, sounds and smells of the French countryside. It was a wonder and I'm going back as soon as I can.
These were a few of her pictures that drew me in and I felt as if I was there.
Artichokes & Summer Bounty
A Picnic Spread for a Holiday Feast
A Local Frenchman
A Collage of Market Goodies
A table setting fit for royalty but meant for everyone
A MENU OR TWO
TODAY I came across this sensuous place, the Tartine Bakery & Cafe, in San Francisco about 1/2 hour's drive from my house in and somehow I never knew it was there! After seeing these delectable pictures and studying their extensive menu from top to bottom and imagining every goodie as I went along, I will be planning a little visit there before the munchkins go back to school. Or better yet, perhaps after they go back to school when I can sneak off for a little decadent snack on my own. I think it's a date. I have ordered the cookbook and even plan on making something from it in the weeks to come [which if you know me, is easier said than done].
TODAY our new office manager Kris [YES, we have a new office manager… Oh My Gosh...YEAH!!] came back from Sonoma with a little gift from her weekend away with her husband.
She presented me with a delicious little jar of black mission fig jam from none other than The Fig & the Girl and suggested that I eat it with a little brie and a baguette. I almost dropped everything & went to the corner store right there, but it was just an hour after breakfast & I just couldn't justify leaving all the gals in the office while I went in search of the perfect brie to go with my perfect jam!
Anyway, how can you not love a restaurant by that name, I ask you? It has always been a place that I have wanted to go. Have glued my nose to their glass windows on several different occasions to get a glimpse of the yummies inside and yet somehow the time was never right - we were late, the munchkins were tired, we were on our way somewhere else. I don't know how I managed to miss that the cuisine at this wonderfully named eatery was none other than… country French! Where have I been??
And so off I went on yet another online culinary adventure down the little country roads of Provence. Another date planned. Another adventure had. Boy do I feel full.
READING
TODAY I have read a few chapters in one of the favorites on my bedside table these days. A Paris Christmas: Immoveable Feast by John Baxter. It’s a wonderful read for anyone who is a Francophile, anyone who enjoys good travelogues, anyone who loves to be lost in the food and culture of another place, anyone really who enjoys daydreaming. You should go there if you have a chance.
And so in one DAY I have travelled far, feasted all my senses and learned a few new French words in the process.
So here’s to travelling far, far away without ever packing a single suitcase and never leaving your couch…
all photos from Le Trip Blog, Tartine Bakery and The Girl & the Fig websites
Talk to you soon.
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