Archive
Chez le coiffeur a Paris
Sylvie a coupe les cheveux de trois generations: mon pere, mon frere et moi, et maintenant Tiggy. J’etais ravi de la revoir apres au moins 5 ans. A la prochaine!
Châtelaillon-Plage en Charente-Maritime
We discovered small seaside resort while visiting the Poitou-Charentes region two weeks ago. It’s about 10 miles south of La Rochelle. We took a scenic route through quaint French villages. The town has lots of shops, restaurants markets and commerce and remains active even in the winter months, I was informed.
Une station balneare en Poitou-Charantes. On a trouve la baignade desagreable a cause de la vase, une espece de boue qui nous voyons au fond de l’eau lorsque la maree est basse.
Broye du Poitou
Ingredients:
· Flour: 500 grams
· Butter: 250 grams, softened
· Sugar: 250 grams
· Salt: a pinch
· Eggs: 2, one for the pastry, the other one for coloring (you only need about a 1/3 of an egg to brown the top of the pastry, so you can always add a half of the second egg to the pastry mix. A lot of Broye du Poitou recipes call for two eggs anyway, so don’t worry about over-egging).
Preparation:
Combine butter, sugar and salt. Add one egg and flour. Knead well.
Beat the second egg and set aside in small bowl. You can add a half of the beaten egg to the pastry mix, since you only need about a half to brown the top. Add a drop of coffee (if you happen to have leftover coffee in the coffee pot) to the beaten egg to obtain a richer, darker golden-brown pastry color.
Spread out pastry mix into buttered/lined, shallow baking dish. Use beaten egg to glaze top then use a fork to decorate. Bake in pre-heated oven for 40 minutes at 430 degrees.
Presidential runoff in France
La Rochelle
As the TGV pulls into La Gare de La Rochelle, we see Patrick on the platform, with his Sony digital in hand, waiting to capture Tiggy’s steps on film. By the time the high-speed train comes to a halt, he is already several meters away, at the other end of the platform. We wave as we stagger off the train, and he starts to walk towards us.
"Is this all the luggage you have?" he inquires, taking inventory of the tattered umbrella stroller, Ziploc bag and small upright suitcase, into which we have crammed all our belongings for the next two nights. "We ave anozzeur luggage we leave in Pawice," I share jokingly, as Patrick smiles at his grandson, blissfully unaware that I’m having fun at his expense. D is about to crack one of those La Rochelle goat jokes when I look at him sternly, and yank on my cane to free it from his grasp, and we walk, in silence, to the parking lot.
We make our way to the gray Peugeot 407, and strap Tiggy into the car seat, which, I notice has been adjusted perfectly to accommodate his girth. As the car advances, I spot the masts of the sailboats afloat at the Port de Minimes. We drive by the aquarium and the floating maritime museum. I crane my neck to get a glimpse of the Calypso, Jacque Cousteau’s boat, but it is not where it used to be.
A lot has changed in La Rochelle since our last trip in August of 2005, but the city is just as I remember it: a beautiful, old, quaint and sleepy port city.
Un an et demi après…
Un an et demi après, Paris n’a pas changé. Certes, la "remodélisation" du boulevard Magenta est terminée, et la première ligne de tramway, qui passe notamment boulevard Jourdan, près du stade Charletty, est opérationnelle. Mais à part ca, Paris reste Paris. La foule, le stress, la pollution…
Mais aussi et surtout une ville absolument magnifique. Je le savais, maintenant je le vois. Si un an et demi n’ont pas suffi a me dépayser ni même à me faire me sentir étranger à cet endroit où j’ai passe 32 ans de ma vie (loin s’en faut), ils m’ont cependant ouvert les yeux. On ne sait vraiment ce que l’on a que lorsque l’on ne l’a plus…
V, A, A, T and D family blog 