Back "Home" to Paris! - Friday, 31 March

As I drive through the city on the way to the apartment I'm renting, it seems as if I never left. Not that Minneapolis is an unpleasant place, but oh, the beauty and familiarity and riches of this place!

The apartment I'm renting is just steps from my favorite street, rue Montorgueil, on the beautiful rue Bachaumont.  Here's a link to the listing:  https://www.vrbo.com/1732100ha

Those of you who have traveled in Paris with me will recognize the "cheese greeter" above the red awning at the end of my block! (She used to be down on the sidewalk, but they moved her a couple years ago.  http://mariellen-musing.blogspot.fr/2010/11/cheese-greeter-friday-5-november.html?m=1 )

My front door at 4, rue Bachaumont,
 between the optician and bubble tea

Across the street

From my window

Looking down the street towards
rue Montorgueil

The cheese greeter!

This little article from last November does a better job describing my 'hood than I could:  https://www.francetoday.com/travel/paris/parisian-walkways-rue-montorgueil/

It's a gorgeous day in paradise!  À bientôt!

"The Black Book" and Au Revoir, Provence - Friday, 31 March

(This post from Provence)

When you rent a home or apartment from airbnb, VRBO/HomeAway, etc., the hosts usually leave a "black book" containing tips on how to use appliances & equipment, where to find a good grocery, sightseeing suggestions, transportation, etc. The one at La Pitchoune was a-a-a-mazing in that it contained instructions and hand-drawn diagrams by Julia and Paul Child, clips of newspaper articles, copies of insurance documents, etc.  Here are just a few wow-raising examples (remember that you can click on any photo in this blog to see a larger version):

The home is also full of cookbooks, guidebooks, artbooks, novels, non-fiction, etc. So if you rent the place don't worry about hauling a bunch of reading material!

And then there's the artwork, much of it created in thanks and tribute to Julia. One of my favorites was this painting by Jacques Pepin.

And now it's Au Revoir, Provence as I head up to Paris for a few days before returning to Minneapolis....

Time to Use Up the Leftovers, and Mariellen in Julia's Corner! - Thursday, 30 March

(This post from Provence)

No trips to the Super U for tonight's supper! We leave Julia's home tomorrow morning, so it was time to clean up everything we could.

We still had eggs, so by popular demand we had an encore of "omelettes fines herbs" with fine strips of last night's leftover pork loin, green salad, Madeleines and ice cream. Simple but satisfying, as we had to hit the sack early - three of the gang had to leave by about 4 am for early flights on Friday!

In the kitchen there's a great photo of Julia presenting a platter full of goodies on the center island. Here's the photo, here it is in context, and here's yours truly posing in the same spot! I'm sure that our meals didn't approach hers, but we did try to do her proud in her kitchen!

Log live the memory and influence of Julia Child.

Stars in my Eyes over Lunch - Thursday, 30 March

(This post from Provence)

So, as I was reading my new 2017 Michelin Guide (see my post from Monday), I discovered that there was a 1-Star restaurant in Le Rouret, a village of 4,000 inhabitants about 4 miles from Julia's house that had been on my list of places to explore due to its connection with truffle hunting & selling. The resto is called Le Clos St-Pierre, its style was labeled "rustique" and they served lunch! But could I get in?

There were other things that my pals wanted to see in the town and the area, so off we went this morning!

Le Clos St-Pierre is in the center of the town, right across from the 18th century Church of Saint-Pons. It wasn't lunchtime yet, so we explored the church a bit. Then I saw that the gate to the resto's terrace was open so I went in to see if I needed a reservation for lunch. They said to just come back at noon, so my pals hit the road, to return in about 3 hours (fancy lunches take time here!), and I eagerly awaited the stroke of 12.

Their terrace was exceptionally beautiful, the temperature was in the mid-60s, there was a gentle breeze, tables were in dappled shade, and street noise was minimal, so I chose to eat on the terrace rather than indoors. Just after I was seated at noon, I was treated to the sound of the bells ringing at Saint-Pons church across the street...sorry that I wasn't able to move quickly enough to catch the audio on my phone...you'll have to trust me that it was heavenly!

Wines available by the half-bottle

Here are photos and descriptions of my meal (note that you can click on any photo in this blog to see a larger version!):

Beautiful place-setting

The fixed luncheon menu

My aperitif, a Kir Royale

My half-bottle of a red Bandol,
2012 Chateau de Pibarnon -
flinty, herbal, deep

Amuse bouche - two triangles of tender foccacia
topped with crushed tomatoes, shallots and
peppery olive oil, two crostini with tuna
and chives, chilled damp breakfast
radishes with fleur de sel - all entertaining
and appetizing!

First course - a salad of blanched
fat asparagus and artichoke hearts on
buttery lettuce, tossed with a light
herb viniagarette, and topped with
an amazing fluffy eggy dressing (I
think it was foamed egg yolks and
finely diced egg whites - a fabulous
slightly sweet concoction that
paired beautifully with the
asparagus and artichokes). 

Main course - tender, deeply
flavored, perfectly fatty "Pluma
de Porc Ibérique" - this is apparently
the prized triangular muscle at the end
of the loin of the Iberian pig, a breed
that is fed acorns to make its flesh
especially flavorful! Served with
slightly undercooked red onions &
spinach and an intensely flavored
veal stock reduction.

Chef Daniel Ettlinger tasting "something!"
When we were touring the church across
the street, we noticed a copper pot sitting
on the ledge outside the kitchen. I went
to see what was in it and later realized
that it was the sauce for the main course!
Photo by Britta Bloomberg. 

Dessert - crispy waffle with
ice cream, whipped cream,
chocolate sauce

Mignardises (post-dessert treats) -
caramelized phyllo ribbons & almonds,
two buttery, sugary sablé cookies,
two semi-sweet pieces of fudge.

Chef Ettlinger stopped by my table
to make sure everything was OK, so
I took his picture!

I just had to get a shot of the
kitchen after lunch!

(Just for a comparison, there are zero Michelin-starred restaurants in the Twin Cities. The closest ones are in Chicago. And here's a village of 4,000 with a Michelin 1-Star. Gotta love it!)

(Here's an article about the village that I discovered too late! I would have loved to find a few of the sites it mentions.  http://www.amb-cotedazur.com/le-rouret/ )

(Some other fun tidbits about Le Rouret from Wikipedia:  "Richard Wright, best known for his career as a keyboardist with Pink Floyd, lived in a villa in the village. The family of Richard Galliano, a French-Italian accordionist, have lived in Le Rouret for generations. Actor Roger Moore (007) currently spends his summers here in his villa, British Comedian Ricky Gervais bought a villa at the top of Le Rouret in December 2013 Bono owns a residence in the commune and Madonna is thought to own a villa in the neighboring commune, Roquefort-les-Pins. Peter Churchill, famous SOE agent in the Second World War, lived here after the war until his death in 1972.")

I'm a City Girl, but Wow, these Little Villages... - Thursday, 30 March

(This post from Provence)

As you'll see from my other posts, we visited several postcard-perfect, history-and-art-packed hillside (and even cliff-hanging) Provençal villages with astonishing vistas - places that would charm the socks off most anyone.

The roads to and from them were scary however, even for this Duluthian accustomed to steep hills! Very narrow roads, one-lane in places, stone walls or dropoffs without edges on the passenger side, tight turns where you can't see what's coming, big trucks and pink buses, incredibly high bridges, kamikaze drivers and motorcyclers coming towards you and following you, bicyclists on the edges, whacky one-lane streets in the villages, occasionally-confused GPS directions, some detours - we saw it all! I must research whether the Tour de France uses any roads like this - if so, I have even more respect for those cyclists!

Conversations in my car often included some variation of "how in the world did people ever find this spot before GPS?" or "why did people generations ago ever decide to settle here?" (my guess - that the wife said "forget it, I can't take it any more, we're stopping here and settling down!"). I need to do some research, but I'm guessing that not too many armies, ancient or modern, marched through these areas!

But the weather is gorgeous, the land and rivers are blessed with edibles of every kind, and, given the number of big walls and high hedges & trees and fancy gates we saw, this apparently has become an area for the rich and famous to get away from it all!

Anyhoo, a few photos from my visit to Le Rouret on Thursday:

Note that its tower includes both a clock and a sundial!

The 18th century Église Saint-Pons on the town square

Inside Saint-Pons - it seats less than 100

A pot of olive branches in front of the lectern

Note that the barriers in front of the war memoria
are missile heads

Their war memorial, on the square outside the church

I am happy to report that I brought my sweet little Renault back to the car rental place in Nice without a scratch, thanks to my expert navigators! And my passengers didn't let out TOO many gasps of alarm on those treacherous roads!

When it's Down-Home Cookin' and the Home is "La Pitchoune"... - Wednesday, 29 March

(This post from Provence)

On Wednesday, one group decided to do head down to Cap d'Antibes, at the end of a peninsula that juts out into the Mediterranean, for some beach-exploring, seaside lunching and lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-famous pretending! They also explored the arboretum at Le Jardin de la Villa Thuret, so you know it was educational as well!  Seriously though, their photos of the area & the ocean-mountain vistas, and their stories of their discoveries, were absolutely fabulous.

Karen Carr and I stayed at home to soak up the beauty in & around the house, pick up more groceries, and prepare a big feast for the evening!
* For our first course I made a rustic tomato tart - a pâte brisée crust with mustard, some of the fabulous tomatoes we had bought earlier in the week, assorted olives, the rest of our goat cheese, herbs from the garden, salt & pepper, and olive oil. It was great with a second bottle of the hard cider we bought for...
* For our main course, a pork loin roasted with onions, garlic, apples, butter, rosemary, and hard cider, its drippings reduced and then flambéed with Calvados.
* A simple green salad - we became very good at these as the week went along!
* Madeleines with fresh raspberries and chocolate. In the morning I was poking around in Julia's pastry cupboard to find something to inspire my dessert plans, and voilà, a mini-Madeleine pan. Problem solved!

Karen was a great sous chef. In payment, I imparted a few tricks of the French cuisine trade! But I told her that she would have to keep them a secret or I would make her pay for them. So don't even ask!!! (Only slight hyperbole here!)

The kitchen cleanup crew didn't grumble too much about all of tonight's dishes, always a sign of contented customers. Or at least ones who had had plenty of food & wine!

Sorry that I only got a photo of the tomato tart.  But rest assured that we all went to bed with full tummies!

Sublime Shopping and Sunshine in Blissful Biot - Tuesday, 28 March

(This post from Provence)



Monday afternoon some of the gang drove down to Biot, another hilltown about 10 miles from Julia's home. They came back with fabulous linens and glassware made in the town and with stories that totally tempted the rest of us to check it out too!

So on Tuesday we did. And bonus, it was market day! After we all yielded to temptation at the "Tissus Provençal" shop, we sauntered across the street for a blissful lunch in the sun in the town square. We all came home with red faces, in the best of all possible contexts!

A couple friends had the duck special

A couple friends had the mixed grill of fish special

I had the giant bucket of mussels with fries!

The chocolate mousse

The Île Flottante (meringue
floating in custard with
caramel sauce)

A strange round stone table on one
corner of the town square

A fountain at the town square - when
we arrived people were filling giant water
containers there - must be good water!

The town's war memorial

Down one of the lanes
bordering the town square

Down another lane - click on the
photo to get a larger view - in the
upper left you can see a board
with several holes protruding from
the window - laundry on clips and
hangers hangs from these holes!

Given our big lunches, supper was a bit lighter tonight!  I had made chicken stock with the carcass of Saturday's chicken, so we used it along with some veggies and the leftover rice & chicken to make a very warming and satisfying chicken soup. I made some palmiers (crispy caramelized pastry cookies) with the feuilletés scraps from Monday's apple tarts, and we picked up some ice cream at the market. Sorry, no photos, so you'll just have to trust me that we were happy diners!