Can Cooking & Dining Together Overcome Whitening of the Hair? - Saturday, 25 March

(This post from Provence)

OK, so if I come home with white hair, it's not because I've adopted some whacky new French fashion, it's because I've spent too much time driving in southern Provence!

It was drizzling just a bit when we drove down to Antibes this morning (more about that below), but then it started raining pretty seriously as we drove up to Grasse in the hope of visiting its perfume factory, museum and store(!).  But with less-than-ideal visibility, very steep narrow roads with numerous switch-backs, poorly-marked roundabouts creating multiple detours for us, two-way roads that were really only wide enough for a single lane, bicycle paths on both sides of the roads, bridges built for much smaller vehicles than ours (and ours isn't all that big!), lots of impatient drivers, Grasse itself having been built on steep cliffs, and yours truly finding the limited parking spaces already occupied, it was just a bit too harrowing.  So we cut it short and skipped the museum/factory/shop and headed back towards home.  My passengers tell me that the views were spectacular, but my eyes were glued to the road!  And I could almost feel white hairs sprouting from my scalp!

Bill, our croissant guy for the day!

But now let's flash back to earlier in the day.  For breakfast we sent Bill down to the bakery a couple miles away for fresh croissants while the rest of us made a pot of strong coffee and assembled a few other tasty treats.  A most excellent idea!

Then we drove down to Antibes, an ancient city (there's evidence to suggest that Iron Age peoples lived there around 1000 BC) on the Mediterranean, to check out the Marché Provençal and the Picasso Museum.  I miraculously scored a swell parking spot right next to the market - a delivery vehicle was pulling out just as I was driving down the lane - and we all soaked up the atmosphere and picked up some more tasty treats for today and later in the week.

My favorite purchases were a hunk of Brillat-Savarin cheese (a triple cream) with truffle crumbs in the center (WOW!) and a jar of jasmine flower jam.

Here are just a few shots of the market and one of the side streets.




Sadly, the Picasso museum was closed when we left the market, and the rain had started, so we just headed up towards Grasse, hoping that it would be clearer there.  Ha ha ha.

After our rainy-mountain-road-driving adventures recounted above, and upon making it safely back to our 'hood, we stopped at the Super U grocery store for general provisions and a roasted chicken from the guy who has a little stand just outside the store.  I found some Les Fiefs de Lagrange (a fabulous red wine from the St. Julien region of Bordeaux), which, with some of our other provisions, made for a deeeelicious lunch!  Then it was just a matter of getting our hands in some nice warm dishwater (there's a dishwasher here, but really...why?!?) and taking naps!  It was almost enough to erase the morning's driving-induced anxieties!

(By the way, the Super U store is getting ready for Easter, including stocking up on giant chocolate bunnies and chocolate hens sitting on baskets of foil-wrapped eggs!)

The other group (we are using two cars) spent some time in Grasse and were able to find a parking spot and get into the perfume site.  Then they took the "eat lunch out" approach to partially recovering from their driving "adventures" before heading back to the house!

By evening we were all ready for a light supper.  And to answer the question that's the subject of this post, yes, cooking & dining together with a group of smart, interesting, engaged & funny friends can at least partially delay (if not overcome) the onset of hair-whitening caused by the stresses of the day - whether it's via small conversations over the stove or while setting a beautiful table or while doing the dishes or with general hilarity around the table - all of which are elements of all of our meals at "home" so far!

(guess who is demonstrating
French omelette cooking
and rolling technique!) 

Tonight we made "omelettes fines herbes" with green salad, wild boar sausage, pomme dauphinoise (a gratin of sliced potatoes and cream), a variety of olives & tomatoes, cheese, baguettes and crackers.  Oh, and a little wine as well!  And lots of great stories and hilarity around the table!

It's good for what ails one, including the multiplication of white hairs on the head.