Doors To Burgundy

On our way back from Italy, we stopped in Burgundy and visited the magical village of Châteauneuf. Both the medieval castle, complete with moats and towers, and the 16th century church are beautifully preserved. I took tons of pictures but thought I'd share the ones featuring doors... This post is dedicated, with love, to my sister Céline, who kind of collects door postcards and images.

On The Road To Italy

We drove through Burgundy...

Through Switzerland...

Italy at last!

French Kids' Friends

For the past couple of weeks, I've been tutoring kids at France Exchange, a Los Angeles institution that has been offering French language programs for over 20 years. Little by little, the house has become filled with all things French for children, including an extensive book collection, with some concessions to local passions - witness the basketball court. It is precisely around this court that you will find the almost life-size figures of some of French children's most beloved characters.
There is the Petit Prince, from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's eponymous little masterpiece, and Tintin with his loyal pooch Milou in tow - for some reason, Milou is called Snowy in the English version of the bande-dessinée (graphic novel/comic strip). Visitors also run into Bécassine, another character all French children are familiar with, though she is not as famous abroad as Tintin or the Petit Prince - now over 100 years old (she first appeared in a comic strip in 1905), Bécassine is youthful as ever.

Sad Update: I was fired. The reason? I am not authoritative enough with the kids - I get the work done, and done well, but I'm not bossy enough. French education could be summed up by this principle, once stated by my high school biology teacher: "In teaching, you can go with the carrot or the stick. I've always liked the stick better."
I'm devastated.

Sophie La Girafe

A recent article in the Los Angeles Times explained "How Sophie the giraffe became a status teether - A mom ponders the appeal of the soft, adorable and pricey teething toy from France." This article brought back many memories from childhood and beyond, as I used to have my own Sophie back in the days when she was certainly not an it toy, and as I have since seen her, clutched in the little hands of many French kids - lovely, precious baby Arthur, whom I posted about last summer, was so kind as to let me borrow his Sophie for the picture above.
Sophie La Girafe has been produced artisanally in France since 1961; the all-natural rubber she's made of comes from hevea trees, which makes her safe for babies to put in their mouths.
Just for old times' sake, I had my mum mail me one from France a couple of weeks ago. At first propped on my bookshelf, Sophie had to make a hasty retreat into a closet as Benjy was eager to sink his fangs in, and to chew in order to elicit Sophie's high pitched squeak...

In the picture below, yes, it's me! Aged about 6 months,in our Paris kitchen, with my dear Sophie...

Beautiful Treats

These treats are so beautiful that I cannot bear to slice them up and eat them...
These California avocados are one of many varieties available at the Santa Monica Farmers' Market, and with their shiny, taut skin, they remind me of the avocados that grew in our garden in Kenya - eating them is one of my very earliest food memories - what are yours?
Can you guess what the other picture is? Candied mini-tangerines from Provence, a typical local delicacy that my foodie mum sent me.

These days, I sometimes make a gourmand snack I invented, the Banana Choc Oatmeal:
Make oatmeal.
Add a pureed banana.
When the oatmeal is still hot, add chocolate chips.
And there, you have a chocolaty, fruity, warm and healthy snack.

A Loire Valley Wedding

It was a French-Iranian-German wedding in a small Mairie (City Hall) on the banks of the Loire river this Saturday. As everyone couldn't fit in the Mairie, the couple came to the window to exchange their wedding rings in front of the crowd of relatives and friends... So romantic! After leaving the Mairie, and being showered with rose petals thrown by the many children, they went for a spin in an old Citroen car, then joined everyone for a cocktail in the divine gardens of an aunt's house,with its ancient stone tower. The beautiful bride, with rose petals in her hair and the smile of happiness on her face, wore white satin Christian Louboutin shoes! To add some color to my otherwise demure outfit (Nina Ricci jacket, black Joseph skirt and vintage veiled hat) I chose NARS's pink lipstick Schiap - a little punk spirit here.
Best wishes to my dear, dear friends!

More From Southwestern France

From top:
Benjy hides under a bench with his ball...
... the church in the beautiful village of Lauzun...
... the children caught a lizard in the garden...
... the retro and colorful wallpaper in the stairs.

Verde

Federico Garcia Lorca is my favorite poet (with Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson) and in the green environment of the South-West of France, I think of his beautiful poem:
Verde que te quiero verde.
Verde viento. Verdes ramas.
El barco sobre la mar
Y el caballo en la montaña.

Le Château

Where am I off to tomorrow?
My friends' château is located near Marmande, a one-hour train ride away from Bordeaux. In the garden the gorgeous 17th century wood and stone Halle (top pic.), where markets used to be held, is still standing. Breakfast outdoors, with fresh bread and homemade jams, are a summer ritual everyone loves...
Every August, friends crowd the château, and the many, many rooms are all packed, as little kids run around and grownups chat or read under the ancient trees. Our hostess, who goes by the nickname Fafa unless we teasingly call her Baroness, is known to be a top-notch cook, who buys produce from a nearby farmer, so the kitchen and the entire house are deliciously fragrant...
I met the family in China, where we were all living in the late 1980's. Yves and Fafa, who are very close to my parents', have four boys, all of whom I consider my brothers: Raphaël (32), Etienne (27), Coco (22) and Leopold (15). More on the family and the château in posts to come...