Le Lac (the lake) and Le Boudin (black pudding): where is the connection?There isn’t any. On a rather cold day in February we went to Lac de Montagnès in Southern France in La Montagne Noir, the most southern part of the Massif Central. The sky was blue, the sun was brilliant, only the temperature was rather low. We were at about 600-800 m & some snow had survived here and there – not only on…
Lagrasse, a village and home to about 600 people, isn’t far from Carcassonne. It’s rated one of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (the most beautiful villages of France). So my better half & I decided to make a trip to Lagrasse. It was a cold, but beautiful day beginning of February with a dazzling blue sky and a dazzlingly bright sun. There is the medieval village Lagrasse and there is the Abbey Sainte-Marie de…
What reminds me of Vienna these days?We are in Southern France – and for about 2 weeks (end of January & beginning of February) it was really cold: one evening it started even snowing & all was soon covered in a nice white snow layer. Even in the morning there was this specific quietness that only snow provides … However, some hours later almost all was gone, at least where we live in Carcassonne. The…
Avocados are very popular w/ us. I think we are no exception. Especially since we are in Southern France we like to create some avocado mess & indulge w/ fresh baguette for our dinner. Afterwards we may have some cheese … for the finish. As I already told you there is only a tiny kitchen in our home so preparing excessive meals for lunch or dinner, requiring cooking & frying & preparing a sauce &…
Our 1st month in Carcassonne is done: it’s time to give an overview of Carcassonne & our life so far i. e. how we manage to adapt to life in the Mediterranean area – in general & in winter. Yes – it’s winter. To be honest I hadn’t expected temperatures around 0° C … from what I had read so far resp. what climate tables presented. Well: we had pullovers & coats & whatever is…
I wrote about this tomato tart some years ago … & in the meantime I made a lot of tarts similar to this very 1st approach. So now I like to re-write the recipe based on my experiences so far. Additionally … at the moment I like quick & dirty (aka easy!) dishes for my life in Southern France. One of my experiences is – at the moment – that a small kitchen w/ a…
On our way to SouthernFrance we made a stop-over in Dijon. For a day we stayed in Dijon and started in the morning with strolling around the city. Dijon is famous for its extraordinary mustard – although (as I learnt) the mustard is no longer produced in Dijon. It’s the result of an unfortunate court decision – decades ago – that stated that there is only one way to create Dijon mustard, but it’s not…
Nous sommes arrivées. We have arrived. In Carcassonne, Languedoc, Southern France. What happened?End of last year I announced that we are moving – mainly in order to explain the discontinuity of new posts. After all we planned & prepared 2 moves. We lived in a rented house for about 20 years – and decided to leave. Can you imagine … how much stuff accumulates during more than 2 decades? Quite a lot. We made many…
Over the years I created several posts about ham … Now we are approaching Xmas season – so I thought that some sort of roundup might be quite a good idea, because a delicious big chunk of ham is appropriate for any winter get-together if before Xmas, during Xmas or after Xmas. In general the process to create a ham dinner is always the same – so I’ll present 2 different results … one is…
Marrakesh – one of the mythic places of the world? In my notion: yes – a mysterious exciting place arousing curiosity over & over again, a very old religious force once reaching up to Southern Spain, a traders’ emporium connecting Sahara desert’s horsemen & warriors with Europe & Middle East – as well as a famous hippies’ paradise in the 70s becoming a notorious cosmopolitan party community in the 80s & 90s… until now… ……
As always during the last weeks I’m in a hurry because of the endless preparations for our planned move. Nevertheless I need to empty my pantry … so baking some sweet delight is always on my agenda. When checking my pantry I found a bottle of limoncello – this very nice Italian lemon liqueur. The bottle was almost empty, but … soon I had the idea of some muffins w/ limoncello. A quick affair. No…
Back now from Belgium for about 3 weeks & entangled in preparing the planned move. Did I mention that we lived in our house for about 20 years … a spacious house … enabling us to fill it w/ furniture, framed pictures, memorabilia, books, DVDs … whatever. We plan systematically – starting w/ a list of all our possessions, small & big … deciding what to do. Is it still ok, working, useful? Do we…
The Belgian coast seems endless: long and wide sand beaches, spacious promenades, huge buildings lining up like a barrier against the rough North Sea – which wasn’t by far so rough when we stayed there … It is a great beach to relax & recover from daily stress. All along the coast there is a tram line called DE KUSTTRAM, about 66 km long – the longest tram line in the world – with 68…
My better half & I started dealing w/ our vast accumulation of books, DVD & CD … in order to prepare our planned move. These objects are sneaky little bastards, always. They represent memories, they are precious to your heart, they don’t need too much storage space – well … I always have scruples to discard any of the bunch. However, once in a while it’s necessary to clear out – especially when planning to…
As I already announced – we’re planning to move. The present state of preparation involves a lot of discussing, clearing up, clearing out … So we are busy. Busy often means that cooking & baking get a raw deal. Some days ago I realized that it was about lunch time w/o having prepared anything … What about sandwiches? However, when peering into my fridge some leftover cooked potatoes caught my eye. So I thought: what…