Agde is a small town in Southern France near the Mediterranean Sea at the mouth of the river Hérault. The city was founded about 550 BC by travelling Greeks broadening their zone of influence. Later came the Romans … and then all the others dreaming of conquering the area and establishing a new empire. Finally in the 5th century Agde became a diocese and in 872 a cathedral was planned, however, only finished in the…
It was cold. It was March & it was cold. So my better half & I set off to Algarve in order to escape the bone freezing temperatures at home. We found a breathtaking, endless, wide-stretching beach, blue skies & happy white clouds … & temperatures of about 15-20° C. (Of course the sea was far to cold w/ 14° C or so for any swimming … we don’t originate from Arctic regions!) … and…
It’s hot outside – the sky is blue – the sun burns like hell: it’s ice-cream weather! Some years ago I tried to prepare homemade ice-cream in a very simple way & it worked: a creamy & refreshing lemon chocolate ice-cream was my very 1st creation. (In fact I never was eager to produce homemade ice-cream. Maybe because an ice-cream machine didn’t sit on my kitchen desk – no way of churning ice-cream manually. Even…
This is the well, the source of cold water – today at the very same place as about a millennium ago. We are in the labour courtyard of the Abbey of Fontfroide (fontfroide meaning cold well). Once this was the area for producing everything the abbey and its inhabitants needed for independent living – if food processing, livestock depot, butcher work, blacksmith services … In 1093 some monks decided to live in this spot, a…
Summer & Stockholm – the best combination to dream of!Imagine a classic Europen city w/ beautiful buildings & houses from the last century – all neat & restored, a city on islands w/ water all around & hundreds of ships moored at the waterside … We went to Stockholm as tourists & did all things tourists like to do – under a blue sky & a warming sun. We did quite a lot of planning…
The sky above Béziers is blue – really blue. Deep blue. With some nice fluffy white clouds … We are now living in Sérignan, a village near Béziers, and one of our first trips we made to Béziers. We found a beautiful city – whatever you imagine when dreaming about Southern France. There are some Grands Boulevards as I like to call them. The photo above shows the impressive buildings that line up along the…
Imagining it’s happy hour: chilled white wine (or rosé wine) & smooth red wine are awaiting their destiny, gin tonics & vodka tonics are mixed or whatever else – in the very middle of all the drinks sits a plate w/ crispy crumbly cheesy spicy shortbread cookies … We’re only mixing flour, Parmesan, pepper & salt … & dried rosemary! So far nothing changed compared to my earlier approach … however, I used grated Parmesan…
We are now in Sérignan, in the Département Hérault. We left Carcassonne end of April to continue our travels in Southern France somewhat more eastward approaching the Mediterranean coast. Sérignan is a lovely village with a rather old centre characteristically proud of a central place and lots of narrow alleyways, small and high village townhouses … Around this centre there is a belt of modern houses, more spacious, more gardens … As you see the…
So we start w/ a bunch of beautiful fresh green beans … (no changes so far!) The main point I adjusted the salad was not creating my very own tuna cream, but relying to a cup of rilette de thon which I smoothened w/ some liquid cream. It worked well!
Whenever the weather now in spring is fine – i. e. blue sky & lots of sunshine – my better half & I like to make a short trip to an interesting spot near our home in Carcassonne. Unfortunately the weather is very shifting – from a fine day to a day filled w/ storm & rain showers overnight. There are lots of spot worthwhile to be visited around us especially lots of castles, churches,…
We made a trip (resp. some trips) to Toulouse from Carcassonne. It’s quite easy: take a SNCF train to cover the distance of about 100 km within 42 min. So you are transferred from downtown Carcassonne (i. e. La Bastide) to downtown Toulouse. One of the striking features of Toulouse is La Garonne flowing mightily, but smooth like a mirror straight through the city. Some impressive bridges control the traffic e. g. the Pont Neuf…
It’s pasta time: we often enjoy pasta dishes because they are so easy to create. I especially like the one pot pasta approach. It’s quite a long time ago that I posted about one pot pasta tomato, but it’s one of my favourites, although I adjusted the dish a touch. Back then I thought about my approach as the mother of all Italian pasta dishes. Generally we are talking about: Is there anybody out there…
Leaving „Megalopolis“ Bangkok we entered Cambodia & stayed in Siem Reap, the city near the Angkor area where you’ll find the largest religious site worldwide surrounded by lots of temples … ruins … more ruins … Sometimes we felt like diving into an archaeological adventure – well: not like Indiana Jones of course, but there were some sites & moments … Compared to Bangkok’s golden Buddhas there are only Buddhas made of stone in Angkor…
Bangkok – a megalopolis: people, traffic, business, shopping… & lots of temples! Visiting Bangkok on our trip to & from Cambodia in 2017 left us awestruck concerning the beauty & the splendour of Buddha’s temples. Our main impression: there are golden Buddhas – everywhere! These long rows of Buddha statues reside in Wat Pho lining the walls around a courtyard around a temple.
Happy hour is on the agenda … what about some homemade salmon paté? I found this easy approach to salmon paté years ago, worked then with the ingredients available at the moment in my kitchen … & we had a delicious happy hour snack! So for now I decided to do just the same once again – adjusting the recipe to what I had in my kitchen … Simply it’s just some cooked salmon w/…