l’automne

We are reminded of our bounty as we gather around our festive tables at harvest time.  We have much more before us than we need.  From farm to table and hand to mouth food nourishes us body and soul.  Autumn is a time to remember who we are and where we came from.   It is a time for gratitude and the sharing of abundance that will carry us safely through the winter and close the circle of the year. 

Below are photographs I have collected for a 2010 calendar taken by Colby Chester.  I would like to share with you my passion for Gascony and my belief that everyone has a fundamental right to nourishing food that doesn’t harm the planet.  All of the profits of this calendar will go to Northwest Harvest which collects and distributes food to 300 hunger programs in Washington State.  If you would like to order one or more please email me at dharma@w-link.net  The price is $15 + postage. 

Cover - Lauraet

January – Estang

February – L’Eglise de Mura, Gabarret

March – Pigeonnier – Pudenas

April – Campagne d’Armagnac

May – Coquelicot et Blé, Montreal

June - Ayzieu

July – Eauze

August – Mauvezin

September – Cazaubon

October – Auch

November - Réans

December – Armagnac

Sandwich d’automne avec gruyère,poire et miel, autumn sandwich with gruyère, pear and honey.

2 slices walnut bread

6 slices gruyère cheese thinly cut

1 ripe pear, peeled, quartered and thinly sliced

1 teaspoon honey

Small handful of trimmed watercress

Toast the walnut bread.  Place the slices of gruyère on the warm toast. Cover the cheese with the sliced pear.  Drizzle a thin trickle of honey back and forth over the pear. Garnish with watercress.  Serve immediately.

il pleut des chats et des chiens

It’s raining cats and dogs.  The French love their animals.  They believe, as the Romans did, that cats watch over the warmth and security of their homes and dogs teach men humility.  In France, cats and dogs have patron saints: St. Gertrude protects cats and St. Roch protects dogs, 

The Vagabonds of Avignon

Jules, the cat’s meow of Lectoure.

Mimi, the bitch from Bordeaux.

Liaison with Remie in Provence.

Daisy, the sweet potato of Paris.

Minette after the Fête de la Musique in Estang.

Charles de Gaulle in Nerac.

joie de vivre

“A rich person is not one who has the most, but one who needs the least.”

The Gascons truly embrace the joy of living.  The simple pleasures of life are the most important: family, friends, good cuisine and conversation, meaningful work. They have no concept of the word urgent unless it relates to food or sex.  We Americans are the foolish ones who get wound up over trivial matters. Well being, bien-etre, need not be a luxury, but an ordinary, daily perogative

Madame Raymonde, a 100 year old woman who walks every Thursday from her house on a country lane to the Eauze farmer’s market.  She dresses up (notice her tennis shoes) puts her makeup on and walks slowly, stopping every 10 feet to take a rest. When I asked her if she needed help, she declined saying, “Ne t’en fais pas!  Je suis au printemps de ma vie.”  Don’t worry! I am in the springtime of my life.

Marcel, a shopkeeper in the village of Aignan reading the local paper in front of his antique store.  All commerce, except for restaurants, shuts down at noon for lunch and doesn’t resume until 2:30.

 

An impromptu meal with family and friends.  Chilled rosé wine, organic green salad with mustard vinegrette, creamy Brie de Meaux, crusty baguettes, and strawberries with fresh whipped Chantilly cream.

Our closest neighbor, Roger Ducourneau, tilling his 400 hectares of fields. Roger just turned 78 this past July.

 A walk along the main road in the village of Laree at 10 o’clock at night a perfect image for the end of a well lived day.

course landaise et corrida

Close to the Spanish border in southwestern France,  the tradition of bullfighting flourishes. There are many different styles, but the most popular are the Gascon Course Landaise and the Spanish Corrida.  The Gascon Course Landaise is a gentle version of the sport.  Cows are used instead of bulls, no animal dies and the skills required are purely acrobatic.  The Spanish Corrida, however, is cruel, primitive and ritualistic and the bull always dies.  

Corrida, Eauze.

Corrida, Vic Fexensac

 Course Landaise, Estang

 Course Landaise, Estang

Course Landaise Novillado

vacances en Provence

The scents of lavender, rosemary, wild thyme and olive groves fill the air, a magical landscape so delicious you could close your eyes and taste it.  A seven hour drive from the Gers region, due east, along sun dappled back roads and through picturesque rural villages, fields of sunflowers and leeks.

Roman arena in Nimes still used for bullfighting and a wall in Arles outside the Vincent Van Gogh museum..

The incredibly charming river village of L’Isle sue La Sorgue,known for antiques and rare books.

vide greniers

Vide greniers, empty attics, are flea markets in the Gers.  There are 2 every Sunday throughout the summer in different villages throughout the southwest. Prices start at 25 centimes, cents. 

un marché de la campagne

The village of Eauze is 15 minutes from my house.  The farmer’s market was first created by Charles IX in the 16th century and has been occurring every Thursday, rain or shine, for the past 500 years.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

le coeur de Gascogne

We have arrived in the Gers, the heart of Gascony, where white clouds languish in deep blue skies, velvet green fields stretch to the horizon and plane trees line the sun dappled roads.  The Gers (department 32) is isolated from main highways and train lines.  It is the most rural, least commercialized and industrialized area in France.  The people of Gascony live the longest and breathe the cleanest air of any country in Europe. Approaching our village of Ayzieu.  We are the only 2 Americans amongst the local population of 35.

Our nearest voisins, neighbors, Blonde Aquitaine cows.

Aux Arbeils, May 2007.

Aux Arbeils, under construction,May 2009

Construction detail.  The shutters will be painted spring green and  the brick will be covered by 3 layers of local plaster called chaux.

Cafe de France, built by Henry IV of France in 1560, in the village of Eauze, a fifteen minute drive from Aux Arbeils. Eauze is the capital of the Armagnac region. Armagnac is the oldest French brandy.  

 The village of  Laree, sunset.

fêtes de mères

A Mother’s Day celebration in Les Saintes Maries de la Mer, France.  A French tradition since 1950, May 25th, and an American tradition since 1914, May 10th. Mother’s Day originally dates back to the ancient Greeks who honored Rhea, mother of the gods, with a festival around the vernal equinox, the first days of spring. Modern Mother’s Day in the United States began as a day to unite all mothers against war.

The moment I met Jeanette Ducourneau I knew she’d been my mother in a past life.  Here we are, having known each other not more than 10 minutes, in front of the ruin I bought from her that would become my home in Ayzieu, France.

Jasmine & Wine Bath Mother’s Day Infusion

20 drops jasmine essential oil

1/2 bottle red wine

1 cup epsom salts

1/4 cup grape seed oil

Soak for 20 minutes and rinse.

The antioxidents in red wine help soothe and heal damaged skin while jasmine connotes grace and elegance.  The language of flowers, la langue des fleurs, the symbolic use of flowers and herbs dates back to antiquity.  Though most popular in medieval, renaissance and victorian periods, it is once again being used to help people express feelings which otherwise would not be spoken.

 

Artisan of May

Timothy Shelton is someone of exceptional talent. I have worked with him and his company, S & S Upholstery, for years.  Below are before and after photographs of some of his work, although they do not do his craftsmanship justice.  If you are ever in need of an upholsterer, please don’t hesitate to give him a call – (206) 478-4140.  

before

after

before

after

before

les couleurs d’avril

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

                 Marcel Proust

 

A field of corn (maĭs) flourishing in Cazaubon, France in April,.  April is a month of promise and plenty.  Nature has a healing power and its beauty cannot be explained, only experienced. Our hearts are shaped by the oceans, the land, the trees, the sky and all that surrounds us.  Go outside.  Any landscape, if you see it at just the right time, might be confused with paradise.

pain de maĭs

preheat oven to 425 degrees

 3/4 cup of finely ground organic cornmeal

1 cup organic white flour

1/3 cup organic sugar

3 tsp. baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup organic whole milk

1 egg

2 tablespoons melted butter

1. Mix all of the ingredients well.

2. Pour into a buttered  8″ square baking pan.

3.  Bake for 20 minutes.

 

Fields of tulips in La Conner, Washington, alive with color.  Color is the daughter of light, the source of all life on earth.  Color is a universal language that works synergistically with all of the senses by changing the atmosphere of an environment and those who move through it.  The colors for the month of April are shades of poppy red, violet, lavender and aster purple.   Bring the colors of nature into your home with fresh flowers and living chi (energy).