l’amour, toujours, l’amour

Il n’ya qu’un bonheur dans la vie, c’est d’aimer et d’être aimé.

                                                                        George Sand

There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.  February 14th, Saint Valentine’s Day, St. Valentin.  During the Middle Ages, it was noted that birds paired off at the first blush of Spring. This observation was eventually translated into the language of love and the custom of giving small tokens and cards, cartes d’amities, to your lover became tradition.  The first recorded valentine was sent in 1415 by the Duke of Orleans to his wife in France, while he was being held in the Tower of London.

Paris, Notre Dame

The city of Paris is synonymous with love., but why?  Is it the charm of the city and its history and culture or its famous writer’s and lovers?  To me the answer is that the City of Love is also the City of Light. and love has always been coupled with light and vision. Coup de foudre, love at first sight.  The name Paris, itself, evokes the story of Helen of Troy and her lover, Paris, who waged the nine year Trojan War for the woman he adored.

Musée d’Orsay,  ”Woman Biten by Snake”, Clessinger

The French tradition of love can be traced back to the 10th century Troubadors who sang suggestive songs of love in the courts as well as the cafés, arousing the libidos of Queens and peasant girls alike.  Even today, romantic songs are sung and proposals of marriage are offered on the top of the Tour Eiffel, Eiffel Tower. 

Eiffel Tower

But, if the spell is broken and the truth be told, “Paris” is actually a word that means “marsh”  and is a reminder of the former city before its iconic fame. Nowhere in the world is the transformative splendor of a city so apparent.

Elixir d’Amour - Red Wine Sorbet

9 ounces fine sugar

3 +1/2 ounces orange juice

1 cup light colored red wine

Place sugar in boiling water and stir until it is completely dissolved.

Add orange juice and red wine. 

Pour into a plastic freezer box, cover and freeze. Stir every 30 minutes for 2 hours with a whisk to break up ice crystals and give it a nice texture. 

Cover with plastic wrap under and on top of the lid.  Freeze until ready to serve.  Garnish with raspberries and rose petals.

à la recherche du temps perdu

” The only joy in the world is to begin again.”

                                                             Cesare Pavese

Aux Arbeils, Ayzieu. 

Remembrance of things past.  

In the wink of an eye we have all lived.  

As a matter of fact, we will all die.

We cannot change the past, only hold it in memory. 

We cannot change the future, for it only exists as we live it.  

We can only live for the day.  

Honor your memories, then let them go.  As Albert Einstein said,  ”I must be willing to give up what I am in order to become what I will be.”

Route de la Nouet, Ayzieu

As we turn the page of another year to write our new stories we need to be mindful that hidden in the mysteries of the things we love are the maps to our dreams. Remember to open your heart.  Choose to be with loving people.  Feed your intellect and nurture your spirit.  Go confidently down the path of self discovery and march headlong into this new year.  Live the life you have imagined.

Route d’Hauriet,  Estang.

Forgotten Cookies (eaten to shed old memories bite by bite)

2 organic egg whites

1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon super fine organic sugar

1 cup+ 2 tablespoons 70% organic chocolate, roughly  chopped

1 teaspoon organic vanilla.

1 cup organic walnuts roughly chopped

Completely heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff and dry.

Gradually whisk in sugar a litle at a time to make a glossy, thick meringue.

Gently fold in the chocolate, nuts and vanilla.

Line 2 baking sheets with foil. Spoon heaping teaspoonfuls of the mixture on to the foil, spaced slightly apart. Put into the oven and immediately turn the oven off. Leave undisturbed overnight.  In the morning, carefully peel the cookies from the foil and store in an air tight container.  Lasts 1 week.

esprit d’intérieur

          ”We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness of the interior that holds whatever we want.”  

                                        Lao-tzu

Our interior environments are like mosaics, mirroring the rhythms of our lives. What we choose to have in our homes at any given time is an expression of our psychological well being.  The golden rule for the art of living, l’art de vivre, is to have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful, espoused by the designers, William Morris and Elsie de Wolfe. 

 This dressing room, vestiere, in the Chateau La Brede, reflects utter simplicity and beauty of purpose.  French country style is eclectic, but not cluttered, effortlessly linking the past to the present.

A gascon house, maison gascon, reflects the changing of the seasons with the use of rich, dark colors.  This picture of winter, tableau d’ hiver, can be translated to any home.  

This lounge, salon, feels like a womb with a view.  Imagine curling up on the sofa with a good book and a café au lait on a cold December afternoon.    

The symmetry of the dining room, salle à manger, in Chateau du Mail is quintessentially French.   Order imbues any space with harmony and balance.

Each room in your homes represents s different aspect of you and your experiences.  Try going into each room of your house and ask yourself if a stranger, viewing each room for the first time, would be able to state immediately what kind of person uses the space.  Then, revisit each room again. What do you see, smell and hear?

              ”In dwelling, live close to the ground.  In thinking, keep it simple. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.”

                                                                                              Lao – tzu

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.