Living in France was lovely, at least for ten days. I spoke French, ate and shopped French, and drove French.
We ate foie gras, elaborate desserts, fried foods, butter, fragrant cheese; for breakfast we had croissants, and the occasional pastry. And we each lost two pounds. Terry says, “You know that book, Why French Women Don’t Get Fat? I think the reason they don’t get fat is that they live in France.
Our little town in Burgundy
This is the view coming back from my walk. You can sense the utter quiet of the village. To the left is the house where we were staying.
There was no bathroom on the second floor where the bedrooms were. If nature called in the night, we had to get down this stairway half asleep and in the dark (so as not to let the bugs in) to where the plumbing was. The house was called “L’Ancienne Forge” (The Old Blacksmith’s Shop), and after the blacksmith died in the 1970s, his widow lived alone. She was a tiny woman who raised five children here. She finally left at 95. In her last years, she put her bed in the living room so she didn’t have to go up and down these stairs. Notice the rope railing on the left, my only savior if I tripped on the narrow stairs.
We went to dinner at Lameloise, a legendary three-star Michelin restaurant in Chagny. I was embarrassed to be taking pictures of our dinner, so only got these imperfect ones of the meal, slipping my phone out when I thought nobody was looking, especially the eagle-eyed waiters. (I thought I should try to look as if I did this sort of thing at least once a week.) After looking at the bill, we determined we would be eating bread and water for a while, but it was worth it.
fish slices with foie gras between them
Little bits of foie gras with a gel dome, impossibly thin slices of radish on dense black bread, with a single elegant leaf on top, and I forget what the third one was
Terry savors his meal, which ended with Crepes Suzette
The kitchen of our house
Our charming little house
Terry has been wondering how we would live without plastic, to which I provide this answer. It’s only practical on a small scale, but worked pretty well. The pear was perfect, the melon was not quite as spectacular, and the other packages are half a baguette, local cheese (which was out of this world), ham, and a paté of pieces of meat in a gel, surrounded by pastry.
And last….two views from our window in the morning.
