Home » Archive for July, 2006

Back from Bar Harbor, Maine. We spent 5 superb days hiking in Acadia National Park, discovering new trails, enjoying the cool sea breeze and the fresh air at the top of the mountains.

When my brother and I were kids, we used to pretend that we could smoke like adults. Yet, he and I could not stand the smell of any cigarette nearby. Of course, in a country like France, especially almost thirty years ago, that was nearly impossible. To make it worse, both my parents smoked a [...]

What is Your Name? Charlotte? But Who Are You? Before I was born into this world, my parents were already faced with a dilemna with me. Here it was, the baby was to be a girl, and they did not know what name to give to me. No surprise as most parents are faced with [...]

Clafoutis aux fraises – Strawberry Clafoutis Clafoutis aux cerises – Cherry Clafoutis Yes, like many of us, I like to receive packages. Who doesn’t, really? Every time I see a package by the frontdoor, left by our smoking-stinking cigar mailman — even when he is gone, I can still inhale the smell of cold cigars [...]

On part en pique-nique ? Summer times stay a special time of the year, because in my eyes, it involves a lot of eating outdoors. And I know well that I am not alone to feel this way. To me, there is not a better feeling than eating a meal in the open air. You [...]

Vanilla Melon Soup When I was in Paris in last May, I did one thing that I love doing, but do rarely. Let’s face it! Once you are married or live as a couple, it is more likely that you go to restaurants accompanied than alone. But P. had already returned to Boston and I [...]

Groseilles rouges — Red currants Glace à la lavande — Lavender Ice cream We all know and experience feelings of Deprivation at times. In French, called le manque or la privation. Sometimes it can be small and sometimes it feels huge like a mountain! I recently had a conversation with a friend who told me [...]

Lavender Ice Cream and Berries This is the story of a bowl of ice cream Who needed a bit of color She felt tired She was white Pale as a bowl of rice I don’t feel well Give me some blood I want to look good I want to feel my blood Je veux du [...]

Red Currant Mini Cakes A lot of Red on my blog these days…. With the peak of the berry season, I know that some of you, the lucky ones, can pick fresh berries from the bushes, and you have so many that you just do not know quoi faire avec tous ces fruits ! (what [...]

A few months ago, I received a package from Bordeaux, France. My first thought was “Mais je ne connais personne à Bordeaux ! Ca vient de qui ?” (I don’t know anyone in Bordeaux! Who is it coming from?) By now, you know how much I love to receive packages, so after only less than [...]

Je suis venue vous offrir des fleurs. I came to give you flowers. Sounds cliché, doesn’t it? As a kid, when asked by les grands (literally the tall ones, but meaning the adults) “Et qu’est-ce que tu voudrais faire quand tu seras plus grande ?” (What do you want to do when you are older?), [...]

We all agree that food is also a matter of colors , don’t we? I get attracted to food because of taste, smell, shape and color. By now, you might know I like red as a color. However, my world is not all abour red and orange, if you can believe me. I will show [...]

If you are French, il va de soi (it goes without saying) that you have eaten an éclair before. What about if you aren’t French. Have you ever tasted one? Did you like it? What do you think? It all depends on the éclair you will tell me. And I agree. I am French and [...]

Some readers have brought to my attention an issue affecting Internet Explorer on Windows, preventing the pictures of my blog to display properly. Thanks to P., the issue has been resolved. For the geeks interested, it was an issue related to XML content appearing in certain JPEG that broke the MSIE image rendering component; the [...]

I know what you are going to say. This soup cannot be called a gazpacho if it is not red. Well, aren’t we people of habits? We hear the word Gazpacho and we associate it with red, right away. Mettons le rouge au placard (Let’s put red in the closet) et voyons la vie en [...]

Making sorbet is easy. Most of the time, you only need sugar, fruit, and sometimes water. Add lime or lemon juice, and it gives punch to your sorbet. In fact, I have a a particular inclination for any sorbet with lime or lemon. Then, wash, mix, strain, and let cool down are among the few [...]

What a challenge she is taking on! Go Sam! Did you hear about this event? Sam from Becks & Posh will be blogging for 24 hours non-stop, yes you hear me well, sans arrêt, in order to help a San Francisco charity. It is called Food Runners and info can be found here. What can [...]

Il fait trop chaud pour travailler ! (It is too hot to work!) Pulco pulco pulco citrooooooooon ! How can I forget this famous sentence played over and over in a Pulco publicité. According to my mum, when I was little, I used to know by heart every one of the TV ads! Only a [...]

Do you remember my talking here about the little baby that P. created? Stylefeeder I find pretty amusing to see how things can sometimes evolve in life. If you were lucky to have attended the BlogHer conference that was held in San Jose, California this past weekend, you will have had to wear a tag [...]

La tartine This is such a meaningful word in French, yet it is so hard to translate. And the reason is simple, there is not one only word to translate what a tartine is in English. You need more than one word — for a change. Did you know that the closest translation would actually [...]