France - The Food

We spent a lot of time cooking, eating or shopping for food during our trip. This was partly because Emma, Amanda and I all like to cook (certainly we are gourmandes rather than gourmets) and partly because going out to eat with 5 children is just plain masochistic. So we spent lots of time around the big island in the kitchen (which you can see above with a morning's haul from the market in Carcassonne), chopping, chatting and handing out snacks to the kids who ran in and out constantly.

We stuck to French food (no surprise) and managed to hammer out boeuf bourguignon, duck confit, lentil stew with sausages, moules marineres over linguine, and couscous with merguez sausages and vegetables over the course of the week. I didn't get pictures of everything, but here are a few of the meals:
We also started every morning with a trip to the bakery for baguette, pain au chocolat, and croissant, accompanied by copious amounts of nutella, strawberry jam and strong coffee. Here's a shot from the market of the pastry booth, otherwise known as where I want to go after I die:
And since the Languedoc is cassoulet country, here's a shot of the very tasty cassoulet I had in Lagrasse. I have to say I couldn't quite bring myself to eat the duck skin or the big wedge of pork fat, but did enjoy the sausages, tender duck and cannellini beans soaked in the juices of the different meats and topped with crunchy bits of something quite a bit.

And that's the last of my report from France. Long live the Languedoc!

France - Part 2

I notice the pictures from my previous post are mostly of people, and I suppose that's what this trip was primarily about for us -- seeing old friends. BUT, we did visit some beautiful places, namely Carcassonne, Narbonne, Lagrasse and Toulouse, all in the Languedoc area of the "sleepy south" of France. Here are some of my favorite shots of those places:

Carcassonne
Known for its medieval (and nicely restored) Cite that you can see behind Adrian and Julian in the first shot, Carcassonne also has a lovely (breaking my own rule here using lovely as an American, but hey) downtown shopping district that spreads out from the Place de Carnot where the market is held 3 times a week. The visit to the market on Saturday was a highlight of the trip.

Narbonne
Narbonne is just a 30-minute train ride toward the sea from Carcassonne, and we basically went for lunch and a stroll. We had a nice meal, actually, right on the main square at the restaurant right behind Adrian in the 3rd photo:

Lagrasse
We loved this little town about 35 km south-west of Carcassonne. Really beautiful and not over-riden with tourists and not a souvenir shop to be had (hurray!). The day we were there was a "clean out your attic" day and the main road was lined with people selling everything from toy dinosaurs to antique linens. I picked up a cute bronze key rack with 3 horses for the house.

France - Part 1

We just got back from France and all I can say is long live duck fat and kir royales! We flew to Toulouse and spent an uneventful night there before heading down to Carcassonne, where we planned to stay in a rambling, gorgeous maison with the Smiths and the Bousheys (total=6 adults +5 kids) for a week. The trip from Toulouse to Carcassonne was more eventful than planned because the train, normally a quick, straight, 50-minute trip, was replaced by a meandering, curving bus ride, which took 2.5 hours and caused both children to vomit all over themselves, the seats, Adrian and me. So we arrived at the gorgeous Maison Juliette covered in regurgitation of various sorts. Despite the inauspicious beginning and some pretty drizzly weather for the first 4 days, we had a wonderful time.

It took about 3.4 seconds for the kids (Ava, Everett, Miles, Julian and Cate in descending age order), to start going everywhere hand in hand and running like crazy people around the house, building forts, making "yuck soup" in the garden, and playing Sleeping Beauty (Ava=princess). They were pretty much in heaven with playmates, hot chocolate and chocolate croissants around all the time. Plus they got to watch a movie every night. Ava wants to move to France.It was a treat for me to get to spend so much time with the other families after not seeing them for 14 months. We spent a lot of our time cooking, hanging in the gorgeous kitchen drinking wine, walking to the medieval Cite or shopping district, and chasing the kids. Here's us at dinner in the more formal dining room (L to R: Emma S., Amanda B., Geoff B., Alex S., Adrian and Julian): And here's us doing what we are all so good at now: schlepping children on shoulders, backs, hips or in strollers around town, in good weather or bad: And here's me and Emma in the backyard, probably drinking a kir royale while the dads chased the kids through the bushes: