“Sometimes to have a little good luck is the most brilliant planning”. Woody Allen, Crimes & Misdemeanors. And sometimes good luck comes in the form of little yellow flowers. A few weeks ago we were “trespassing” (my husband’s specialty) in a vineyard, mesmerized by a yellow carpet of flowers on a little hill. We were [...]

My grandmother always said that it takes time to adjust to a new season, so it’s important to gradually welcome the warmer days. She said ‘En Avril, ne te découvre pas d’un fil, et en Mai, fais ce qu’il te plaît‘. (In April, don’t undress to a thread, but in May, dress as you wish). [...]

Two nights ago we were driving through the vineyards and saw the most spectacular view in Blaignan-Médoc. Millions of golden yellow flowers drizzled all over the growing vineyards, and to add to the show, a beautiful old windmill in the middle of it all . It was a picture perfect moment, but as my husband [...]

April is the month for asparagus. They stick out their pretty little heads, as if to see that spring is really here and then they come out in force, taking over market stalls, supermarket shelves, restaurant tables and domestic kitchens. For a precious few weeks they even dominate the conversation in big parts of Europe. [...]

We had such a fun-filled week entertaining guests (à bientôt Jodie, Sophie & co.!). We were at least twelve at the table for dinner, so I proposed crowd pleasing succulent dishes to satisfy everybody’s appetite. Parmesan soup (those croutons were a hit), duck confit parmentier (duck cottage pie), an enormous chocolate tart with mascarpone and [...]

What a pleasant surprise I had when my heliciculturalist (snail farmers) friends Francis and Françoise dropped by to say Bonjour. After saying our belated ‘happy new year’, they gave me a pack of snails from their ‘petit gris’ farm as a gift. There was also a little bonus. A succulent recipe for a garlic and [...]

I have been in a Christmas state of mind since the beginning of December. I can’t believe today is actually Christmas eve, how I wish I had a magic wand to make time stand still – I don’t want this day to be over. I have enjoyed going to Bordeaux and to the markets around [...]

After all the excitement build-up since the kids started school, days of searching in vain, we finally found beautiful cèpes. I have been sharing a few moments from my mushroom adventures through Instagram, discovering amazing parts of the forest I never knew. Every morning, I feel like an explorer, entering the woods with my stick, [...]

One of the best things about the fall season is mushroom picking. Someone had whispered in my ear they had found three large gorgeous cèpes in their garden last week-end. After hearing this, I never leave home without rubber boots and a basket in the hope to bring back a bounty of my own. Since [...]

There are only two hundred snail farms in France, so you can imagine my delight when I discovered that one of them was just around the corner. Heliciculturalist Françoise Pion and her husband Francis have been successfully cultivating the Helix aspersa maxima, better known as the ‘gros gris’ snail. France remains the largest consumers of [...]