New Orleans Nostalgia

It's funny how these bouts of nostalgia hit.
Just a few weeks ago I wrote about moving to France and the point of no return, and yet here I am today after watching a cooking show that took place in southern Louisiana and New Orleans, feeling incredibly homesick.

We only lived in New Orleans for a few years, but it definitely got under my skin.
I do know what it means to miss New Orleans.

I try to return almost every year and while I'm there I eat (best food city in America!), soak up its rich atmosphere and celebrate. Because that's just what you do.
Because almost every day there seems to be some kind of celebration in New Orleans. For music. For crawfish season. For cocktails. For living in a great neighborhood. For holidays and for non holidays. Because it's the weekend. Because it's a Tuesday.

It doesn't matter...New Orleans simply celebrates. Everything.

So I've decided to take a little trip down memory lane to easy my homesickness until my next visit.

I think I'll go and make some jambalaya for dinner tonight.
Bon weekend!

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5 Things

1) Hôtel de Sens

2) Colorful bollards

3) Lazy afternoon at le café




4) Overseeing




5) Intriguing Parisian doors




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Normandy History And Restoration

On Friday I went to the cathedral in Coutances with a friend who is not only an architect, he is currently in charge of all the momuments historiques in the entire Auvergne region. Spending the day with him is like having a history, art and architecture professor at your disposal and I was more than happy to visit as many cathedrals, churches, abbeys and châteaux as he wanted.

We arrived under beautiful blue skies and thanked Mother Nature for giving us the chance to enjoy a day free of the drizzle and gray skies that decided to take their holidays in Normandy this August.
We walked around the exterior, snapping photos and admiring the Romanesque/Norman/Gothic facade. In the square in front of the cathedral we came across a series of photographs depicting the bombardment and destruction of Coutances during World War II. Seventy years ago, the exact place where we were standing was a giant pile of destroyed homes, businesses turned to rubble and pieces of the cathedral.
It was a sobering moment.



After the war the cathedral was painstakingly restored by Yves-Marie Froidevaux.
When you step inside and your eyes are drawn up to the light, the stained glass windows and the central dome, the amount of care that was given to bring it back to its former glory is unmistakable.

I'm sure that those poignant photographs will be stored away at the end of 2014, the year of the 70th anniversary of D-Day and the year when Normandy remembers its liberation by the allied forces. I can only hope that in the years ahead, when visitors come to experience this beautiful, delicious region, they will have read not only about Mont Saint Michel, Impressionism, Calvados and the cheese, but about the restoration of places like the cathedral of Coutances, the history and impact of the war, and will remember the atrocities that the French people suffered under the Nazi regime, so that it never happens again.

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5 Things

1) Sweet summer at the Bayeux market




2) Busy summer in Montmartre




3) Rue Crémieux




4) Incongruous




5) Wood, water and old stones




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The Point Of No Return

A fellow expat friend and I were talking over drinks and nibbles the other night and out of the blue she asked me if I ever thought about moving back to the States.
I sat there for a minute, like a deer caught in the headlights, trying to come up with a response.

Of course, I think about it.
But would I ever really consider it?

We've worked hard over the years to live here and there are many things I love and take for granted in France.

• fabulous, inexpensive healthcare and doctors and nurses who make house calls 
• 600 + kinds of cheese!
• unpasteurized, hand churned salt butter
• amazing AOC wine from more regions than I can count
• efficient train travel (unless there's a strike...)
• numerous European countries at our doorstep
• inexpensive monthly internet and phone packages
• weekly outdoor markets with fresh, local produce 

the café culture

long Sunday lunches

diverse regional cuisine

flaky, buttery croissants

a more relaxed pace of life

the history, art and architecture

On the other hand, there are many things I do miss!

family and friends, of course

stores open on a Sunday afternoon in case I need a last minute ingredient for dinner

hot sauce. So many kinds of hot sauce.

cheap fuel

not having to worry about having exact change

Dairy Queen (yes, I love Peanut Buster Parfaits - don't judge)

no foreign language mix-ups

long, wide stretches of empty beach

drive through banking

Trader Joe's (and its amazing selection of salsas)

a life free of endless paperwork

drivers who respect others (of course this is debatable, depending on where you live) 

not having to mentally and emotionally prepare myself every time I need to return something

having my groceries bagged up for me

good bagels

Mexican food

After thinking about her question some more on the train home to Normandy the next day, I realized that after 11½ years, a quarter of my life, I think we've reached the point of no return. We chose to change our lives and move to France and have managed to make it work despite the bureaucratic challenges and other headaches. We've learned to be more patient, flexible and very determined.
There has also been a huge emotional investment. We have put down roots here.
France is home.

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5 Things

1) Paris corner café




2) Zen cat




3) Signs




4) Spotted while driving into town




5) Extra chairs




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