a breather

Bonjour de France!

OK, so the “best of” list we have at times been working on could probably be thrown out the window. France, its people, the food and, oh, the wine, are second to none. Since arriving I have been surrounded by such wonderful people. People who for the most part, don’t speak English.

I’m left to listen to the rapid dialog of rIAm and her relatives, with occasional breaks for translation. You may think this sounds boring, but you couldn’t be more wrong. You see, it leaves me three simple things to focus on while visiting: 1) smile, 2) eat fantastic French food, 3) drink lots of excellent wine.

Basically, I’ve arrived at my Dad’s vision of what Heaven will be.

So this morning, before heading off to another grand lunch, I took a break from the foie gras and pasta with porcini and chanterelles (hand picked by rIAm, Robert and myself yesterday morning, in the woods). I took a break from the 1995 Chateau de Phenomenal Chardonnay and Red Wine.

I took a break and considered for a moment that the Colorado freakin’ Rockies are in the World Series, and while it’s anything but over, there’s a decent chance they will be playing the Cleveland Indians! I couldn’t help but think that Fox must be rooting awfully hard for the Red Sox to pull off a miracle akin to their downing of the Yankees a few years ago because a Rockies – Indians World Series is seemingly unfathomable. I mean, more TVs would be tuned to the game from within the ballpark than in the rest of the world combined!

But then my mind drifted back to the lunch we had the other day. Salad with lettuce fresh from the garden, alongside a pheasant sausage/pate sort of thing terrine, made with pheasant hunted by the husband at that house. This was followed by a roasted leg of lamb, rubbed with a wonderful mustard and sliced generously. This was accompanied by fresh from the woods mushrooms, incredible green beans and a garden squash baked to a creamy deliciousness I could not have conceived previously. All this was followed, of course, by a course of cheese and excellent dessert, in this case a homemade chocolate mousse that was the mother of all mousses. Oh yeah, and the meal started with some homemade cassis mixed with champagne, and was followed by a red from St. Emillion that sure went down easy.

So I’ll crawl back into our new little world of France. I think there is another meal waiting for me anyway.