Joyeuses Pâques
It is Good Friday today but in France it is a normal working day. We have both been at our hairdresser in Apt and also had a meeting with our bank clerk today. Sometimes I am really wondering about the French banking system. Under my 11 years in Switzerland I made all my banking transaction on-line. In France it somehow doesn't work. Can you imagine that they still have their bank check-system in France....oh anyhow, tomorrow it is market day and all shops are open. We are not doing any special this weekend. The only tradition is to have a few branches with the painted eggs hanging on and couple of friends for lunch.
Il fait beau...
I just came inside from a short break at the poolside. My favorite bushes are in blossom, what a beautiful blue color. The garden is my daily joy and inspiration......and how glad I am I need not to hurry any more
Decluttering
Last autumn I mentioned that I always move out and move in our wardrobe after the seasons. Now it is time to move the "winter" upstairs and bring the "summer" down. This is an opportunity to check what needs to be cleaned, replaced, completed, eliminated. Opportunity to clean the shells, to polish the shoes and to drip lavender oil wherever it is possible. So now after yoga/pilates in sunshine and after the breakfast I am ready. I also need to start planning my packing for the approaching vacation in Nice....o la la....a lot to do.
It all started here...a lot of mess
All shoes were brought out, cleaned and polished. These are my favorites, my first investment in quality shoes 5 years ago. I still love them and will use them another 5 years..a real good investment.
Part of the job is also to test whether the clothes still fit. This one indicated that I need to loose some kilos.
Summer can now begin...
My latest investment....good looking sneakers which are chic but most important confortable.
All shoes are cleaned and my bottle with lavender oil is empty. It is a wonderful feeling, like decluttering the soul. Now I have to change and my husband is already waiting for me for a later afternoon walk. Will sleep well tonight.
Visiting Evert Lindfors in Lacoste
Oh quel jour. Our friends arrived at 10 in the morning and we started with a hike. The weather couldn't be better, sunny, no wind but not hot. We arrived home just around noon and were hungry. We dressed the table on our terrace and I served a salad with a local fromage de chevre. My lamb stew was a real success, it tasted even better than yesterday. After the dessert, strawberry with ice cream, we went to a village of Lacoste in order to visit a famous Swedish artist Evert Lindfors. Evert has lived together with his wife Barbro in France since 1947. I have planned to buy some of his cute statues for long time. We stayed a couple of hours, listening to Evert's stories from his rich life and strolling between his galleries and admiring his arts....and we brought with us home two of his beautiful sculptures...oh quel jour
Yoga outside
Today I made my yoga/pilates outside, first time this year. During the time my husband prepared the breakfast, freshly pressed orange juice, egg, bread and coffee and it tasted divine after this little exercise. Now, the Day can start.......
Saturday is a Market-Day
We were early this morning as we expected a lot of people on the market. It is only one week before the Eastern and "Les Parisiens"
have already started their school holidays. We also met our friends for a cup of coffee and made shopping for the weekend but also for Monday lunch as we will host a lunch for our friends after a hike. Today I bought a lot of fish and will make a fish stew for dinner but about that I will write later on....
Organic Pharmacy
I have tested many skin products until I discovered the Organic Pharmacy. Their products are free from artificial colorings, fragrances, preservatives and petrochemicals and therefore also my favorites. I buy them via internet from the UK and also their logistic system is out of this world. Yesterday lunch I placed the order and today afternoon they delivered it.... to this rural part of France. They are not cheap but they last very long as you need a very little of them each time. I can hardly imagine a morning without this wonderful skin cocktail which I mixed from the 3 serums. And the evening when I use their fatty carrot butter for cleaning my skin. I also use some other of their products but these are my absolute favorites.
My new life
When I decided, 2 years ago, to quit my career and to move to Provence I had an ambition to obtain a well balanced life with harmony, happiness and joy as major ingredients. I started regularly to practice yoga/pilates, meditate, eat healthy, exercise and also quit paying attention to the news. It is amazing how easy I exchanged the sound of CNN in my Zurich flat every morning for the sounds of countryside here in Provence. The beautiful discovery is that it seems that I have not missed anything, at least I am not aware about it. Unfortunately this wisdom comes often with age and sometime it doesn't come at all. Now...I finally stop to fight with myself and I partly found peace in my soul which I was so longing for. I am a social being but I love my solitude and I garden it very well. Take care of you....and remember that happiness is not something you find, but rather you create.
Spring lunch
As I wrote earlier the asparagus is on our table almost daily now. This is another alternative with a poached egg, which also makes the dish more complete regarding the proteins. Another spring delicates are strawberries and these red beauties are on our daily table as well. Strawberries are speciality of Carpentras, a small town in Provence. We enjoy them as they are, just washed.....
Friends for lunch
Our friends from Stockholm have had their house here in Provence in 20 years and they are spending a few weeks here every year. I usually invite people for dinner but when the weather is sunny, many of us prefer to sit outside. In spring the evenings are cold so the only option are lunches. Today we moved the table several times, in the sun it was too hot and in the shadow a little bit chilly. But who would not like to cope with my problems.....
Bakery "Chez moi"
And...I am the baker. The sourdough bread is nothing you bake from time to time, it is a constant learning process. First of all I only use the wild yeast, no commercial yeast which makes that the dough has different behavior every time. I have my wild yeast in the fridge and once a week I feed it with flour and water. I started 1 year ago and I am far from being perfect but I enjoy it so much. The baking process and the achievement are so satisfactory perhaps due to the fact that it is so closely connected with our ancient roots.....and it also tastes heavenly. These are my mornings sourdough rolls with walnuts for our breakfast today...
Asparagus in Season
Now you can buy them in kg. I just returned from the shop and bought 2kg for our lunch with friends tomorrow. Asparagus are not only tasty but also healthy as they are loaded with goodness : folic acid, amino acid called asparagine, flavonoid etc. They cleanse your kidneys and reduce blood pressure. They will stay on the market for 2-3 weeks and then return again next year. We eat them almost daily and the recipes are many but to keep the taste and delicacy the most people here like them cooked and served in very simple way.
Today....that's all I need.
Every day the simple act of opening my eyes is giving me an ever-recurring pleasure......
Moments from "my" Saturday market
The fish market
Coffee with my dear friend Ruth.....lovely 70+ woman who has enriched my life so much
The hot weather last week has brought the strawberries to the market in excess.
G loves his shopping bag like all other men in Provence....
On our way home we always pass this tiny house which is usually for rent to tourist....
Assistent
Assistent is my favorite appliance when making bread. It is a Swedish product, heavy and robust, and I bought my first one when I came to Sweden in 1981. At that time I couldn't find any sourdough bread to which I was used in my country. Since that Assistent has always been part of my household. Except for Switzerland where you could buy pretty good bread and also because during those years I had not time for making my own bread. I am not fully satisfied about the choice of bread in France. I do not like the baquette and other bread based on white flour only. Also, we live 20min drive from the town which doesn't make the delivery of fresh bread easier. So I am making my own bread regularly and probably this is why my 20years old Assistent gave up. We were searching for its replacement in Avignon and its surroundings but without finding a proper alternative. Until yesterday, when my husband arrived from Sweden and he brought with him this heavy appliance by plane. This was a surprise and look on his face how happy he was to bring it to me.....
Another hot day....
Today the temperature arrised to 26°C and it is the warmest day this year. However, I had scheduled our cleaning day for today,which means that Christine and I worked the whole morning to make the house clean in spite of the weather. It is now afternoon and I am still engaged to washing and bedding. I love to have a clean and tidy space around me and freshly laundered pure cotton sheets are one of my little luxuries.
My husband will arrive later afternoon and I hope that we could still have our meal on the terrace. No special food, just the left-overs from yesterday and a glass of wine to celebrate that we are together again.....
He arrived and we had a small appetizer on the terrace while sharing our experiances....
This is the left-over from pannacotta which I served yesterday with raspberries. Today I served it with a mango and it was the best combination ever. Again you have to find a ripe mango otherwise it will not work.
Happy end....
Gorgeous day with friends
My two girlfriends have just left. We started before lunch with a hike and then continued with a long lunch. After the meal we moved to the poolside and with our feet in the water we discussed everything and nothing.......
Lunch with my girlfriends
It has been a tradition that when my husband leaves for business I invite my Swedish girlfriends for a hike and lunch. Both ladies are married to french guys and have been in France for many years. I think that they appreciate, in their busy french lives, to have a small "Swedish break". These lunches use to last for many hours and together with the hike it will be a whole day "business". I am preparing some of my clasical dishes as I do not like to spend much time tomorrow in the kitchen. I will serve Toast Skagen followed by salmon burger with green peas and mango and finally panna cotta with raspberries - another variation of my panna cotta recipe
A day to myself
A day with a book and lot of meditation. Yesterday I listened until midnight to Deepak Chopra youtube clips about consciousness and I can not let it go from my mind....
Our Sunday
Wonderful day, 23°C and sun. We have been outside almost the whole day....cleaning the pool, planting flowers in pots, hiking and eating well. Here are some of those wonderful moments:
My personal pool boy.
An unexpected visitor. It is a very rare lizard, ca 20-25cm long.
The ROBOT has worked almost one week to clean the pool...a truly friend.
Planting pots with white flowers....I love white
....and this was our dinner today. Scallops in orange sauce and mashed potatoes with bacon.
I also managed to bake sourdough bread, which we can't be without...
