Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Steinway in Church

In one of the oldest churches in Paris, St.Julien-le-Pauvre, I attended a piano concert las night. A fantastic pianist played Chopin on a Steinway and it was an amazing experience. He had chosen which pieces to play so as to match the ambiance and actual space of the church - a very interesting combination. Only half the seats were filled and it felt as though you were getting to enjoy a private concert.

The weather is significantly warmer in Paris than in the countryside and it's vacation week for Parisians so the streets were filled with people strolling along and the terraces were packed.

Below is a view from one of the zillion little roads in the countryside of the l'Orne. The yellow rape-seed plants are out in full bloom and the fields are literally glowing.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Oh, Butter!

Check out this piece of butter from the farm up the road I had mentioned in a previous post. It is so yellow!! And, the flavor, oh goodness. I have never eaten so much butter in my life and my arteries and cholesterol levels are suffering, I am sure! But how can one resist? I put butter on my toast, on radishes, on potatoes, and the list goes on!

Yesterday, my mother and I went to an apple farm and got some delicious apples from here. Then we bought locally made and organic brown sugar and flour. And right before getting home, we bought the amazing butter and some fresh cream, all seen below. With all this, I made an apple crumble. Yum.
It has been raining and gray these past few days, but yesterday we got a ray of sunshine late in the day, providing us with giant skies and wonderful, vibrant Spring colors.
Today, in Condeau, is "empty your attic" day. There are people from the village and elsewhere selling their junk. I was tempted by a gold and leopard chair, but what really drew my eye was a used bidet. I joke, of course! And just for your general knowledge, the mullet is alive and well! ;)

So, as you can tell, the job thing has flown out the window. It's just too complicated here. I am therefore going to go enjoy being here and take some French writing classes (at last...they finally got back to me...) and travel a bit. Honestly, I have become quite restless and am looking forward to being back in Santa Barbara in June and getting a bloody job!!

I hope the sun is shining on you, wherever in the world you are!