Pudding Cups, Eat Your Heart Out: Ile Flottante

These have very quickly become a near addiction.  All the ease of a pudding cup but a billion times better!

If anyone doesn't know what ile flottante - floating island in english - is, I'll happily tell you.

A sweet poached vanilla meringue swimming in rich, silky custard sauce that is crème anglaise, and served with a packet of caramel to drizzle over top before digging in. It's both classic and intimidating to many for a reason. Simple, mostly inexpensive ingredients - eggs, sugar, milk, vanilla - combine in a way that relies almost solely on technique to become one of those things that are greater than the sum of its parts. Easy to get wrong. Sublime to get right.

Or, if you're in France, nip down to the grocery store and pick it up ready made.

I love it!

Italian Salad

When I think of Italian Salad, I think of lettuce - usually iceberg - with some tomatoes, red onion, maybe olives, a dusting of powdered parmesan and dried herbs. And Italian dressing. Always that bottled, yellowish, generic Italian dressing.

It's not something I get excited about.

Here? Ohhh, no. An Italian salad is a revelation. Something delicious, multidimensional, and worthy of a meal time salad. Fruity, juicy, salty, meaty, tangy. This is wonderful, super easy, and a great meal for hot summer days when melons and tomatoes are at their peak and the stove is the last place you want to be.

No cook.
No quantities.
Put things on a plate and eat them.

It's my kind of cooking.  Splurge on good, fresh produce for this one.

The following recipe quantities are really truly suggestions. If you, like me, don't like canteloupe, try it anyway! The salt from the prosciutto and the sweet acidic tang from the balsamic help mellow that musky quality.

Italian Salad (Serves 2-3 as a meal with crusty bread)
Lettuce greens - 1 head.  Try leaf lettuce, romaine, or rocket/arugula.
Tomatoes - 3 medium
Small canteloupe - 1
Fresh Basil - a few leaves per person
Mozzarella - 2 balls
Parmesan - a smattering of petals peeled off a wedge
Prosciutto - 8-12 very thin slices
Olives - a few

Balsamic Vinegar
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt - something with some texture if you can. We had fine sel de Guérande.

1. Wash/Chop up the salad greens and divvy them our onto plates.
2. Wash and cut the tomatoes into wedges. Portion onto plates.
3. Split the melon. Scoop out the slimy, seedy innards. Cut into wedges. Carefully trim off rind. Portion melon wedges onto places.
4. Cut mozzarella however your heart desires. Slices, wedges, cookie-cutter shapes, whatever! Divvy out.
5. Loosely roll up slices of prosciutto and portion out onto plates.
6. Take the wedge of parmesan and a vegetable peeler and make some petals or "copeaux" - which literally means "shavings" but sounds so much classier - then scatter on each plate. Maybe 5-8 petals per plate?
7. Wash and roll up basil leaves. Chop into chiffonade strips.
8. Top with a token olive, or more if you really like olives. We used black garlicky ones.
9. Sprinkle balsamic vinegar over the salads.
10; Drizzle EVOO over salads.
11. Sprinkle a little bit of nice salt over all.

Serve with crusty bread and a nice rosé or white.

Simple Joy Sundays: Vine-covered homes

Sometmes the easiest way to change your perspective on things is just to look up.

Aix-en-Provence Pretty Pictures

Just a few views from our time in Aix.

Windows along the Cour Mirabeau around sunset.

Apartments and offices surrounding a courtyard filled with morning sun, lush green plants and - of course - a fountain. This was hidden just through a gated door on the Cour Mirabeau.

A narrow, winding back alley just outside the tourist area.

Pudding Cups, Eat Your Heart Out: Flanby

Lunch time dessert just got that much classier. Unnamed, brightly coloured gelatin desserts and generic pudding cups might want to step aside for a moment.

What do they have in France?

Crème Freaking Caramel! Meet Flanby.

It's sold in 4-packs for under 1€, comes in bright packaging, and has silly jokes printed on the top of each foil, so I'm guessing it's aimed at children...

But wait, you say. That dessert is meant to be inverted for serving, you say. That's tricky, you say. Think of the children!

Yes, and good engineering is finding the simplest solution to a problem.

Observe: Flip dessert into cup and you see a mysterious foil square on the bottom.

Peel back the square. Air enters and releases the seal, and voilà! Easy peasy!

How was it? A bit too sweet. I'd place this in the realm of guilty-pleasures/give me sugar and no one gets hurt kind of days, but I've definitely had much worse from the world of packaged desserts before and it was actually pretty good considering the price point.  I found myself having a second one just because I wanted to go through the process of opening one again. Ah, novelty!

"Don't judge me by my photographer. She was hungry."

French Language: Well Nuts to This

Alright everyone, today's language lesson is for French.

Coque = shell or husk

Coquille = shell

Fruits de coque = Fruits from shells = tree nuts

Fruits de mer = fruits from the sea = shellfish

And:

Fruits sechées = dried fruit = dried fruit

Fruits secs = dry fruit = nuts, and sometimes seeds

Because why not?
(Actually, because fruit sec means fruit that's dry on its own, as in kernels, as in nuts or seeds.)

Also:

Noix = walnut

Pécane = pecan

Amande = almond

Noisette = hazelnut

Pistache = pistachio

Tournesol = sunflower (Not a nut, I know, but just wait...)

Arachide = peanut, technically.

Cacahuète = also peanut

Pinotte = peanut to some who know the word.

So here's where it gets interesting. Peanut = arachide = cacahuète. It's all the same thing. BUT...

While some people know that arachide is peanut, I've encountered a very odd misconception by some people here that arachide is a group or family of nuts while cacahuète is the actual peanut which is then a member of this arachide family. Depending on who you ask, the arachide “family” can also be believed to include hazelnuts and/or almonds, pecans, pistachios, sunflower seeds, and even, apparently, olives. It's very odd.

So, go into a bakery and ask an employee if it contains “des arachides” and you may be sent running for your life when you're perfectly safe because they're lumping hazelnuts and almonds in there. And that will happen because almonds and hazelnuts are EVERYWHERE over here.

Ask if it contains “des cacahuètes” and you'll often hear 'no' because it's a more expensive import, not traditional, and therefore not very popular at all.

Better yet, just bring a picture.

Now, if anyone knows how this very mistaken concept of certain tree nuts being in an arachide “family” while other tree nuts fall under the “fruit de coque” family came to be, I would be very interested to know how this came about.

It is possible that in some cases they're worried the tree nuts may be contaminated with peanuts or worried that a less-than-honest producer somewhere along the chain might cut their tree nut product with peanut to save a buck.

Disclaimer: I want to make very clear that allergies are not something to be taken lightly and that allergy and cross-contamination awareness herein France are not always great - or even existent - and people with dislikes or "allergies" aren't helping the cause in a place where real allergies are a relatively new phenomenon. You are responsible for your own diligence and vigilance, especially when travelling. Don't be shy. Ask questions and ask them again if you're unsure. Carry your Epi-Pen. Know the local emergency numbers/equivalents to 911. (I think it's 15 for medics and 18 for firefighters, here.) I take no responsibility for any misunderstandings or reactions that happen after reading this post. I'm not a medical professional or expert. Just someone living with a peanut-ingestion allergy. Do your research for your allergies.

Research website #1.

Research website #2.

"I'm allergic to peanuts" in 45 languages.

La Fête Nationale

Yesterday was France's "Fête Nationale" which is a national holiday (jour férié) commemorating the storming of the Bastille. From our perspective, it basically looked like their version of Canada Day/Independence Day. A day off, a reason to party, a fireworks show.

I won't pretend to know much at all about the history, but I can tell you how our day went.

Since the holiday itself fell on a Tuesday, some people got Monday and Tuesday off, making it a 4 day weekend that we didn't know we were getting until the hubby got to his bus stop for work Monday morning to find no people and no bus. Whoops!

Now, normally in Canada, I'm used to some more or less family friendly activities throughout the day culminating in a fireworks show after dark as the grand finale of the day. After that, people either go home or to house parties, bars, or other privately organized events. The publicly sanctioned fun is over. Goodnight.

Waiting for nightfall

Here, the fun started the night before the holiday. While there was nothing much (that I knew of) going on Monday, there was a fireworks show after dark to sort of kick off to the holiday. After the show, people could go home, to private events, OR to one of the many squares around town where a total of 14 free musical acts were set up to perform shortly AFTER the fireworks show. The 10pm fireworks show was just the beginning of the evening! And this is in a country town of 25,000 people. We went home, though.

I think it makes sense to have the fireworks the night before. It allows you much more freedom to celebrate a fireworks night when you don't have to be at work bright and early the next day.

I also want to mention the music used for the fireworks show because it was great. Songs included:

• Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy - The Andrews Sisters
• Greased Lightning - Grease Soundtrack
• I Get Around - The Beach Boys
• Take a Chance On Me - Abba
• The Final Countdown - Europe

It was a blast!

And for all the awesome and explosive sound and light... both littles fell asleep mid-show! Go figure!

The next day, hubby wanted to check out a lake we'd heard about. Sadly the buses weren't running but luckily, he and Li'l Monkey discovered a firefighter demo at a park on the way home.

Beyond that it was just a quiet day which, once the boys were asleep, we capped off with a champagne toast to our One-Month-In-France-iversary. Rosé, of course, since this is Provence. So what if the actual one-month mark was 4 days ago and I'm sipping the champagne while I finish this post? Pshaw! Technicalities, I say! It works, and better late than never! To France! To Canada! To me! To you!

Cheers!

The One Month Mark

As of July 10th we have been in France for one month. One month of getting used to the new culture and food and language. We'll get back to less scattered posts but for today, some observations and purely subjective opinions:

I can't tell if it's the mindset or if food really does taste better here.

Black olives marinated in garlic and basil taste good!

Truffles are yummy.

There is such a thing as too much charcuterie and wine.

Yes, it really does seem to be one of the sunniest places on earth so far.

Farmer's markets are AWESOME!

Emmental seems to be the usual default cheese.

With regards to pizza, mozzarella >> emmental! How do the French not realize this?!

This country is waaaaay less idiot proof than North America.

It's still strange to see eggs stored outside of the refrigerated section.

Bonus: This place is gorgeous.

And that's where we're at. 

Ride the Carousel

Every once in a while we see something that really hammers home the fact that we're not where we used to be. France ain't North America.

Let me be clear: these are not good things or bad things. They are only different in that we feel surprised when we notice them and then stunned by our own surprise as a little thread of unconsciously preconceived notions and assumptions unravels in the brain.

This time, it was the carousel.

 A fairground staple. A childhood classic. Lights and music accompany ponies and unicorns as they ride up, down, and around. Parents watch their children wave as they pass by. A swirl of bright colours and fanciful decor.

On the landmark Aix-en-Provence carousel, that whimsical decor includes bare-breasted mermaids.

It's the little things, really.

France:Day 3

It rained today. It rained a lot.

Driving in France frightens us. It frightens us a lot.

So what was today's plan? To drive through the pouring, sheeting, occasionally-causing-hydroplaning rain, from Aix to Manosque, of course! We need to find somewhere to live, after all, and there were apartments to be seen. (Mom, I know you're reading this. We didn't hydroplane. Someone else did. She missed us. Nobody was injured.)

Some lessons and stories from today will get their own posts, but since we're already talking driving, let's just take care of this one right here.

I think we're finally getting the hang of driving here. Still going to be glad to be rid of the rental car but it's not heart-attack inducing anymore. Roundabouts, which were so foreign to us, are fairly simple once you hammer home one simple rule:

The person in the roundabout has the right of way.

Ta-da!

So we're in Manosque. We have an apartment to see at 10 am and at 6 pm. We filled the in-between time with lunch, sightseeing, and asking questions about this and that.

Turns out if we wanted the Li'l Monkey to get into the International School, we had to register back in April. (And to register would have required proof of address... back in April!)

It also turns out that kids can start going to French school as young as 2 if they're potty trained and considered “psychologically ready” at their assessment (apparently there's an assessment) so Monkey might be a couple years behind in school even though he's not yet 4.

Oh look, wine.

...

In all seriousness, Manosque was absolutely beautiful and we'd picked our apartment before the day was over. We managed to avoid getting drenched by the rain, enjoyed the cooler day, had an amazing pizza lunch, and I'm sure everything will work out in the end.

Left: Eggplant, bell pepper, and zucchini with cheese
Right: Classic margherita pizza

At some point, this gent had parked next to us and set up a
small table to sell these beautiful cherries.
We bought some just before heading back. 

France: Day 2

I was channel surfing this morning while getting ready and one of the news stories was coverage of a strike day in Paris hospitals. We'll see how much the French/Striking stereotype holds up over time but let's just consider that I'm on day 2 at this point, folks.

Anyway, on to Another Goose Chase!

Ok, there is a certain very fixed order of operations for some things in France. If you mix up that order or forget a step, prepare yourself for pain.

Today's mission was to book apartment viewings. To view the apartments we needed to make phone contact. To make phone contact we needed a phone that worked since everyone has cells and there are very few public phones. Even our vacation rental apartment does not have a telephone. So we needed a phone. So step 1, after breakfast, was to zip to Orange to get a SIM card for our phone to make phone calls to book apartments. Simple, yes?

Ha!

Ha ha ha ha!

We, in our jet-lagged and culture-shocked state, went in asking for a SIM card for our phone. When the employee asked if we meant we were looking for a plan, we foolishly said yes. This was foolish because what we really wanted was a pre-paid SIM card. We didn't want a phone plan yet. Here's why...

- To get a plan, you need a bank account.

- To get a bank account, you need 2 proofs of residence.

- To get two proofs of residence, you need a permanent apartment. Permanent as in some place for which you pay at least the insurance bill. (Renter's insurance is mandatory, by the way.) Merely a signed lease and an insurance bill will suffice.

But where we hiccuped on this was...
- To get those bills, we needed to have an apartment.

- To find that apartment, we needed to schedule some viewings.

- To schedule those viewings, WE NEEDED ACCESS TO A PHONE AND EMAIL!!!

Are you still with me?

We also figured out these steps by walking literal steps from Orange, to the Visitor's Centre, to a bank which was supposed to be open but wasn't, back to the Visitor's Centre for maps (no phone/internet, remember?) and again to another bank.

The really irritating part of this is that I KNEW this! I'd researched and read about this! But I'd forgotten until after about an hour and a half into our pavement-pounding... probably because I was exhausted and it took that long to finish waking up instead of just following along through the streets of Aix in a semi-zombie-like coma.

We took a break from the phone mission to drive back to the airport to switch cars, ate lunch, regrouped, then went back out in search of a pre-paid phone card.

By the by, this Burger King was the very first storefront I saw in France.
And yes, that is corn in with the tomato slice and lettuce salad.

We eventually got the precious SIM card at the first Orange we'd visited so we could book some viewings in order to not be on the streets at the end of June.

Learn from our mistakes: unless you have a permanent place to live IN FRANCE and a bank account IN FRANCE, ask for a pre-paid SIM card. A vacation apartment or "location saisonnière" doesn't count. And give the coffee time to kick in before heading out.

... I think the back of my neck is sunburned.

All-in-all, the day got better. Things got sorted and what needed doing got done. A good supper and a half-bottle of wine can cure a multitude of complaints.

And blister band-aids are a wonderful, wonderful thing.

It's Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day! 

A very few links of Canadian hilariousness to brighten your day - song, speech, and story.

Don't TL/DR that last link. Take the time to read. It's such a funny tale.

Canada is awesome.  I'll think of you today as I enjoy my wine and cheese.