What kind of Dr. Seuss tree is this behind the little church in our neighborhood?
Some sort of plastic-y star shaped hot pink buds with navy, light blue & white berries nestled in the hot pinkness. Everything else is dying, and here are these little guys. Â I’ve just never seen anything like that. Â And I’m a renown horticulturist.
Just another day at the office.
Carry on. Nothing out of the ordinary to be seen here.
Friday night, I went to dinner at Le Cornichon with my friend Greg. Â Greg and I met on a trip to Mallorca in April and had a great time traveling around the island together. Â How crazy is this – After the trip, I told him if he ever wanted to move from the UK to be a tour guide in Paris, to just let me know. Â I was alluding to next year, but he said “Actually…”, and within 2 months, he got a French work visa, packed his bags, and moved on over to become a full time tour guide with my company.
Unfortunately, our fun friendship has shifted primarily into work mode over the past months, so we decided it was time to hang out and catch up.  Really fun, and this restaurant both impressed me and compelled me to hasten for a quick return.  They had lots of hearty seasonal dishes made by a former chef from Chez l’Ami Jean. It’s no secret about my great affinity for Chez l’Ami Jean, so anyone who has worked side by side with Jego in my favorite restaurant has immediate respect.
On Friday afternoon, I engaged in one of my favorite living-in-France activities and decided to spontaneously take a trip somewhere fun for the weekend. Â I looked up weather in Spain, the Loire Valley, South of France, Brittany, and Portugal. Â Between weather and ticket prices, Provence seemed like my best option, so I booked a ticket early Friday evening, packed a bag, went to dinner with Greg, and then left early Saturday morning for sweet, beautiful Provence. Â This is one of my great joys in life.
It remains the culinary highlight of our 8 trips to Paris! We were so lucky to get it, I had mentioned it online to both Nancy and another Paris regular from Fodor’s. Nancy was able to secure our dinner reservation, but it was the other lady who spoke to Daniel while she was at the old place on 9th about the cooking lesson. We had first learned that he gave these the first time we dined at Spring in May of 2008, from one of the other diners who had had one the week before. We then made it our mission in life to secure one for our next trip (May 2009) and voila, I got an e-mail from Spring on my birthday, 2 days before we left for Paris, asking if I was interested. Happy birthday to me! Daniel was still working on opening his new place in the 1st and I think we got one of the last lessons he ever gave. Pictures:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.103844742322.113085.780402322&type=3
I’m still jealous of your living in Paris, lol
Jo
Ok, so I’ve spent my Saturday reading your whole freakin’ blog from start to finish! I found it through a Chowhound post, figured out who the OP was talking about, clicked on your name and found the blog. You are living the dream, MY dream, of living in Paris and eating your way through all the great food in this fabulous city (though, to be fair to myself, I have been to a fair share of those you talk about over our 8 trips,including CLJ with Parigi and DLC from CH fame, Frenchie, Au Passage and Spring 4 times ~oh, and a private cooking lesson with Daniel Rose and Marie Aude at their old place in the 9th that was more talking and drinking and eating than learning to cook anything, lol). I wish I had discovered Paris before I was 47 and I wish I had the balls to chuck it all and move there like you did (but I’m too old to haul bikes up stairs and clean toilets ~ wait, I do that at home, I could certainly do it in Paris, right??). But my daughter made me a grandma way too early and now I can’t bear to leave that little boy, but I want to live where you live ~ damn it! We did take him to Paris in May and created another addict. Anyways, all this to say, I LOVE your blog and your sense of humour (I’m Canadian, so weird spelling allowed) and your love of food, pastries, and hot chefs. Please keep blogging so I can keep giggling.
Jo
Haha, thanks Jo!! How funny, I’ve actually had dinner w/ Nancy & Stefan as well! Just once while DLC was in town, they were great fun. I love any chance to meet other food lovers, and I wish there were more ways on CH to do so. Tell me more about the private cooking lesson w/ Daniel Rose! How in the world did you get that treat?? Jealousy abounds…What an experience!!
Tell me more about these renown horticulture skills…the things you learn about your friends while reading their blog!
I’m actually the exact opposite of a horticulturist. I couldn’t keep a fake plant alive if I had one. One time Culp left me his precious little plant to take care of while he was gone for a week, and of course it died just being in my presence.