L’Art de Bien Manger

  • Feuillete de Saint Jacques and the Trees have Turned Verdoyant over Night

    Feuillete de Saint Jacques and the Trees have Turned Verdoyant over Night

    It came upon me all of a sudden, seemingly overnight: a world of trees turned green again, lush, verdoyant full of life green and it feels as if it has never been anything else. I’m quietly preparing the house for the season. The B&B reopens on 14 May, though if the weather stays this gorgeous,… Read more

  • Et Voilà Spring and a Simple Cake

    Et Voilà Spring and a Simple Cake

    Precipitously, spring has fallen from the sky, essentially overnight, and with an explosion of yellows and purples in the garden (colours in nature seem to follow an innate order: first purples and yellows, then pinks, whites, blues, etc.). And I can’t help but be happy and content, and laughing more than I used to, and… Read more

  • Ireland

    Ireland

    This one would have been Winter at the Castle and Tipsy Damson Civet de Cerf but then I went to Ireland to lay the memory of my father to rest, or rather, to lay to rest what could have been memories. I don’t have much to say, this time. It is a beautiful country, I’ve… Read more

  • January Update and Dampfnudeln

    January Update and Dampfnudeln

    I find much beauty in the steadiness with which the seasons change, the invariability of change, it’s a wonderful idea to witness. It is my eighth winter in France, my eighth season in this land that I chose to become my home, and it never failed me. Not a single bleak grey dreary cold January… Read more

  • Les Poissonchats Wondrous Advent Calendar – Merry Christmas

    Les Poissonchats Wondrous Advent Calendar – Merry Christmas

    Here we go with another year almost full. It has been a bit of a rocky ride for me, but brought clarity and purpose. I said in January it would be the year of the reckoning, which has probably hit with more precision than I had imagined with this playful thought. Though, thinking about it,… Read more

  • Les Poissonchats Wondrous Advent Calendar – Hansel and Gretel

    Les Poissonchats Wondrous Advent Calendar – Hansel and Gretel

    Ah, the gingerbread house – who wouldn’t fall for it? Hansel and Gretel isn’t in my top ten fairytales, but when I think about it, the story is full of intriguing elements: the sweets, the woods, the black cat, and a witch in the stove. I’m sure she rose out of that one like a… Read more