Tag Archives: french cooking

expat, food, France, french, French cooking, French teacher, Languedoc, living in France, moving to france, relocating to france, south of france, travel

Feeling right at home in Béziers

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Girolles!

What a lovely way to start the day…..

Last Friday, as usual, François and I headed over to the “Marché du Vendredi” after dropping the kids off at school.  It’s a weekly pleasure, going to the market with a list of things we must have to create all of the wonderful little dishes we’ve dreamed up to prepare for our little family, and always coming home with twice as much as we planned.

This time, we came home with more than we expected!  As we stood in line at the butcher, trying to decide on a veal or pork roast, we were greeted in English by a beaming lady from Blog Land!  She asked us if we were American, then introduced herself and her husband.  They’re from New York, and have owned a place here for about ten years.  Just about two years ago, they moved here with their daughter (who happens to be Charlotte’s age!!).  She’s heard about my blog (!) from a friend who also lives here.  Since there’s a big picture of both of us on the main page, she recognized us at the market.  Talk about a small world!

I’m so looking forward to getting together with Ellen and Will for coffee sometime soon, and to meeting more people around and about Béziers. I’ve been toying with the idea of getting together a monthly meeting, at a café or something, for any other anglophones living around here to get to know each other.

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Béziers, europe, expat, food, France, French cooking, French teacher, Languedoc, living in France, moving abroad, moving to france, relocating to france, south of france, travel

Le Marché du Vendredi

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I love, love, love Fridays in Béziers.  Friday is market day!  There are many markets that take place every week, but the one on Friday is the largest, and it’s practically downstairs from where we live.  For the last few weeks, since the kids have been back in school, we have been enjoying going to the market to find something delicious to prepare for our family to eat together at lunch.  Today, we chose “loup de mer”, which is sea bass, or sea perch…I’m not really sure what the difference is!  To go with that, we steamed some little potatoes, then served them with butter and parsley.  We also made a little mixture of seasonal vegetables, eggplant, bell pepper, and zucchini.  Then we ate cheese.  Oui, la vie est belle!

France, french, French cooking, kids, Paris

What School Lunch in France Can Teach us Back Home in the U.S.

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Here’s an interesting article I found on WordPress, again about France’s school lunches.

What School Lunch in France Can Teach us Back Home in the U.S..

europe, France, french, French cooking, kids, relocating to france

France’s Gourmet School Lunches

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As I searched Youtube looking for something interesting to show my high school students about the differences between French and American schools, I ran across this video about the French school lunch program.  The contrasts between their lunch system and our’s in America are astonishing!

French children are taught from the very beginning, at home like at school, the importance not only of eating healthily, but also what it means to enjoy a meal and the company with whom one shares it.  It’s no wonder that French children can more easily, and more patiently, sit through a three or four course meal on a regular basis without making it torturous for both themselves and their parents (or teachers!).

Enjoy the video, and tell me your thoughts!

Sunday Morning’s Man in Paris David Turecamo explores France’s strict diet regiment within the school system’s gourmet lunch menu.

Béziers, cooking, europe, France, french, French cooking, French teacher, kids, Languedoc, moving abroad, Paris, relocating to france, south of france, travel, Uncategorized

Top Ten Reasons to Live in France

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My TOP TEN reasons for wanting to relocate to France:

(maybe I forgot something, or maybe you know better!  in any case, let me know what you think!)

 

Reason # 1

Quality of life


Reason # 2

Work to live, not live to work.  Taking time to enjoy life, spending time with family, longer lunches and dinners.  Slower pace of living.  Sundays are what they used to be in the United States forty years ago.

Reason # 3

Healthier lifestyle, pedestrian friendly cities, beaches, mountains, walks in vineyards.

Reason # 4

High-quality health care system, affordable to all, low cost prescription drugs.

Reason # 5

French gastronomy, locally grown fresh produce markets, bread, cheese, olive oil, Mediterranean diet.

Reason # 6

Easy travel to diverse locations (other European countries); children grow up (with the possibility of)  being exposed to more foreign cultures.  And no matter where you live in France, Paris is just a quick train ride away.

“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” -Ernest Hemingway

Reason # 7 

Some of the best, and most affordable wine regions in the world.  Summer wine festivals in the Languedoc are fabulous.

Reason # 8 

Mediterranean climate:  The weather may not be so fantastic in every part of France year round, but in the Languedoc, it really is quite pleasant most of the time.

Reason # 9

Manners are still important in France, and the vast majority of children are raised to show respect.  This is very important to me.

This is a picture of my son, my niece, and some friends.

Reason # 10

Comparatively low violent crime rate.  We are not planning to live in a big city, but even in Paris I feel safe walking alone at night.

cooking, France, France, St. Louis, cooking, French cooking, marriage, french, French cooking, French teacher, Uncategorized

I love butter…

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It’s true.  There’s really nothing better than butter.  Especially SALTED butter.  Yum.  Butter makes everything so much better.  I’m a firm believer in using only real butter in cooking, never margarine.  When we take the time to cook and bake, much love goes into these actions.  By using real butter, we are giving ourselves, our friends, our children, our family a little taste of heaven instead of a mere substitute for the pleasure they could be enjoying.  Let’s hear it for real butter!