Snow in Montpellier!!!

It actually snowed this morning. Quite a bit to be honest. It was just beautiful. We took a couple of photos, but snow photos never really come out right. I'll let you be the judge. One is for esthetics and the other to indicate how much snow we got. Of course it's all gone now, just a couple of hours later, but it was certainly beautiful while it lasted.

I put on the CD of French Christmas carols, well, Christmas carols mostly sung in French. There are some traditionals, some you hardly ever hear any more (including the Legende de Saint Nicolas which can scare the living daylights out of you if you think about it) and some foreign, like White Winter with a charming French accent. It's produced by the Psallette de Lorraine and directed by Pierre Cao and I think you can download the songs if you like. I'm a dinosaur in that I don't have an MP3 player so I still buy CDs. Also, I wear a hearing aid so there's really no question of getting those earbuds in my ears.

Anyhow, the countdown is on, did a preliminary packing today and we can't get one more thing into those suitcases. The space is ok, it's the weight I'm worried about. I just hope they cut us a bit of slack. Wish me luck.

Testing our new cards at "Les Bains"

Last night D and I decided to take our new credit cards out for a spin. We decided to eat at a real adult restaurant instead of some hole-in-the-wall student dive we knew we had enough cash for. So we looked online and found "Les Bains." Well, let me tell you it was wonderful!! First of all it's situated in an old public bath. The whole central part of the restaurant is undoubtedly where the pool was. In summer I'll bet it is pure heaven there. Just enough trees to offer shade in a lovely terrace. All the former changing rooms surround the central terrace and have had the lateral walls removed to form lovely intimate dining rooms. Because of the layout, it allows for the non-smoking areas to truly be removed from the smoking areas. This is the first time we have enjoyed a meal out where we didn't have to leave early due to awful smoke. Our waiter said that they couldn't wait for the no smoking law to take effect (January 1, 2008).

The menu was excellent. D chose a carpaccio d'espadon (swordfish) marinated in lime juice and coconut milk. Then he had a gigondin d'agneau with puree de pommes de terre. I had an escabeche of saumon with a mesclun salad followed by veau with a gratin dauphinois. All of this was wonderful of course. This chef is intelligent enough not to attempt anything in the way of fresh vegetables (other than salad greens) at this time of year. The "fresh" vegetables to be had at the market are subprime. (I haven't bought a single haricot vert because they're all pruny.) So he works with winter vegetables to make them sing. The portions were appropriate although we both left some meat on our plates because we really couldn't eat any more.

Service was terrific. Just the right balance so as to create a sense of attention but not hovering. So, D and I heartily recommend "Les Bains" to anyone staying in, or visiting, Montpellier. It's situated in town at 6 rue de Richelieu just behind La Comedie. To phone for reservations call: 04 67 60 70 87. If you're taking the Tram, take the blue line and get off at Comedie. You're 3 minutes walking distance from the restaurant. Be warned though that if you're counting on the Tram to get home, it runs about every half hour after 9:30 PM. We ended up just walking all the way home even though it was cold. We were happy we did.

We have them!!!!

We have our credit cards!!!!!! They have been activated and they work!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have one week left of our stay in France. It took 71 days from the day we walked into the BNP Paribas bank to open an account to the time we took possession of our credit cards. Actually these are not credit cards, they're debit cards. It's not like we were borrowing money from the bank or anything, we just wanted to have normal access to our own money.

To anyone planning on a stay in France I urge you, DO NOT do business with the BNP Paribas bank. In case you didn't read the previous post(s), it also took 5 weeks before we were able to get hold of our checkbook. Our only means of access to our own money was to physically go to the bank and withdraw our money. When you consider that they open at 9 AM, take a 2-hour lunch break, and close at 5 PM...

Now I will hunt for santons on eBay.

The diner au fromages

First and foremost, we still don't have the GD credit cards. Called the bank (BNP Paribas, don't EVER do business with them!!!) today figuring they should be there. But no. They were supposed to have been ordered last Monday, but instead they got ordered last Thursday, so of course they aren't there yet. I've just decided to quit trying to sleep.

In the meanwhile, visiting J in Brignoles was fabulous!! First of all we got a great tour of the town itself, the markets the shops, etc. Perfectly charming town and so much fun to do the market with someone who has lived there for years. She knows everyone and stops to say hi and introduce us. We met one older gentleman who was very quick to tell me Vive l'Amerique. He doesn't have any patience with people who criticize America when Americans were the ones who liberated France in WWII. I don't quite buy the never criticize bit, but it was heartwarming nevertheless.

The afternoon was spent visiting some local villages in search of santons. I found a couple that were quite nice and a real bargain. Snapped them up right away. We visited Sinan, Cotignac and Le Val. There was a good santonier in Le Val but his santons were too tall for my set. I still need an Aveugle, D wants a Maire, and I have noticed that there is a Tricoteuse out there that I really think I should have. I also need a Mireille. The Fouque Arlesienne is just not that appealing. My problem now is that I have a creche that is 6 centimetres and so many santoniers work at 7 cm. Oh well, just makes the hunt that much more fun.

Ok, ok, about the dinner. J went all out. She invited a number of her friends and it was a treat to meet them all. They are all just as fun and upbeat as she is. Then she and her friend went to Cannes to buy cheese. They came home with over 50 different kinds!!! See the picture here of the cheese section at Carrefour. I think she got one of each!! Of course it was delicious. Her friend M brought a really special thing though. She brought a brie stuffed with black truffles! You stuff the brie with truffles a couple of days before the feast so the truffle fragrance permeates the cheese. Then you bake it so it all runs together. Outstanding! Her other friends also each brought something to add to the festivities. DH got a whole evening of total immersion in French as none of them spoke much English. It's beginning to click!!!

The thing with a diner au fromage is that you don't have to slave in the kitchen. You just put the cheese out (J had covered her table with rush mats and so just put the cheese directly on the mats). A few bowls of grapes, slice some bread and there you have it. You have to prepare everything several hours ahead of time since the cheese needs to come to room temperature.

We had a decadently rich cake for dessert. It was all I could do to get 2 mouthfuls down. It was fabulous cake, but so rich I was afraid I would get sick if I ate anymore.

We hit the sack at about midnight and awoke at 8:15 the next morning. J sent us home with a couple of gorgonzolas and a munster (not the same stuff we get at home, believe me!) A good time was had by all.

The latest installment on the credit cards.

Today's mail brought the CODES SECRETS!!!! Not only that, they' the codes secrets to the new "gold" cards that the banque ordered for us. So I toodle on down to the banque to pick up the cards, right? Hell no! They won't be there until next Tuesday, maybe Wednesday. I want to scream. Thank heaven D didn't come with me, I think we would have been wiping him off the walls.

That's it for today. Tomorrow, bright and early, we head for Brignoles to visit with J and experience "un diner aux fromages." Never done this before but I am intrigued.

Our weekend in Aix-en-Provence and frozen food in France

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, we were away for the weekend and also spent quite a bit of time at the bank trying to get things straightened out there. This bank thing has reduced me to tears and I'm really not a crybaby. The status right now is that they have issued us new cards, (gold ones at no cost, whoopedy shit!!!!) and they have marked this urgent. They did this on Monday, December 3 and I plan to call them tomorrow, Friday, December 7, to see what the status is. I intend to be a real pest. I will make them call Paris several times to check on the status of the situation. If they ask me to be patient I will have a screaming hissy fit (which I am also not prone to) and ask them how dare they ask US to be patient any more. If they tell me to trust them I will start throwing things around and ask them just exactly WHY it is we should trust them?

In the meanwhile we had a purely delightful weekend in Aix visiting one of D's former students. They live in the house she grew up in up in the Hauts de Bibemus which is at the base of the Montagne Sainte Victoire of Cezanne fame. You can't actually see the Montagne Sainte Victoire from their house because it's too close to the mountain. Her father was an excellent architect and bought 4 hectares (~10 acres) up there in the 60s. He then built a small house and his studio up there. When they got more money he built another house and the family moved into that. Then he built the "big" house (which is not big like a McMansion) and the family moved into that. Later on they built a pool house which is also quite lovely. (A pool is a necessity up there much in the way it is a necessity in parts of LA that have developed in a fire ecology. This area too is a fire ecology so the pool is extra water to save the house in case of fire.) It's a very modern house done in the Japanese style but with local materials.

Her grandfather was an artist and a master of stained glass. He designed and executed the stained glass windows for Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. They have many of his paintings all over the house. Since there isn't much wall space (so many glass walls) they exhibit them primarily on easels all over the place. The house is just very comfortable. The design is so right, the proportions so correct that it's easy to be in.

One thing that M did introduce me to was French frozen food!!!! They have 3 kids (15, 13, and 11) and her husband underwent a very serious and risky operation on his spinal cord in September. He has been on disability since then and, of course, somewhat limited in his movements. She is being run ragged. But this does not prevent her from producing a fantastic meal with the help of frozen food! On Saturday evening we met them at the pool where their eldest was participating in a water polo match. By the time we got home it was quite late and I would have so understood if we just had sandwiches, but absolutely not. Instead we had Saumon a l'oseille et la crème fraiche. It was absolutely delicious so I had to shamelessly beg for the recipe. M was a little shy at first, but finally came through. Here's what she did. You put a bed of frozen oseille (sorrel) in the bottom of a casserole dish. Top it with frozen salmon fillets, then coat the top of the fillets with a thick coat of thick crème fraiche. Pop it in the oven at ~350 F and let cook for about 40 minutes. That's it.

I decided to try it out myself on Monday night when we had company. I went to Picard's (a French grocery store that carries ONLY frozen food) and bought sorrel, salmon, rice, and a frozen dessert cake. I put the whole thing together as M had instructed, popped it into the oven at about 7 PM and set the oven timer to turn on at 7:30 (dinner was at 8:15). It cooked for 1/2 hour when I turned the oven off but left the fish in there to finish cooking. During that time I popped the cooked rice into the microwave for 8 minutes. I had taken the frozen cake out 7 hours earlier and put it in the fridge to thaw. It was one of the most pleasant dinners I have ever prepared. I had time for my guests and didn't worry about a thing in the kitchen. Cleanup was also a breeze. The guests were very impressed with dinner. I will be going back to Pickard before I leave France!!

Now I imagine we can replicate the dinner in the States but not with such ease. Sorrel grows readily in the Bay Area provided you give it enough water and protection from those dastardly snails. It is perennial and "robust" as they say. I plan to harvest it on a regular basis and freeze it in ice cube trays. Of course salmon is available, and I expect you can find what you need frozen at Trader Joe's. Crème fraiche is easily made. Of course there is no way to replicate their frozen cakes which are absolutely delicious. At M & S's house we had a chocolate mousse cake on a delicious crunchy bottom crust. I bought a frozen macaroon/raspberry cake on a crunchy bottom. Also delicious.

Unfortunately I didn't take pictures. Our camera channels El Greco and we're always so disappointed in the results that I have quit trying. Sorry.