France Impressions is a blog about my travels throughout France.
Travel is about embarking on journeys, discovering new places, its people, learning from others and in particular, learning about oneself. I believe travel is an art and I like to craft trips and tours around your personality, interests, desires and dreams. I undertake to open for you 'doors that are normally closed" thereby ensuring you gain access to exclusive experiences while introducing you to extraordinary personalities.
In general, gently touching your cheek to your recipient’s while pursing your lips and making a kissing sound does the trick. In Paris, you start with the Left check (of the other person) to check and yet in other parts of the country you start on the right! If not sure, wait for the other person to start first. .
How many kisses: It depends on the region, so observe the people around you and follow suit. Here is a map showing regions and how many kisses to plant.
Yesterday was Epiphany
In New Orleans, my friends buy King Cakes and in France it’s the same, Galette Des Rois.
They’re called Pithiviers, named for the town in the Loiret (south of Paris) where they allegedly originated and is how I know them and eat them often when I am there in the region.. There are two kinds of Kings Cakes in France; one is layers of puff pastry filled with almond cream, and the other is a circular yeasted cake, more popular in the south of France, festooned with colorful, sticky candied fruit, ( the kind you’ll find in Nawlins).
Although the ones from the south look more festive, there’s something appealing to me about munching on flaky, buttery puff pastry with a layer of crème d’amandes stuffed inside.
The luxury biking/hiking company, Butterfield and Robinson has many programs that cover France and for anyone ( even people like me who are not that much into biking) is a great way to see the French Countryside with a great guides, wonderful state of the art bikes, fabulous inns and hotel and meals in Michelin restaurants and as George and Ira Gershwin once penned,'Who could ask for anything more!'.
Among the many places that I love in France, an area almost unknown to most tourists, are the islands of France off the Atlantic Coast.
Among those in the know, the Ile d’Oléron and Ile de Ré are the most famous and fashionable islands along the French Atlantic Coast, nestled secretly between Brittany to the north and the vineyards of Bordeaux to the south. This is a land of flat seaside biking, sail boats and enough oysters to make for one shucking good time.
I vacation here often and its like the feeling of being on Cape Cod, but just less people and more quite and cozy.
Also, I love the area of Eastern France known as Alsace, which I visit often..
One of my favorite BBC television shows, was 'Pie In The Sky" starring the late lamented actor, Richard Griffiths as Detective Inspector Henry Crabbe, a long-serving police officer in the fictional county of Westershire, England. Although very much his own man and an independent thinker, he is not a maverick, nor has he any particular neuroses; indeed, Crabbe is a highly intelligent, gentle and thoughtful man of high moral principle. On the other hand he does have one passion in life: food. He dreams of retiring from the police to run his own restaurant serving good English fare. The show focused on his crime solving abilities and also his cooking at his restaurant, "Pie in the Sky' One of the things I loved about the show and his character, was that when he ate out, he always brought along a lovely salt shaker which he used a lot, because the food was not properly salted. You laugh, but I don't, because I find most restaurants I go to in the United States, I find there is a lack of salt in their cooking and most dishes albeit look wonderful, taste flat. What the heck is the matter with chefs today? I have begun as of late, taking my own salt shaker and using it quite often on meals that I am served. It's not just me, David Lebovitz of France fame, also takes his own salt shaker and as I, finds even in France, the chefs are not using salting properly.
