Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Leesa And Alex

On Monday I got to meet fellow American expat blogger (and cupcake princess) Leesa and her French husband Alex. They were in the Loire Valley visiting some friends and had time to come down to St.-Aignan for a short walk and a coffee before heading on to their next adventure.

Alex and Leesa on the terrace of the château de St.-Aignan.

I took Callie with me to meet them. Callie doesn't have a lot of experience riding in the car and walking around in town, so it was a good opportunity to improve her skills. And Leesa had mentioned that she'd like to meet the famous Miss Callie. How could I refuse?

Leesa and me.

Since it's February, it's cold. That makes being outdoors a little bit of a challenge with coats, hats (Alex and I each sporting our baseball caps, one from each coast), scarves, gloves, cameras, and dog. But the temperature was above freezing and there was no wind or precipitation, so we did all right.

Leesa and Alex in the café - it was nice to get in from the cold.

It was really great to meet them both. We walked around town a little, to the main place, to the church, and up to the château. Alex noticed that some stones had fallen from two parts of the château - it must have happened during our big windstorm last week. The stones lay broken on the ground where they fell and the areas were roped off. One of the portions that fell was a beautiful sculptured window element from the renaissance wing of the castle.

Cupcakes and cookies made by Leesa. Yum!

We stopped in a café and had, well, coffee, and chatted for a while. Then it was time to say good-bye. Leesa and Alex headed off to visit the Clos Lucé in Amboise. I'm sure there will be photos on her blog!

7 comments:

  1. Ah familiar faces! I love when the blogs crossover! Looks like you had a fun time with Leesa and Alex. Now I just need to hurry up and make a visit.

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  2. Wow Walt, that is brilliant! I have not had the chance to meet Leesa yet..:-( hope to one day. Sorry must not forget Alex !!oops

    How sweet that she brought you cupcakes and cookies ..:-)

    I notice she had her "NEW" bag with her...

    Pleased you had a great time with them and including Callie.

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  3. Hi Walt!

    Great time had by all! Such a treat to meet you and Miss Callie... Sorry we missed Ken, but it gives us a good excuse to come back for a visit! It's a cute town and we'd be happy to make the trip back (when it's a bit warmer, of course) so that we can walk outdoors and enjoy the trees and flowers, too! Take care and thanks again for the jam and for meeting up with us and showing us around!
    Take care,
    Leesa et Alex

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  4. Food seems to be more than 'fuel' in France - it seems to be something serious yet celebrated. Lucky country to take food seriously and appreciate it so.

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  5. justin, come on by! Come in summer when we can sit outdoors and drink our local wine.

    anne, we had great fun, but it was too short. I hope they'll be back this summer.

    leesa, yes, by all means. Come back and see the house, and we can sit outside and enjoy le jardin!

    ur-spo, food and wine are among the things most important to me. I'm lucky to live here where they are the staples of everyday life.

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  6. I always wondered if you are suppose to eat the metalic looking balls that decorate the cupcake with the chocolate kiss. My grandmother was a professional cake decorator, and I believe she used similar, yet smaller metalic balls for wedding cakes. Are they edible? I have to say the chocolate icing looks awesome, but I'm not so sure about the metal balls.

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  7. mark, I wondered that too, so I tried one. It's like an M&M, just a thin candy coating surrounding a ball of chocolate. Tasty!

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