Rouen Cathedral

This Saturday is the Twelfth Day of Christmas. I'm sure we won't see (or hear) twelve drummers drumming, but we will see a galette des rois, a special kind of tart made with pâte feuilletée (puff pastry) and filled with frangipane (almond paste) that's customary this time of year. I've been making galettes nearly every year for a while. I got into making my own because the ones from the supermarket aren't very good and the ones from a bakery cost way too much.

From the archives: inside the cathedral at Rouen, Normandy. Digitized color slide; not sure of the date.

They're not difficult to make, but it does take time to roll and fold the dough into a good puff pastry. Buying ready-made puff pastry does make it all easier, but it's not as satisfying as doing the thing myself. So I do.

Musée d'Orsay

Here's an oldie but goodie from the archives. I took this way back in the early '90s during my one and only visit ever to the Orsay Museum in Paris. It had just opened in 1986. The impressionist art is fantastic, of course, but I was more interested in the building, originally built as a railroad station. I last posted this photo here in 2018.

Main hall, musée d'Orsay. Digitized color slide, 1992 (I think).

The wind has been wild all night and is expected to continue blowing through the morning. I'll be glad when this storm blows on through. I'll see how far out into the vineyard I can get with Tasha before turning back.

The other view

Here's the view of the dining area from the living area. Can you tell I have no new photos to post? Ken and I painted the walls in a sage green the year after we moved in. That was a big job and one that I can't fathom doing now. A few years later, we painted the beige kitchen in a bright mustard yellow. The hall and stairwell, which were originally covered in wallpaper, got painted white in 2010, the year we finished the attic/loft.

Home.

The holiday tree is gone now; it and the other decorations are packed away for another year. I still have lights on the outside of the house, but I won't get those in until the weather improves. We're having a little storm, it seems, with lots of wind and some rain.

Bonne Année !

Happy New Year!

A last look 2023

Our living/dining room as seen from just outside the kitchen. I thought I'd record how this year's holiday tree looks in situ. I might post another shot tomorrow looking the other way. Tomorrow is the day that it all gets put away.

The fire is so delightful!

One of the big new year's news items here is that oysters from certain parts of the coast are being banned due to some kind of viral infection. People are upset (especially the oyster farmers) since oysters are among the most popular of New Year's Eve foods in France. We used to enjoy eating raw oysters, but no more. Ken's been sick a few times over the years after eating them. I've been lucky, but neither one of us wants to take any chances. So, for our New Year's Eve lunch, we're having shrimp and cod, both cooked.

Bon Réveillon ! Happy New Year!

Doesn't that pheasant look pleasant!

One of our bird feeders broke and fell to the ground last week. I spread the seed under the tree the feeder hung from. Since then, a few birds, mostly tits and robins, have been pecking away at it. Imagine my surprise when I looked out the window yesterday and saw this guy enjoying some seed! I grabbed the camera and snapped a few shots before he disappeared.

A male pheasant under the maple trees by our driveway.

A few weeks ago, I saw a pheasant out back, pecking at the ground for tasty morsels, but he wasn't in a spot where I could take a picture. By the way, most of the pheasants we see in and around the vineyard are farm raised, I'm told. They're released into the wild just before the hunting season starts.

Frolicking

I'm pretty sure that I've posted this before. But I can't remember when, maybe ten years ago? The photo is stamped "Dec 63" and I'm pretty confident that it's accurate, given where my family lived at the time.

The four year old me, frolicking in the snow.

Only three more shopping days until the New Year! I've got to go to the pharmacy this morning to renew the meds (blood pressure and cholesterol). Tomorrow I'm going to the Saturday market for some fresh fish for our New Year's Eve lunch. I'll have to go early lest they sell out fast. Lest? Where did that come from?