Apples and Peanut Butter

Welcome to July.

It has been an interesting week with Miriam leaving for Holland and returning on Wednesday.

Market day on Tuesday again.  I bought a scarf. I probably would have gotten more, but I couldn't find the bank behind all of the stalls.

Wednesday was once again the Table d'hote. Yordi, who is the neighbors' son, cooked everything. He's worked in a few restaurants from what I've gathered and it certainly has rubbed off nicely on him.  And, of course, my favourite course was dessert.

He made raspberry mousse, creme brule, and caramelized apples. I ate two of the mousse because the woman across from me didn't want hers. Fantastic, but I was told it was his mother's recipe so I would have to ask her.

She told me she could only give it to me in French. I said I would translate it.

There are six American women staying here this week, so I sat among them during the meal.  They've been all over the world together. My heart skipped a beat when I was talking about my journey in Ireland, and one of the older women turned and said "You've been to Tully?"

What are the odds? I had so much fun talking to them.  I wish people stayed longer than a week. You really can't get to know anything in such a short amount of time.

Yesterday, I made breakfast.  The most I've really cooked on my own here consists of eggs, and that's what we ate. I also decided to throw in a few potatoes that we had from some of the people who left a house early.   I cooked them with some basil, oil and threw in a bit of garlic. Seemed pretty typical to me.

Oops. While garlic is a much loved food here, it is never consumed in the morning, which I guess I can understand.  At least they were nice and tried the potatoes.

Other cultural food incidents include me eating an apple and peanut butter. I sat down with an apple, the jar of  peanut butter and a knife then proceeding to cut the apple up and spread peanut butter on the slices and eat them. Miriam tried it and thought (rightfully so) that it would taste better on Granny Smith apples.

We also went for a hike yesterday. We took Radja and Bacchus (the dogs) and hiked to the ruins of a 7th century monastery.  I love places like that. It's completely secluded and invisible from the road. There's an old stone bridge and a river that runs by the path.  The dogs loved running through the water and jumping in the puddles. They were completely muddy by the time we got home.

Got to wander the shops in Vaison a bit, and today was a big cleaning day.

All is good.