Dreaming of France -- Sunny Montpellier

Thank you for joining this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.

There are updates on our plans to move, but I've had a trying weekend, so I'm going to soothe my frustration by just sharing a few photos of France.

We spent just a morning in Montepellier, but look how beautiful and swept clean it is. 

We found a cafe for coffee and tea. The waiters were preparing for lunch, so they were herding
the coffee drinkers into the tables without umbrellas. Luckily,  we got there in time to find some shade. 

This was an unusual building that we saw in the center of Montpellier,. The librarie sauramps is a bookstore and then the tiered building above it is an Ibis hotel, which is a chain in France. 

 You can see that it was a beautiful sunny day. I can't wait to return and have more days like this.
Thanks so much for playing along with Dreaming of France. Please leave your link below and visit each other's blogs to share your love for France.

Perfect Breakfast

I don't mean to sound like a whiner. I mean who goes to France and complains about things? But this morning I finally got a perfect French breakfast. That is to say a kind of breakfast that I always hope for when I'm in France.

We've been staying in Airbnb's, so we were responsible for our own breakfast. I resorted to using coffee bags like teabags, or, horror of horrors, Nescafé instant coffee. It was not the pitcher of coffee accompanied by a small pitcher of steamed milk that I had dreamed of.

We checked into a hotel in Paris yesterday and they said we could have the breakfast buffet for €16 each or breakfast in our room for €10 each. I ordered the €10 breakfast for each of us and this morning at 8 AM A man knocked at the door with the tray and set it on the bed. Voilà!

 

There on the tray with the silver pitcher of coffee and a small white ceramic pitcher of steamed milk. Heaven! 

 

That's not to mention the plate with the little croissant, little chocolate croissant and a little escargot -- which is what they call these little pastries that are circular with raisins in them. We also had part of a baguette and three types of jam to choose from, along with packets of butter just the perfect temperature to spread on bread

Now I feel complete. On to the Musées D'Orsay today. 

Dreaming of France -- Morning Coffee

Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.

Welcome to Dreaming of France. I haven't had a lot of participation with Dreaming of France in the past month or so, but I'm always hopeful that it will increase. I know it will pick up when I actually move to France and everyone will want to know what the transition is like -- to torture yourself with my descriptions of the food, the scenery and the leisurely lifestyle.
I've got another year or so before that happens, but I'm a little concerned because one of my favorite French things has faded.
If you've read my books, or even my blog, you know how much I adore the big mugs of coffee and steamed milk for breakfast. I've post about hotel breakfasts and my own big coffee mugs.
I had a cup that Spencer and Earl bought me on the top of the Eiffel Tower, but it broke.
I bought myself a mammoth cup at the store Sur la Table. It has a crack but still survives, and I've turned off of it.

My excuse is that the coffee gets cold too quickly because of the surface area. 

Instead, I've been seduced by the tall coffee mug, which has a small surface area and keeps the coffee and steamed milk below nice and toasty. 

Here's an example of an adorable tall coffee mug. I don't own it, but I wouldn't mind owning it.

But the way this relates to Dreaming of France is my fear that I'll grow weary of French things. Do you think that's possible.

Will I someday, when I live in France, say, "Ho hum" to a chocolate croissant? I can't imagine that I would, but it gives me pause. 

Hope everyone else is Dreaming of France. Please share your post, and I'd love it if you'd visit the posts of others who play along too. 

Dreaming of France -- Hotel Breakfasts

Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.

Recently on a France tourism website, I saw advice that visitors should skip the hotel breakfast.
In the small French hotels where we have stayed, I would definitely advise otherwise. Breakfast usually costs 7-8 euros, and it's definitely the right way to start a morning of sightseeing.

Sit down at one of the small rectangular tables and the server is sure to ask what you would like to drink. I always answer cafe au lait or if I'm in Paris, cafe creme. They'll bring a pitcher of coffee along with a small pitcher of steamed milk. 

Ah, see. Already better than getting a cup of coffee in a crowded cafe.

You can mix the coffee and the milk, and it equals a few cups of coffee. 

Earl asks for tea and they bring him a pitcher of tea. 

Next comes the basket of croissants and rolls, along with jam, butter and sometimes cheese.

A croissant each, a roll each and we're prepped for a day enjoying France. 

When we don't eat in the hotel, we often have trouble finding breakfast. We can easily find coffee in a cafe, but if we want a croissant or a pastry, we have to get in line at a bakery. 

Either way, that breakfast ends up costing us more for less food. 

Have you ever had a good breakfast in France? Do you eat in the hotel or find a restaurant?

Thanks for playing along with Dreaming of France. Please leave a comment and visit each other's blogs, too, so you can get your fix of France dreams.

Wine and Books

My friend Najah has enthusiastically taken over the job of marketing my book. Well, at least when it comes to trying to find venues for a book launch.

She invited me last night to join her at a new wine shop that would allow us to hold the book launch if we bought a case of wine. It's called a Micro-Winery, I guess like a Micro Brewery. They make their own wine right there.
So Najah and I met last night to do a wine tasting. We each got a flight of five wines, and of course, we shared with each other too so we could narrow down the three wines we would include if we bought a case and had a book launch.
We enjoyed tasting our wines. And we shared a bread and cheese plate, but we talked about the disadvantages of having a wine tasting in this part of town, since it was about 15 minutes away from my part of town.
We could have the book launch at a coffee shop near my house. The owner had offered and we could bring in our own wine.
Then Najah started talking about where I would stand to do my reading.
"I'm not really sure about doing a reading," I told her. "I'd feel so self-conscious."
"You have to do a reading!" she insisted. "People know you as a person but not as an author."
We looked at the calendar. We talked about possible dates. She suggested that I order more copies of the book.
I explained that I didn't want to try to sell the book at the launch. I wanted it to be more of a celebration, not pressure for people to buy something.
We discussed that I could have bookmarks made to give out at the book launch.
Then as I was driving home in the dark, I wondered about the whole idea of a book launch after all. My latest book, Trail Mix, came out in September. December is an awful time to have anything extra. Maybe I shouldn't have a book launch but keep plugging along writing and selling books online.
I have to be careful here. I might be selling myself short, convincing myself that I don't deserve a book launch.
Here's a copy of the poster that my friend Leah made to help me promote my novels. I think maybe I'll just put that up in the coffee shop.

Someday, I'll get the timing right. I'll have a book come out as planned and I'll have a big celebration. I'm just not sure that three months later, right before Christmas is the right time.
But if I do have a book launch, rest assured that you'll all be invited.

Dreaming of France -- Tea or Coffee?

Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.
aybe we can all satisfy our yearnings for France, until we get there again.
Everything about food is such a production in France, and I love that. The little teapot that comes to steep the tea and the paper wrapped sugar cubes.

Wish I was sitting at this cafe with my husband right now.What are you dreaming of?

Caffeine

An unintended side effect of this broken nose and surgery is that I have given up caffeine.
I know, it's as hard to make the leap between runnning and broken nose as it is between broken nose and caffeine.

Here I am getting an espresso hit in Paris.

Well, I did indeed fall while running and land on my nose breaking it. And now, I've given up caffeine due to the broken nose.
On Friday, the doctor scheduled surgery at 1:30 to put the bones back in place. That meant I couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight. Since I'm not a little kid, I thought this wouldn't be a big deal. I mean, I do have some self control.
I was up at my usual 5, getting things done on the computer. Around the time Tucker woke up for school, my head had started to ache a bit. I'd planned on running a few errands that morning to keep my mind off everything. By 9 a.m. I was lying on the couch with a pounding headache. At 11:30, half an hour before I was to appear for surgery, I was throwing up from the lack of caffeine. Not that I had anything in my stomach...

The morning after surgery, as I stood in front of the espresso maker, remembering how miserable I had felt without caffeine, and knowing that it was currently out of my system, I reached for the decaf.
If you'd asked me, I would have said my favorite thing about coffee in the morning is the flavor. I mix it with steamed milk and add a little sugar. Mmmm.
But, for some reason, the decaf coffee has not tasted as good.
For now, I'll stick with decaf, until the memories of withdrawal fade away. Then I'll probably be back to regular again.

Mahjong in the Morning

On Wednesdays, I don't have to go to campus to teach. I hesitate to say I don't have to work, because I still do plenty of work; I can just do it in my pajamas if I want to.

But this morning, I planned to meet Sheila and Tracie for coffee. Since the three of us were meeting, I suggested that Sheila bring her Mahjong set. And she did, even though the case looks like a machine gun case.

If you haven't played mahjong with tiles instead of on the computer, you're missing out. We have these nice ceramic tiles. They're smooth and satisfying to hold in your hands. The goal is to choose a hand and try to get the tiles to create that hand. It looks complicated, but after a couple of games, everyone gets the hang of it.

 

This morning, Sheila won three games in a row, before Tracie and I had really figured out what we were doing. She looks very satisfied in this photo doesn't she?

 

 

It felt pretty decadent to spend a glorious September morning sitting outside the coffee shop playing mahjong. A number of people stopped by to watch us and comment. One woman went so far to ask, "Do you have kids in school or something?" as if there could be no other excuse for sitting and "wasting" our time on a weekday. Of course, I work and Tracie works and Sheila is still homeschooling, so we made no excuses for our fun.

Mahjong with coffee, not quite as fun as mahjong with wine. But time spent with friends -- priceless.

Saturday Snapshot -- Breakfast on the Go

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post on Alyce's blog At Home With Books. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.

After my run this morning, I visited Trader Joe's to stock up on milk, fruits, vegetables and cheeses. I like visiting Trader Joe's early on Saturday mornings because it isn't as busy. I also like that it gives me a sampler breakfast.

This morning, slices of baguette with butter and boysenberry jam. Yum.

Then I moved a foot to the left and poured myself a shot of coffee with a little cream. This tiny cup of coffee was perfect to get me through my shopping trip until I could get home and find a regular-sized cup of coffee.

The photos aren't too creative, but they were tasty.

Daily Pleasures

Yesterday I was kvetching about parenthood, and after my 18-year-old snuggled up to me on the couch last night, showing how sorry he is for disappointing me, I'm feeling more optimistic about the future of my children. (Allow me to be delusional)
So I'd like to turn the mood around from parenting struggles to something that makes me happy.
I got a new coffee cup.
I love the big bowls of coffee that the French use in the morning.
When we were in Paris with the kids in 2006, Earl and Spencer bought me a Paris cup from the top of the Eiffel Tower. Washing dishes recently, I dropped a bowl on top of the coffee cup and chipped it.

I thought I could continue drinking my morning coffee and milk in the cup though. I would just drink from the other side. I'm left handed, so it would make sense that I'd drink my coffee left handed. But what I found out when I started paying attention, is that I drink my coffee right handed.
This weekend, I ventured into Sur La Table. I'd like to have one of everything in that store, but I settled for a new oversized coffee cup.

Of course, I couldn't come home empty handed for my husband so I bought him a present. See if you can guess what it is.

Saturday Snapshot -- Fancy Coffee

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post on Alyce's blog At Home With Books. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.
When our local Caribou Coffee closed, we were sad to miss the delicious coffee and the great space.
But we decided to use it as a chance to try some local coffee shops. At this one, they do a fancy picture in the foam at the top of the cappuccino.

I'm not sure what kind of skills this would take. I sometimes make my own cappuccino and I'm lucky to get a nice head of foam on it.
I know the barrista at this coffee shop has entered contests for this. I wonder what the contests are called. Coffee foam designs?

The Key to Happiness

The most exciting email ever arrived last night. It said:
"You've won: Spontaneous Happiness."
Really? I won that? So whenever I want, I can tap into spontaneous happiness? It's mine. I won it.
Turns out, I won a book from Vicki's blog. The book is called Spontaneous Happiness and it's by Andrew Weil. So that's still exciting, although not as exciting as winning happiness.
According to Amazon, the book explains that happiness comes from within, so I guess I'll never be able to win it. But the book does lay out a plan for "attaining and sustaining optimum emotional health."
I'll let you know if this book hands me the key to Spontaneous Happiness.
Then again, I may be too happy to write my blog any more.
Here are some things that make me happy:
Traveling with my husband


My family


Coffee with friends


Running with friends


And cats stuck on screen doors

What makes you happy?

Java Addiction

I'm pretty sure this is a bad sign.

My Starbucks gold card came in the mail yesterday.
I didn't even know they had gold cards.
I may have an addiction.
And Starbucks doesn't even know that I'm getting my other fixes at Caribou Coffee.
Oh, what a world.

iPhone Coffee Apps

This weekend as I got to the point farthest from my house on my run, I felt a sharp pain in my right knee. I tried to run through it but the pain continued. So I started walking.
As I walked home, I thought of the Caribou Coffee shop just up the street. I could stop and get a coffee since I had to walk anyway. But I didn't have any money with me. All I had was my iPhone, which serves as an iPod while I run, tucked safely into my water bottle belt.
Then I wondered about Apps. Did Caribou Coffee have an app that I could download, load up with money from my bank account and use to buy coffee? I searched apps but couldn't find one. Then I found the Starbucks app. During that rather long walk home with the painful knee, I concentrated on adding the app to my phone. I downloaded it and saw that I needed to enter my username and password, which I already had since I'd registered my Starbucks card before. Next, I added some money to the card, and, Voila! I could use my phone to buy coffee at Starbucks. Unfortunately, the Starbucks was not on my walk home, so I would have to wait before trying it. When I left later that morning to drive to Trader Joe's, I drove through Starbucks and handed over my own cup to fill with coffe and my iPhone as payment.
I'm not sure why it is so exciting to hand over my phone to pay for my coffee. I guess it's just one less thing I have to remember when I leave the house in the morning.
I love technology.

Quiet Mornings

Shhh. Don't tell anyone, but I love, love, love the mornings when I don't run.
This week, I've skipped running three days in an attempt to avoid some pending injuries.
When I run, I have to go early, before 7 a.m., or I just won't go. I'm that kind of person. Exercise in the morning or the rest of the day is history. And, of course, if I don't run early, I can't stop sweating in time to get in the shower and get ready for work.
Even when I don't run, I wake up early. This morning I got up about 6:15. I made myself a cappuccino, started the full dishwasher, and settled on the front porch with a book.
The air is finally cool enough so that it feels good to go outside. I wave to neighbors as they walk their dogs. I sip my cappuccino in the big Paris cup that Spencer bought for me on the top of the Eiffel Tower.
As I sit enjoying the quiet of the morning, a hummingbird hovers near the hanging plant with its simple yellow flowers. I don't reach for my camera. I simply watch the compact little body with the wise eyes for a minute before he zooms away.
The whole day stretches before me. I have to go to work and I'll return home for a few hours before Earl must leave for work.
I'll catch up with the kids who are mostly all sleeping when I leave in the morning.
They came in to kiss me goodnight the night before and in my sleepy state, I must remember to ask them about curious comments they made.
Spencer with his promotion at work making salads instead of bussing tables. Grace who went to Ezra's party with her friend Bethany. Tucker who came home from a surprise 16th birthday party for his friend Josh and said it was fun until the food on the table caught on fire. All of those things I'll have to catch up on.
But the quiet of the morning surrounds me now.
I pick up my empty coffee cup, grab the morning paper and discard them on the table inside the house.
Then I crawl back into bed with my sleeping husband, because I can.

A Refreshing Walk

I want it established right up front that walking to the library was my idea. I had a whole route planned out where we could stop by the bakery to get a baguette then have a coffee at the coffee shop then run by the grocery store.
It's true that my friends and I canceled our morning run because the wind howled through the trees and a cold rain fell. By 10:30 or so, the morning seemed to have cleared up. Let's say the weather resembled this day along the Atlantic.

I remembered to grab the big umbrella from the back of the car and I said to Earl, "How about if we both take umbrellas?"
"Nah," he said. "It's not going to rain."
So we walked to the library in the light breeze avoiding puddles on the sidewalk. We picked up an Italian movie for tonight then we took a turn up a side street to go past the school.
A drop of rain fell on my arm. Then another. Thunder rumbled and a shrill whistle blew at the field. Soccer was canceled due to thunder. The kids ran screaming from the field as Earl opened the umbrella and held it above me.
I understand that holding the umbrella can be a tiring job and I am thankful to him for doing it, but, to be honest, the person not holding the umbrella gets wetter than the person holding the umbrella. He thinks he is keeping me dry, but he is a foot taller than I am, so inevitably the rain begins to soak my shoulder.
We walked fast but the rain became more fierce as the thunder rumbled. In a yard between two tall buildings, the rain came in at an angle blowing my hair across my face.
"Get on my other side," Earl said as he attempted to block the rain with the umbrella. We rounded the corner headed toward Panera and the rain suddenly turned to hail bouncing off the sidewalk in little chunks. The rain came straight at our faces and Earl held his umbrella in front of us and it buckled.
I ran for it. My jeans were soaked. My wet hair curled wildly. My socks were wet inside my shoes.
We decided to get the baguette and the coffee at Panera so we didn't have to go any farther. We shivered in the cool restaurant trying to warm up with the hot coffee. When we finished, the rain had stopped and we walked straight home with the sun trying to peak out.
Now the weather looks like this, kind of mocking us as we hang up our wet jeans and put on dry socks.

Lesson learned? Probably not. Unless I carry two umbrellas, we'll probably have to share again next time.
Do you think it's a marriage problem if I want my own personal umbrella in the rain? Does that mean the romance is gone?

You Gotta Have Friends

Oh, what a wonderful world it would be if every morning could begin with coffee and friends.
This morning, at 7:15, well, I actually got there at 7:20, I met my friend Sheila for coffee at Caribou. Today is Sheila's birthday. Happy Birthday, Sheila. (See her blog Life's Many Colors on My Blog List to the right.)
We spent almost two hours talking, mostly, okay, all about kids and the hurdles they face, debating the best ways to help them succeed without interfering too much.
It feels like a cleansing shower to share my worries, to hear Sheila's opinions on what I should do or should have done.
And even though the talk focused on all those kids -- three each -- the worries were our own. So I could feel my concerns about Grace de-escalating.
Sheila, facing her first birthday without one of her kids around, checked her phone every time it lit up to see if Beth was calling or texting. She's in New York alone for a modeling trip. Both of our daughters are in far away New York and we aren't there to be the safety net if they need us. That's scary.
I'm a little nostalgic for the days when we had to talk about whether her son Daniel was too rough when he wrestled with Tucker or whether Tucker was manipulating Daniel to get him in trouble. Those were difficulties we could tackle with a little extra oversight.
Now we talk about careers and college majors, drinking and sex, smoking pot and sporting competitions. (Some things never change in my family and the sports have remained a constant.)
I left the coffee shop a little jittery from the caffeine of the espresso, but feeling much more optimistic about my day.
What are you doing tomorrow morning, Sheila, or any of my other local friends?
Coffee with friends is a great way to start the day.

Smell Memories

Smell is supposed to be the sense that creates the strongest memories. I believe it because a smell can instantly transport me back to a moment. Sometimes it's important and sometimes it's trivial.
Sunday was a day when Grace and I left the house at 7 a.m. so I could get her to a friend's house in Rochester, New York, and she could return to school with that friend. According to Mapquest, the drive from our house to Rochester is 6 hours and 48 minutes.
I dropped Grace around 2 p.m. and she dripped tears onto my chocolate brown wool coat. We'll see her again in two and a half weeks when she has Christmas break. She feels sad every time she leaves. Her friend John loaded things into his car, ready for the three and half hour drive back to school from Rochester. His mother looked pale and as if she wanted to drip tears onto her son too. John's father showed me how they had arranged a strand of Christmas lights into upside down fish bowls along the driveway.
Then I began driving home, alone in the car. I made it through New York and stopped for gas in Pennsylvania for gas. I inched through a drive through and bought a cup of coffee. The digital clock in the car read 4:44 p.m. I had about four more hours of driving.
I didn't realize until I had rolled up the window and called Earl to tell him where I was that the smell of the coffee brought back a smell memory. Of course, the smell of coffee is very familiar. Why should it bring back this particular memory? But there, in the car, after traveling for 10 hours, that smell reminded me of waking up on an Air France flight as the flight attendants busily prepared "breakfast," ready to rouse the sleeping passengers and prepare them for the landing in Paris.
The flight from the U.S. to Europe usually begins with a dinner then all the window shades are closed, the lights are dimmed and everyone pretends they have a normal night's sleep. A few hours later, the flight attendants serve breakfast with hot coffee to help people adjust to the time change. When we arrive in Paris, it is morning.
In the car, listening to a story tape about a food critic, I sipped that coffee and thought of the hours of traveling I do before I land in Paris. Funny that memory came to me.
Do you have a smell memory that came to you this weekend? Thanksgiving is full of smell memories.