Ninety Days in France: Day One

This is Day One of our project, sort of. Do I need to count the days spent traveling then sleeping? If so, we are on day, let's see; Wednesday we left, Thursday we spent in London, sleeping on metal chairs in a bus station, Friday, oh heaven, Friday, I would rather forget. Friday we made it to Paris, bought some vitamin C and hoped we wouldn't all collapse. Saturday and Sunday we slept until noon and spent the rest of the day with my in-laws. The kids ran around the really big yard and the adults ate, drank and chatted. The weather was perfect, the wine was delicious and the food exquisite. We had sausage, pate, soup, chicken, salad, stinky, flavorful cheese. They had bread with all of that; crisp outside, soft and light inside, the kind that crackles when it is squeezed. I will avoid squeezing the baguettes this trip (gluten-free me and French bread equal bad news.) I even drank coffee, a tiny half-cup, at the end of lunch. We had champagne Sunday and a Graves, one of the nicest reds in France. Lunch was over around 3 or 4 and we had dinner again around 8:30.

My project consists of chronicling our stay in France; three months, five homeschooled children, lots of in-laws, friends, and my husband and I. We have a few specific ideas we'd like to pursue; bilingual homeschooling, this means family time, hours of it with aunts, uncles and grand-parents. Enjoying the food and cooking is goal number two; tomorrow will be my first trip to the market, I can't wait. I hear the lettuces are 20 cents for great big ones, there will be cheese, fish and butter with sea salt, not to mention bread, we will studiously ignore the bread. Goal three; rekindling home fires, making the most of the time we will have, Pierre and I, as a couple while the children have fun with grama and grandpa, known as Mamie and Papy.

This is day one of being at home in our apartment with just my husband. He's at his computer, I'm at mine. We had a little lunch, worked a little, had a little nap. I posted part two of our trip, checked my email, thought I'd make a batch of gluten-free brownies to make up for all of the bread and pastries I've missed the past few days, and went back to work. I have a bowl of warm tea and a bowl of brownies I had to nuke, the oven wouldn't light. Brownies nuked in a bowl are just as nice as brownies baked in an oven, who would've thought it? No, this does not count as furthering my cooking objectives, just self-pampering! Note to self; get out for a walk tomorrow and eat more lettuce, for goodness' sake!