Sunday, June 3, 2012

Bonne fête des mères! Happy french mother's day!

Today was mother's day in France.  And, it's the first Sunday of the month so museums are free!  Josie and I wandered through the beautiful outdoor market...a special mother's day version, then went to the Musée Granet to enjoy some free art.  Afterwards we had crèpes and headed home.

The weather has cooled off and it even rained a little.

We had bruschetta and specactular market fresh salads for both lunch and dinner today.  Josie is a master bruschetta chef...and she made this gorgeous dinner for mother's day for me...thank you sweetie!
 

The tomatoes and garlic were market fresh and we picked the basil from the basil bush on our terrace.

Can you figure out what we were watching?

Saturday, June 2, 2012

SAT, market madness and Marseille...

Josie had to be in Luynes this morning by 7:45 to take the SAT, so we had to be at the Gare Routière by 6:45 to catch the bus so that we'd have time to walk from Luynes to her school.  After an early coffee at a thankfully open café in Luynes, she got signed in and I took the bus back to Aix for some early morning market shopping.

the countryside across from Josie's school...it was a beautiful morning.

Josie's school, the International Bilingual School of Provence (IBS), is behind the trees on the right side of the road in the photo above.

The country lane leading away from IBS...there's no shoulder on the road, so walking is a little uncomfortable, but fortunately there wasn't much traffic.


Josie's school bus has to cross this little one-lane bridge everyday.

getting into the village of Luynes

An interesting way to create a privacy fence!

walking through Luynes...framed by plane trees...






After three trips to the market (I couldn't carry everything!) I had finally assembled all the food and flowers on my list.  Walnut oil, roasted beets and fresh goat cheese...and...

fruit and veggies today included...petit pois, fava bean, tomatoes, fresh garlic and onions, radishes, many different salad greens, melon, apricots, apples, sweet red pepper, carrots, baby cucumbers, green beans, lemons, kohlrabi, mint, cilantro, chives, walnuts ... and probably other things I've forgotten.

Some nuns sell flowers in the petit marché on SAturdays...I love the bouquet I got today...
  


After noon, I caught the bus back toward Marseille, Josie got on in Luynes and we headed to Marseille for lunch at Gourmandines de Prado...


the mango and lemon sorbet was delicious...and looked like an egg...

and Josie had the most amazing dessert...coffee ice cream with hot chocolate...and chantilly or whipped cream.  the hot chocolate was so thick and rick...yuuummmm....