Do you ever wonder why you are drawn to France? If you are reading this, I suspect that France tugs at your heart strings, as it does mine. Do you know why? I trace my affection for France to my grandfather, Grampi, whose birthday we are celebrating today. Born in 1906 in Uxbridge, Ontario, he would have been 106 years old. He died in 1997 and I miss him terribly. To mark his birthday, we are drinking Old Fashioneds in his honor, followed by a dinner of lamb shanks, pilaf, green beans, and a bottle of French wine. This was one of his favorite dinners.…

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If you have traveled to France, you may believe that there are more cats there than in any other country. And if you have traveled south, you undoubtedly believe that they all reside in Provence. France is ranked 5th in the list of countries with largest number of domestic cats; but, of course, France is much smaller and less populated that the top four countries (United States, China, Russia, and Brazil). The number of domestic cats in France probably hovers right around 10 million (compared to the 76 million or so cats in American homes). However, when it comes to the subject of “expressions with…

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McDonald’s in France Photo: McDonald’s The big news out of France this week is that America’s most famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) fast food joint will start rolling out its burgers on baguettes in France come April. But, hold on to your berets before you roll your eyes and start waxing sentimental and barking sanctimonious: France is McDonald’s second largest market (of course, the U.S. is its number one market) with over 1200 restaurants in the country long recognized as the home of haute cuisine. France is the second largest market for McDonald’s  Photo: McDonald’s Burgers on baguettes—les McBaguettes—is the most…

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Befittingly, perhaps, we arrived in Philadelphia to find frigid temperatures and falling snow, just as van Gogh had found in Arles when he arrived from Paris 124 years ago on February 20th. It took van Gogh only three days before he and his easel were en plein air, painting one of two pieces aptly entitled Landscape with Snow (1888). For us, once inside the stunning exhibition of over 40 of van Gogh’s paintings, most of which were painted in the South of France, our fingers quickly thawed and our hearts were warmed. We reveled in the beauty of Van Gogh Up Close, an impressive collection of…

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Valentine’s Day is around the corner and I am thinking “pink.” A chilly Valentine’s Day is expected—even in Provence!—which, in my opinion, calls for a festive wine! So, from our very humble collection of wine that masquerades as a wine cellar, I selected one of my favorite rosé wines: A 2010 rosé from Domaine La Blaque, Appellation d’Origine Controlle (AOC) Pierrevert. I know the wine well and am confident that its marriage with my salmon will be divine—the crisp, dry, ever so minerally nature of the Pierrevert rosé will perfectly compliment the delicate taste of my saumon en croute de sel et herbes de Provence.…

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Vincent van Gogh is on my mind again these days. Those Don McLean lyrics—“Starry, starry night, Paint your palette blue and grey, Look out on a summer’s day, With eyes that know the darkness in my soul”—are playing over and over again in my head. (1) I have always loved van Gogh’s artwork—who isn’t moved by the sadness of Old Man in Sorrow, the humility of The Potato Eaters, the swirling shades of blue in Starry Night, or the striking beauty of his Irises—and, as a psychologist, I’ve long been intrigued by what demons may have plagued him. A few years back, in an Abnormal…

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 A February 1, 2012 ruling in France has left sensible people scratching their heads: Google has been ordered by a French commercial court to pay over 500,000 euros because it gives away web mapping services. Only in France! The precise ruling, according to The Economic Times, is that the Paris court found “Google guilty of abusing the dominant position of its Google Maps application and ordered it to pay a fine and damages to a French mapping company.” That mapping company, Bottin Cartographes, charges businesses for the same services. Their clients—hotel and restaurant chains, banks, automobile rental companies and retail chains such as Louis Vuitton…

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Second of a two-part article.These chocolates are so delicious that most people say, ‘They are to die for.’ I would say, ‘They are to live for.’ Hope for a good long life, so you can try every one.   –My mother, 80-something C’est arrivé. The chocolates arrived just in time for my mother’s birthday. They were carefully packed with the knowledge that they would be traveling far from Saint-Remy-de-Provence and they arrived in perfect condition. Regular readers of The Modern Trobadors may recall that, last week, I wrote about my favorite chocolates in Provence: Joël Durand’s L’Alphabet des Saveurs. We have been to this renown chocolatier’s…

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First of two-part article L’Alphabet des Saveurs chocolates  Photo: 1j2M Some of the best chocolates in the world hail from France. In Paris, I think of La Maison de Chocolat, JP Hévin, La Durée, Michel Chaudun. But it is to Provence that I would head for my favorite: the best chocolate in the region is made by Joël Durand in the small village of Saint-Remy-de-Provence. We visited this alluring chocolate shop this past August. The number of times we have been drawn to Monsieur Durand’s chocolate shop has long passed double digits. This time we were en route from Lourmarin, the Luberon village we have…

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Today is the third Sunday in January, otherwise known as “The Mass for the Truffles” in Richerenches: the annual blessing, auction, and feast of the black truffle. We’ve been there, huddled among the masses in the tiny church to witness baskets of black diamonds offered up to be blessed, walked with the parade of people to the Hôtel de Ville where our successful bids put several truffles in our pockets, and relished in the glory of a lavish meal devoted to the beloved Tuber melanosporum. I wish I were there now. But, alas, I am content with the memory of that chilly January day several…

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In: Culture, Food, People, Truffles