The Academy Awards, which I look forward to each year, will be telecast Sunday evening, February 28, and this presents me with a confliction, for February 28 is also the birth date of legendary French filmmaker Marcel Pagnol. Seven years ago, on his anniversary, we had a party in his honor at our home with a group of French friends, all admirers of his work. (Could there be a Frenchman who is not?) Since then, each year on this date, we watch one of his films following dinner. Usually we select Manon des Sources (1986) though last year because Daniel Auteuil took it upon himself…

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As I write this week’s post, 2011 is about to roll into 2012 and I am reflecting on all the wonderful times I have had around the table this year and in years past.   Adam Gopnik’s book does this to you.  I highly recommend “The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food.” I might add that I “listened” to much of the book, which I particularly enjoyed because Mr. Gopnik narrates the audio book himself.  Until you can get your hands on the book, I leave you with some of my favorite quotes from “The Table Comes First” at the end of…

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One of Lourmarin’s most celebrated residents was French writer-philosopher Albert Camus. But 50 years after his tragic death in a car crash at only 46, questions linger about his still-emerging multiple identities as doomed Resistance hero, compulsive womanizer and consumptive Algiers slum boy turned advocate for the underdog. Born in French Algeria in 1913, Camus first came to Lourmarin in the wake of his philosophy mentor Jean Grenier, a writer who had taught Camus in Algeria and whose ties to the quaint Provence village (where La Bonbonnière is located) dated back to the 1920s. Captivated by Lourmarin’s “bewildering” beauty and village life, Camus bought a…

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