Anyway, with the Euro rising against the USD (bad news for me and R), I was happily surprised when I returned home to find Les Soldes have started. Youpie! In France, sales are regulated. Stores are allowed to have major sales twice a year, and the first one starts in mid-January and lasts to mid-February. When we went to Annecy the other day, I noticed huge prominent SOLDES signs everywhere, with additional 40-70% off the lowest prices on the tags. I looked for shoes but haven't found anything that I LOVE yet and if I don't love it, I'm not buying it. However I have bought 12 silicon cupcake cups, or caissettes - in bright red and yellow. They were only 5 Euros at Auchan, a large French supermarket that sells everything...including furniture, food, clothes, electronics, books, DVDs, and more.
Last night, R and I were invited to a hot stone grill dinner at our neighbor Helene's house. My first time dining at a real French person's home in France! The host was gracious, the dinner table was set beautifully, and the food was simple but very good. To start, I had a sweet cherry wine as an apero that Helene herself had made from local griottes (and by local I mean the cherries came off the trees of another neighbor across the street from us). Then we snacked on olives and salted peanuts followed by a salmon/fish mousse aspic with a small salad. The main course was hot stone grill where we grilled our own beef and chicken. To accompany all that meat? No less than 7 different dipping sauces, cornichons and teeny tiny white onions. For dessert Helene made a simple but amazing tarte aux pommes. I need to get this recipe from her tout de suite!! And I can't go to a party without bringing something to share so I baked some vanilla cupcakes from scratch using this recipe...but I didn't have mascarpone, so I made a vanilla buttercream frosting. The cakes came out pretty moist..but I need a better frosting recipe and have appealed to my friend M to share hers with me. Helene seemed to like the cupcakes enough to keep 2 for breakfast the next day. ..and I jumped when she offered the rest of the tarte to have as our breakfast treat. :)
The other day, on our long walk, après Carrefour, R and I noticed a crowd of woman inside a store..it turned out to be the local Phildar franchise. Knowing French prices, I was happily surprised they were having a fantastic sale. Sadly, it was a liquidation sale because the store's owner decided to close up shop after only a few months of operation due to lack of business. Skeins of yarns originally priced at 3.95 - 9.95 Euro were now slashed down to 1 - 2 Euros. One woman had bought 4 huge bags of beautiful wool yarn. I picked over the remaining stock and felt giddy with happiness. Before buying, I must have admired and stroked every single remaining last skein! New wool, lambswool, merino wool, mohair..in beautiful colors and fun textures. These are not the yarns you find at Michaels or AC Moore..these are quality! I came out 20.30 Euro poorer but magnificently yarn rich. I feel more creative just looking at the yarn..for now I still have my whirly scarf to make which Mary gave me as a very generous Christmas present.
Lest I forget, while at Carrefour I saw 7 sapeur pompiers (the local volunteer firemen) celebrating someone's bachelor party. They were dressed in wet suits with their helmets on drinking beers in plain sight. It looked like they were on a beer/food run to fuel up for their later antics. Only in France can you drink beer inside a Carrefour. And here they are later at the Hôtel de Ville, that's city hall to you!
No comments:
Post a Comment