Preparing for New Year's

Back from snowy Sweden! Enjoyed my stay but as usual I am very happy to be at home again. We have some folks over for New Year's Eve, so we have ordered some deer and phesant at our local butcher. I am also preparing some spicy hot wine - most recipes said the spices should soak in the vodka for weeks... godness I only have two days - but I finally found one that spoke of only 24 to 48 hours.

I also prepared some fig marmalade, made by dried figs and port. It goes with the cheese so we will see if we get there this year (last year we waved the white flag after the main course and skipped both cheese AND dessert, something that has never occured before). I brought the shapes to make knäck, a traditional Christmas sweet in Sweden, but we will see if I have time.

I hope you all had a calm and peaceful Christmas and that Father Christmas made all your dreams come true!

Just because a pretty flower lightens up your day

Home for Christmas

Just checked the weather report and with temperatures ranging from -5 to -14 I am scrambling along all the warmest clothes we have. That is ski clothes, the whole set and extra thick gloves. My parents told me they have heaps of snow so I know the children will be more than happy!

The picture shows what it looks like on the street where my parents live.

I wish all of you a Merry Christmas!

Hiphop and ballet

Little girls in pink tutu and tough guys with baggy pants and their cap reversed... that is ballet, spanish dances and hiphop during the same parent presentation.

The smell of Christmas

We managed to get some extra child labour to handle the hard part of making pepparkakor - spicy Swedish cookies - and I made some glögg - spicy hot wine - on my own. My kitchen smelled wonderfully of cinnamon, cardamom and cloves... It was also covered in white flour, adding a snowy touch to those Xmas smells!

Coffee in the sun

18 degrees and I am on the terrace having coffee.... December is not what it used to be.

Playing on the beach in sunny Anglet

 I heard there is some snow in Sweden right now... we sort of almost had some and as we arrived in Anglet I saw that the Rhune and the mountains around where covered in snow!

We had crêpes and then headed for the beach. Around 12 degrees and very calm... the children played for hours... we were on two of the eleven beaches in Anglet: Sables d'Or and Chambre d'Amour (the ones closest to Biarritz, so you see the lighthouse of Biarritz in the background).

The walking lane along all eleven beaches, around five km I would guess. Walk, sit or jog!

The pier that separates the beach Sables d'Or from Chambre d'Amour.

Must admire the young guys going out with their surf school. Heard water was still OK, around 13 degrees...

The other beaches are sandy but the children had alot of fun with the stones on this one.

Froth!

Almost like a painting...

On top of the pier.

Surprised by a wave. His trousers are wet almost up to his knees!!!! Didn't bother him though.

To be honest I kind of saw it coming...

Can we go home now? Mum is getting tired...

La Table du Lavoir at Caudalie

We went to meet up with friends who after many years as expats in the north of France have returned to their home country close to la Brède outside Bordeaux. First an Osso Bucco like my mum used to make.... thank you Noëlle!

Then lunch at a place I have wanted to get to know for a while, les Sources de Caudalie. It is an hotel, two restaurants and a spa surrounded by vines next to Château Haut Smith. A very smart girl asked herself if she couldn't use the waste from the wine making process to make beauty products... yes, exactly that. Apparently research has showed that the skin of raisins contain lots of highly effiecient ingredients to make your skin look better! I had a look at the price list. You just need 100 euros to get started.... maybe old Santa can help out?

We didn't try any of the massages or baths in wine, but an extremely nice lunch at their second restaurant La Table du Lavoir. The setting, the decorations, the service, the food.... truly an excellent experience!

Je veux by Zaz

I haven't shared any music for a long time... but this little gem is irrestible! Enjoy Zaz singing Je veux in the best French troubadour tradition.

Out of subject: Ile de Ré and la Rochelle...

To celebrate my mother in law and her 70th birthday, her two sons and families had decided to make a gathering at Ile de Ré just outside lovely la Rochelle. This is not Aquitaine, but not so far, about 1,5 hours by car north of Bordeaux.

It was raining when we crossed the bridge from la Rochelle to the island, so we only took a quick coffee in the village Saint Martin de Ré before we got installed at the hotel La Marée. Perfect hotel with very nice welcome and attentive personnel. Perfect also for us with children - and I would really like to come back and have a look at that pool area in summer....  The hotel is joined by the Restaurant Le M that has been approved by critics (Michelin and Gault Millau 2010) - and us!

Sunday the weather was a little better, but it didn't really matter. We had time together in a cosy place, that was really what mattered the most...

Ile de Ré is known for its oysters, so it was an obvious choice for those who love oysters!

View from our hotel. In the background you see the 3 km long bridge

The children were more than happy to go outside for a walk Sunday morning....

.... because Jack, a beautiful Jack Russel puppy of five months, needed a walk!!!

The girls examine the beach...

... so many things to explore!

We had Sunday lunch in the little old harbour in la Rochelle. A lovely little city.

Some more seafood and then time to say goodbye and start planning another family reunion....

Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, the pilgrim last stop before Spain

I asked my husband: How can I describe this place without becoming bombastic... full of clichés... pitiful? This place is full of the wings of history and set in a magnificient setting... you can hear the footsteps of the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims that have passed here during hundreds and hundreds of years on the paved streets.... a tradition that is still well alive even though many modern pilgrims only do parts of the way to Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle in the north of Spain.

If you want you can just enjoy the cute shops and the different house fronts with the building year indicated (1510, 1648...). The view from the Citadelle is amazing and there is an incredible offer of restaurants and housings. A village well alive the whole year.

Paved streets, old houses...

Many cute little shops with local products... we bought Brana products in their shop, eau de vie plum, pear and raspberry...

Our hotel Les Pyrenées that I highly recommend and an equally recommendable restaurant! Doesn't look much though...

The time we spent here was lovely. The food was AMAZING.  I discovered afterwards (!) that it has two stars in the Michelin Guide.... absolutely worth them! The service was swift and discreet, not too much, to make us feel at ease. Among others we had an egg boiled at 68 degrees with cod cream, fricassée of lobster with green peas and panfried pigeon....  (I didn't bring my camera. My husband hates when I take photos of food at the table. Too nerdy.)

Our four-o-clock snack... Basque cake and a glass of cider

The church Notre Dame

Little details everywhere show that this is a pilgrim city. Did you know that there are more and more pilgrims for every year? That 65 percent of them start in this place?

 

The Bishops prison. Today a museum. And apparently the bishops didn't have much to do with the prison anyway.

In the background you see some vineyards (Irouléguy) and beside the portal a small stairway. It leads up to the wall watchround and you can walk around it...

View from the citadel. More vineyards.

View from the citadel... beautiful autumn colors.

And finally another view from a bridge over the river Nive that flows through the city. This place is often called the Little Basque Venise....