Bonjour,
I hope that you and yours are well.
Here in my little pig sty where I spend most of the day writing or chatting on social media (honestly, I love it that I can talk to people all around the world!) it’s been a pretty busy week. I’m working on a special Christmas magazine which will focus on mouth-wateringly scrumptious recipes (I’ve been testing them, I love my job), food and wine, style, festive features and giveaways – 12 fab prizes so far. So if you’re not subscribed to the magazine (which is totally free), you can do that through the current issue to make sure you don’t miss anything when it comes out soon.
Tigger and Pooh the kittens I bought home a couple of weeks ago have settled in nicely. My other 5 cats have got more used to them, the 3 dogs adore them and Bread Man loves to say hello to them each time he drops my baguette off. As the nights are becoming chillier, all the animals come in to enjoy the warmth from the wood fire. It’s like living in a zoo sometimes with cats and dogs everywhere, hustling for the top spot in front of the fire (FatCat usually wins – you can see him here on Instagram!)…
Occasionally (ok a lot), I am unfaithful to Bread Man and visit boulangeries and patisseries. I am unable to pass one without at least a look, sometimes a taste and always a photo. “Why are you taking photos of my buns” asked a baker last week, raising his eyebrows as I held my phone over a tray of brioche buns flavoured with chocolate, raisins and vanilla sugar.
“They are beautiful” I said “like little works of art”. That pleased him. “And I have a lot of friends all around the world who love to see cake photos and dream of trying them for themselves, now more than ever”.
He sighed and so did I and I guess you are probably sighing too reading this.
“Not the same as tasting them” he said when I showed him the photo “but we can dream, we can imagine, shut our eyes and smell the sweet buttery scent of a golden flaky croissant just out of the oven, of sweet salty caramel oozing from a profiterole, and chocolate squeezing from a delicious eclair and a decadent Chantilly cream smothered St Honore cake with fresh, fragrant strawberries… imagination gives you wings” he smiled.
A philosophical baker. Only in France…
Wishing you and yours well.
Bisous from a woman who believes that life’s too short to say no to cake…
Janine
Editor
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Janine Marsh is Author of My Good Life in France: In Pursuit of the Rural Dream – ebook, print & audio, on Amazon everywhere & all good bookshops online, and My Four Seasons in France: A Year of the Good Life
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