Looking for Mr. Goodbar

Just after we arrived here I got a message from my doctor in California, confirming what he had suspected - I have celiac disease.  This only affects one percent of the population.  So the way I figure it, I'm in the 99th percentile!

This means I can’t eat any more gluten.  No croissants, no baguettes, no pain au chocolat.   And, oh yes, I’m lactose-intolerate.  So now I am in the country with the world’s best cheese and the world’s best bread and can’t have a bite of either.

I must have been a very bad man in a prior life.

But thank goodness for French wine.

So now Val and I are on a new adventure – how to go gluten-free in France.  I am learning exciting new words!  All the things I can't eat, like blé (wheat), seigle (rye) and orge (barley).  You never know where you will find opportunities to expand your vocabulary.

After we got the news we headed straight to the bio store.  This is an organic food store, but not the old hippies-in-Birkenstocks variety.  No, it’s more like a Whole Foods a la français, with a wide variety of organic snails.

We found the gluten-free section and stocked up on new things to try.  The breads and the crackers turned out to be surprisingly good, though the breakfast cereal tasted like sciure (sawdust).  Well, two out of three ain’t bad.

The tricky part now is tracking down all the gluten that is hiding places you wouldn’t expect it.  Like soy sauce.  And hay fever pills.  And…chocolate?!

Yes, flour is used as filler in chocolate to cut costs.  Who knew?  So now we are on the hunt for gluten-free chocolate.  Happily, the purest chocolate only comes from the very best chocolate makers, so that's what I have to eat.

This could turn out well after all.

KVS

Out and About

The weather was cold but clear so we went for a walk along the canal that runs by our house.  Here are a few pictures.

Along the canal

The waterfall outside our front gate

Wisteria trying to bloom

The vines will wake up soon!

Home Again

Ok, it’s not really home; it’s more like a second home.  But it feels good to be back.

We took our usual route from SFO to Zurich because it’s a direct flight and because SwissAir is good with transporting animals.  This was Mica’s first transatlantic flight and she came through like a champ.

We drove straight to Divonne, just over border into France.  We can never wait to get to France.  It also helps that hotels there are half the price of Swiss hotels.

The next morning it was croissants, croissants, and more croissants for breakfast.  My god, they are good.  And lots of coffee to wake us up from jet lag. 

Then we made the long drive south to Provence, which I didn’t find difficult at all this time.  Maybe it was because my broken wrist prevents me from driving.  Val missed no opportunity to remind me that I owe her, big time.

This is the third time that we have rented the same house in St-Remy so we didn’t need a map to find our way.  The owners were there to greet us and it was kisses all around.  Plus they gave us a huge basket of homemade jams and sauces that we can’t wait to dig into.

Next we made the tour of our usual haunts – favorite restaurants and wineries.  Gotta stock up!   It was nice to see familiar faces and catch up on the news (the restaurant down the street was sold, the white wines are great this year but the rosés not so much, etc.)  The lady at one winery asked if we could help her translate a brochure into English, which we were happy to do.

A lot of our time has been spent on logistics – where to kennel Mica when we go to NYC for our nephew’s wedding, how to organize an X-ray and a doctor visit and physical therapy for my wrist.  Not the usual set of “getting started” challenges but interesting in their own way.

Of course, no “getting started” would be complete without seeing our dear friends Sara and Christian.  So the day after we arrived we had a long, delicious lunch at their place.  Mica met Ugo, their 12-year old male bichon, who was very….um…shall we say “excited” to meet this hot young  babe.  We will have to keep an eye on those two.

Finally, with the Stanford women’s basketball team in the March Madness tournament, we’ve spent several breakfasts watching recordings of their games on our iPads.  It’s all just part of this bi-national life we seem to be building.

KVS 

The girls hanging out