Lynne Martin's Blog, page 3

Globe-Trotting Garden Lovers

 

Wild Poppies among the magnificent ruins at Ephesus, Turkey.

I’ve spent a lifetime appreciating gardens and have created several myself, some photos of which I’ve placed at the end of this post. I’ve sought out and admired massive public displays, royal palace extravaganzas, tiny cottage gardens, and lush container gardens.  Every local nursery is a turn-on for me! On the other hand, my darling Tim, who is sensitive, sweet and poetic about most things, does not appreciate nature’s scenic wonders very much. He’s the guy who slept right through the dramatic sunrise in Monument Valley. He snored peacefully as the majestic sandstone outcroppings caught the sun’s fire at 5:00 AM while I was jumping around like a five-year-old, snapping photos and rejoicing in one of the world’s most glorious sights.

So, it was with trepidation that soon after we were married, I suggested that we visit the magnificent Filoli Gardens in Woodside, California, on the way home from a weekend in San Francisco.  He LOVED it!

His reaction to that lovely place proved that even people who don’t know a petunia from a peony can find tranquility and inspiration in a beautiful garden.

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He was as surprised as I was when he relished the shaded walks, the fragrant rose gardens and the placid ponds on that lavish estate. Ever since that fateful afternoon, he’s enthusiastically carted me to dozens of gardens in many countries and become quite the botanical photographer in the bargain. These places have enhanced our travel experiences and allowed us to stay in touch with nature when we’re living in mega-cities for months.

I’d like to share some of my favorites with you, and perhaps if you travel to these places you’ll visit them. Any one of them is sure to inspire even the most reluctant visitor to become a garden enthusiast. I’ve included videos so you can really see what I’m talking about.

Giverny, France:  Just an hour north of Paris, this is one of the most romantic gardens in the world. The great painter, Claude Monet, built the garden as his living model and inspiration. He was a man who ardently loved family, good food, gardens, and art. He painted that garden hundreds of times. I was jubilant to see such a wonder.

View from Monet’s Bedroom

I had a few minutes alone in what had been his bedroom, and I stood at his window just was sure he did every morning, to see what went on in the garden downstairs during the night. The next day we went to the Marmottan Museum in Paris, which houses the world’s largest collection of his works. That was the first time I understood what Impressionism is all about. Seeing his actual garden and then his impressions of it was an extraordinary art history lesson.

The Japanese Bridge at Giverny.

 

Monet’s Japanese Bridge Painting.  See what I mean about Impressionism?

 

 

Luxembourg Gardens, Paris

This magnificent 200-acre private garden, which is open to the public, is one of our favorite haunts in Paris. Its famous pond where children send rented vessels across the water while their parents cheer them on, is near the Palais du Luxembourg, built by Marie de Medici in 1612. The garden is alive with sculpture, fountains and flower beds. One Sunday morning we were treated to a band concert in the gazebo while we enjoyed our breakfast at the charming cafe near the Palais.

Our Favorite Fountain at Luxembourg Gardens

Now, have a look at how it really is.  You’ll feel as if you’re in Paris!

Also in Paris, The Tuileries Gardens were built by Catherine de Medici as part of the Tuileries Palace in 1564. The palace was destroyed, but the gardens have remained, linking the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde. We love to walk in its gracious pathways and take a rest after visiting the Jeu de Paume museum, with its contemporary exhibitions curated from all over the world and Musée L’Orangerie, next to the Place de la Concorde. It contains works by some of the most beloved Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters, as well Claude Monet’s sublime water lilies murals

The Tuileries – Magnifique!

 

While we’re speaking of French gardens, I should mention the exotic Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech. It is a haven of tranquility in a city that fairly writhes with frenetic activity. Built in the 1920’s by French artist Jacques Majorelle, the garden’s spareness and simplicity is punctuated with a special shade of bold cobalt blue. Designer Yves Saint-Laurent co-owned the property with Pierre Bergé until Laurent’s death in 2008. We loved the little café surrounded by walls draped with lush vines and savored a few hours of quiet in that raucous, fascinating city.

Another of our favorite gardens was created by Henry VIII. Hampton Court Palace is his beautifully preserved residence in Richmond upon Thames near London. We lived in an apartment nearby on two occasions, so we had a local’s appreciation and familiarity with the Palace.  Although there is an admission fee to tour the buildings, the extensive gardens are open to everyone, and we spent many happy afternoons enjoying the lovely English borders and beautifully sculpted trees. The famous maze is a popular attraction, and the grounds are used for several annual public gatherings. It certainly beats the Veteran’s Hall or the VFW for a civic celebration!

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Since we’re in the neighborhood, I’d like to introduce you to my all-time favorite garden. I was so excited the first time I visited Sissinghurst that I wept a little. The proper British lady at the ticket booth was completely non-plussed by my behavior! Vita Sackville-West, the gardening writer and poet, and her husband, author Harold Nicolson, created fabulous gardens in the 1930’s and restored the ruined manor house which were both built in the sixteenth century.

Before you visit, be sure to do some homework about these colorful people, their fabulous friends, and unusual, artistic lives!

 

I’m sure you’ve heard just about enough of the gardens I love, so I’ll just list a few more, and you can look into them if you have the time and inclination:

Bodnant Gardens in Conwy, Wales.

Butchart Gardens, British Columbia.

 

 

 

 

The Biltmore Estate, Asheville, North Carolina Here’s a great video you might enjoy, featuring our colleague at TravelSmith, Samantha Brown.

Powerscourt, Ireland

 

And lastly, here are some of the gardens that have been my pride and joy, and also given me the rations of frustration, angst and back-aches that gardeners everywhere endure.

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If you’ve enjoyed this tour, please let me know.  I’ve visited many more gorgeous gardens around the world that I’d love to share with you.  Happy spring.

Where are the Martins?

I flatter myself by thinking that the following conversation might happen at a cocktail party in Paris, London or Omaha. It would go like this: One guest would say to another, “Hey, do you know what happened to that globe-trotting senior couple from California? Tim and whatshername Martin?

“Oh, come on, you remember!,” he would continue in response to the woman’s blank look, “She wrote that Wall Street Journal piece about selling their house and flitting around the world without a home base, and then she wrote that book. You and I talked about them at Suzanne’s party last year.

“Do you mean those people from Cali? Yes, I read her book,” his female companion might say, “It was fun. Wonder where they are now.”

If I were at that party, wine in hand, munching a delicious cheese-laden canapé, I’d say, “Here’s the scoop: Lynne and Tim spent most of 2015 on California’s Central Coast, working on the forthcoming sequel to “Home Sweet Anywhere.” While they were at it, they segued into phase II of their unorthodox retirement plan and built the vacation rental they always dreamed of finding on the road. It’s compact, contemporary, and very comfortable. They’ll enjoy it as a home base when they are in California and as a rental when they’re away.

I would add in this imaginary conversation that we always knew that when traveling full-time, plus keeping up with writing and helping others plan their world adventures, we would settle in California. After five years it was clear that it was time to activate phase II of Home Free Living. Tim came up with the bright idea of putting into practice the lessons learned from living in dozens of vacation rentals, and in typical Martin fashion, we initiated the design for Creekside Cottage that very day! You know that we Postpone Nothing!

Great ideas for our house came from well-planned properties and remembering the mistakes of others was just as useful. For instance, I loved the galley kitchen in a condo we rented beside the Thames outside London so much that I based the kitchen design at Creekside Cottage on the one in East Molesey, Surrey. Although we love living in cosmopolitan cities, the sirens, construction havoc, and excessive neighbor noise made us realize that a quieter place was a better choice for a long-term establishment. A cottage half way between Los Angeles and San Francisco on a tree-covered rural road, close to two hundred plus wineries, excellent restaurants, and entertainment, but remote enough to insulate us from other people’s intrusion. There was no need for drapes in the living room because having deer, squirrels, birds and raccoons as our audience doesn’t bother us as all. I’m certain our guests will feel the same.

As a result of our experiences on the road, we were careful to include things that were missing in too many rentals: robe hooks in the bathrooms, clearly labeled clickers for every electronic gizmo, a keyless entry pad, liberal outlets and excellent lighting in every room. We even put USB plugs right into the wall! It has a plethora of windows with beautiful views of our forest and creek, total privacy, security, and peace and quiet, all top priorities for us. I even have a cozy writing area, with big windows overlooking the forest. It’s inspirational and certainly superior to working on ships, planes, noisy cities, and cramped apartments with noise-canceling earphones clapped on my head.

This will give you an idea of what we’ve been doing for the last nine months. Please click on the arrows.

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Creating Creekside was a great experience, but a much bigger project than we had imagined. For months, I tried to write by night (when I wasn’t falling asleep on the sofa) and play Bob the Builder in the daytime. It was hectic, stressful, expensive and also great fun. Someday I’ll share war stories about migrating to eight rentals while enduring a two-month delay to the finish, digging a well that didn’t want to produce water, finding that the electric company required four thousand dollars to raise their pole so our roof wouldn’t touch the wires, and the day I discovered that the builders were banging up the wrong siding. There were times when the ringtone I assigned to my builder would make my heart stop. I knew it wouldn’t be good news and would probably cost us more money. But the experience did give us the time to reflect on our good fortune to have lived in so many marvelous places. After all, that’s what started this entire project and changed the course of our lives! Here’s a look at the interiors so far.  

















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Getting back to those imaginary cocktail party guests, I would tell them that the Martins are working on their plans for 2016, now that the construction dust has settled. They have their eyes on Bali, Columbia, Ecuador, and Hawaii, and are investigating a big trip to Asia. But for the next few months, Lynne will concentrate on organizing the copious entries in her journal, and digesting the excellent stories others have shared, and finally writing the sequel to Home Sweet Anywhere.

And, oh yes, I will be regularly blogging, and Tim will be back in travel-planning mode, that is if we can stop marveling at our beautiful views and the rain that has finally come to California.

We wish you health, joy, and peace for the new year, and I promise to be in touch regularly! Thank you for being our friend. Let us hear from you, and if you haven’t joined Home Free Adventures on Facebook, please do. There are a lot of like-minded people who generously share their travel tales and tips.

Making Limónes Into Limónada

Tim taking a break from “swanning.”

There we were, having a perfectly lovely time in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, swanning around in our gorgeous rented hacienda, enjoying lovely Judith who came every day to lavish us with laughs and luscious lunches.  Our evenings were  spent with entertaining friends and our days filled with stimulating writing in our sunny private spaces.  We had been gone from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico for so long that our pals were actually thrilled to see us and we them.

Our garden was fragrant and peaceful and  the weather was beginning to warm up so the thick walls of the house were holding some heat.  That meant no more huddling in serapes in the evening.  In other words, things were damned near perfect.

Then – WHAM!  Our usually charmed lives took a rotten turn.  Tim started feeling terrible.  At first we thought it was altitude, but as his energy and outlook declined we realized that we were still dealing with a complicated medication adjustment problem which we thought had been solved before we left California.

Tim having fun before the “wham.”

We made plans quickly to return to our docs who were already on the case.  Our “evacuation” was different from those who have a  home base because we had to secure a spot to land once we got “home.”  Thanks to friends who found a vacation rental for us and to our HomeAway owner in Mexico who generously helped us recoup some of our prepaid two months rent, we were ensconced in a nice vacation rental in California and setting up doc appointments within a few days.  It pays to have pals, doesn’t it?

So although we’d managed to catch up with some of our friends, dine in a few very nice restaurants, and revel in the pleasure of just being in San Miguel de Allende, we didn’t have time to make many photos.  I wanted so much to share the beauty of the town with you that I asked our darling friend, artist Brian Care, if he would stroll around town and snap some of the lovely sights for us.  He obliged and I’m thrilled to show you the gorgeous scenes. A pal saves the day one more time!

 

Luscious flowers. Smell those roses! Click through for more!
Doll makers are everywhere in San Miguel!
The Jardin, where all the action is day and night!
Color everywhere.
I've dragged tons of this wonderful stuff home over the years.
Fabric waiting for a wearer.
Five a day.
You can buy almost anything at the Mercado.

Homemade cheese for tonight's enchiladas.
Everything is fresh and abundant.
Get 'em while they're hot!
Quiero zapatos!



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We’re sad that we missed so much of our trip but grateful to everyone who helped us and especially thankful that Tim is feeling much better. We don’t anticipate any more trouble on the medical front, and even though the experience was a  unsettling, we were happy that when our plan for such an emergency worked well.  We were home in no time and got the care we needed quickly.

In some ways our hurried departure was a blessing.  Since we got home earlier than expected, we were able to begin working on our newest project even sooner – building our California vacation rental in the gorgeous Central Coast.  I think that qualifies as turning Limón into Limónada, don’t you?

For the next few months I’ll keep you up to date as our little house in the country grows.  For now, here’s a peek at the start of it all.  I do believe we’ll put in a lime tree once we’re finished so we’ll always remember how lucky we are!

Where will that barn go? Click through for more.
I say we put it there!
He doesn't care where...just build the thing!
Well diggers are expensive but cute!
Gotta love the big machines!
Doesn't everyone wear a #TravelSmith lilac microfiber top to dig a well?



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Tamales and Tequila

Perhaps you remember my post from Mexico in  February about our jubilant return to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. There were  beautiful shots of San Miguel, and more than one of you admitted that you coveted our good fortune! Who wouldn’t be jealous?  We had a delightful housekeeper who cooked like a dream, cleaned up our sumptuous house every day,  and made us laugh while she did it.

Remember this photo of Tim and our housekeeper/champion cook/friend, Judith Sosa?

We had the perfect writing studios, a gorgeous pool, and a peaceful fragrant garden.  We had lots of old friends to enjoy and a charming, colorful Mexican colonial town to rediscover.  The plan was  to be in that perfect situation for two months, but the dream splintered like a bottle of Padrone Tequila dropped on a saltillo tile floor after just two weeks. Tim was having so much  trouble with his medication dosage that a quick exit to California and the prescribing docs was prudent. The good news is that he’s doing just fine now, and the other good news is that we got to have a little fun before making our hasty retreat!

We were so lucky that the day after we arrived our “family” in Mexico was staging their semi-annual tamale-making extravaganza and we were invited to join the fun.  Maribel Barrios was one of the first people we met when we arrived in San Miguel ten years ago, and our friendship has deepened with every visit. Her large family has honored us by inviting us to be part of celebrations and ordinary life, too.  We miss them terribly when we are away, and although we are in touch frequently, it’s never quite the same as being there.  Tim and I gleefully left our unpacking, shopping and chores behind that first day and sped away to have family fun.

Our dear friend Lidia, the head of the family, at her stove making her divine red sauce. Atole (a nutritious drink made from corn) bubbles in the pot to her right.

The family makes tamales twice a year, those hearty masa treats stuffed with chicken, cheese, chilies, fruit or just about anything you can imagine,  wrapped up in a corn husk making a perfect hand-held treat!  The two or three day process  begins with cooking fresh from the country corn kernels and then peeling the skin from them by rubbing the kernels together by hand. Then the corn is taken to a grinder who makes it into masa.  This gorgeous goo is nothing like the dry stuff we buy at the market in the U.S. Then Lidia and her family stir up  big pots of masa flavored to correspond with the filling it will contain.  Sweet tamales filled with strawberries will have a sugary flavoring, while the fiery hot green chilie tamales will get a piquant twist.  Once the masa and other ingredients like chicken, beef, chilies and green and red salsas are prepared, (this long and arduous task is all done before Tim and I show up!), the assembly line begins.  Corn husks soak in a big tub and form the wrapper which the tamale maker opens in her palm.  Then she expertly (You will notice you do not see me expertly  performing this task)  slaps masa, mashes it, adds the filling and then deftly folds the whole thing into a tidy package. Everyone in the room has been performing this sleight of hand her whole  life except you-know-who.

Maribel and Delia gab, wrap and stack those fabulous bullets of bliss.

The women neatly stack those packages until the table will hold no more and then they stand them on end in huge pots lined with cork husks. The process takes many days, many hands and the gossip, stories, jokes and laughter rarely stop. I should mention that Tim and I traditionally bring a big bottle of tequila to these events, so the  tamale makers  enjoy an occasional sip to keep their attitudes right. I’m certain that’s why the laughter quotient increases exponentially as the piles of tamales grows!

Lidia stacking those morsels in the big pot.

Here’s a video of Lidia and me enjoying ourselves as she tries to increase my product output. It turns out I’m better at sipping tequila than making tamales!

And here is my darling friend Maribel, Lidia’s daughter-in-law,  trying to educate me.  I think making tamales is a genetic talent.  My tamales always look like an unmade bed with masa poking out like an untidy sheet.  I think they just invite me to enjoy watching me bungle the whole thing!

 

And here’s a shot of what I really do well – watch!  (I’m pretty good at eating tamales and drinking tequila, too.

Doing what I do best – watching!

 

Finally the first pot is off to the neighbor’s house, the people who have the most powerful burners on the block. No one could find the right lid for the pot, so a frying pan tied on top with rope did the job. Ingenuity is the Mexican way, and it’s also the Martin way!  Living home free requires some creative solutions almost everywhere we go.

When those tamales came back from the neighbors several hours, a few tequilas and a thousand laughs later, we dove into them, slathering them with Lidia’s celestial red and green sauces, chasing them with frosty Modelo.  It was good to be “home,” and even though our visit was cut short we were lucky enough to have those precious hours together celebrating friendship and food – life’s main events in my book!

True Love Blooms at The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

In the trailer for the new movie, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,  Judi Dench, in her role as Evelyn, says, “How many new lives can we have?”  Her answer is,  “As many as we like!”  Those lines are the perfect description of my husband Tim’s and my life together.  After a thirty-five year hiatus in which we had separately experienced the soaring successes and searing defeats that describe fully realized lives, we found one another again.  My late husband was succumbing to Alzheimer’s Disease and I was headed for a slow march down the predictable path of widowhood.  Then Tim appeared at my door and a new life began on my front porch.  We astonished a lot of people around us who thought that when one loses a mate the remaining partner should catch up on TV, plant some petunias, become a doting grandparent and call it a day.

Tim and I said to each other, “We can have as many lives as we like,” and we bolted as fast as we could from what people thought was a “normal” life.  We scampered down the aisle (well, walked sedately as we were instructed), and then tried for several years to settle down and live a suburban life,  but we realized we needed more challenge and excitement.  So, after three years we sprinted right out of a beautiful house we had bought, leaving a trail of gasping friends and family in our wake, and we hit the road to live internationally  without the burden of a home base. We’ve had more lives than most people have underwear and we’re not NEARLY finished!  We’re just as much in love as we were the day Tim appeared on that porch.

I’m firmly convinced that taking chances and giving love a second chance have made our lives more richly fulfilling than we could ever have dreamed possible, and we are truly blessed that there’s so much more ahead!

Judi Dench and Bill Nighy, Richard Gere, Maggie Smith and the rest of the cast are all part of a story that brings to life Tim’s and my notion that love can happen at any time, and adventure is always just a moment away.  We can hardly wait to see their stories unfold and enjoy watching Sonny and his bride start their young lives together!

Here’s a peek at the trailer which has tantalized us for weeks.  Fox Searchlight Pictures will release it March 6, and we’ll be at the head of the line, popcorn at the ready!

 

Just as the characters in the movie, moving forward, celebrating life and postponing nothing are our mantras, so our next project is to build the first best exotic vacation rental house in California.  Oh, no, you may say – here they go again, at 74 and 69, taking on a huge new project, but we see it as a way to use the experience we’ve gained in four years of living on the road. It will be great fun to share it with other travelers when we’re away enjoying new horizons in the world.  I’ll be filling you in on the progress of this new adventure as it unfolds.  We’re thrilled with the idea and hope you’ll enjoy taking the ride with us.  Lord only knows what will be going on in our eighties, but I can assure you that we’ll be on the lookout for a visit to The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and all the places where love, hope and joy dwell!

 

This post is sponsored by Fox Searchlight Pictures

Congratulations to HomeAway

Our friends at HomeAway are celebrating their tenth anniversary.  Providing the finest vacation rental services with over a million properties world wide, this group has made our Home Sweet Anywhere life possible for over four years.

Their new #WholeVacation focus is aimed at bringing families and friends together with privacy and the opportunity to enjoy one another in a relaxed atmosphere!   It’s a wonderful idea, and one worth thinking about when you plan your next family get-together!

Start thinking summer vacation now.  Check out our suggestions about choosing and enjoying vacation rentals on this site!

Happy Travels!

 

Our Jubilant Return to San Miguel de Allende

After four years living on the road without a home base we have learned when to push ourselves, when to pull back, and how to recover from the vagaries and pressures of travel.   But sometimes other forces and circumstances take over and even experienced vagabonds like the Martins get caught up in schedules that are too tight.  Plane schedules (especially if you want to take advantage of mileage), vacation rental availabilities, family events and publishing schedules can smash into each other until even Tim, my planning genius, is forced to create an itinerary that would daunt people thirty years younger than we are. Then, of course, thanks to Murphy’s Law, other events can pile on and then the plans that were overly ambitious in the first place  become even more rigorous.

Boy, did we have a great time at the NYTimes Travel Show!

That just about describes our  experience in late January.  We went to New York City in late January to appear with Tom Hale, vice president at HomeAway.com, speaking about the joys of vacation rentals, how to chuck the hotel and really enjoy yourself.  It went very well and we had a chance to see local pals and have a few excellent meals, which is always one of our top priorities.  Then the blizzard chatter started and our plans changed abruptly.  Thanks to Tim’s quick work we were on the last plane out of JFK before the blizzard alert shut the airport on January 27. Sitting on the tarmac while they de-iced the plane,  knowing that if we didn’t get to California on time we’d miss our flight to Mexico made us pretty cranky.  Believe me, there was a collective sigh from the passengers and crew when that baby left the ground!

This was NOT such a good time!

Our quick turnaround in California allowed us just one day to switch wardrobes, kiss everyone goodbye for the second time in a week, and head for San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.  We were exhausted, frazzled, rattled and I was certainly cross by the time we touched down at Leon airport. But the minute I stepped off the rickety portable stairway and inhaled the distinct fragrance, Mexican high desert air mixed with just a hint of jet fuel and a dash of Mexican cooking, I didn’t care how tough the week had been.  We were HOME!

This woman is on her way to Mexico with her gorgeous new luggage from TravelSmith. How dare she be grumpy.

Tim and I had worried about whether San Miguel  changed too much in our absence, if the people had become less genteel, if the town itself had deteriorated because of the vagaries of governments, economy and criminal influences.  We wondered if we’d still feel safe, relaxed and happy there.  Every fear dissipated in the first hours of our arrival.  San Miguel is still one of the most pleasurable spots on earth to us. The fresh mountain air, the warmth of its people, the luscious Mexican palette – terra cotta, ochre, brilliant blue, vibrant yellows all punctuated with bougainvillea and geraniums, lime and banana leaf trees, with the ripple of a thousand fountains that calm and refresh, had not changed at all.`

The gorgeous city with La Parroquia, a gothic-style church right in the middle next to the jardin, had changed very little, at least on the surface.

We were floored when we reached our house.  We knew from the HomeAway.com listing that the house would be lovely and the neighborhood quiet, but we really weren’t prepared for the lovely garden and the two convenient work spaces.  Tim and I each have a place to write without chatting (yes, after all this time we still have a lot to say!) and interrupting each other.  The furnishings are wonderfully comfortable and attractive, and best of all, Judith Sosa works for the owner and comes almost every day. She is a sunny person who is a pleasure to know and she is a heavenly cook.  I told her the other day that I didn’t care whether or not the house was clean as long as she made some more soups and chillies nogada for us.  We gratefully consume her enchiladas, chillies rellenos, salsa, and guacamole and I promise to share recipes I pry out of her.

Here is a video of part of our house which I hope you’ll enjoy.  We’ll show you the garden another time.  If you’re not too bored by the time you finish that you may like to see the photos that follow.

Our house was even more wonderful than we had hoped!
Our wonderful kitchen!
My favorite spot. Curling up in this chair is like heaven.
The pool is too coo to dip into, but it looks wonderful and has a waterfall at the end!
The blue structure is the pool house, where I love to work. It's warm there, too.
Tim and Judith Sosa, our terrific housekeeper taste her fish and veggies wrapped in banana leaves. Divine!

On our way into town. This is a new TravelSmith blouse which I love, and their classic scarf I've dragged all over Europe and back.
Here is the sitting room attached to the bedroom. It's full of light in the morning. So cheerful!




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After just a few days we managed to see several dear friends, consume an enormous amount of excellent food, and find our way back to favorite spots around town. We  also fell into the Mexican rhythm we love so well.  Our sense of urgency is at a low, low level, and our sense of fun is ratcheted to high.  This is just as it should be when you say “yes” to everything and practice the “postpone nothing” philosophy.

Here are a few photos of our wanderings around this lovely place.  We hope you’ll come visit it soon.

The jardin, the heart of San Miguel. If you're lonely you can walk down to
the garden and in five minutes you'll be chatting away with someone.

The gorgeous city with La Parroquia, a gothic-style church right in the middle next to the jardin.
Hair color happens everywhere. I got very lucky and a friend found Miriam for me. She did a great job!

Tim waiting for his lunch at Hank's, a New Orleans themed bar and restaurant.
Yummy fish tacos at Cafe Lavanda.
More of Hank's. This is the scene of many a happy afternoon and evening!
Luscious Vietnamese vegetable rolls at Chamonix.
Our darling friend Bian Care. We have an adventure planned for next week with him that you will LOVE! It involves fish and feet. Stay tuned.
Look at all these colorful things we want to take home, but can't!



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I apologize for such a lengthy absence from this site and promise to send you many more stories and photos from this magical place!  Hasta pronto!

 

Expat Christmas Cheer Around the World

Living and working outside the United States has been a fabulous experience for my husband and me for most of the last few years, but  I must confess that when the holidays come along we have always managed to get ourselves “home” to celebrate with friends and family in California.  We rent a house near our children each year and spend many weeks enjoying their company and our family traditions before departing for new adventures in other parts of the world.  This year, as we were making preparations for the big day  I began to consider how Americans who live and work abroad full-time observe their holidays in countries which do not observe Christmas or those who practice holiday traditions which are different from ours.

When I asked friends who live abroad to share some of their experiences I was rewarded with some excellent observations and colorful tales.  So here’s my Christmas present to you – courtesy of expats who are singing carols and basting turkeys around the world.

ABU DHABI

My friend Dr. Anita Welch, who is an Associate Professor at Emirate College for Advanced Education in Abu Dhabi, sent a  wonderful photo of Santa and the lavish three story Christmas tree she saw in a mall, with live toy soldiers amusing the children.  Her colleague, Mary Lynn Woolsey, PH.D., who is  staying in Abu Dhabi this Christmas, was kind enough to share her experience of singing Christmas carols in the desert with hundreds of other expats.

She wrote, “In 2006 a group of expats living in Abu Dhabi, a Muslim country, missed the tradition of singing Christmas carols.  They wanted to give their children an unforgettable experience, so they trekked to the desert, set up batteries for their musical instruments and Christmas lights, fired up their grills, and celebrated Christmas in the desert.

“This year we followed the tradition, arranged our spot with food and drink, and settled in to enjoy our picnic.  The older kids raced down the biggest dunes on their sleds while younger ones played with shovels and buckets and made sand angels on the cool desert floor.  When the sun began to set the entire group of at least 500 people turned to the west and took pictures of the sun slipping into the horizon.  People lit candles, the stage sparkled with Christmas lights,  and voices rang with Jingle Bells, Silent Night, and all the rest.  It was the most amazing Christmas party I’ve ever attended.

ENGLAND – Jonathan Clark, a novelist working in Britain, wrote to me that in his family, “On Christmas Eve there is always some talk of attending Midnight Mass, but it never happens.  Instead, there is a blur of suspiciously potent mulled wine, last-minute wrapping, stockings for the children and strategizing for Christmas dinner.

During the “most important meal of the year,” to quote his father, on Christmas day, somewhere midway through the main course, Queen Elizabeth’s speech begins to be broadcast.  Someone, usually an older relative, always wants to watch it. There is often a prolonged debate about whether to just “have it on it the background” or watch the repeat later. After dinner presents are opened, a film will be agreed upon and leftovers from lunch appear, along with more wine.

It all sounds like great fun, and almost as chaotic as what goes on in my family!

Another friend of Anita’s is Dr. Daniel Kirk, an Associate Professor at Emirates College for Advanced Education.  He is a dual US/UK citizen and has been a “professional expat” for the last 16 years. He shared some delightful stories about Bermuda, Qatar and Bahrain with me.

BERMUDA

He said that Bermuda is cold and wet in December, but expats still gather on the beach with friends on Christmas morning.   Horseshoe Bay, a wonderfully long, pristine beach flanked with palm trees and rocky outcroppings sets the scene for enjoying early glasses of Bucks Fizz, the bracing breeze from the Atlantic, and the most perfect sand underfoot.  It is the best way to clear away the excesses of Christmas Even and get set for the festivities ahead.

QATAR

Dan said,“I was in Qatar in the late 1990’s, when it was far from the sprawling metropolis it is today.  Few in the small western expat community stayed for Christmas, but those who did enjoyed the great weather and relaxed feel of the city. We would head to a friends’s villa (usually the largest one)  and have a Christmas potluck or barbecue.  For those from colder parts of the world it was a luxury to eat outside.  Christmas Eve was often spent at one of the only two international hotels in the city at the time, dancing into the small hours.

Christmas Day was, therefore, a bit low key, with everyone hanging out in the lovely weather and over-eating the leftovers.

BAHRAIN

“Bahrain was a restless place with nightly riots and unrest related to the political problems on the island.  This meant that the western expat community kept a low profile.  Christmas was a time of great weather and socializing, and we tended to congregate in our villa and celebrate with the (mainly) American families in our compound.  There were lots of pool parties, barbecues, outside soirees, and a traditional Christmas day feast “

IRELAND

My good friend Brooke Bremner, who lived in Dublin for many years, tells me that there are hide-bound rules that the Irish observe scrupulously, mostly about food!   For instance, “One must always serve turkey and ham in Ireland on Christmas Day, not turkey OR ham, but both.  Also, there must be a Christmas cake, covered in marzipan and then royal icing.  The  traditional Christmas pudding is served with brandy butter, what we might call hard sauce. And everyone makes little two inch minced meat tarts to bring to parties as a gift.  It’s a glorious time for foodies!”

PARIS

Kasia Dietz, a handbag designer/manufacturer from New York, whose unusual bags are sold worldwide, lives in Paris with her Italian husband.  She tells me, “The side walk cafes provide heat lamps and blankets, beneath which you can indulge in a glass of seasonal mulled wine.  The street vendors sell roasted chestnuts on the corner, and the annual holiday markets reveal an array of artisanal gift ideas.  The Champs de Elysées glows bright with thousands of fairy lights, and the window displays at Printemps, Galeries Lafayette and Le Bon Marché look like theatre sets.

“Beginning in late December, pastry shops in Paris fill their windows with galettes des rois, or King Cake, to celebrate the Epiphany on January 6th.  A good luck charm called a la fève is baked inside the puff pastry and whoever received the fève is crowned a king or queen for the day.

MEXICO

Our great friend Joseph McClain, a marvelously talented opera director, tells me that in San Miguel de Allende, where he has lived for many years, his favorite Christmas tradition is walking the posadas, which are the reenactments of Mary and Joseph searching for an inn. “Walking through the darkened colonial streets following Mary on a burro with Joseph leading the way, singing the old Spanish carols, seeing people opening their doors to strangers to offer them hot drinks, is a marvelous experience.

“Another favorite is the Mercado Navideño at the Mercado of San Juan de Dios.  The market is outside in the small passageways between larger market buildings.   Lights glitter, the hanging piñatas rustle, and there are tables full of the most amazing assortment of nacimiento figures depicting the Christmas story. People from the country bring in piles of moss used to decorate the nacimiento displays.  And there’s always a little speaker somewhere playing  Christmas songs that mingle with the noise of the crowds.  It’s all very sweet, very Mexican, and very dear to me.

I’m not sure if I’ll have much luck, but this year I think I’ll suggest that my family adopts some new traditions.  We could start with ham AND turkey, and I might even see if we can seethe queen’s speech right here in California to play in the background while we eat our Christmas pudding!  We wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year wherever you are!

 

 

Thanksgiving Greetings from ExPats

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our friends who make the wonderful travel clothes and products you can find at TravelSmith invited us to write a piece about how ExPats celebrate Thanksgiving, so here’s what we sent them:

I lived in Dublin in the early nineties for two years and back then the supplies of American food were seriously limited. When the Thanksgiving holiday came along I was glad that I’d made friends with my butcher and greengrocer because those gentlemen were willing to scour the island to find at least some of the ingredients I needed. We lived among a large contingent of Americans who were working in that country and since I was the only cook in the bunch most of the feast preparation fell to me. Cranberries and sweet potatoes were not to be found, so expats who were making trips back to the United States were charged with bringing “home” those delicacies. I managed to produce an almost-authentic turkey dinner for twenty, and I can assure you that copious amounts of Jameson’s Irish Whisky and Guinness made the whole event much more celebratory.

This year we’ll be celebrating with family in Florida, so there will be no difficulty in coming up with all the marshmallows, Karo syrup and cornbread we’ll need, but I thought it would be fun to see how ex pats are celebrating Thanksgiving far away.

PARIS

Our friends Jeremy Schuster and Suzanne Flenard tell me that the French are fascinated with Thanksgiving because it’s the only major holiday without religious ties like Christmas or Easter. In France, the world capital of fine cuisine, the traditional American menu takes on a more haut epicurean flair. For instance, Jeremy mentioned that the host of the pot luck celebration they attended last year served foie gras instead of sausage in his turkey dressing and added white truffles to the cornbread. Suzanne describes her recipe for mashed potatoes this way, “We put potatoes through a sieve with tons of great French butter until they’re absolutely silky. They’re really just a delivery system for all that wonderful butter,” she laughs.

Many ex-pats in Paris share a pot luck meal, while others prefer to sample the exquisite offerings of famous French chefs. This year, instead of grating their own truffles, Jeremy and Suzanne will be joining others at the world renowned Guy Savoy Restaurant. It’s not without a little envy that I wish them bon appétit!

COTE D’AZUR, FRANCE

Suzanne and Jeremy found turkeys readily available in Paris, since turkey is the popular fowl for Christmas meals, but our friends Mary Webb and Howard Walker, who live aboard a Dutch trawler cruising Europe’s canals, escape Northern Europe’s harsh winters on the Cote D’Azur in the the south of France. Procuring the ingredients for a Turkey Day fete is a challenge. Says Mary, “Searching for ingredients is like a treasure hunt. Pecans are sold in Nice around Thanksgiving for expats, and last year I found a non Karo syrup recipe for Southern Pecan Pie because Karo syrup was not going to jump into my shopping cart. Picard, the fabulous frozen food stores that are all over France, had frozen sheets of dough that worked okay for pie crust. I was even able to find a beautiful, frozen turkey breast stuffed plums and armagnac there. Best of all, I managed to find a round pie pan, thanks to a neighborly Irish woman. The French don’t do round pies – just delicious tarts. Brown sugar wasn’t to be found, so for the sweet potato souffle I serve in orange cups I used a bit of regular sugar and honey. Sadly there were no marshmallows on top!”

Mary continued, “This year, however, we are anxious to meet other expats in the Menton area, since we are newbies to this eastern end of the Riviera. So we have booked reservations at a casual restaurant called Stars ‘n Bars on the port in Monte Carlo, just around the headland from Menton, for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner complete with all the trimmings. The dinner is sponsored by an expat group called Monaco USA, so we will be seated family style with our countrymen. My mouth is already watering at the thought of digging into my favorite holiday meal and giving thanks with fellow Americans.”

ECUADOR

I managed to catch up with friends, the Keanes, who have lived in Cuenca, Ecuador, for three years. Amy told me, “Our first year, we were invited to a large gathering of expats, where our hosts deep fried a huge pavo (turkey) and all of us pitched in, preparing a potluck of the traditional side dishes. It was just like a huge extended family with mismatched table settings and second helpings galore. We’ve also celebrated Thanksgiving “American style” at a local restaurant, where a place catering to Gringos pulled out all the stops with a special turkey based “menú del día.” Chatting with expats from many states often turns into “recipe recitations,” with everyone recanting our regional favorites across the tables. This year, we will be celebrating with a quiet Thanksgiving at home, inviting our next door neighbors, a young Peruvian expat couple to join us for the day. With satellite TV, I can even indulge my North American football addiction. While our turkey and stuffing roast away, our condo in the Andes will fill with the delicious aromas of the season, AND we’ll have leftovers for days! Of course, a late afternoon Skype call to the grandkids and our aging parents in the states will round out the holiday.”

MEXICO

Tim and I lived in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, a colonial town in the high desert of Mexico at one time and we once departed from tradition and attempted to cook an entire suckling pig. Although the main course didn’t turn out too well, we certainly had a jolly day enjoying an American/Mexican potluck that was hard to beat. Homemade tamales assuaged our sadness about the overcooked pig that year.

Our good friend Ben Calderoni usually smokes a turkey while his artist wife Merry is in charge of the typical Thanksgiving side dishes. She tells me that several bakeries in town have discovered there’s good business in producing pumpkin, pecan and mincemeat pies, so guests who don’t cook have a chance to participate, too.

Another great friend, who is also an excellent cook, David Manning, suggests that with so many excellent restaurants offering authentic Thanksgiving menus with a Mexican twist, there’s almost no reason to hunt for hard to get ingredients and chop all that celery…especially when you can be toasting the holiday with a great margarita and let someone else do the dishes.

BRITAIN

London expats Margo and Rick Riccobono have lots of reasons to be thankful this year. Their daughter, who lives nearby, has a darling year old boy and has just announced that a little brother or sister is on the way. Margo says, “I’m a glutton for punishment, I guess, because Thanksgiving dinner isn’t the easiest thing to produce here in London. There are always interesting challenges: For starters, on my first attempt the roasting pan wouldn’t fit in the oven, so a little pre-carving to fit the bird in another pan slowed down the process by an hour or so. They don’t sell round pie pans here, so my square pies looked strange but were eaten to the last drop! One of my biggest problems is that there is not much fat from the turkeys in this country, so making gravy is a real challenge. I find myself using lots of butter instead and guess what, they gobble that up, too! All the other staples, sweet potatoes, stuffing ingredients, and homemade cranberry sauce can be found. Even finding Karo syrup for the pies is possible if you’re willing to go to about a hundred stores,” she laughed. “I walk enough gathering the ingredients that I can afford to enjoy that big meal without any guilt,” she continued.

She told me that since working people love home cooked food she usually has ten or twelve at her table for the big day, and I’m sure this year will the the most delicious feast of all.

Whether in London, Fort Lauderdale or Abu Dhabi, we know that millions of turkeys will be consumed offering a chance to gather together and count our blessings no matter where we are.

 

Notes from Normandy

Our room with the pink roses trying join us.

The moment we committed to spending all of last summer in Paris, which incidentally wasn’t a very hard decision, our precious  friends and owners of our favorite Paris apartment, Andie and Georges, began planning a getaway for the four of us.  There were many advantages for us:  they are just about the most entertaining, charming couple we know; they know almost everything about history, food, France and a whole lot of other important stuff; they speak fluent French – she, a New Yorker, has been living there for thirty-six years and Georges is a Paris native; they were keen on planning the entire excursion, and they even  have a CAR!  Exactly what they see in two vagabonds like us is beyond me, but I’m happy for their warped vision!

Normandy was the perfect destination.  It’s not too far from Paris, beautiful and rural, has undeniable cultural and historical attractions, and, of supreme importance to us four foodies,  it has the best oysters, cream, butter, lamb, and other precious commodities that the we us crave.  Andie found the perfect spot for our rendezvous, and four days after we arrived in Paris we were off to the country with Tim at the wheel and Georges firmly in charge of maps and GPS.  Andie and I were the giggling second graders in the backseat, except that we didn’t fight or pinch each other!

Our first stop was Honfleur, the romantic seaport where Monet, Courbet and Boudin and some other grats founded the Honfleur school of painting. It eventually developed into the Impressionist movement.  There’s a reason they went there.  It’s stunningly beautiful.  Our feast of mussels presaged the delicious treats that were in store for us for the next four days.

The darling town of Honfleur.
We were SO happy to be here on such a beautiful day.

Charming side streets captivated us.
Of course, the four of us were always doing what we loved best. Check out those mussels!



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After a  stroll around that precious village we gawked and laughed our way along country lanes to La Beauconnaire, the B & B Andie had so diligently searched for.  It was worth every moment of her good work!

Driving up to the house each day never ceased to amaze us. Just what I'd always imagined a Normandy country house to be.
The garden looking from our house to the main house.
Our hilarious host, Dean, entertained us each evening when we returned to the B&B.
Luscious blooms were everywhere. The far right roses were pushing right into our window and scented our lives everyday with their sweet fragrance.

Tim, Andie, Georges and me on our last day at Beaconniere.



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The farm house was off a narrow road at the end of a long driveway of tall formal horse chestnuts that trembled in the breeze. At the end was the house with heavy old roses trained up sturdy arches to frame the front door.  It looks like everyone’s  dream of a French country house. We had  two large rooms upstairs and a communal dining room below in a restored farm building at the back of the property, and  a comfortable patio for cocktails beckoned us to the garden. Pink blowsy blossoms nudged into our window upstairs. Their intense old rose scent was even more intoxicating than the  rosé we’d brought along from Paris.

Our host, Dean, was hilarious.  A hearty Englishman, he, with his wife Susan,  had restored the property and built the garden.  He entertained us every morning at breakfast, which he personally  served, and again at the cocktail hour, when he offered stand-up comedic entertainment made up of ribald stories, local lore and solid information about the Allies’ Normandy invasion in World War II.  He  also saw to it that we had reservations every night at stunning local restaurants like Le Chapeau Rouge at Le Poteau in Guilberville, an adorable family restaurant with first class authentic cuising, and The Chateau D’Agneau, a spectacular estate restaurant which served the best lamb any of us had ever tasted.  Every evening after touring the countryside we would head out following Dean’s instructions, and enjoy service and dining experiences we would never have discovered on our own.  

Fruit soup…oh, my!
My own true love!
Even burgers are a big deal in Normandy. Check those frites.



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The Norman countryside was in full-blown summer celebration, with every form of plant life  breaking its heart to bloom, reproduce and retain enough strength to withstand the miserable wet and cold that would descend upon it fast and early in September.  Dean said he could just poke things into the ground and they would grow!  That’s every gardener’s dream.

As we roamed  the narrow back roads, stopping to see the sites and pay our respects to those who suffered, the natural beauty of the place, the charming villages, gardens and lovely beaches made the memories of  that hideous war even more poignant.

On the beaches of Normandy,  Allied forces staged the largest amphibious invasion in history, landing 130,000 troops on June 6, 1944.  In order to provide the troops with supplies, the British built an artificial port at Arronmanche.  The museum there commanded our attention for hours.

The cliffs of Normandy.
A remnant of the man-made harbor.
A mock-up in the museum.
The flags are everywhere in Normandy.




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At Utah Beach, one of the bloodiest landing places, visitors walk up a path lined on each side with red floribunda roses.  They were in full, glorious bloom that sunny day. No one had much to say, and soon we were standing on the bluffs above Utah Beach looking out over the waving grass gaily sprinkled with wildflowers.  The sea was a pale moonstone color, its  froth dribbling on the tan beach, stepping back to the deeper water in a darker teal, finally melding into a deep bottomless navy blue.   None of us spoke much, but I think that we were all conjuring the deep-throated booms of cannons and the pings of gunfire  on that terrible day. All the old war movies I ever saw came crashing back into my head, but nothing on film could could express just how impossible the task must have been for those soldiers.

There is a tall column reaching skyward at the top of the hill, and directly down a long slope a black monument which is  etched with the names of all the divisions and companies of men from the countries which had participated in the Allied attack. The site is plain, restrained and deeply moving.  The monument sits directly on top of a German bunker, dug deep into the hill.  We went down a path and entered the bunker, which held puddles from the last rains.  It was ugly, grey, dark and terrible.  Georges said that there are hundreds of them all along the Atlantic.  When we emerged we could see first hand why it took so long and so many lives to conquer those strongholds.  The cliffs are sharp and tall, the bunkers deep, and it seemed to us impossible that anyone ever managed to get up there and root out the enemy.

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We visited Omaha Beach, where navigational problems caused the troops to land in the wrong places, resulting in a horrifying number of casualties.  Small penetrations were eventually achieved by groups of survivors making improvised assaults, scaling the bluffs between the most heavily defended points. By the end of the day, two small isolated footholds had been won, which were subsequently exploited against weaker defenses further inland, thus achieving the original D-Day objectives over the following days.

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Finally, we went to the American Cemetery, a solemnly beautiful place where people shushed their children and walked thoughtfully up a wide walkway lined with trees toward the cemetery.  The ocean sparkled and the sky was gorgeous that day.  What had gone on in that area so long ago was unimaginable to us.  An open-air monument  displays heroic-size inlaid maps showing  spread of the Nazis over Europe and the subsequent movements of the Allied forces as they pushed them back as far as Russia.  The war became real to me when I saw the arrows depicting the movement of the forces.  The fact that so many  countries could coordinate their efforts and effectively put aside their egos and interests in a common pursuit was amazing to me.  I don’t believe that kind of cooperation would be possible today.

As we were moving toward the precise rows of nearly 10,000  white crosses gleaming in the sun, a recording of “The Star Spangled Banner” began to play.  People stopped, swiveling their heads to find a flag, and put their hands on their hearts.  It was impossible to keep from weeping, and immediately afterwards  “Taps” was broadcast, which caused even the most stoic to react.  There was not a sound on the huge cemetery grounds for many minutes after the last note trailed away. Everyone seemed to have drifted into his or her own reverie about the enormity of the events that had happened in that place.

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Our discussions of all that we had seen and experienced lasted late into the evening, and we  the next day it was almost shocking to back to the contemporary bustle of Paris.  We had shared profound moments, great beauty, unforgettable meals, and most of all the priceless gift of lovely days shared  with friends whom we love and admire.