The Beginning of a New Adventure
Looking back, the three of us can truly say that we never thought we were going to start a blog. None of us were spectacularly good at writing or even at taking photos. So about two months ago the subject of starting a blog about our Summers in France popped again up during conversation at dinner. We discussed how it would be fun to almost journal our days in Europe, not only for our own benefit but for others too. Our mother, finally stated “Lets do it.” So here we are writing our very first blog post.
To give more background about us, our mother is French, and we live in the beautiful yet rainy Seattle area. Our mother has lived in the U.S for 19 years, but has been very adamant that we our French culture. So every summer we board a nine hour flight to Paris, a three hour train ride to Lyon, and finally a two hour car ride to the small town of Aubenas to spend about two months in the Ardeche, the French countryside. Our family bought a 200 year old house in the area near where my mother grew up. Sitting on five acres of natural reserve, the stone house has been the summer getaway for our family. Far from luxury, the house consist of several bedrooms, an open kitchen and balcony, a pool, and yes, only one bathroom. It’s simple, but we love it. It is quiet, while still being close to town, and we truly feel in the country while looking at our backyard that consists of acres of trees. Still in need of much love, we try every year to do a simple step of renovation. For example last year consisted of repainting the pool and the one bathroom. This year we have many ideas, and the three of us will become impromptu handymen as you will see in future blog posts.
This house has seen many happy summers consisting of cousins swimming and building treehouses, family dinners where we can just barely fit everyone around the dinner table, sleeping outdoors, lazy afternoons away from the heat, friends visiting, and of course heaps of glorious French food. Ah the French and their food! Baguettes for every meal, hearty salads, the endless arrays of Charcuterie, and of course cheese. Our family looks at food as an art, and we think that has to do in part with being raised with the French meal plan. Meals in France don't take 30 minutes to eat. We can’t count the number of times we have sat around the table with my aunts and uncles where we sat,ate, and talked for hours. That is what we love most about the French culture, we enjoy food and company. Recently we have made a lifestyle change where we are mostly on a whole food plant based diet. We mostly have vegan meals, and on the rarest occasion we have organic meat. Our diet will change slightly while we are in France (who can resist the Charcuterie and frog legs!), but the meals we will show on the blog will consist of traditional French cuisine as well as some vegan recipes. We are all about that healthy lifestyle, so that will definitely be displayed here as well!
This blogging venture is completely new to us (we bought Blogging for Dummies), so bear with us while we get into the swing of things. All three of us will be contributing to the blog, whether it be through writing, photos, or brainstorming ideas. So expect different voices on here! We also hope to post daily, whether it be about a day trip to a nearby town or a recipe. Finally we hope that you enjoy reading about our Summer, and can find some inspiration in our cooking and daily adventures!
