the mothership visits - food and flowers
On Sunday morning J took the family to the popular Sunday farmer's market at Divonne-les-Bains in France. There was talk of having oysters for breakfast and buying a roast chicken lunch home. I knew that Bao would get restless and cranky at the market so I volunteered to stay home with her and catch up on laundry. In the end Bao and I also went out: to one of the small supermarkets across the border to pick up some bread and essential supplies.
Gloriously soft and sweet nougat.
(Picture off my sister since I didn't go to the market.)
That morning they came home with the most food we've ever brought home from the market: two roast chickens and a tub of new potatoes, roasted in chicken fat; strawberries, oranges and one of the first musk melons of the season; cheese (a sheep's milk one and a wedge of parmesan); two baguettes fresh from the oven; two slabs of nougat and a bag of roast almonds (my sister has a weakness for these); half a kilo of freshly cooked prawns and a bag of king crab legs!
If you look closely you'll see the crab legs are €79/kg. Thanks, grandma!
The seafood was a surprise because it is so expensive here. Before this day, I don't think I'd eaten crab since moving here. The Bun, who loves seafood, spied the crab legs and his indulgent grandmother bought it for him as a treat. I added some lightly steamed white asparagus to the table and we had quite a spread for lunch that day.
After lunch all of us headed out to Morges, a town about forty minutes' drive from where we live, to check out their annual tulip festival. It's a big deal, this festival, with a website that has updates on how the flowers are blooming. This was the first weekend of the festival and it was packed. Most of the tulips had already bloomed and they had all been planted in specially-designed beds to highlight the colours of the flowers. I never knew there were so many varieties of tulips, so this was a big eye-opener for me and I'm actually keen to return some time this season, or if that doesn't work out, then definitely next year.
My mother among the blooms.
Bao as usual was a bit of a menace. We did manage to dissuade her from running through the flowerbeds but then she kept insisting on picking up small pebbles and twigs to place inside the tulip cups. Every time we stopped her or tried to distract her, she would melt into a puddle of tears on the grass. It was easy for anyone to spot us inside the crowded park because all they had to do was follow the sound of the crying. The only time she sat quietly was when we sat under a tree for an impromptu snack picnic, and even then the peace lasted only until the strawberry Pocky was finished.
At least she didn't rip the petals off.
I'm sure some day when Bao is past this phase all this will seem quite amusing, but truthfully she's exhausting right now. At this point in time we didn't realise it but Paris would turn out to be the true test of our patience with Bao. More on that soon.
Gloriously soft and sweet nougat.
(Picture off my sister since I didn't go to the market.)
That morning they came home with the most food we've ever brought home from the market: two roast chickens and a tub of new potatoes, roasted in chicken fat; strawberries, oranges and one of the first musk melons of the season; cheese (a sheep's milk one and a wedge of parmesan); two baguettes fresh from the oven; two slabs of nougat and a bag of roast almonds (my sister has a weakness for these); half a kilo of freshly cooked prawns and a bag of king crab legs!
If you look closely you'll see the crab legs are €79/kg. Thanks, grandma!
The seafood was a surprise because it is so expensive here. Before this day, I don't think I'd eaten crab since moving here. The Bun, who loves seafood, spied the crab legs and his indulgent grandmother bought it for him as a treat. I added some lightly steamed white asparagus to the table and we had quite a spread for lunch that day.
After lunch all of us headed out to Morges, a town about forty minutes' drive from where we live, to check out their annual tulip festival. It's a big deal, this festival, with a website that has updates on how the flowers are blooming. This was the first weekend of the festival and it was packed. Most of the tulips had already bloomed and they had all been planted in specially-designed beds to highlight the colours of the flowers. I never knew there were so many varieties of tulips, so this was a big eye-opener for me and I'm actually keen to return some time this season, or if that doesn't work out, then definitely next year.
My mother among the blooms.
Bao as usual was a bit of a menace. We did manage to dissuade her from running through the flowerbeds but then she kept insisting on picking up small pebbles and twigs to place inside the tulip cups. Every time we stopped her or tried to distract her, she would melt into a puddle of tears on the grass. It was easy for anyone to spot us inside the crowded park because all they had to do was follow the sound of the crying. The only time she sat quietly was when we sat under a tree for an impromptu snack picnic, and even then the peace lasted only until the strawberry Pocky was finished.
At least she didn't rip the petals off.
I'm sure some day when Bao is past this phase all this will seem quite amusing, but truthfully she's exhausting right now. At this point in time we didn't realise it but Paris would turn out to be the true test of our patience with Bao. More on that soon.