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Post by breeze on Apr 17, 2024 11:15:21 GMT
Casi, I was hoping you'd post photos of your house someday. It's terrific, colorful, and charming. This is how I picture houses in New Orleans, never having been there.
I can see the photo is from January and the front garden is at a low ebb. I bet by now it's full of plants. I seem to recall you wound up with a smaller front yard than before, but maybe that means you have more gardening space in the back?
Such a lovely tribute to you and T in the caption and comments!
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Post by breeze on Nov 18, 2023 21:45:07 GMT
casimira, that's a touching story of T coming home. I think City of New Orleans is one of the great American songs.
Years ago I heard it sung in French on a French radio station. I recognized the tune but had no idea who the singer was. I was thinking maybe a French Canadian and googled for a few weeks before giving up.
Now, out of the blue, I learn that it's good old Joe Dassin. (Aux Champs Elysees is one of my dishwashing songs.)
The things you learn on Anyport!
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Post by breeze on Mar 4, 2023 13:27:41 GMT
kerouac, that's just the kind of movie we stay-at-home francophiles would like to see. In fact, I saw the preview on TV and hoped you would see it and like it, though even then I was thinking it's not at all your usual kind of film.
It sounds like Netflix-fodder, so maybe it'll turn up there one of these days.
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Post by breeze on Jan 14, 2023 14:37:07 GMT
A similar thing occurred in the Orne in France, though in this case the woman hadn't been seen in 5 or 10 years. She would have been 100 years old this year.
She lived in a tiny hamlet. Her son would show up every week with presumably bags of shopping and leave with presumably bags of garbage. No one saw the woman, nobody had cut the grass or weeds, and she wasn't running up her electric bill. Her son reported her water usage and paid the bill for her.
The daughter-in-law told the neighbors long ago that her mother-in-law had gone to a care home. Apparently she believed that until last August when her husband told her his mother was dead and she tipped off the mayor. The mayor called the gendarmes who did a thorough search of house and grounds but found nothing. The next day the criminal brigade from Alencon did another search and they found bones and dust within the mattress. The gendarmes had checked the bed and mattress but didn't check within the mattress.
The son died while the investigation was going on, so we'll never know why he failed to report the death of his mother. I'm sure the investigators have figured it out by now but there's been no follow-up in the newspaper.
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Post by breeze on Jan 10, 2023 13:41:12 GMT
bixa, watching a lock fill and empty, and the boat inside rise and fall, is always a treat for me. Not a lot of boats go up and down this river, but while we were eating, two boats pulled up short of the lock and a man came to the restaurant (the former lock-keeper's house) for a baguette and some picnic food. The boaters sat in a separate tent. Before E and I left, they had finished their lunch and were going through the lock. Some of the diners could have reached over from their seats and shaken hands with the boaters.
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Post by breeze on Jan 10, 2023 1:41:25 GMT
Having a tasty, simple lunch between a towpath and an active lock, with a view of a chateau on the hillside behind, is not an everyday thing for us.
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Post by breeze on Jan 7, 2023 16:03:55 GMT
Durian ice cream? Wow.
I can't figure out tofu aux oeufs or Oeuf cuit sale.
Thanks for the heads up about the end of receipts. We always want a receipt so will probably ask for ours.
My husband, who is interested in everything, saw this as he walked by and tried to figure out which items you paid TVA on. Then he scrolled up and saw your bill from last year where you paid 5.5% TVA as well as 20% TVA. Would you mind you explaining what gets basic TA and what gets the higher rate?
Also, what do CH and TH mean on your bill?
Don't mean to be intrusive, just interested in how things work.
I can post a recent Wegmans bill if you like, though it's nowhere as fascinating.
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Post by breeze on Jan 7, 2023 15:10:37 GMT
This quote, which I've run through Google Translate, endeared Le Mans to me. Sorry, I don't know where I read this online; I just copied it into my info file about Le Mans years ago.
"It nevertheless has a reputation as a working-class and combative city, where the Catholic Church has a much less influence than in its rivals Angers and Tours. Do we not speak of the "bourgeois of Angers, gentlemen of Tours and guys from Le Mans"?..."
In the original, it was "bourgeois d'Angers, messieurs de Tours et gars du Mans."
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Post by breeze on Jan 5, 2023 19:24:05 GMT
The Roman wall at Le Mans is IT!!! I admit before I saw it I thought ho hum, pile of rubble stone, left over from the Romans, maybe 10' high; the tourist office is really reaching to call this a draw. But then I saw it, a patterned brick wall at least 30' high that at one time contained and protected about 25 acres. Those Romans built to last.
We visited the remains of a small Roman hill fort within sight of the city of Mayenne. Not much was left of it, just some of the stone walls of the fort and its separate bath house. It had a fabulous view. At the time it occurred to me that probably the best job in the ancient world was to be a Roman engineer.
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Post by breeze on Jan 5, 2023 13:24:35 GMT
We've visited Le Mans twice in pouring rain and once at dusk, so I'm seeing more through your photos, kerouac, than we saw in person.
bjd, we've been down a lot of roads in the Mayenne, but Hardanges has escaped us so far. Maybe we'll jog off our usual route and take a look on our next trip. Population 203--hmm. No bakery in town, but it does have a B&B and chateau ruins. There are a lot of lifeless villages in rural France and this may be one, but we are not hard to please and I've put Hardanges on the list to visit next time.
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Post by breeze on Jan 4, 2023 23:01:29 GMT
The menhir is still there, to remind the cathedral "I was here first."
Kerouac, I'm so glad to see this trip report. it was your comments on some travel website or other that first gave us an interest in seeing Le Mans. You said that the streets of the old Cite Plantagenet were authentic enough to be a film site for period movies and TV shows. And it's true, that center part of the original city is nothing but half-timbered houses, cobbled streets, tottery buildings, wooden carvings, and windows with small glass panes. Unspoiled and also unimproved, though apparently looking better than when your husband was there, bjd.
We went to Le Mans this fall to see an exhibit about the Roman walls and also the evening illuminations on and near the cathedral. As usual, kerouac, your photos are better than mine. I agree with bixa that you did an admirable job photographing the stained glass.
bjd, if you don't mind, would you say where in the Sarthe your inlaws lived or had their country house? Or was it in the Mayenne?
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Post by breeze on Dec 22, 2022 0:22:32 GMT
I love love love Internet Archive and made a list of books that I have been unable to find in any library in Pennsylvania but that are available on Internet Archive. The list is available for when we hit a dry spell at our best nearby public library. Or we get snowed in, whichever comes first.
Just today I consulted it for a recipe that didn't make sense to me. Internet Archive had the book and I was able to find the exact recipe and a photo of the results.
Reading back through the last 6 months of this thread, I'm wondering which of the books you were about to buy turned out to be really good.
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Post by breeze on Dec 15, 2022 13:09:51 GMT
Exciting news, casimira. Fingers crossed for you. Be sure to tell us how it goes.
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Post by breeze on Dec 14, 2022 11:10:51 GMT
bixa, are you speaking of the Raboteurs de parquet? I didn't know this painting until I watched one of the clips from a series called A musée vous, A musée moi on the channel Arte. Each short video in the series starts with a well-known painting and fades into a moment in the life of the subjects. That's a really dull description of some very clever and amusing videos.
My French is not good enough to catch fast spoken French, but this particular one has subtitles which helped me. Even though they are in French.I could get the gist.
The Arte website doesn't let you watch its videos (though I think you are slick enough to make it work) but lesser mortals have to go to youtube.
The ones with Mona Lisa are my favorites.
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Post by breeze on Nov 16, 2022 14:29:19 GMT
Kimby, what a relief for you. You do have a lot of work ahead of you but this is encouraging. Stilts must be the way to go.
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Autumn
Nov 13, 2022 15:19:22 GMT
Post by breeze on Nov 13, 2022 15:19:22 GMT
Idyllic. Mark beat me to it.
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Post by breeze on Nov 11, 2022 14:31:42 GMT
Sorry to read that news, whatagain. I hope you put the word out among your friends and work contacts that you could use some help finding a different job. Your intelligence and energy would be an asset to any business.
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Post by breeze on Nov 11, 2022 14:27:01 GMT
Cheery, your dad sounds like a gem. How nice to spend an evening with people who appreciated him as much as you do.
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Post by breeze on Nov 11, 2022 14:26:16 GMT
Casimira, I'm so happy for you two, that your building permit has come in. Also happy birthday, happy return of your passport, and how great that you could see the blood moon.
Let the building begin! You know we will want photos along the way. Don't forget to take before photos, which will probably feel discouraging to you, but as things go along you can compare the current state of progress with the blank slate you started with.
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Post by breeze on Nov 7, 2022 13:26:12 GMT
This is breeze. I read anyport every day but don't often comment. I apologize for being a consumer rather than a producer.
The other night we watched an episode of Somebody Feed Phil set in Oaxaca. In the crowd scenes I looked for bixa, to be identified by her little troop of dogs. Bixa, this must have been an indoor day for you.
This series features a different town in every program and its main focus is on the food of the area. There were several different moles and all of them sounded wonderful. The previous episode we watched was set in Nashville TN and nothing there sounded good to eat. But I was primed to watch the Oaxaca segment and it did not disappoint.
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Post by breeze on Aug 18, 2022 15:06:44 GMT
Totally charming. The warm colors on the buildings remind me of a part of France where these colors are common on houses, coming right out of the local sand quarries.
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Post by breeze on Aug 10, 2022 19:56:08 GMT
On first viewing I missed seeing the ram. I should have known you'd have thought of that already.
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Post by breeze on Aug 10, 2022 14:38:35 GMT
Very ingenious, Mark, and I bet it was a lot of fun to design and make. I do wonder if the table on hinges will be able to support the weight of a computer and pounding on the keys. Maybe you've already thought of that.
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Post by breeze on Aug 4, 2022 12:10:28 GMT
Great news indeed, casimira! You'll be there every day taking photos? I hope you'll share some here. The preliminary steps on the ground seem to take forever so it'll be a while till you see the house actually taking shape, but any progress will be satisfying.
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Post by breeze on Jul 19, 2022 20:15:57 GMT
bixa, I feel exactly the same way. The price/quality ratio is very important to me. Even so, I won't eat crappy food just because it's cheap. I'm not that cheap. I look for dishes I can't make as well myself.
We only go out to eat once a week when we're at home, and we drive 75 miles which is what it takes to reach a good restaurant, a good library, a good produce stand, a Wegmans, a good pizza place, a bent-and-dent, and the occasional visit to a thrift shop. Maybe once a year we'll go to the Lindt chocolate outlet. Our day out is always the high point of my week, as much for the haul of library books as for the two meals out and the ingredients we bring back for meals at home.
Unexpectedly today, a friend who a few years back had posted a very lackluster photo of his wife and me walking toward a Thai restaurant told us that the photo has had 283k hits. Imagine how many hits Google will get when they pick up your photos of Danzantes.
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Post by breeze on Jul 19, 2022 18:58:26 GMT
bixa, Los danzantes looks lovely. Reading your descriptions of what you two ate is for me better than seeing photos or reading their menu. Often in a restaurant I'll be swayed more by a passing plate than by the menu itself. And you've made me thirsty, but it's not gin o'clock here yet. Well, we don't have any gin on hand anyway, but I'll drink a kir normand before dinner.
How often do you go out to lunch? I know you are an enthusiastic cook, but with all the professional talent surrounding you, you must be tempted to see what the pros can do with good ingredients.
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Post by breeze on Jun 22, 2022 23:11:09 GMT
Very happy for you, casimira. That's a big hurdle to get out of the way. Now on to the more fun parts.
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Post by breeze on Apr 27, 2022 19:51:10 GMT
This place looks festive right from the get-go.
Bixa, your first indoor caption says it's not crowded. Oh no? I held off scoffing and was glad I did when I came to the end. Okay, now it's crowded.
Seeing that view from upstairs, I wanted to smell the cooking aromas. What does the tent smell like? Maybe a better question is, is there a predominant smell of Mexican food? If I go into a Chinese restaurant in PA, the smell is of hot cooking oil. In a lot of small old country restaurants, there's a lingering smell when you walk in of cigarette smoke. In a restaurant in France, you can usually smell the meat of the day when you walk in, but there's not going to be a predominant herb or spice. I know I'm asking a question that's likely impossible to answer.
I can't wait to tell my husband that in Mexico stink bugs are on the menu. He is their sworn enemy and escorts them out of the house whenever he sees one. He picks them up on a webster (tool for picking up spider webs) and escorts them outdoors, very gently but ruthlessly.
It must have been overwhelming. So many choices, 50 I believe? Oh, that's 50 cooks, so 150 dishes. I would want to try some of everything, and as you say, smaller portions would give visitors a chance to try more dishes. I'd love to go around with a small bowl and get just a taste of everything. Could I manage to eat 50 tastes a day for 3 days in a row? I doubt it.
I've never had pickled pigs feet, never been tempted, but if you recommend it, bixa, I'll try to track it down. I doubt the kind sold in jars in our area would be as tasty as one cooked in the Oaxacan tradition.
Tin, pottery, textiles, palm baskets, add to the event. I would take some of those pastel plates, but the whimsical animal heads and cups appeal to me more.
I'm very happy for you, finding a dish you'd never tasted in Mexico.
Thanks for taking us along to this wonderful event.
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Post by breeze on Apr 20, 2022 22:35:33 GMT
Oh, how did I miss this announcement? I blame the phone screen; it's too small and I zip through.
Again I'll have to miss the festival so bixa, I hope you'll go and try all 150 dishes and then come back here and describe the best dishes in detail.
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Post by breeze on Apr 20, 2022 22:12:50 GMT
bixa, thanks for the link to that article about the film. The author found the same things to appreciate in the film that I did. Always nice to find someone who expresses your opinion better than you could.
The football scene isn't explained there, or anywhere that I can find, but that's just a sidelight. I'm still thinking about the rest of the film.
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