Le premier soir nous sommes allés au restaurant “Bottega.” J’ai bu du vin de Michael Chiarello. C’était bon, mais le coût était un peu cher, à mon avis. En Plus, il vend son vin à son magasin pour $40. Pas mal, pas mal, mais on trouve ce vin au magasin “Oakville Grocery” pour $35. (Saligaud!)

(Comme la ramure!)

Alors, je mangeais une salade avec des raisins; c’etait bon, mais la sauce était trop lourde. Le raviolo était superbe mais la polenta avec les champignons était parfaite!

Nous avons laissé la mer de vêtements composés d'orange lumineux et fluo électrisant.. Nous nous sommes dirigés tout droit vers la sortie.  Nous sommes arrivés à la petite cabine au milieu des vignes.

Le lendemain matin, nous sommes partis pour 'Oxbow’ où on trouve l'espresso acclamé. L’epsresso était incroyable, absolument incroyable!

Nous avons pris une excursion au théâtre dans la ville où j'ai perdu mon chapeau. Où est mon chapeau? Je l'ai trouvé. J'ai retrouvé mon chapeau reposant sous un siège.

Du Fromage et du chocolat, du chocolat et du fromage et du vin et du foie gras occupaient mon après-midi.

Un petit hommage au foie gras

Votre texture est étonnante! Vous avez un goût comme un ciel de beurre. Vous allez parfaitement avec brioche, ces brioches floconneuses! Je me suis assise en dehors de la boulangerie Bouchon, sachant que dedans était mon foie gras. Je suis végétarienne, sauf les jours où je mange du foie gras. Je sais que je suis horrible.

Si les gens s'arrêtent de manger le hamburger, s'arrêtent de conduire les SUV, admettent que le réchauffement climatique existe et abandonnent la télé-réalité, je vais arrêter de manger du foie gras.  Vu que ça n'arrivera pas, je peux manger tous les foie gras que je veux.

Ma famille et mes amis ne savent pas pourquoi j'adore le foie gras . Je viens de Chicago, où je pense le Foie Gras a été interdit pendant un temps.  J'ai grandi dans une famille où "le soir des tacos" était élégant. Mes ancêtres viennent de Lausanne, ce qui est la seule explication pour l'amour du foie gras. 

Why Foie Gras is Not unethical.

Oui, je regardais des vidéos contre le foie gras aussi. Oui, je sais les exploitations agricoles sont particulièrement cruelles. Saviez-vous que les Canards engraissent leur propre foie chaque hiver? Si nous mangeons le foie gras durant la saison, ce serait plus sain pour tout le monde. Regardez, cela s'est passé 2500 avant JC quand on a découvert cette façon saisonnière par les Egyptiens. Plutôt que d'interdire purement et simplement une chose, pourquoi ne pas aller chercher un meilleur traitement pour les animaux?  Si on exige un meilleur traitement pour les animaux, pourquoi pas un meilleur traitement de l'eau. Ce serait formidable si on enlevait les produits chimiques dans notre eau, non? 

Dr. Oz mange du foie gras. Choqué?  Anthony Bourdain à visité une ferme qui fait du foie gras et apparemment ce n'est pas l'alimentation forcée qui est cruelle comme nous le pensions. 
Foie Gras avec Anthony Bourdain

Le foie gras fait signe et j'ai résisté. Je suis sortie de chez Bouchon sans du foie gras. Mais, cela n'a pas arrêté pas la tentation, alors, j'ai arrêté à l'épicerie Oakville pour du pâté. Grave erreur, c'était pas terrible. La prochaine fois que je vais acheter du Foie Gras chez Bouchon, c'est juste trop succulent.

A mon avis, lorsque les Français marient la brioche avec du foie gras, l'excellence se réalise!

Making Brioche

Malheureusement une interdiction du foie gras entrera en vigueur en Californie, au mois de juillet en 2012. Ce sera illégal d'acheter ou de vendre du foie gras. Je vais déménager en France.

Foie Gras Ban hitting California July 2012

Existentialism through S&M, Psych 101 and Chandeliers.

Friday night I went to see “Special Treatment” with the amazing Isabelle Huppert.  The Film is a great study in Existentialism. After reading the puritanical description of this movie and after reading a few movie reviews, which completely missed the entire point of the movie, I decided to give my own deux centimes. 

Regarding the titles. The original French title is existentialist. 

“Sans queue Ni Tete.” "Neither tails nor heads" which arrives at nothing. I have no idea who decided that “Special Treatment” would make a good title when it has nothing to do with anything in this film. Special Treatment was a term used in WWII when someone was being sent to their death. No one dies in this film. If the English title is referring to the individualized treatment that the clients are receiving then that would make slightly more sense; however, no one truly is receiving special treatment in that sense since they are paying for their treatment/services being rendered to them. Alors, a more existentialist title would have been more appropriate and would have set the right tone for the film.  Par example, like “Without Sense” ou bien “Arriving at nothing” 

Oui, bad translations abound in the film. The beginning is the best example. While Huppert is walking through an antiques shop with her friend she begins a witty conversation about laying pipes and blowing pipe. I don’t think I have to explain what the conversation truly was about. Yet, the film’s translations really do not hint at the double entendre going on. It seems like they are actually talking about a bunch of pipes.  Since my French friend was the only one laughing I am assuming no one in the theatre quite understood what was going on there. 

The movie reviewer of the New York Times pointed out that Huppert called one of her clients chandelier because his money was going to pay for the chandelier that she wanted. 

“For all of Alice’s deference to her clients, her contempt for them leaks out like a bad smell. She refers to one as “chandelier,” because the money she makes from him will cover the cost of a glittering ceiling ornament she has recently purchased.”

It is not contempt but rather indifference that she holds for others, she simply doesn’t care anymore. She calls him chandelier as a way to detach herself from him, as a way to distance herself. 

Like the lead in Albert Camus, "The Stranger." “Aujourd’hui, maman est morte.” 

There is a detachment there, he wasn’t cruel about his mother’s death, he wasn’t cold he was stating it as a fact. He, like the prostitute in this film & like the Psychologist is detached.  Viola existentialism. 

“...Ms. Huppert conveys an iciness verging on cruelty. When she matter-of-factly regales one potential customer with a list of her fees and services — 400 euros (about $575) for 30 minutes, with a minimum of 10 sessions — you wonder why any man would sign up for fun and games with someone so forbiddingly chilly.

Again, she is just delivering the facts, it is a business deal. If a man were sitting down and about to make a transaction with someone how would he act? This is sex, this isn’t dating, this is purely a session for someone to acquire something that they are not getting in their everyday existence. 

“it is because man's condition is ambiguous that he seeks, through failure and outrageousness, to save his existence." Simone de Beauvoir

As far as the New York Times critic writing that she was too old. Brother, she was incredibly sexy and strong. There is a reason why the french have more sex and the women are considered sexier, it’s because they embrace their humanity and that beauty is in naturalness. This way of thinking allows the incredibly talented and lovely Kirsten SCott Thomas to still be working. This way of thinking is unlike the Hollywood Film industry where everyone looks, fake young, waxed, shiny, with a subtle shade of orange and a rigidness that makes them uncomfortable to watch. 

From the Village Voice: “The film, starring Huppert, quickly telegraphs that its ideas are too shallow for a talent as deep as hers.” Again, this is existentialism,  life is absurd and shallow and we have to create meaning out of our lives ourselves.  

“They're both assholes, but he's a bigger one.”


Not assholes, just lost. Assholes are people who deliberately treat people like crap, these two leads are simply drowning in their everyday life & do not know where to turn next. Then they find one another which leads them down a new path. Through new relationships they are able to find different paths to take. 

Nous sommes partis à midi. 

Nous voulions partir à onze heures et demie mais nous oublions toujours que cela prend 30 minutes pour nous préparer à partir.  

En route nous écoutions David Sandborn etait décontractant. Puis, j’avais besoin d’aller faire pipi et nous avions faim alors nous sommes alles à Laguna Beach pour déjeuner

à Watermarc. 

J’aime bien Watermarc, ce restaurant a une vrai bonne cuisine. J’ai mangé du “Foie Gras Creme Brulee” avec brioche. Oui je sais “crème brûlée au foie gras,” c’est comme le ciel et quand je mange quelquechose comme ça je remercie Dieu. 

Alors, on y va...

Comme nous faisions une halte en route, la circulation est devenue mauvaise.  J’étais très somnolente à cause de mon mojito et c’etait très difficile pour moi de rester éveillée. Nous ecoutions “Tear for Fears,” parce que, pourquoi pas. 

Nous sommes sortis pour dîner avec le groupe. Nous avons choisi un restaurant mexicain, il y avait trop de bruit dans le restaurant et une mauvaise ambiance; donc nous avons changé de restaurant et nous avons trouvé un restaurant a coté. Alors, nous nous sommes assis dans le restaurant et les gens à côté de nous étaient trop bruyant pour nous donc nous avons changé de table. Enfin, notre table était trop bruyante mais peu importe, c’est la vie, non?

Nous nous sommes réveillés à 7h30, comme d’habitude. Le petit déjeuner était horrible, comme d’habitude.  Je suis allée au café dans la rue pour écrire cet essai. 

Après quelques minutes un saxophoniste a commencé à jouer, cependant, le propriétaire n'a pas éteint la radio j’ecoutais du jazz et du pop en même temps.  “Je craque! Je Flippe! Je ne suis plus tranquille.” J’ai pensé. A cet instant J’avais un mal d’estomac.  

J'ai essayé de mettre mon casque à écouteur mais ensuite j'ai pu entendre trois types de musique. Enfin, j'ai dit au propriétaire, “Monsieur la radio, la radio c’est possible d’éteindre la radio s’il vous plait, c’est trop.” Mais dans ma tête je pensais. “Andouille! Cretin! Un vrai zozo!”  A l’instant j'ai décidé que l'empoisonnement de musique existe et comme une intoxication alimentaire, c’est arrivé rapidement et sans avertissement.

Alors, c’est la vie...

A Hedgehog, a gold fish and Tolstoy makes a great film.

I was always lost in a book as a child. Books honed and fueled my imagination which in turn gave me countless of hours creating the most fantastical worlds in my little attic like room. One of my fondest childhood memories was lying in bed, in perhaps the fourth grade, finishing a book that I could not put down even though it was Saturday morning and the sun was shining and the neighbor boys were throwing rocks at my window beckoning me to continue our work on the treehouse we were building above our street.

Here is Paloma, she, like me, sits in her room and lets her imagination rule her life. In a family where she feels isolated her imagination is her best friend. She is a little intellectual whose glasses always get stuck in her hair. From a wealthy family she is well aware of the ridiculousness of life,  of wealth,  of unaware people in an existential way. She decides she is done with it all but in walks her new neighbor and a new introduction to the building's concierge. They all share a love of books, of art, of great films and of eventually connecting with one another in a world where it seems no one is connecting. 

It is a great film that I just saw last night. The audience applauded which is always a good sign.  While walking out an older women, perhaps in her 80's, stopped her car and asked me if I had just seen the film, (perhaps she recognized my hat, I am rarely without a hat) and I said yes and she shouted. “Didn’t you just love it, oh it was just great.”  There was a connection over the film between two strangers and new shared love of the film between my French prof and I. 

See it or start with the book, it is one of those books that gets inside you and one of those films that stays with you. 

Vanessa Paradis on the Bridge...

"La fille sur le pont” or “The girl on the bridge” is a surprisingly charming film starring one of my favorite actors, Danny Auteil along with model/actrice Vanessa Paradis, who is also a french singer http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/id417312286 and is known to many as Johnny Depp's girl. 

Why surprisingly charming? The description of a knife thrower who charms girls off bridges from completing their final act and then persuades them to join him in his knife throwing routine around Europe whilst blindfolded, on rocking boats, on wheels; etc... doesn’t sound like it would be charming but it is quite charming- quel surprise!

Dans ce film Vanessa radiates with the eyes of the silent film era. Her acting is superb and her look is absolutely perfect for this Fellini-esque Godard type film. The film debuted in 1999 and was directed by Patrice Laconte (Ridicule, another fantastic film) who captured, the what I call 'old school' black and white, in simply, and may a I borrow a word from the French-  such a ravissant way!

At a time when films are rarely based on relationships through people’s work unless it involves some type of government corruption, give this one a try, you will escape for a good 88 minutes into the charming pixie cutted Paradis, the intensity and naturalness of Danny Auteil, who won a Cesar for this role and the enchanting music of Dosia McKay. Dosia McKay music to knife throwing scene

“Few sane persons enjoy French Pop Music.” Anthony Bourdain

February 23, 2011 by frenchmoi

The French are known for their chocolates, their incredibly soft cheese, their lovely sex infused films filled with existential angst, their writers, their painters, their architecture, café society, their reds, yellows and blues tossed about rooms and their Debussy’s and Chopin’s. The list is très, très long (no wonder they are such a proud nation) But, there is one area that they are not known for and that area is pop music. Yes, they have their incredible Edith Piaf and Yves Montand; however, in these modern, guitar wielding, electronic nuanced times the French can lag behind.

In the book, “A Cook’s Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal.” Le sexy, Anthony Bourdain wrote that “Few Sane persons enjoy French Pop Music.” Well I am here to challenge that statement.  I am a musician & if one searches long, hard and carefully enough there are a few moody, creative and crazy talented pop musicians that hail from French language countries.

Pauline Croze is an artist that I found  just a week ago.

Once in awhile I will take an artist that I have loved for years (Keren Ann) and do a search on iTunes just to see if anyone new pops up and this past week Mademoiselle Croze said bonjour.  À propos, I call my searches “Pandora-esque hopping via iTunes.”

Pauline Croze:

Pauline began playing the guitar at the age of 14 and honed her voice by listening to Ella Fitzgerald. Her lyrics have a haunting, melancholic quality but the chansons themselves are not Cold Play melancholic inducing. À propos, Cold Play is mooody, not Damien Rice moody, that guy makes me want to go to Ireland and cry into a beer and I am not a fan of beer. Scotch, oui! Beer, non. Martini’s, si.  Mais,  je m’éloigne du sujet. (I digress)

I will let you be the judge of Pauline but here are some of my favorite songs of hers to get you started. From her first self entitled album: I. M’en voulez vous  II. Larmes,  I love these lyrics in Larmes: “Larmes envahit nos âmes” The flood of tears invades our souls “Le flot de nos larmes purifie nos âmes” The flood of tears purifies our souls.

On her second album entitled “Un bruit qui court” The chanson “Baiser d’adieu” and accompanying video are quite charming. “Valparaiso” is another. I love the guitar on this piece as well as the syncopated rhythms and chromatic/diatonic breakdown. C’est magnifique!

Finalement: Here are a few other musicians that are fantastic and in the same mood. Keren Ann who sings in English as well.  Elephantine=very cool and a mec (guy). Cali, more rock and another mec. Of course there is the First Lady, Carla Bruni. Amuse-toi bien!!

There you have and there it is. Until next time.

~À la Prochaine fois~ M

*Coming soon. “On most days I am a vegetarian except for the days when I am eating foie gras.”

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