Monday, July 28, 2008

Vache E Poisson

I really don't know where to
 begin folks...Normandie is one of the loveliest places I've ever been. The people are amazingly kind and helpful, the rolling fields are full of the richest green grass, which seems to grow the plumpest chevalles and most "belles" vaches, ever! Big mauve colored geese families, strut about flowery fields and dip into ponds live with giant poisson. 



Huge ancient trees  sleep in forests primeval, where ivy-covered  chapel
s and stone greenhouses topped with leaded glass, crumble beneath the ferns.
Restauranteurs serve huge buckets of creamy Cotentin Penisula mussels and make you sop up the sauce with a baguette which earlier in the day was "bungeed" to the back of a bicycle...and you sit around for 5 hours drinking wine and calvados with butter dripping down your arms, all the while nestled inside of a giant apple cider barrel turned 
into a restaurant booth.

The high gothic churches tower over the tiny villages and on Friday or Saturdays, local markets jump with people shopping their way through tables, piled with olives, fruit, bread, fish, crustaceans, meats and cheese. And on Sundays the church bell out your window rings with dissonant chords for an hour, demanding that you wake and pay attention, and get yourself off to church. 

After waking you wander down to find a real croissant waiting for you and hop in your compact diesel car to zip off to the coast where French Trotters are racing at the seaside hippodome. At the races you eat giant grilled sausages seved on baquette with moutarde, frites and no plates. There seems to be so much less waste here, and people have less...yet more...to me, so much more. More grass, more quiet, more politeness, more old stone houses, more bicycles, more sheep, more bakeries, more wine and more time.....ahhh more time.
































Speaking of time...
...making a movie on French time...well, that's a whole other story, and those of you in the film business would be in for a shocker, and the faint of heart...well, I wouldn't even try. Wow! challenges at EVERY turn when it comes to this job. Too many to mention on 4 hours sleep, but as I said, the horses here are amazing, and their babies wobbling in the pastures are the most precious things I've laid eyes on. 
















6 comments:

Nathan said...

I honestly had no idea you were so poetic. Now, in addition to being jealous, I'm also glad you're blogging in time for us to hear all about the trip.

And I want more on why the the work load would make me crazy. (The one here is doing just fine, thank you very much.)

Jeri said...

Great pictures! I especially like the big tree.

I understand the pace issue - trying to get things done in rural Alaska to urban corporate expectations is crazy-making. They simply have no concept of the Western sense of urgency.

Julia said...

Wow. Wow. Wow. So very nicely written, indeed. I am insanely jealous. But so very happy for you!

Amy D said...

Totally jealous. Remember whenever we traveled in Italy we's sample all the cheeses of the region and the time we were in the red light district in Bologna and ate rotten Milanese cheese with the bedais spurting stink water and the lady with aids on her face that let us the room?
Glad you're thriving there.
Am reading your blog diligently though I may not always comment.
Love you girl.
xo
Amy D

Amy D said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Janiece said...

While recognizing that jealousy in not a becoming trait in a Hot Chick, I have to admit I'm a bit envious.

I'm so glad you're enjoying your stay!