Mieux vaut déceler une faiblesse que se laisser soupçonner d'un vice. (Better to reveal a weakness than be suspected of a vice.) - Denis Diderot, Jacques le fataliste et son maître, 1765 – 1784 Macarons, that elegant cross between a confection and a pastry, that tiny, sweet specialty of France. Lovely, they are, yet fussy and temperamental ...
The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday - but never jam today. - Lewis Carroll Who says life doesn’t start at fifty? A couple of years ago, I transformed myself and began a career as a professional writer. Two or three years later, just a week ago, I became a hôtelière, a hotel owner, a ...
We always long for the forbidden things, and desire what is denied us. - Francois Rabelais A hotel with a soul. That’s what he said. “That’s what is missing these days, hotels with a soul, une âme, warm, welcoming places where one feels at home. That’s what you have here. The hotel, your neighborhood, your region, ...
Soul meets soul on lovers' lips.- Percy Bysshe Shelley Valentine’s Day approaches and we are in no short supply of sweets, of the perfect, most decadent, richest, sexiest dessert with which to woo and to wow our lover. But something must come before the dessert, a savory dish to ignite the senses, to titillate both the ...
Obsessed by a fairy tale, we spend our lives searching for a magic door and a lost kingdom of peace. - Eugene O'Neill A stroll through the beautiful city of Chinon, and the fairytale of living in France returned and ignited my esprit. Each afternoon ramble through the narrow medieval streets of this picturesque village with its swags of roses ...
AND GOING Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real. - Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days I am surrounded by suitcases many open and half filled, the sun streaming in the windows of this apartment that we will leave in just two days. Cartons are stacked high to the ceiling, rolls of ...
Well, friends, I think we just bought a hotel. You have to make it happen. - Denis Diderot When they say that life is an adventure, I believe that they must have meant this. My head is spinning and I keep pinching myself. The story will be a while in the telling, the adventure unfolding one day at a ...
Chairs Nature is by and large to be found out of doors, a location where, it cannot be argued, there are never enough comfortable chairs. - Fran Lebowitz Winter never does settle in, in this part of the world. Not really. A midnight flurry, maybe, quite possibly, hidden from prying eyes. Wake to white in the morning and ...
Riz au Lait If you carry your childhood with you, you never grow older. - Tom Stoppard Some people think of childhoods long past, cozy corners in some nursery or propped up at a kitchen table in some small town far away with a nanny or grandma or mom hovering not very far away. Some people think of grade ...
I first made this recipe four years ago during a three-week period in which I was lucky enough to host a houseful of twenty-somethings, my son and his three friends and work partners. That meant that I was able to bake and bake to my heart’s content, for I had young men hungry for my ...
I'm Jamie; welcome to the new Life's a Feast!
I run a hotel in Chinon, France, and write about life, culture, modern day living and food.
My passion is to create vibrant and unique experiences.
