The greatest dishes are very simple. - Auguste Escoffier Suddenly the anemic rose bush just outside the French windows that lead out to the wrought-iron terrace hanging on the side of the hotel is thick with jade-colored leaves and dotted crazily with buds, the first already bursting in blood red splendor. The wisteria is luxurious with ...
It's so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone. - John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent I met Stephen in Nigeria in 1986. He was a Fulbright professor lecturing in English and creative writing at the University of Ife, in Ile-Ife. I was visiting a ...
All human plans subject to ruthless revision by Nature, or Fate, or whatever one preferred to call the powers behind the Universe. - Arthur C. Clarke, 2010: Odyssey Two Spring had sprung, or so we thought. Gentle sunshine, mild afternoons, the temperature inching upwards and memories of laundry flapping in the fresh air come flooding ...
De toutes les passions, la seule vraiment respectable me paraît être la gourmandise. - Guy de Maupassant “Okay, your turn,” they said, and a dozen pair of eyes slid in my direction. “Tell us about yourself.” I have never been comfortable talking about myself, but here I was, the center of attention, albeit for just a ...
Gardens are not made by singing 'Oh, how beautiful!' and sitting in the shade. - Rudyard Kipling, Complete Verse It was a tangle of brambles and ivy, a wilderness of sticks and dried grass and odd and unknown stalks of something or other sticking heavenward willy-nilly across the landscape. The old wooden gate pushed open to ...
Did you ever sleep in a field of orange-trees in bloom? The air which one inhales deliciously is a quintessence of perfumes. This powerful and sweet smell, as savoury as a sweetmeat, seems to penetrate one, to impregnate, to intoxicate, to induce languor, to bring about a dreamy and somnolent torpor. It is like opium ...
Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real. - Jules Verne He placed his index finger on the map spread out on the table in front of me and traced a careful line from the northern coast just below where land meets Channel south to La Rochelle. He wanted to be closer to the ...
O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind? - Percy Bysshe Shelley Winter rolls in on a wave of misty white, the fog hanging heavy and cruel over the city. The icy chill penetrates every pore of one’s body and no matter what one does, no matter how many blankets or pairs of socks, ...
An orange on the table, your dress on the rug, and you in my bed, sweet present of the present, cool of night, warmth of my life. – Jacques Prévert As summer winds down and fades into autumn, as the stone fruits and berries turn mealy and flavorless and then disappear into memory, I begin to crave oranges. It is ...
Nature bestows her own, richest gifts And, with lavish hands, she works in shifts... - Gertrude Tooley Buckingham, The Four Seasons The summer pop-up shops are closed, windows dark and gathering dust. The streets are emptier without the tourists, and that emptiness is made all the heavier for the recent days of grey skies and intermittent rain. ...
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.
