Travel & Leisure Published my Bucket List

...sort of.

Tiger's Nest Monestary- (Paro Taktsang)

While I'm getting ready to head off to Bhutan, I took a quick scroll through my email and what do you know? Travel & Leisure magazine published a bright shiny picture of Tiger's Nest in Bhutan -- exactly where I'm going. That vision of a monastery clinging onto the cliff, with its colorful prayer flags completely draws me in. Can't wait!

Now, let's see if I can grab a photo as beautiful as this one.

NOT Wonderful - Camargue Jeep Safari

Sometimes things do not go as you hope. My friends and I wanted to visit La Camargue in southern France, lured by the prospect of wild bulls and horses roaming the marshy expanse, framed by thick flocks of flamingos standing in the water, and learning about the culture and history of the gypsies who live in the area. We had understood that it best to join an organized Jeep Safari tour, rather than try to explore the unmarked roads in the vast region. So, we booked a half day tour in advance before we left the USA. It was dreadful. So dreadful that I felt compelled to weigh in on Trip Advisor, which I had used to help me select the tour. Here is what I posted on Trip Advisor, plus some photos.  

"Dreadful. Advertised as an English tour, it was not; and the guide was ineffective. Before booking, I had telephoned from the USA to make sure they had one of their English tours available. I was told there was only one time slot available so we chose this company over the other option. Our guide met us at the gathering spot and said that she does not speak much English but she will try. She confirmed our booking for 5 and added 3 more people (who were French), filling the jeep. The tour is conducted in a jeep that holds 8 plus driver, with an open top in the back. The driver's and front passenger cab has a roof. Four people plus the driver face forward. I sat in the back, where 4 unpadded jump seats face sideways. It is uncomfortable for such a long, jostling ride. 
Without even saying her name to introduce herself or describing the plan, she started driving. After a few minutes down a highway, she pulled over to the shoulder alongside an area bordering the water where a handful of flamingoes were standing in the water a short distance away. She twisted around in her seat and held up a book with a photo of a bird (which those of us in the back could not see) and tried to talk over the din of passing traffic. She described a bit about flamingos and their coloring, as well as what they eat. She spoke in French and then in English. Not everyone in my group speaks French (hence our request for an English tour), but I do. She gave considerably more information in French. Throughout the tour, she offered less and less of the information translated into English until occasionally at the end, the commentary was only in French. 
When she pulled over to talk, she would usually stop in a sunny spot, even though there were sometimes shady spots nearby. Her own seat was comfortably protected by the shade of the jeep's roof, but the passengers were open to the baking sun while she talked. And with the trucks rattling by, it was sometimes hard to hear or understand what she was saying. 
After one hour and forty minutes of bumpy ride punctuated by hot stops, she pulled into a winery and let us get out. So, thankfully, as a perverse turn of events, we were grateful to be led to the company's captive wine and souvenir shop. For one full hour, we were liberated from the jeep and got to stand up and have some air and some personal space. The one hour wine tasting sales pitch was actually quite pleasant. The remainder of the 3 1/2 hour trip was the ride back to the starting point.
Very poor tour. Inconsiderate. Not as promised. Too long and uncomfortable. Recommendation: stay away."

View of the Wild Horses, from the vantage point of the Shoulder of the Highway

Wild Bulls Roaming inside a Fenced-in Pen

Driver/Guide pulled over on the Side of the Road, Shaded by the Cab while her Customers Bake

One Hour Stop to Try to Get Customers to Buy Wine and Other Items

....and a postscript not in the Trip Advisor review. As the tour was just finishing, we passed by a canal which the guide zipped by without slowing down. She mentioned that the local people live on boats there, as their full time homes. "They even have mailboxes" is all she said about the indigenous (probably impoverished) folks whose boat/homes looked to me like slum housing - based on the quick glimpse I grabbed whizzing by. All the tour guide did was spur the question of what kind of lives of people actually live in the Camargue region. 

Houseboat Housing for Indigenous People

Guide: "They even have mailboxes". 

Nonprofit Whose Business is to Sell Alcohol

How cool is this bar?

It is a nonprofit that does a community service by providing the only gathering space (besides church) where village residents can socialize. L'Abrix is also the ONLY commerce in the tiny village Vallabrix in the south of France.

I tried to imagine a nonprofit in the United States whose mission is to sell alcohol, with children welcomed. Can't see that happening; but boy, is L'Abrix a great idea. I visited during grape harvest time in the vineyards, so in this town of 320 or so, everyone is working long days. With little time to cook or socialize at the end of the day, people bring their dogs and kids, putting toys and coloring supplies on the ground. The kids run around and everyone hangs out, eating and drinking, with recorded music playing in the background.

There are a couple of wines and beers available. The night I went there, "Dinner" was a plate of cheese, tomatoes, salami, pate and pickles. Oh, and that night's dessert was a delicious sorbet handmade from local apricots.

L'Abrix is located in a small courtyard formed at the base of one of the buildings in this medieval hamlet's center. Brilliant!

Cook'n With Class in Uzes, France

Four friends and I took a cooking lesson in the south of France with Chef Eric Fradeau. He runs a cooking school called Cook'n with Class. He founded the school in Paris and now has a branch in Uzes, in Languedoc.  Eric is French, studied with Alain Ducasse in Paris, ran restaurants for high end hotels around the world, and settled down in the small city of Uzes, about 1-1/2 hours from Avignon.  His Paris school has 6 chefs plus staff.  In the Uzes school, Eric is the only chef, plus 2 staff. The class is all about cooking local and healthy.  

With absolutely no menu planned, his only guidance was whatever looks best and interesting that day, limited by whatever allergies we have.

First stop: Friday market in Saint Quentin la Poterie, a small hamlet near Uzes.  

On market day, three rows of stalls are filled with providers of every type of food.  One lady owns only 4 cows but has a stall where she sells milk and sometimes, yogurt.  We headed to the fish stall at the end of the market to anchor the menu around the main course, and then worked our way back through the other vendors, filling in. The style of cooking is Provençal, but that label is often assumed to be limited to tomatoes and olives. So not true.

As we strolled by the items displayed for sale, Eric devised the menu:

Hors d'oeuvres platter of a spread (purchased from the fish stand) of ground salted cod bacala, mixed with mashed potatoes and milk; a dried tomato spread; and garlic basil mixture we got in the market - and crusty bread to slather it all on.

4 types of fresh sliced tomatoes with black olive oil and sea salt, cracked pepper.

Zucchini flowers stuffed with day old goat cheese mixed with garlic, scallions, black olives, milk, table salt and an egg to bind it (I'm going to jump out of order here and say that I adore zucchini blossoms and these were the absolute best because they were not fried like the Italian preparation) 

Zucchini Blossoms in the Market (Before)

(After) Zucchini Blossoms, Stuffed, Ready to go in the Oven 

laid on top of a salad of mixed greens, chestnut-fed pig smoked ham (that's a mouthful - and it was delicious), halved fig, and 2 Italian purple basil leaves.

Zucchini Blossoms all done - in the Salad

Sea bass fish roasted over herbs and greens and served over julienned caramelized fennel with roasted vegetable sauce of tomato, red pepper, garlic, scallions.

Before the Oven

Fish, Plated...didn't look like this for very long as soon as we got to it

After the fish course, there was a cheese course consisting of 2 types of goat cheeses, each paired with a jam to match. The new goat cheese had a dab of rose petal jelly (which is hand made in a nearby convent and sold on market day by the only nun from the convent who is allowed to speak from the otherwise silent order). The week-old goat cheese was paired with fig jam.

Apricot tart with chocolate mousse on the side. 

To do the cooking, Eric drove us in his van back to his school where he has a very comfortable, well equipped teaching kitchen.  He is a fantastic teacher, gives everyone hands-on tasks, and is an all-around positive guy. He was even nice when I left a sizable chunk of fish stuck on the carcass while I tried my hand at filleting.  I believed his smiled "it's fine" was genuine.

It was a fun, interesting and delicious experience. I highly recommend a class with Chef Eric.

Eric and his terrific wife Yetunde

Appropriate Chandelier, n'est-ce pas?

Strutting Through a French Farmers' Market with a Pro

Marketing while traveling is always interesting -- seeing thing you aren't familiar with - and always great people-watching. But, going to a market with a local pro, to shop with purpose takes shopping to a higher level. I went to the Friday farmers' market in Saint Quentin la Poterie in southern France with some friends, led by Chef Eric Fradeau. Our mission was to pick up the ingredients for our cooking class that day. 

As we shopped, Chef Eric offered a couple of interesting tips:

When selecting fish for freshness, look for an arch in the back, suggesting its muscles are taut from recent struggle while being caught. 

The French fish labeling system is extremely informative. The tag next to each item for sale in the fish case includes not only the fish's name and price per kilo, but also a number code to where it was caught (such as the Mediterranean), a code showing if it was close to the shoreline, and a different color, if applicable, to signify that it was previously frozen.  (The Gambas, or shrimp, in the photo below were frozen. Easy to tell, isn't it?)

The French do not refrigerate their eggs because they don't wash them. Apparently, if the eggs' natural coating is left on, they stay fresh left at room temperature for more than a month. (I kept doing a double take at the egg carton sitting out on our counter for days).

The olive oil choices range from picholine green olive  (the unripe olives which have a slight bitter taste) to black olive (ripe and salty).

Love to learn those little tips and nuggets!