PROVENCE

Last week I was heading to the south of France, for a long week-end and more particularly in the area of Saint Rémy de Provence. I've always loved this part of France, probably because it's one the sunniest but also because it's a place where my parents took me on holiday when I was a kid, so I got used to it and fell in love with it.

Olive grove in St Rémy

Anyway, even if I know this region - that inspired famous painters such as Van Gogh - it's always a nice and warm place to visit.

Small villages, their little streets, olive trees, olive oils, lavander smell, cicadas' warbling... and of course sun (more than 300 days a year). 

All the ingredients of a great journey, creating inner peace, intense relaxation and enjoying the charming lifestyle of Provence.

Saint Rémy has lots of little streets, with boutiques (fashion, jewels, decoration and furniture, local pieces of pottery...), restaurants with terraces offering dishes cooked with local products, and squares with fountains shaded by big trees. 

Art lovers will also find several art galleries and food lovers will find everything they'll need during the wednesday morning market: goat cheese, olives and tapenades, local fresh fruits and vegetables, local wines, local cookies, artisanal soaps...

The "Arc de Triomphe" representing Caesar's conquest of Gaul

Saint Rémy is a very rich city in terms of culture and history as it's one the oldest towns in France (inhabited 600 years BC) and thank to Romans, it gained its typical monuments we can still admire today, even if a part of them has been destroyed during Barbarian invasions (around 260 AD).

What to do around ?

About 1 hour away from the city of Aix-en-Provence 

and the Natural Park of Camargue

30 minutes away from the cities of Arles and Avignon

SWEET TREATS

I've been having a "cooking morning", preparing two kinds of sweet treats. Hoping you'll like them !
They're perfect to go with coffee, a bowl of fresh fruits or for a quick healthy snack.
The coconut rock cakes are gluten-free and the cookies are dairy-free, I haven't tried a glutenfree recipe yet.

The first recipe is a very easy and quick one: Coconut Rock Cakes.
All you need is [love] but not only:


Ingredients:
for about 25-30 mini-cakes

- 3 egg-whites
- 80g of (brown) sugar (healthier than white sugar)
- 150g of grated coconut

Directions:

Preheat your oven (200°C)
[It's better if you take the eggs out the fridge 1 day before cooking]
Whip egg-whites until it looks foaming
Then add sugar, keep whipping
Then add grated coconut
The whole paste should be a bit thick. Then, make some small piles of paste (like pyramids) on your dish and put it into the oven during 15 minutes. The coconut rocks are ready when they look golden.

Coconut rocks after cooking

The second recipe is Oatmeal Chocolate Cookies:

Ingredients:
for about 35 cookies

- 4 eggs
- 180g of flour
- 180g of oatmeal
- 110g of sugar
- 1/2 sachet of baking powder
- 2 spoons of rice milk
- 1 bar of dark chocolate

Directions:

Preheat your oven (180°-200°C)
Mix flour, oatmeal, sugar and baking powder in a bowl
Then add the pieces of chocolate
Then add the eggs and the milk
Keep mixing until you get something thick
Then make piles on your baking tray
Put it into the oven for about 20-30 minutes

Cookies after baking

Bonus:

You can put the bottom of your coconut rocks into hot chocolate and then put them in the fridge.

You can divide the cookies preparation in two bowls to mix it with different kinds of chocolate (or chocolate bars like KitKat, Twix, or pieces of cookies like Speculoos...)

ENJOY !!

AURA

Dinner over the river

One week ago I was probably the luckiest girlfriend on earth - or at least one of them... I guess... Or let's just say my boyfriend proved me once again I am right to love him [as if we could choose this kinda things]. Anyway, to make a long story short, he invited me to the restaurant for our anniversary dinner to the AURA restaurant in Zaragoza.

It was a tuesday night (there was almost just us in the restaurant), so it was very quiet and cozy; soft lighting and candles, white tableclothes, and a magic view of the Ebro river and the cathedral "Nuestra Señora del Pilar" just next to it, standing out the night with its illuminated roofs and towers.

Copyright Aura

We chose the "Gastro Menu" made by a successful chef and the different wines that came with the Menu. Every dish was delicious and the mix of flavors was very subtle.

I didn't take pictures because I really wanted to enjoy the moment and I thought it was rude to bring out my camera 8 times a meal...

Copyright Aura

We had 8 light dishes (if my memories are good), with original presentations, very tasty products and spanish wines to go with. A good way to discover more about the spanish regions and wine-growing.

Copyright Aura

We had a really great time there, and the waiter took very good care of us, always here if we needed him, and distant enough to let us privacy.

Copyright Aura

The first picture is puff pastry caramelized with foie, the second one tooking on the appearence of a fried egg is actually a fish carpaccio with pumpkin. And the third one is one of the two desserts we had. Very fine and delicious.

To discover more about this great restaurant, find their website here and their Facebook page there.

Direction:

Av. Ranillas, 7

50018 Zaragoza

Spain

BAIN

In the mood for "la bainiade"...

When Unilever is one of the worldwide leaders integrating sustainability into its business strategy, some people are also trying to do something, bringing a small - but nonethless very useful - contribution to the environment, for nature and our lives.

Today, among those "people", I'd like to introduce you a French brand (yes, again !) that's celebrating its 1 year this summer: BAIN.

It's a swimsuit brand created by Cindy and Nicolas, two friends from the oh-so-cool-town of Biarritz, on the west coast of France. Surfers and nature lovers are what describes best the people living there.

Cindy and Nicolas didn't find what they were looking for on the actual market in terms of comfort, style and ethics. That's why they created BAIN.

Copyright Bain

BAIN is for nature lovers: they are locally designed and made with techniques and materials respecting the environment. Materials (from France, Italy and Spain) are made of recycled plastics and fishing nets found in the sea, excluding toxic substances for health or the environment.

Collections are certified by Oeko-Tex® to guarantee the absence of nocive substances in clothes.

Copyright Bain

Bain's swimsuits (for women and men) are colored, mostly with pretty soft colors, plain or printed for a fashionable look, simple but chic, with a pinch of retro style. The definition of "design" : comfort, usefulness and style.

Copyright Bain

However, it's very hard for brand designers to find the right materials and techniques, the right colors, to create a sustainable, eco-friendly and/or organic product. Fewer researches are made into those fields, it's something that takes a lot of time to grow.

That's because we are drowned by worldwide brands with worldwide production techniques, and even though people would like to buy consciously to care more about them and about the environment, they cannot always afford this kind of products. It's once again a matter of quality over quantity. It's the same problem with food.

I guess we should buy less, and learn how to deal with it; buy 1 local and ecofriendly swimsuit instead of 3 of a worldwide brand...

Anyway, brands like BAIN really need our support to last in time and diversify their ranges of products, so feel free to discover them online: here and there.

NATURE

After a pretty long absence, for some [holiday] reasons, I'm back !

I didn't want to write some posts just because I had to. People who sometimes write, do know the complexity of writing... It's sometimes better not to write/talk at all rather than write/talk wildly.

My holiday in France were revitalizing - even if my first saturday night was a big party reunion with friends (and alcohol), dancing in a club, not so revitalizing my organs.

Anyway, the next day, my family and I were ready to go hiking in the valley of Chamonix. It was a very cool way to reconnect with nature, breathe some fresh air and enjoy a stunning view of the Mont Blanc standing proudly in front of us.

I've been there like a million times, and it still amazes me. This is what's so great about nature on this planet, you can be amazed by a place, even if you've been there tons of times. Everytime, it's different, and we don't know how but everytime it just makes us speechless. No matter our age, our gender, our history, it has the power to make us look at it with a child's eyes. I think nature is just wonderful for that. 

We may be able to learn how to be amazed by things like nature, great stories, great people... but to my opinion, it's also a matter of time. We have to give ourselves a break, a teeny, tiny moment in our crazy rides so-called lives. Just to be amazed. 

I also felt this sensation of being blessed and grateful when I practiced stand-up paddle on the lake of Annecy in the Alps, on a quiet morning with some friends. After paddling for a while, we all lied down on our board, looking up to the sky surrounded by water and mountains, the sunrays caressing our skins. Yes, stand-up paddle is a nice activity and a very good one for our bodies and muscles but how lucky were we to be here and to see these landscapes and feel this ? It was awesome.

It's one of the strengths of nature to make each and everyone of us just silently look at it and appreciate it. A small way to mindfulness and meditation... if we're able to take the time...

SHALL WE ?

What now ?

As I've been talking [writing] about single life and wondering about why being single or being in a couple, I'm now going to talk about what to do...

Once we managed to:

- feel good being alone

- clearly know what we want - or at least, what we don't want

- know what we expect of a serious relationship

- feel ready to get involved in one 

We are almost able to forget that:

In a society where a subscription to the gym happens to be a much more long-lasting commitment than a relationship that works, it may be normal to rather spend a monthly amount of 50€ - be in great shape and multiply dates without expecting anything of them - than spend a huge amount of time and energy trying to make a relationship (that may not result positive) work. Because at least at the gym when the subscription ends, we have muscular abs and ass.

But let's take this problem the other way around:

Let's admit it; it's always a nightmare to quit the gym. Actually, it's much more complicated than ending a relationship. There's always something like a two-months notice, a recorded letter, blablabla.

With a shitty relationship, if it doesn't work... well it just doesn't, end of the story - if we disregard the relationships when you see your ex again, after the break-up.

- Copyright Slim Aarons -

So let's try to make it, in a serious relationship (if - of course - we see an opportunity).

Easier said than done - we agree.

But it's funny to see how something that used to scare you or something that used to not to get you interested can suddenly become something very easy to do. If you've met someone that suits you, it's probably normal. I guess.

We would think it's complicated to "settle down", live with someone we ignore his/her way of life, but it's not that complicated. If he/she suits you, I think it's just something natural.compatible.

Well, okay, there are some inevitable stuff we may wonder about once we've moved in with our "dear and beloved half":

I'm thinking of...

"Oh my, we're gonna be like every evening together ? What are we gonna do ?" -- Well, you don't know, the relationship may stop tomorrow.

"Okay so is there something like a schedule or a timetable for cleaning ? cooking ? doing laundry ?" -- Actually, your dear and beloved half is not a roommate. And your couple is not a company either.

"And what about grocery shopping ?" -- It's the exact same thing sweetheart.

"What about my single life's habits ?" -- Well if you're a girl, you probably won't sing Mariah Carey/J-Lo/this-kind-of-diva while cleaning the appartment. And if you're a guy, you'll probably have fewer pizza-beer/Burger King meals a week/month. 

"What about my wax depilation ? I have to wait three weeks before the appointment... That's not cool and absolutely NOT SEXY." -- Yes, you'll have to learn to be loved as you really are. And this includes being (a bit) hairy sometimes (if you refuse to shave). But "being loved as you really are" may also include singing Mariah Carey. Yay.

"Do I have to suffer the all "before/during periods moods" ?" -- Oh-oh yes my friend, and it's just a beginning. You can still try to understand if there is really something going wrong and let it go if it's objectively senseless. You'll learn not to listen, and you'll find peace, I promise.

As well as I think a human being isn't made to live a lifetime on his own, I think he needs his times of loneliness, and he needs these moments of loneliness to do not always occur at set and regular times.

These moments seem vital to preserve intimacy, desire and mystery, and those three "ingredients" will create an interesting relationship where sharing and communication will probably be king.

FLOWERS, TREES, MADRID

Botanical Garden

We wanted to visit the Prado Museum of Madrid but when we arrived at the entrance... well, we couldn't even see the entrance. Too many people were standing in line to visit it. 

It just took us a few steps to realize there was a quiet and lovely place in front of it waiting for us: the Royal Botanical Garden.

It was founded in 1755 by King Ferdinand VI and installed near what is called today "Puerta de Hierro" (next to the Manzanares River).

In 1774, architects Francesco Sabatini and Juan Villanueva were ordered by King Charles III to move the garden to its current location and to organize it into three level terraces.

This garden was made to exhibit plants, promote expeditions for the discovery of new plants species and teach botany.

It now contains more than 30,000 plants and flowers, and about 1,500 trees, through three terraces and two greenhouses. 

Lots of plants had already come into flowers because it's summer but most of the 2,000 species of dahlias were flowered and it was beautiful. But it's probably even more beautiful at springtime when all trees blossom...

We could walk through small paths under the shades of big beautiful trees (oak-trees, palm trees, cedars, bamboos...), some of them lead to little fountains or ponds. 

Once into these gardens, we managed to forget the avenue (and its traffic) that's next to it, we almost can't hear a thing, except cicadas' warbling. It's quiet and refeshing. 

To see more tropical plants, and feel more humidity, the greenhouses are open and shelter amazing species of plants. One of them also shelters fishes in a basin. 

Even if my opinion can't really be unbiased (because I'm crazy about everything when it comes to Nature and trees) it's a real heaven of peace in the middle of a more than 3-million-inhabitants city.

When is it open ?

From November to February: from 10 am to 6 pm.

March and October from 10 am to 7 pm.

April and September from 10 am to 8 pm.

From May to August from 10 am to 9 pm

Entrance:

3€