An American in Avignon - Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

An American in Avignon is Madeleine Hill Vedel’s blog about her life in Provence.

In her about me bit, she says that she’s been in Provence for 15 years and was formerly a director of a cooking school and b&b in Arles.

Now she works as a culinary artisan & winery tour guide, organic wine agent to the US, writer, teacher & translator.

She also mentioned that she likes to Tango but… we won’t go into all that sort of stuff here.

I don’t hold anything against people dancing (although with my Cornish background I’m sure that that would have been frowned upon) – it’s just that I’m so useless at it!

I’m also not going to mention the divorce that Madeleine went through – it’s best if you read Madeleine’s own words if you are interested in all that stuff.

Besides, if Mrs A Taste of Garlic knew that I was reviewing a divorced lady’s blog – well, there’d be hell to pay!

Mrs A Taste of Garlic is a bit old fashioned, you see, and doesn’t really believe in divorce.  She prefers the old fashioned ways; when an erring husband would be persuaded (by his loving wife) to have too much to drink and somehow trip and fall into that rather deep well.

Happens quite a lot up our way and doesn’t half save on all those solicitors’ fees!

Anyway, I suppose that it should come as no surprise that I’m far more interested in the cooking and eating parts of this blog, of which there are plenty!

But lets dive into her Lingerie first, shall we?

OK – food can wait!  I want to take a good look at The Temptations of French Lingerie!

And then I want another look too!

I found out that Madeleine also talks about Lingerie in Aunt Mame.

No Citroen 2CV posts though… (although there is something that looks like it could almost grow up to be a 2CV!) but I wonder if she likes mushrooms?

Well, I get the feeling she does (Madeleine does drop a few hints about gathering mushrooms… “I may find black trumpets trompettes de la mort, yellow girolles, pale pink pieds de moutons, or soft mossy-brown cèpes.”)

She certainly knows how to cook them!

Dive in and help yourself to A savory tart with onions and mushrooms!

Just make sure you leave some for me!

And, speaking of food! It’s time for the food!

With A Recipe for Flavourful Fowl (a Eutruscan recipe, would you believe?) we have something that’s pretty unique (as far as I’m concerned) from 2,000 years ago that could still be suitable for today’s tastes.

And how about some Summer Pork Roast?  A simple recipe, maybe but it looks simply delicious!

And I do have to ask, at this point, am I the only person in the world who can actually salivate over a recipe boo?

Or, does everyone do that?

Even The Simplest of Meals seems to be delighted in here.

Sometimes you don’t even need words….

Such as in this post…. Happy Chicks lay Lovely Eggs.

A five word title, four photographs and the story tells itself!

Or this one… Images from a walk out my door.

A seven word title and nine photographs, this time. No need for any more!

A bit more loquacious is A Misty Moisty Morning which has an additional fifteen words.

But, they were the right words and it helped that they were said!

And how about A Walk in March? Just what the doctor ordered?  Yes, I rather think so.

The non food stuff is to be found here…..

All you ever wanted to know about weeing is summed up in the encyclopedic Why don’t the French go Pippi as often as we do?

Even, it has to be said, the essential Piddling against a tree is covered!  What lengths of investigative journalism will this girl go to just to gets the facts right?

Well, you only have to look at Curious Characters to see that Madeleine can talk about our Town Fools (or curious folk) with an air of compassion and sympathy.

Out and about….

A bicycle ride to a winery would be just my cup of tea.

Well, it wouldn’t be my cup of tea; that was just a saying.

What I mean to say is that I’d be rather disappointed if I cycled all the way to a winery and only got a cup of tea!

Do you ever start to try and explain something and then wish that you’d never done so?  Yes, me too!

Luckily for Madeleine, she was greeted with “joy and liquids” at the winery, which I can only take to be… a nice big glass of wine!

There are some amazing Images from the Lubéron and some equally spectacular ones at An Amazing Playground of Stones!

Madeleine certainly like to get out and about.

And why not?  When you can go Exploring the Flora in the Cévennes, why stay in?

So, summing up…

An American in Avignon is a mature and considered blog.

There are personal elements that will appeal to those who care to delve deeper; there are some lovely photographs for those who prefer to read with their eyes and there are the foodie and lingerie bits (not forgetting the occasional and all too casual slight references to mushrooming) for the greedy piggies like me!

And, you must know that I’ve only scraped the surface of this blog here.

Of the 357 posts I’ve only managed to read about half (if that!)

I am on a mission to catch up, though!

And me?  Well, I’m glad It’s Foraging Season Again because I can go out and see if I can rustle up some wild asparagus.

I could have that with my Recipe for a cold Winter’s Day – I’m sure I’d be allowed to eat that even though it is the summer?  I do admit that I have a little problem at the moment and am unable to walk or drive past a lamb without salivating!

I could even finish off with some Tarte Tatin in a Southern Way!

Care to join me?  I’m sure Madeleine wouldn’t mind some strangers round for tea!

All the best

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