la cuisine

The home improvement whirlwind continues. While most of us were focused on the upstairs, Marco had the courage to singlehandedly tackle the kitchen.

I don't know what was more frightening, the produce themed tiles, or the textured wall paper? Together they were a deadly combo. 

The good news, is that the produce was in fact decals that could be removed with some wallpaper removal solution and steel wool.

The even better news, is that Marco found a technique to remove large sections of wall paper in one fell swoop. After days spent peeling teeny tiny slivers of wall paper upstairs, a large section coming off in your hands is pure bliss.

 What was once a kitchen of despair, is now full of hope.

Day One: La Bonne Etape

It is official. I own a house (with two barns) in Burgundy.

We did the final signing last night, which took two hours. Part of the process for the final signing was initialing every single page of the 20 page document which outlines the rules for making ANY cosmetic changes to my house. The village of Noyers sur Serein is one of France's 100 most beautiful villages and must remain unchanged, especially as it is a medieval village that holds historical significance. And since my house is located smack dab in the village's center, I am told that I will be required to observe an additional set of rules governing the visible part of my house. I have not read through the whole document yet, but I already know that it includes things like repainting my house/gate/shutters (even if it is the exact same color), planting flowers around the exterior of the house, etc.

There are some things that do not require the Marie's (governing office for the village) approval, which my friends and I have already begun tackling with fervor.

• Wallpaper removal
• Carpet removal
• Sanding of the pine hardwood floors underneath the carpet
• Linoleum tile removal in the hallways, bathroom, and WC.
• exposing interior beams

When tackling such a big job, it is important to pick one room and focus. We started with one of the four smaller bedrooms upstairs:

I purchased the house with all of its contents, like furniture, family photos left hanging on the walls, dishes, old broken tv's, and even clothes in the closets (including a fur coat). Don;t get me started on the contents of the barns.

The window opens up to the garden and a view of the village rooftops. In the distance you can see the location of the village's chateau.

This wall paper was exceptionally thick, requiring a whole lot of elbow grease to remove it. So you can imagine our frustration to find an additional layer of wallpaper to be removed underneath it.

There is even wall paper in the closet, that once removed, revealed stone walls.

Hand protection from the wall paper removal chemicals. This was all we could find in the house. I have since bought a box of 100 latex gloves.

It is an overwhelming task to buy a house that is hundreds of years old and requires so much work to make it ready to move into.

But my friends have helped to make this process manageable and fun, and our discoveries such as the stone walls in the closet and the pine wood floors under the carpet bring about a sensation of satisfaction and possibilities that make it so worthwhile.

Buh-bye yellow carpet.

Hello hardwood floors!

Thank God for RDW's saint-like patience. He palm sanded every square inch of the floor to remove the white glue. Now we are ready to wash and stain.

We couldn't wait to see what was beneath the plywood, suspecting it was a hardwood beam.

Once the boys began demolishing, I got nervous. What if it is a nightmare beneath the plywood? Afraid that it might add one more item to my list of things to fix.

To our delight, it was just as the boys suspected-- a large wood beam. Whew! 

Now I need to enlist a professional to sandblast it, which means two things:

1. they should sandblast everything that needs it throughout the house. Sandblasting is a VERY dusty affair, you should only do it once.

2. We will wait to polish floors and paint until then. But this could mean a long wait as the contractor who does the sandblasting is very busy this season.

Until then, we will continue the removal process throughout the house. This journey has only just begun.

l'été: supérieur cinq

Top five favorite things so far this summer:

1. Finding the Cos summer sale on day one. Check out this cool online magazine that they publish.

2. Coriandre Diptyque candle. It goes well with Baeis and Figuer.

3. Making this kale salad (with the kale from my balcony),

while drinking San Pelligrino with Chlorophyll drops. Sounds weird, but it is super refreshing, plus some extra health benefits.

4. Hoist the rag by Tom Waits. (I always have to listen to it two times in a row.)

5. Martini Rosso (in Barcelona or at a Parisian bar) or Pastis (at home or in the village), just depends on the venue.
-Martini is made from four ingredients: wine, botanicals, sugar and alcohol. I prefer it on the rocks. 
-Pastis  is an anise-flavored liqueur and apéritif rom France, typically containing 40–45% alcohol by volume, so I dilute it with a 1:5 Pastis/water ratio. Sometimes I add menthe flavor, which is called a Perroquet (French for 'parrot').  

Processing

I am waiting for the final signing for the house in Burgundy, which is maddening. It's like sitting with my decision, while waiting for the future consequences to come rolling in.

And on top of that, I had a Japanese lymphatic massage on Sunday night at my favorite place, that resulted in me be laid up in bed for the past three days. Not able to eat food, or drink anything other than water all week. After a little googling I found that I had all of the cautionary (and rare) symptoms of post lymphatic massage:

• nausea
• headaches
• chills
• fever
• achy muscles
• emotional responses

In hindsight, I had these same post-massage symptoms the last time I had a similar massage back in March.

During the past three days, I have second guessed my decision to buy a house in Burgundy, which is probably called buyer's remorse. I have even gone so far as to question my move to Paris, my decision to not have children yet (regardless of my marital status), my profession, past bad decisions (thanks to Orange is the New Black),  and just about every relationship I have/had. I think this could be a by product of the last symptom in the bullet list-- emotional response.

Today I am starting to feel more normal and may even try eating solid foods again. Trying some Jedi mind control to switch around these thoughts to a more constructive and positive wave length. So it was interesting and timely to receive my daily Notes from the Universe today:

It's perfectly normal, that when waiting for a really big dream to come true it seems like it's taking forever, you wonder if you're doing something wrong, and you feel like you should just be happy with less. 

But I promise you, no matter how long it takes, once it happens it'll seem as if time flew, you'll wonder how you ever doubted yourself, and you'll feel like you should have aimed a little higher. 

Aim a little higher, darling, 
-The Universe

Weekend inspiration: Jay Z

If I loved  Jay Z anymore, I would have to jump off a bridge.

The fact that he collaborates with Marina Abramović on this perfomrance piece, and features Adam from Girls is just the freaking icing and cherry on the Jay Z cake.
Enjoy!

Canicule

Canicule (Fr.)/ Heatwave (Eng.) noun: a spell of abnormally hot weather.

A friend had written this on my new chalkboard wall as a joke about the title of my next book. How prophetic.

Last weekend, France experienced a canicule. I knew that hot weather was expected at some point and that my kale garden would likely suffer a little. Each summer France prepares their canicule alert plan in preparation for these abnormally hot periods. There are four categories of alerts:

• Green: no warnings in place
• Yellow: minor alert
• Oragne: High alert, dangerous meteorological conditions are forecast.
• Red: Maximum alert, severe and dangerous weather conditions, precautions to be taken.

To say the least, Paris was on code red last weekend. Code red is defined as: 
"People are recommended to take precautions by staying out of direct heat and sun and drinking water regularly. Special care should be taken of the young, elderly and ill. Severe medical impact expected."

I heeded this warning and decided to stay down in the village in close proximity to the Boys' pool, rather than suffering back in the city. How civilized of me. And while I was taking precautions to keep my person somewhat comfortable, my kale back in Paris did not fare so well.

Here we have the scene of the crime.

The kale, lettuce, herb garden before the canicule--so much promise.

 Post canicule-- melted kale, and a resilient survivor.

Oh, no!

I thought mint plants were supposed to be sturdy, however it was burnt to a crisp. Thank god for the new growth peeking through.

The lettuce had melted in on itself, and now two confused lettuce plants try and resurrect themselves through the devastation.

The one kale planter that seemed to persevere (and dare I say, thrive), was the one in the Maison Blanche wine box.

I think it is very auspicious that the only survivor was contained in the White House box.