part 1: Trip to Mougins

today dawned clear and sunny - and #@@!!# fohn. 'Fohn' is a wind off the Alps, gives us clear sunny days. And me, the feeling like someone's tightened my braces. Or my brain is too big to fit in my head. I had heard about various reactions to this weather condition, but didn't feel any until the past couple months.

It has clouded over, and I’m inspired to write a bit about the trip to France. The Ladies International Association (LIA) was the genesis of this trip. The purpose was to attend some cooking lessons at a school in Mougins. France. Mougins is about 10 K inland from Cannes. Judi was the organizer, had planned for each day, including touring the local towns, dinners out, and a couple of cooking classes during our stay.

We departed Munich on the evening of Thursday, Oct 12th.



Arrived in Nice with no problem. Had to slog our bags onto a bus to get to the rental cars, though. And once we got to the lot it took us quite a while to arrange the 13 of us and our luggage into the 3 cars: 1 Ford Focus, 2 Renault Meganes. The cars were packed! Plus, the Meganes have a new style dashboard, and a card key and pushbutton to start. But your foot has to be on the brake before it will start. Took us quite a while to work that one out! Finally, off we zoomed into the dark, warm night. Got in the vicinity of Mougins, about 10 K up the highway, turned off where we were supposed to and it all went wrong.

“Girls, I think we’re lost” said Caroline, as we coursed through the 5th roundabout the third time, from a different direction. The lead car pulled over to ask directions of someone by the side of the road, but as we slowed we saw how much he was swaying – “totally potted!” as Jackie, the Brit in the car, said. On we went, came to a restaurant where there was a guy outside smoking. We pulled over & Lysianne (our native Parisian) asked for directions to the hotel. He didn’t know, so she & Judi followed him into the place to call the hotel. Out they came, said he was the owner of the restaurant, and would close up and drive us to the hotel. He came out & hopped into his Ferrari … and off we went.



Finally, we got to the hotel about 1am. Sue, Judi’s friend from Australia, was already there, had champagne & cheese waiting. We checked in, sat & drank & ate, and started planning for the next day. And all of the plans flew apart, as people had changed their minds about what they wanted to do. Oops!

The next day dawned bright and clear. And warm! We had a beautiful run of weather – 75 degrees and sunny every day. After breakfast of way too strong coffee (for my taste) and the amazing only-in-France croissants, off we went: 1 car to Grasse, the other 2 to Cannes for some touristing. I was in the Cannes group. We started off at the Palace, where there was a techie/trade show.




Jackie reprised a pose from her youth, her family vacationed here for many years.



We had time for a refreshing citron presse at this lovely spot.



Then we all split up and walked through town. Jean & I headed up, to find this church and overlook point. We hooked up with Marcia on the way.



Then lunch! Jackie wanted langoustine and this place provided. Ah, the warm day, great food, wine with lunch – I radiated appreciation to the Universe for this opportunity - and stored up the memories against the coming winter!



Our first cooking lesson was that afternoon. The place is beautiful, Alan Llorca’s school in Mougins. The demonstration room was very interestingly furnished with roses & old-fashioned looking light bulbs covering the ceiling.




Chef Eric Houard was great. It was good for me to see how he did everything, how he used his knives, etc. We got the recipes to take with us, and tasted everything he cooked.




That’s all the time I have to write today. Gotta pack for the next trip (told you I was being a travel pig!) Will continue when I get back to Munich, after Sunday the 5th.