A family you find can be every bit as precious as the family you were born into…. Livonne

It’s the dying hours of Easter Sunday here in France. What a day it’s been. I got a great night’s sleep last night and headed downstairs about 8 I think for breakfast. I made a cup of tea and chatted with anyone who was up. Mornings are so lovely. We all gather around the table in the kitchen and people come and go as they please. David normally delivers boulangerie treasures around 9ish.

We have all grown so used to that early morning bread, croissant and other goodies delivery. So this morning 9.30 came and went, then 10 and by about 10.30 we all realised that there would be no delivery today. It’s Easter Sunday and they wouldn’t be open. So we all managed to make eggs or toast or have cereal. We were quite put out by not having those early morning bites of perfection. I love bread and pastries but I didn’t know they could be THIS good.

Yesterday a few of us decided to have an Easter Sunday lunch together. Most days we have a sandwich or leftovers or whatever is around for lunch. We make it ourselves whenever we feel like eating. But today, we are all away from our families so we thought we should celebrate with our Atelier family. We all had cheeses, crackers, pate, chorizo paste and all sorts of goodies in the fridge that we’ve bought from marchandes or food and wine festivals. So everyone brought their goodies to the table. I made a toblerone dip and a fruit platter and we all grabbed our wines and had Easter lunch.

It was so fantastic. Conversations and laughter aplenty as well as way too much food and drink. After a leisurely lunch, some went back to painting, sewing or perhaps even napping. We didn’t think we would be able to fit tonight’s meal in which Gary was busy preparing after having joined us for lunch. I went out into the garden to take some photos of the cherry blossoms then sat at the dining table and edited again while a few others stayed at the table after lunch, still chatting and drinking. My glass was being topped up all afternoon too so I will have to look at my work through new eyes tomorrow just in case lol.

Before we knew it, it was dinner time and Gary surpassed even his sumptuous previous meals. Tonight was had roast lamb which was ohhhhh so tender with an incredibly tasty sauce. We also had cheesy duchess potatoes, broken egg salad and a vegetable ratatouille. After lunch, I thought I wouldn’t be able to eat much but it was so good I went back for seconds.. Then we had a bread pudding made from yesterday leftover croissants. Oh boy! I’m walking so much I thought I might lose weight, but not with Gary around. His cooking is so good, I’m going to put on weight while I’m here. Monica coined it The Gary Effect and she is all shades of correct.

Monica coins a lot of phrases. I told her I was going to write a blog called Monica’isms.. but we also thought the Gospel according to Monica could be good considering she is a Pastor’s wife. She has a way with words that is priceless and she knows how to not let the truth get in the way of a good story, so is open to a bit of exaggeration. Like yesterday telling us about a baby snatching cockroach that bit her baby. In her best Florida drawl she says “that thing was bigger than my ass”. I don’t know that I want to visit a place that has cockroaches bigger than my thumb let alone my arse lol.

After dinner a few of us sat around, still talking and I’ve not long come to bed. We seem to find it so easy to talk to each other. Through dinner tonight we were asked about our expectation vs reality of the residency. What came out from nearly everyone was that we didn’t expect the friendships. Yes, we expected to get on well with people, but not these sort of relationships that find you confiding in someone so personally when you’ve only known them a week. It’s amazing.

But it’s now after midnight, so is technically Easter Monday now and I need some beauty sleep. I realised as I got into bed that I haven’t taken a single photo on my phone today and I can’t be bothered plugging my DSLR in to get the photos I took, so I will share a photo Cecile took the other day while I was out climbing ladders to get a good shot of the Canola fields. The other was taken 2 days ago of the cherry blossoms. Today food and wine were the priority.. And of course my new found pseudo family..

Happy celebrating however or whoever you share it with… Livvy xxx