It is with our passions as it is with fire and water; they are good servants, but bad masters. - Roger L'Estrange, Aesop's Fables, 1692 I recently had a discussion with a young man whose family produces truffles, who spoke to me passionately about his métier, his work, and his passion for the black diamond of Chinon. ...
In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. - Margaret Atwood, Bluebeard's Egg Spring has finally arrived in Chinon. Wild winds, grey skies, spattering rain are interspersed with flashes of bright sunlight filtering through hazy skies and lighting up the courtyard, brushing against the windows and warming the breakfast room. ...
Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly. - M.F.K. Fisher Celebrating any religious holiday in a mixed-religion home is often a delicate matter depending on how devout and observant each partner is or the decisions made on which religion the children shall be raised in. Notwithstanding ...
My father planted a lone lemon tree in the backyard. This was about the time that he went on his homegrown produce kick and had planted a small vegetable patch at the side of the house, which eventually would boast big fat red tomatoes and long, slim chili peppers. He worked long and hard on ...
A light wind swept over the corn, and all nature laughed in the sunshine. - Anne Bronte Sometimes one must just force summer’s hand a little bit. Mme. Lainel showed up in reception Tuesday evening, later than was her habit of dropping in, making her way carefully across the courtyard, clutching her cane in one hand, crunching ...
Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own. - Robert Heinlein His blue-green eyes stared up into mine, yearning and self-doubt flitting across his regard, that fairy dance of desire and yet-to-be requited love. “Pale eyes, green and blue,” he claimed, “reveal all, bare the soul, expose the ...
Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home. - Edith Sitwell It’s nice to have a few down days at the hotel, nice to be able to spend time with the staff, get ...
Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.- Chili Davis I don’t know which astonishes me the most: that I have reached this age and am still standing or that I am standing on the threshold of our second year at the Hôtel Diderot … and I am still standing. “Oh, grow up!” he often says to me ...
From New Year's on the outlook brightens; good humor lost in a mood of failure returns. I resolve to stop complaining. - Leonard Bernstein It’s the same thing, year in and year out. December comes to a lively end, a rousing, bubbly conclusion, flowing by faster than we could ever have imagined. As the end of one year draws ...
A life without love in it is like a heap of ashes upon a deserted hearth, with Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery I pick through the ashes of my childhood, like sifting for gold ...
I'm Jamie; welcome to the new Life's a Feast!
I run a hotel in Chinon, France, and write about life, culture, modern day living and food.
My passion is to create vibrant and unique experiences.
