RECENT THINGS

1. Winter scent

I never used to be someone who wears specific fragrance for different seasons but strangely this winter I found myself very attracted to warmer, spicier scents. Must be an age thing... sighs. Was walking around in David Jones one day and stopped by the Jo Malone counter with no intentions to get anything but to only smell some nice stuff. You know where the story goes. I also super adored the Vanilla & Anise Cologne but my self control won this time, only these two babies made it home with me. I have a feeling it wont be long before I return for the Vanilla...

2. We turn 13

Wk came home with a surprise one day, a carrot cake by Le Petit Gateau commemorating our 13th anniversary, the dating one, not marriage of course. So delicious! The cream cheese layer look scarily thick but it's so light it pairs well with the carrot cake, which was not too dense although a little dry.

3. Red (semi) bob 

I've had a box of L'oreal hair dye sitting in my drawer for over a year now and finally decided to use it one Friday. I got it because it was on sale last winter and just never got around to using it. The colour turned out so nice although it faded within 2 washes :( And after colouring my hair I decided to chop it off! What an idiot, spent so much time and effort colouring my long hair only to chop it off LOL. I never intended to have it so short but I kinda liked it. So much easier to maintain now! 

4. Paella de marisco, patatas con su piel and ensalada.

Yes I totally looked up all the Spanish translation and I didn't know what's 'and' in Spanish LOL. Was invited to Michelle's abode #munchkinhq for some lovely seafood paella and jacket potatoes. I made some Spanish salad to accompany our yummy dinner! We also tortured ourselves with a few rounds of Twister, and tested our friendship with Monopoly Deal Millionaire. T'was a lovely night :)

5. Ee Von's workstation

Came home on Tuesday night to this surprise sitting by my dressing table. It's a gift from the husband for our 13th anniversary :) I am so freaking blessed. I've had my eyes on this chair a month or two ago but just couldn't go past its price. It's absolutely perfect, now my little 'station' is complete! 

6. Sable

Bought this stick of French butter couple of weeks ago from South Melbourne Market and decided to make some sable, French butter cookies with it. I don't quite know how to describe the taste of the butter except for it being very 'milky'? I can't even tell if I like it or not hahaha. Recipes say it's supposed to be a very sandy and crumbly butter cookie. True, but I've actually made more sandy and melt-in-the-mouth butter cookies, the kind that blows your mind away. Unfortunately, I don't have the recipe anymore so this will do I guess. For these sables, I used this recipe purely because I liked the shape of it. For better instructions in terms of what to achieve with the dough and how to roll it out, this video (different recipe & shape) is quite helpful. Oh, the hand is there to show how big I've accidentally made them haha. They should be much more petite and delicate.

7. The nice LAZY

My close friends and siblings have this 'hobby' of picking out on each other's typo and repeatedly mentioning it to show how big of a deal it is. To take it to another level, you amplify the typo by putting a  relevant sticker. Apparently 'lazy' means to roll around on the floor.

That's it for now. Till next week.

SARLAT, FRANCE

When I had a chat with Lisa, a French colleague, she said I have to visit Perigord because it is the place with the best duck and goose (edible) products, aka foie gras and duck dishes. I love a good duck dish. I've only had foie gras once in my life and I enjoyed it, I knew had to have it again in France and what better place to have it than one of the largest producers in the world of this luxurious cuisine?

Spanish Baked Eggs Recipe

This was my second attempt at baked eggs and I was very pleased with it :) It's all about the tomato sauce that the egg cooks in. I like mine bold and punchy.

Chateau de Chenonceau, France

Before going into the castle here are a few pictures of what a typical breakfast spread in France in a 3 starred hotel would look like. We didn't have a spread like this the day before because we were the only two people having breakfast, they only served a small amount of the food they would usually have on our table. Small but certainly more than enough for two!

Chateau de Chambord, France

After Saint Malo, we drove to our accommodation at Cangey in the Loire Valley. Loire Valley is the place to see all the chateau or French castles. There are over 300! The French sibeh rich hor.

The next morning we woke up early hoping we could catch the sunrise. And we did!

Saint Malo, France

Saint Malo is about an hour's drive away from Mont Saint-Michel. We picked this place because I really wanted to visit Bretagne (or Brittany), and the closest city in Bretagne to Mont Saint-Michel happens to be this.

The ferry port was right outside the city and upon arriving, you'll see the magnificent grey walls surrounding the city. Inside the city is vastly grey as well. The roads/streets are paved with cobble stones, the buildings mainly made of some kind of grey stones too. Its a pretty amazing change of landscape. 

It's not easy to get a parking within the city itself so we had to park outside. 

View from our hotel window.

Mont Saint-Michel, France

That morning, as I have mentioned at the end of my last post, I woke up not feeling the best. I suspect it's the cheese we had during lunch at Honfleur. Plus the wind was so noisy the entire night I didn't sleep well. The wind continued through to the morning and it started to shower. Thank goodness we asked for breakfast to be served in our room because the lobby is quite a bit of walk from our room. 

This is my fake 'blissful' face. Actually inside I was feeling like shit lol.

View from our room's balcony

The disappointing thing during our stay at Mont Saint-Michel is there was no tide, and the fact that we have specifically booked a room with bay view (paying extra of course) and seeing no sea water but a grey, muddy land. There were also a few bulldozers doing what looked like maintenance and repair. Nothing wrong with that but it's just not the view we were expecting? Plus the weather was gloomy, cold and wet. I can't think of a worse time to visit, really. Also partly because I wasn't feeling well which spoils the whole experience. The only consolation was it was not crowded with people. Apparently during hot season this place can be elbow to elbow o.O

Disappointments aside, it is a beautiful island. Exploring the village made me feel like I was in Diablo (video game) or something hahaha. 

For anyone interested in visiting Mont Saint-Michel, do check the tide timetable - we made the mistake of booking the hotel impulsively because it was at a discounted price but did not realise it's only discounted because there's no tide! There's nothing to buy or eat here except maybe the omelette. 

Our hotel room is situated a little away from the town center so it's secluded and quiet. Although a little overpriced for such a small room and tiny bed (And deceiving! Should have told us there's no tide), the location is great, the room in general is clean and warm, and the balcony's beautiful. I can almost imagine how beautiful it'll be if we could sit there and watch the sun rise/set, or the sea water rise and fall. Alas, it was too gloomy for any sun, and the tides just wasn't happening :( oh well. 

Auberge Saint Pierre 

Grande Rue

50170 Le Mont Saint Michel

+33 2 33601403

contact@auberge-saint-pierre.fr

After checking out from our hotel, we went up to the abbey - the one building that everyone recognizes as Mont Saint-Michel.

Do they cook human in this fireplace?! So big!

Sorry ah I don't really have much to comment about the abbey except for it's huge wtf. Clearly being an architect's wife does not mean anything lol. He did go through bits and pieces about the architecture of the abbey with me but all I remember is there's sibeh a lot of stairs to climb and it's freezing inside the building itself. While touring the abbey you get sort of a panoramic view of what surrounds the island - which was supposed to be blue sea but unfortunately it was mud for us wtf but nvm la quite nice too.

For lunch, I wasn't in the mood to do any research as I was still feeling quite shitty and wasn't even hungry. We randomly looked at restaurants and decided on La Confiance. I just had a look at the reviews right now on Tripadvisor, wow, didn't know it's so infamous lol.

Vin chaud, or hot wine, perfect for freezing weather or for people who enjoy sweetened cheap wine wtf.

Omelette a Le Mont Saint Michel - this omelette is in EVERY restaurant in Mont Saint Michel

Moules Mariniere et frites, Mariner/Sailor Mussels and fries.

Some lamb and chips (forgot what this was called)

Traditional apple tart with salted caramel sauce

So Wk had the wine, and a 3 course set meal of the omelette, lamb and dessert. I only had the mussels which was supposed to be an entree can you believe? How on earth can anyone eat so much?! Maybe it's meant for sharing, I don't know. But then I don't think sharing is a culture in France, people seem to only order for themselves, and it's almost impossible to see any diners not have a type of wine on their table. 

I actually like the food, it's nothing fancy but they were tasty. The omelette is a specialty of Mont Saint-Michel. It's got your normal omelette sitting on top of some eggy froth, kind of like under-cooked souffle. They're both light and fluffy but with contrasting texture, do I make sense? The combination is quite delicious. 

I do have to agree with some of the reviewers that service wise, it's not the best. Not that we had a bad service, but it looked like they're a constantly busy type of restaurant so the service can be a bit fast-paced, impatient, snappy and not so friendly. 

I won't bother with recommending this place not because it wasn't great or anything, it wasn't anything special.

We picked this restaurant because it's got an English menu, and it's one of the restaurants (there were many, btw) which did not charge exorbitantly for the Mont's signature omelette, unlike La Mere Poulard Restaurant - the origin of  this special omelette. 

Seriously, I am NOT paying an arm and a leg for freaking omelettes. 

And that was the end of Mont Saint-Michel. After lunch we drove to our next stop - Saint Malo in Bretagne!