Kouign Amann

It was a rare occurrence that I was the lone customer in the bakery on Saturday morning. Without the long line of people impatient for their pain I felt more comfortable taking my time making a decision, as well as asking a few questions. There were no almond encrusted pain de chocolats that morning, however on the top shelf was a beautiful looking pastry marked Kouign Amann, spécialité de Bretagne.

Kouign Amann from Le Pistore bakery

Lena explained their Breton baker had decided to bake this regional specialty, that it isn’t for a special holiday but instead is an everyday staple in boulangeries in Brittany. The translation is “butter cake,” and was supposedly invented by accident in 1860. It is made from dough bread covered with a butter-sugar mixture which is then folded like a pastry. While cooking, the sugar-butter permeates the dough and caramelizes, resulting in a crisp, delicious pastry. The cake I brought home (a pregnant woman passing by a “butter cake”? not going to happen…), was round with four individual units, but in my understanding they are baked for up to twelve people, sometimes in rectangular dishes, or just as individual cakes which are called kouignettes. Different from our usual breakfast pastries but delicious nonetheless, maybe next week they will have the beurrée variant, which is topped with crunchy caramel…

We also braved the soldes crowds. As I explained around this time last year, the French government authorizes stores to use the word les soldes only twice a year (January and July), in order to foster economic growth and consumption. This year they kicked off on January 11^th and last until mid-February, with escalating markdowns every few weeks. I find it funny that stores are allowed to have discounts, special offers and promotions throughout the rest of the year, but cannot use the descriptor soldes outside of these two time periods.

The irony is that although many clothing and furniture stores have discounted merchandise, appliances seem to be full price year-round, with no end-of-year markdowns on old models or sales to bring in the customers in the New Year. But as our refrigerator has been freezing the eggs and milk recently (and according to Roberts’s research on our fridge this is a problem particular to our model after 2-4 years of use, and expensive to fix) I got to stand in the kitchen section of Darty and choose a refrigerator, one much more beautiful, energy-efficient and with a more convenient layout than the temperature-challenged, funny-noise making thing in our kitchen at the moment.

The delivery date for the new refrigerator is January 25^th. Sound familiar? That’s because not only is it my brother’s birthday, but it is also my due date. (Well, my due date was I living in the US, but that is a different story.) Should we be taking bets on what arrives first, the baby or the fridge?*

*The saleswoman did not find this amusing, and instead pointed out the telephone number on our invoice that we call should we need to reschedule.

Parc Montjuzet and 39 weeks

Roberts’s name day comes right on the heels of his birthday, and we celebrated with a trip to Parc Montjuzet, the 65-acre hilltop park visible from our living room windows. Our first visit was in January of last year on his birthday, and so it was only fitting to return this January (although we have been there since). Other than the occasional dog walker and jogger, we had the whole park to ourselves.

LŪK helping his dad blow out the candles on the kliņģeris

On our first visit we had approached on foot (and in stroller) from the south end, not knowing the layout or what we would find. After an exhaustive climb up a narrow passageway of stairs we found ourselves in a very under-developed section of the park with muddy paths and not much else. The view of Clermont was unbeatable however (you might recognize it from the background of the blog!), and we picnicked on the hillside before wandering around a bit more. From what I remember, we did find a section of the Mediterranean garden; although the climate is much different, the south-facing terraced slopes have a riviera feel. And then we headed back, without an inkling of what we had left unseen.

Our next visits revealed the numerous playgrounds, grassy picnic areas, hiking paths and vistas (located closer to the car park!) and in addition to exploring and playing we also did a little geocaching. A beautiful park, once the weather is nicer I hope to spend a lot more time there with the kids.

Otherwise the past weeks have been uneventful (considering how pregnant I am!). This time around is a much different wait from last time; with Lauris I was on high-alert starting with 38 weeks, evaluating every Braxton-Hicks contraction as a possible start to labor and agonizing the next four weeks. With the second I’ve mentally prepared for a 10 month pregnancy, and so having the baby still feels very far off. I’m also glad for the more laid-back approach from the doctor here, it is allowing me to enjoy the last weeks. In Greenville we were pressured to schedule a Cesarean starting with week 36 or 37 (estimates put Lauris’s birth weight at about 11.5 pounds, in reality he was under 9 when born at 42+) and I was visiting the clinic every couple of days for additional monitoring and stress.

Mom getting a break

I probably jinxed myself last week after telling the doctor and friends that this pregnancy has been a piece of cake. And it had been, compared to my first; this time the morning sickness wasn’t to be ignored, but on top of that my last pregnancy brought severe back pain, nausea almost the entire length of the pregnancy and general misery. So I’m not too surprised that some of the more typical symptoms are finally catching up to me, the acid reflux and difficulty sleeping being at the top of the list. But, at this point I’m committed, right?

Creative Blogger Award

Way back in November Barbara at Footprints in the Sand passed on the Kreativ Blogger Award to me. Please don’t let the amount of time that has passed be an indicator of my thanks! I’m honored she thought of Femme au Foyer when passing it on, and as always I’m a little floored by the knowledge that someone other than my mother (and now my grandmother, on her own personal iPad!) is reading this blog.

Barbara also lives in Clermont-Ferrand and gave birth to adorable little Noah in December just before Christmas, so it was informative and reassuring following her blog and her pregnancy as I was embarking on my own last year. Stop by her blog to see some adorable newborn and maternity pictures or just to say “hi”!

For the record, it does bug me a bit that Kreativ is spelled wrong…

Anyway, I'm supposed to share seven random things about me and pass on the award to other lucky bloggers. So here goes!

1. I’m Latvian. As if you haven’t figured this out already from the posts in Latvian. But I think this rates the number 1 slot because I’m actually from Chicago, so credit for being able to speak Latvian fluently and having such an affinity for Latvian traditions and culture goes to my family. My grandparents originally came to the US after WWII, but somehow I’ve managed to end up married to a Latvian with a son whose only words currently are in Latvian, go figure!

At the International Festival in South Carolina in 2010

2. I’m 39 weeks pregnant. Again, not exactly headline news, but definitely tops my list of current events. At this point I do want to add that Lauris was perfectly content to hang out until 42 weeks, so maybe hold off with the “is the baby here yet???” for another month or so.

3. I’m 6 feet 3 inches tall. This is 1.905 meters. Wreaks havoc on my pants-shopping trips.

4. I wear a size 13 shoe. My most recent pair of boots has the European equivalent listed as size 46 ½. Can you blame me for having to buy my shoes in the US?

5. In my former life I was a wildland firefighter. My forestry degree led me to five years with the US Fish & Widlife Service and the Forest Service, conducting prescribed burns and fighting fire in over 10 states. I can run a chainsaw, have flown half-hanging out of a helicopter, know how to drive a type 6 fire engine and have sucked my share of smoke. Now I eat baguettes and cheese, change diapers and hike volcanoes.

Yep, that's me hooking a load up to the Bell Jetranger...

6. I would love to hike the Appalachian Trail. There was a point while living in Georgia that I could have taken the 6 months needed to give it a shot, but life took some unexpected turns and I might have to wait some years until I get my next chance.

7. Roberts and I dated for more than 10 years before finally tying the knot. Guess we had to make sure, huh sweetie?

Now for the fun part! I pass this award on to:

Chunk and KJs Adventure

Conjugating Irregular Verbs

Inga Vītols Photography

Kimberly Cabe Photography 

Our Adventures…

For your creative photography, creative blogging and creative approaches to life!

Happy 2012!!!

2011 didn’t end with a bang, in fact I’m not sure at which point we actually “rang” in the New Year because every cell phone, iPad, clock and wristwatch showed a different time. I’m pretty sure that we might have spent it on Skype with my parents, as there was a short “Happy New Year” conversation just about that time… But I’m skipping ahead.

Photo credit: Andrejs Lazda

After our road trip home from Lyon everyone slept in and a big breakfast of crêpes turned out to be just the way to start the day. It was a lazy day at home, a great way to spend the last of 2011, as well as the last day with our guests, my sister Anna and her husband Andrejs. At some point we all managed to get out to wander through downtown one last time for the year, and two cafés and one Christmas train ride later arrived home to start preparations for the big vecgada vakara dinner.

Latvians have many traditions to ring in the New Year, including all sorts of fortune telling methods to predict what everything in the New Year will be like. Want to know if you will be getting married, or what the harvest will be like, if you might be buying a horse or if there is fortune or travel in the next year? There is something for everyone, and although I never ran out of the house at midnight to grab fence posts or weigh a cat while growing up, we did “pour our luck,” (laimes liešana) pour molten lead into a bucket of cold water and analyze the resulting figure for resemblance to objects that might give some clue as to what we would encounter in the following year. Another popular method is to fill a large bowl with water and then line the edges with predictions. Using a nutshell or other floating object as a small boat, a candle is lit by each person seeking a fortune, then set in the middle of the bowl after the water is swirled. The closest fortune to the first place the boat lands is yours.

Although we didn’t melt lead or float candles, we did manage to stick to one of the most common traditions, the eating of pelēkie zirņi, or grey peas. Our guests from Latvija, Matīss and Indra had brought us a package of this hard-to-find New Year’s food, and after letting them soak for almost the whole day and then boiling them for several hours, Andrejs cooked up bacon and onions to go with them and we enjoyed them as our first snack of the New Year. I believe they are supposed to be the last food eaten in the year, and there is some sort of negative prediction for the new one if the whole pot is not finished, but with the unnoticed change of year we proceeded with what we knew; they were finished cooking and we were hungry!

Lauris trying on a Christmas gift from his krusttēvs Māris

And so we didn't make it to Parc Montjuzet to see the fireworks, and all the official New Year's toasts happened on our living room balcony while listening to the cacophony of cheering and honking of revelers celebrating, but it was the perfect start to a year of adventure. The next morning our guests had an early train to catch in order to make their flight to Dublin, and so the first day of the New Year it was just the three of us again. But, there is big change coming in 2012, and it won’t be three of us for long…

I wish everyone a fantastic New Year; may you achieve your goals, live in health, and enjoy each day to the fullest!

All the best, Femme au Foyer

Lyon after Christmas

After the fiasco that was their arrival in Clermont-Ferrand (standing-room only on a very delayed train), we decided we couldn’t let our guests suffer the train ride back to Lyon (their flight to Latvija was out of LYS), and so early on the morning of the 28th we loaded up a rental minivan with car seat, baggage and all seven of us and headed back to Lyon. With a small detour.

There are few stores that I truly miss here in France (Lowry’s Books in Three Rivers, MI might top the list), and almost none of the big chains are included, but the one place that might be the exception: IKEA. Matīss and Indra had never been to one, and although the closest IKEA to Rīga is in Poland, they were considering making a road trip for a major shopping excursion. So it happened that we stopped for lunch at the St. Etienne IKEA (for research of course!) and ended up spending more than a couple of hours there…

Our hotel in Lyon was just across the street from the Parc de la Tête d’Or (whose name derives from local folklore, which claims that the head of Christ is buried there), although the weather did not allow us to enjoy it. On our next visit I would love to see the Île du Souvenir, a small island rising from the lake in the English-style gardens. Instead, we walked to the closest subway station and made our way to Vieux Lyon, where we had such a wonderful experience on our last visit.

Foto credit: Andrejs Lazda

Though there was little evidence of the Fête des lumières which had taken place there a month ago, the Christmas atmosphere was lovely, with vin chaud stands, lights and decorations everywhere. We ate dinner at a restaurant we had previously lunched at, Les Ventres Jaunes, and lucked out with a waiter who spoke English; although between the two of us, Roberts and I are able to translate much of the menu when dining out, a knowledgeable native speaker that can make recommendations provides for a whole other experience! The food was delicious, fitting for “the gastronomic capital of France.”

Our sightseeing afterwards took us across the bridge to Presqu’île. We wandered north until we finally found Place de Terreaux with the Bartholdi sculpture that had so impressed me on our first visit. By then two members of our group were getting quite cranky and tired (I’ll give you a hint, one is pregnant and the other under two years old) and so our next destination was a subway for the short ride back to the hotel.

Matīss and Indra had a horribly early flight before dawn, and so the next morning it was only five of us eating breakfast and discussing our sightseeing options for the day. As it was drizzling and we had come prepared with very little rain gear, the verdict was to hop in our rental car and make the drive up Fourvière, Lyon’s “hill of prayer”, topped by a basilica and the Tour Métallique, a giant TV transmitter. On this visit I was really able to enjoy a look around the interior of the Notre Dame de Fourvière even though the rain kept us from lingering at the scenic overlooks. With the odd blend of Byzantine & medieval features and the incredibly ornate interior, the Basilique is worth a visit while in Lyon. Just to the right of the cathedral is the real pilgrimage chapel dating from the 18^th century that houses a statue of the Virgin Mary from the 16^th century.

While Anna and Andrejs decided to make a mad dash in the rain down the winding stairs and roads that climb the hill, Roberts, Lauris and I drove back down and waited for them at a brasserie on Place St-Jean. Arriving cold but not soaked having seen the sights on the way down, our reunited group enjoyed some hot drinks before heading back out into the drizzle for a last stroll through Old Lyon. We found the perfect place for lunch on Place du Change, a tea room and crêperie that had us stuffed ready for the drive home.



Foto credit: Andrejs Lazda

Here I must add a second store that I really miss in Clermont, especially this time of year, and the closest one to our apartment is in Lyon – Starbucks! Our route back to the highway took us back through Presqu’île, and so the first hour of the trip home I was spoiled with a decaf caramel macchiato… it’s the little things!