A Souvenir of the Beauty of Europe, ‘Chez Vous’: Lovely Landscape Paintings

by Lynn McBrides

The word souvenir in French has a broader meaning than its English equivalent: it can mean a keepsake but is also the French word for a memory. Even if you’ve never been to France and have no ‘souvenirs’, you may have a fantasy in your mind of the places you’re longing to visit.

If you have a little place for France or Italy in your heart, how about a place for them in your home?

We live in Burgundy and I love to collect small oil paintings at the French flea markets, but it’s increasingly hard to find good ones, especially at a reasonable price. Since I’ve started blogging I’ve made friends with some wonderful contemporary artists who have poured their hearts into capturing the beauty of Europe: the architecture, the landscapes, the little European moments of discovery. And you don’t have to get on a plane to find them, they’re on the web, and much of their work is surprisingly affordable.

Each of these artists has a connection to France or Italy and a story to tell, and I’m drawn to each of them. Which artist will bring back a ‘souvenir’ of Europe for you?

For more information on any of the artists, click on the links or on their paintings.

Afternoon at a Floriale - By Tom Vieth

From his house in the Dordogne countryside, Tom Vieth paints fun, fresh, and oh so French watercolors that will bring a smile to your face. He and his wife Susan blog at A Small village In France.  Thomas Vieth

Barbara Andolsek - Abundant Sunflowers

California artist Barbara Andolsek captures the heart of France with her sophisticated, evocative oils, and she’s even painted some of the photos from my blog at Southern Fried French, so you may find that some of her work looks familiar! Barbara Andolsek

Barbara Redmons - Tour Eiffel

It’s Paris all the way for Barbara Redmond, who writes the popular blog,  A Woman’s Paris.  Her fanciful Paris scenes will take you there. Check out her watercolors– and she even paints iphone covers, so you can carry your ‘souvenirs’ with you!   Barbara Redmond

Patricia Glee Smith - Blue Buoy

Patricia Glee Smith is a fine artist, one of our readers and lives in Umbria. She paints detailed oils with an old world feel that will absolutely amaze you.  Patricia Glee Smith

Spring Landscape by Vicki Ingham

I love the peaceful feel and rich colors of Vicki Ingham’s paintings. Vicki was a colleague at Meredith publishing and she lives in Iowa. She often goes to Italy as a retreat, where she creates lovely landscapes of the Tuscan countryside.  Vicki Ingham

Mediterranean View by Hunter George

Lin Wolff has a darling little English bookstore in Valbonne near Cannes.
Hunter George, her father, is a Texas artists who paints lovely Provencal scenes when he comes to visit.  Hunter George

SOUTHERN FRIED FRENCH

Lynn, a native Charlestonian now living in France writes her blog, Southern Fried French, where today she is talking – Let Them Eat (Salmon) Cake !

In for Lunch, Out of Time: How to Déjeuner in Style

By Lynn McBride of Southern Fried French

If you’ve decided to work at home, or retire, you’ve likely had this problem:  Maybe you’re used to eating out at work, or grabbing a sandwich.  Suddenly, you’re at home and you’re faced with the daily lunch dilemma.  You may have a pesky spouse or kids on your hands, who keep asking, hey, what’s for lunch?  And, le déjeuner has a way of popping around every day.

Lynn sets a pretty table in her garden in France for déjeuner

I live in France, and no self respecting French woman, or a guy if he’s le chef de famille, would dream of just throwing a peanut butter sandwich on the table.  But if you’re like me, you don’t want to spend more than cinq minutes on this task, since dinner will come around all too soon, and yet you want a relaxing lunch with a nice glass of wine (even if you’re not in France, the French lifestyle is a mighty fine model).  Leftovers are my favorite solution, but it they’re aren’t any, what’s a busy cook to do?

We’re visiting le midi at the moment, which is how the French refer to the south of France, and we’re lunching en plein air (the French version of al fresco).  I’ve got a list of spring lunch ideas that I’ve collected somewhere, currently lost in my sophisticated filing system, so here are some classy lunches off the top of my head, facile à préparer, with some help from the French and the Italians.

 Simple Recipes for Déjeuner from the Heart of France

Croque Monsieur

Croque Monsieur

This classic is the French upgrade of a toasted cheese sandwich. Traditionally the outside of the sandwich is topped with a white sauce and then cheese. I find the sauce makes the bread too soggy so I skip it, and use a little mayo instead.  To make it, cut two slices of bread per sandwich, spread the insides with dijon mustard and mayo and fill them with slices of ham. Place sandwiches  on a cookie sheet, spread tops with a little more mayo and top with grated cheese (gruyère, swiss, or compté).  Run them under the broiler until the cheese is melted and golden. Put a fried egg on the top just before serving if you prefer the heartier ‘Croque Madame’. My vegetarian version: instead of ham, I use sliced tomatoes, roasted veggies, or sautéed mushrooms.

Italian Tuna Salad

Mix up some canned white tuna, good black olives, chopped peppers, red onions, a can of white beans, and some fresh herbs, all tossed and drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice. Leftover roasted or boiled potatoes, should you happen to have some, can substitute for the beans.

An Italian Tuna Salad

Crudités

Cut up an assortment of raw vegetables and put them in a pretty bowl, tall glass, or on a plate.  With enough veggies and a yummy dip, this can be a meal in itself.  A super quick dip:  stir some salsa into sour cream or creme fraiche.  Or dip veggies in a soft herbed cheese, like Boursin.

Salade Chèvre Chaud

Melt slices of goat cheese on baguette slices under the broiler, arrange them on lettuce dressed with a vinaigrette, sprinkle with walnuts.

Caprese Salad

Sliced fresh mozzarella with summer tomatoes and fresh basil is always a winner.  Drizzle it with pesto if you have some on hand. The French often put this on a baguette, sliced lengthwise, to make un-sandwich.

Melon Slices with Prosciutto, an Italian classic

Add a slab of Parmesan and some crackers, and you’ve got a pique-nique.

A Cheese Platter with Some Fruit and a Crisp White Burgundy

What could be more French? 

Please go over and visit with Lynn at her site, Southern Fried French where she always writes about food, wine and life in France!  Merci Lynn!

Keeping it Real and Rustic in France

by Lynn McBride

An old cafe chair, bucket and basket

My neighbor Marion and I love to hit the marchés des puces, or flea markets, that spring up every Sunday in the Burgundy countryside where we live. At these lively outdoor markets you can find most anything, including delicate painted porcelain, an elegant Limoges bowl or two, maybe some intricate silver flatware.

That would not be what we’re looking for.

.

.

Chez Marion, a collection of old lanterns on a table d'établi, or workbench

No, you’ll find the two of us picking through the battered wooden crates that the farmers have brought, looking for rusty hardware, hand-made wooden tools from simpler times, and dribs and drabs of old wrought iron. My husband rolls his eyes and points out that the worm holes and rust cost extra. Sometimes that’s true, but more often than not, we come home triumphant with a trunk full of happily worn and weathered treasures, for only a few euros.

An old fish cooker is pressed into service as a window box

.

.

I must admit my neighbor has the better eye for the aged and organic. She’s forever collecting wonderful seed pods or decorative branches. She even talked her house painter out of the thick old scaffolding boards he was using, and stripped them to make a fabulous farmhouse table.

.

Marion's table made of scaffolding boards, literally taken from underneath her painter

 .

Now what to do with all of our distressed diamonds in the rough? They seem to gravitate to their own spot, when an old stone farmhouse is their destination. I like to hang old architectural or wrought iron pieces on the wall over paintings. Marion styles vignettes all around her house. Even her husband Jean-Marie gets into the act: he attaches old rusty tools to shutters or doors on the barn to create natural works of art.

.
We have become recyclers, like the French farmers, who may have invented the notion. How lovely to live among things that time and weather and many hands have passed over.

Read more about Lynn’s Expat Life in France at Southern Fried French.  Sign up for her weekly post which will thoroughly delight and enchant you!

An old mold or brand adorns a shutter

Sunflower seed pods

another of Jean Marie's artistic creations

A French Door of a Different Kind

by Lynn McBride, Southern Fried French

Moving to France meant learning about a whole new culture, language, and cuisine. And after eight years here, I’ve picked up a few design ideas, too, from those clever French. Here is one of my favorites.

The children's clothing closet in this mudroom lies behind the curtain! Easy access for the kids and it looks tres chic! Photo by Tria Giovan courtesy of Kitchen & Bath Ideas

Americans are famous for having wonderful, huge closets. But the French, who are more often squeezed for space or living in old stone houses where walls aren’t easily moved, have learned something about closets too. Instead of putting doors on them, they very often drape them.   I was first inspired by this idea when I visited an elegant renovated Provençal farmhouse. There was a long hallway from the bedroom to the bath, and Madame had draped one entire length of the hall with luscious, celedon silk, heavy and lined and wonderful, to hide her clothes rod. The hall was narrow and the closet itself not much wider than a coat hanger, so a door would not have worked well. She captured unused space, and she did it with a grand nourish.
Since then I’ve thought of LOTS of reasons to drape a closet door. I don’t drape my windows, but I’ve ended up draping lots of storage areas in our home.

Nine Reasons to Use a French Drape for Storage:

1. Put them any place where you want to liven up a wall with fabric, color, and texture, as opposed to the flat surface of a door.

2. You can walk through a closed curtain with your hands full—carrying a laundry basket for example, or a stack of towels. In fact, you can keep it closed all the time if you like, and just slip through. No more fighting with your spouse about keeping the closet door closed in the bedroom.

3. Animal lovers take note! Litter box problem, solved. You can tuck a litter box in a closet behind a drape, and a cat can come and go, even if it’s closed. Or keep your pet’s food and water bowls out of the way in your kitchen pantry, using the same trick.

4. A drape adds softness. This is especially nice in a bathroom or even in a kitchen, where there are lots of cold, hard surfaces.

5. Your closet ‘doors’ can go from traditional all the way to contemporary, depending on fabric and hardware.

6. I have a small, windowless bathroom with a closet. Draping the door not only gives the suggestion of a window, but also adds color and pattern to the small space.

7. Drapes can go where doors cannot, especially in narrow openings where a sliding door isn’t possible. Use them to cover shallow shelves in a tight spot. I’ve even hung a drape around the utility area in my laundry room to hide cleaning tools, in a small corner where there was no other way to hide them.

8. Drapes can be a frugal alternative, compared to a door, especially if you’ve got a sewing machine. The French sometimes use vintage, coarse linen sheets, bought for a song at the flea markets.

9. And the final reason: they’re oh so French, and what is more chic than that!

For More On Lynn McBride’s Life in France…

1 – Rules for Drinking in France- It is 5:00 Somewhere does not apply

2 – Southern Fried French – The Cheese Course

3 – Francophile Alert!