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Toast Trip to Collioure last week...
A gathering of 6 intrepid, fun people came to explore the Mediterranean Pyrenees with me. Staying at the serene , my guests met weavers and cooks, a winemaker and artists, a vinegar maker and an archeologist. We walked, we ate, we laughed a lot. We climbed mountains and dove into the sea. We even played a round-robin of tennis. Amazing travelers, game for everything!
Francophile? Check out this substack and interview with me about making the move to France. Thanks, Sacha Cohen and "A Good Vintage!"
A new series featuring inspiring women of a certain age who have taken the leap and made a new life in France.
Harvesting sweet pea seeds for next year
Returning volunteers (3rd time for Cléo, right and 2nd for Lis) after the Mirabelle harvest
Gerard digging a trench for the geothermal heating/cooling system
A little break in Provence, with dear friends from California
Swim at a cove outside Hyères
Last night with neighbors and Brooklyn friends for more swimming, a vegan feast and movie night. We watched an obscure film about longing with Simone Signoret, Chère Inconnue.
Views from here
Mountain weather is our master and muse
Supermarket espadrilles mean summer is here
Cherry picking, then jam making
Blanco getting relief from the flies; Jazz only lets him poke his head into her apartment!
Annual spring Iris explosion
Visit from an old friend. We hadn’t spent this much time together since 1982! Took him on a favorite hike-swim and laughed a lot.
Wild, miniature narcissus picked on my evening walk with Guapo. Plum trees blossoming. Seedlings popping up. Days getting longer. Spring joy 🌸😍🪴
A little slice of heaven with my beloved parents and sister
January 2023
Huge snow (iced in for the last week; thank goodness for a full larder), family and friends for New Years, hay delivery for the hungry horses, roof almost finished on the Mas, an all-day tennis tournament with our dear, new neighbor friends, and daily walks on the land. I love every season here.
Work in progress. This is where things are this week. Most of the roof has been replaced on the old Mas (farmhouse).
When Rémy and his team got to what was our kitchen for the past 3 years, we found the ancient beams damaged and urgently needing to be replaced. Gulp. The upside is we gained about 2 feet of ceiling height in that room.
Gerard and I pulled up the withering tomato, pepper, tomatillo and basil plants in the vegetable garden. The compost pile is steamy and high. Baby spinach and broccoli rabe are coming up. They’ll be ready in spring.
Next week, it’s cookie-making time to prepare Christmas presents for neighbors and friends. Short days. Quiet and slow rhythm. Anticipation is building for the arrival of our kids, in time to celebrate the new year together. We can’t wait to show them all the changes here. And hug them relentlessly!
Renovation Cat
A precious few days in Paris. Thanksgiving with treasured friends from Brooklyn. Fresh curry leaves found at my favorite Indian grocer, Passage Brady. Whisks, ladles, copper saucepans, etc at Dehillerin to indulge my love of culinary temples.
I wandered for hours, appreciating my former hometown, seeing art, dining with old friends. Paris is much more bicycle friendly than it was in the 80s-90s, when and I used to “ride our ponies” everywhere, helmet-less and wild. Mostly, I got around by bike this trip but also admired the quiet and clean of the métro, the views from bus, and of course the multiple thousands of steps I logged.
What a gift, to have Paris. To be able to get there on a fast train. To eat foods of the world in this cosmopolitan city. To hug my dear friends. Merci mille fois!
November vibes. Hug a tree. Hug someone you love. Hug yourself.
Ivy battle scene.
We are a few weeks away from beginning renovations on this old building. Doing everything in our power to preserve the charm *and* make it an energy-efficient, comfortable place to live.
For 3 years now we have coexisted with spiders, crumbling walls and invasive vegetation. We still love you, nature. We just want to establish better boundaries 😉
End of a whirlwind New York visit
1/ Union Sq farmer’s mkt blossom
2/ Central Park walk
3/ Diane Arbus show at David Zwirner gallery
4/ how I feel saying goodbye to my elderly parents today (📸 Arbus)
5/ Central Park
6/ First day of Fall at mkt
7/ View from parents’ apt
8/ Outstanding meal at S. Indian resto with my beloved food loving Curry leaf cocktail!!!
9/ Reunion with the Upper West Side mafia. I went to preschool with these people, at West Side Montessori School founded by our parents in 1963
10/ Three founders, L to R, my Dad, LF Boker Doyle, Desmond Heath, Gilman Burke. All in their late 80s and 90s, nine of the original 12 founders joined us for a weekend celebration. What a gift!
huntington
Wedding weekend fun.
My precious friend married .shell in Tivoli, NY before a throng of admirers.
Mismatched plates and glasses culled from months of yard sales. Poems written by offspring. Songs performed by siblings. Vows that brought the guests to tears of joy.
Friends made things, creating a potluck, homemade celebration. It perfectly reflected the expansive, inclusive love that Jenny and Kent embody.
I made 180 cupcakes, like some bake sale mom gone wild. Had too much fun to take photos (thanks girlfriends for sharing yours with me). Grinded and bumped on the dance floor like it was 1999.
A love fest. Thank you for wrapping us in your love, dearest J & K!
Good morning, Jazz
Today, in garden news
A bit of nature from here
It’s coming together now. We bought this property 2+ years ago, a big old farmhouse with outbuildings in the South of France. This building, the Résidence d’Artistes, is the first renovation, started one year ago. It was an ugly, concrete block house built in the 30s. With an architect, we’ve transformed it into a contemporary cube, clad in Douglas Fir, set into the wild landscape. Four bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a spacious ground floor for living and dining with a view. Each bedroom has a generous built in desk and closet. Heat, cooling and electricity powered by solar panels. Rain runoff will be captured in tanks for watering the gardens. Faucets provide water from our spring, supplemented by a well. The waste water system is plant based, producing water that is filtered for reuse in the gardens.
We move in here in early September. Then work begins on the 600 Square meter farmhouse, where we’ve been living since summer of 2019. I’m excited to live in the Résidence for the next year or so, as we continue to rehabilitate the property: landscaping, maintaining trails, overseeing construction in the Mas and expanding the gardens.
It takes patience. We’re in it for the long game. Being stewards of a place that dates back to the 16th-century. Adapting to climate change. Creating a place for creatives and nature to thrive.
A taste of New York. Sunset boat ride in NY harbor with Captain Pete Malinowski, to visit some of the Billion Oyster Project sites with our daughter, Gerard’s Finnish daughter and her sister Nea. Get to know the brilliant, important work of and donate to help clean up the ocean. We ate delicious upon arrival on Fishers Island and celebrated my father’s recovery from a fall. Feeling a lot of love for family and friends.
Highlights of the last few busy weeks:
1/ Hike day out with the Workaway volunteers. On the spectacular Côte Vermeille.
2/ They are, L to R: Rosina from Switzerland, Hannah from Scotland, Rachael from San Antonio, TX, Gerard from France 🥰, Amy from Brooklyn, Lisa from the Netherlands.
3/ The potager is coming in. Over-wintered kale, Chioggia beets, lettuces and arugula.
4/ Lisa and Amy love Guapo!
5/ Jazz cools off in her summer residence, Les Caves.
6/ Rhubarb tart, tonic of spring.
7/ Gerard receives his other big birthday gift, a 4-wheel drive utility truck for hauling wood, compost, tools, etc. He named it Bandito.
8/ Buttons at a stall in the Thuir Saturday market.
Thank you for connecting us with such lovely people. The last of this batch left the Mas this morning. 💙
Rooms are ready for our summer Workaway volunteers. In exchange for 25 hrs/week of their labor, they get food and lodging. I make a big lunch for us all every day, while they have a kitchen to make their other meals on their own.
We host up to 4 at a time from May-October. It’s such a help to us with all the work here: clearing trails, gardening, even sorting the contents of dozens of boxes of kitchen stuff we shipped here from Brooklyn. So grateful for the lovely people we’ve hosted.
May moments
1/ Cistus in bloom here
2/ day trip to Villefranche-de-Conflent, medieval walled town. On our way home from a soak in wild hot springs
3/ Nine days of adventures, cosiness and conversation with Saucha and Gudu
4/ Tourists in Collioure, where we had Gérard’s birthday lunch at
5/ Former lighthouse turned church in Collioure
6/ wild orchid seen on a hike near our house
7/ Gérard in Marlboro man mode, hauling stuff, clearing the land, being a great partner
8/ son and future daughter-in-law clothes shopping at my favorite “work outfitters” shop, trying on farmer gear. Thing one and thing two 😂💙🤍♥️
We have a big birthday in the house. To kick off Gerard’s week/year/decade, I conspired with my son and his fiancée to fly them from Virginia, secretly pick them up at the Barcelona airport and drive them up our country lane. Gérard was unsuspecting. They appeared at the front door a few minutes after me. “What? How? Huh?” A stunned and joyous reunion. Tears and laughter. Reunited for ten days of relaxing and exploring. Happy!
April light
Breakfast with Jazz
Planting the garden
End of day
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Monday morning. Jazz on strike because her man-in-waiting, chief groomer and carrot deliverer is away for a few days. It’s just me and the animals. Awoken by Clément, one of the workers putting up walls in the Résidence d’Artistes, at our front door. Guapo’s bark is the doorbell. Clément says there’s a horse blocking him from driving up the driveway. Carrots, a few rough pats (that’s how Jazz likes it) and she ambles along. Interior walls going up today!
Riding the last wave of summer
It’s really happening! We’re getting ready to renovate the first structure here at Mas Baills. After almost 2 years of planning, designing and permitting, it’s a go. The scaffolding went up this week. Right before August Vacation, that sacred French tradition. Took 3 men two days to put it up. Excellent views from the “terrace,” walking around the perimeter of the house. When everyone comes back refreshed in September, (re)construction begins.
Nettle soufflé! 🥚 Lots and lots of nettles here. A sign of good soil, I’m told. I’ve made every version of nettles I can imagine. Pesto, sauce, soup, tart. What else can I do?
Roadside shenanigans for today. A little distraction from the heavy political news, pandemics and stock market fluctuations. Celebrate the mysteries and marvels of nature!
Good morning!
Summer heat
If anyone predicted I would be watching the B52s perform in front of 15,000 French people on a hot summer night by the sea, back when I first listened to the band in 1982, I would have said “no way.” And yet. Thanks @lesdeferlantessuddefrance David Garcia, Christophe et companie for giving us a good time. @theb52sband Your stamina and energy inspires me. Play on!
Good morning. Lots of lasts this week. Last time with alternate side parking, on a rainy side street. We slept at my parents’ apartment last night after moving out on South Oxford Street. Stirred up memories of being a teenager, still living at home, wondering about what the future holds. Lucky to still have my parents. Lucky to be embarking on a grand adventure, moving to France on Monday.
It takes guts to be a pedestrian in India.
I’m in Wisconsin. On a farm!
Mesmerizing! Spotted at Musée d'Art Moderne, in Ceret (France, near the Spanish border in Catalonia). Small jewel of a museum in a lively, pretty town hugging the foothills of the Pyrenees. This video appeared in the excellent Najia Mehadji exhibit. @najiamehadji 👗 Les Frères Lumière La danse serpentine 1897-1899 Black & white film colorized 🧚🏿♀️ The dancer is American-born Loie Fuller (1862-1928) 👣
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Toast at Home and Away began in 2010, teaching home cooking skills to people in their own homes. Our mission is to get more people to cook good food at home. For your health, your wallet, your soul. And for the well-being of the environment.
Today, Toast offers cooking classes, catering services, NYC food tours and now, custom, small-group trips to extraordinary places.
Led by founder Nan Doyle, Toast is extending its love of hospitality and taking it on the road. The first Toast Trip will be with ten lucky travelers on a 14-day journey to South India in February 2019. Get in touch for details.
