Vacances: South of France: French foodie

We're back in rainy Paris after a two week vacations to the south of france and amsterdam. I welcome the rain, as it gives me an excuse to stay in bed, listen to jazz, take my time waking up and coffee myself. Often when I return home from vacation, I see my home/ city in a new way. This is the first time I returned to Paris and felt as if I were coming home.

Our trip to the south was great! I've heard so much about the French and the way they vacation (which is often). As many of you know, France's work life balance is just that, balanced. Everyone starts out with a minimum of 5 weeks vacation. As an American, when I first heard this it sounded unbelievable, as I started with two weeks vacay when I worked in SF. I remember wondering 'What could all these Frenchies possibly do with all this extra vacation time? How can they afford to take so many trips?'. But that's another blog post.

We took a train down to the south of france to join up with Pierre's family who were also vacationing down there.

First and most importantly: the food

We ate mostly all of our meals outdoors surrounded by cypress trees, fresh herbs and sunshine. Wild herbs grow wild everywhere, so our meals were very well seasoned! Since I tend to crave savory over sweets, I find the salty foods in the south absolutely delish! They cook with a lot of seafood, especially anchovies. My favorite thing to eat there is Anchoïade! It's a provencal dip created with anchovies, olive oil, white wine vinegar and garlic. It's SO good that I brought lots back to Paris with me, I even had a request to ship some back to the states!!

Rosé is a specialty down here, and it perfectly balances all the savory dishes. Also, they have amazing pizza down here (better than italian pizza in my opinion)!

This super salty pizza is made with anchovies, olives and capers. Paired perfectly with some rosé!

Copa from Corsica We visited a really cool rum bar that offers up every flavored rum one can imagine. I tried vervein and this really really really spicy rum. 

Needless to say, I looked forward to every single meal! Merci beaucoup to all those who feed me well :) Many more photos from the south to come!

bisous!!

-Jessi