Considered one of the most beautiful villages in Southwest France (yes, another one!), Beynac (pronounced BAY nak) with its château fort (castle fortress) from the 11th century, was even more so, with Lulu embellishing this medieval castle door. (We recently learned that by putting the leash handle on her back, Lulu stays fairly still. Good for her photo op!)

Doesn’t this photo above merit a quirky caption? (I was too lazy to think of one.)

The medieval stables had a Georgia O’Keeffe motif. (that rhymes!)

One of the best things about Beynac is the view from Beynac. (the Dordogne River and Valley)

We appreciated this sign that said not to leave dogs in cars (for their safety) and that dogs were allowed on the premises.

Some Trivia: Beynac was one of the setting locations for the film, Chocolat with Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp.
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Lulu Lundi* features Lulu our Boston Terrier, somewhere in France every Monday.

A quick reminder to make a note of the opening of Une Vérité qui Dérange / An Inconvenient Truth by Former U.S. Vice President and lifelong advocate for the environment, Al Gore. This is an eye-opening documentary that cries out for people to reverse the catastrophic effects of global warming.

Opening in theaters in France October 11, 2006.

[A big thanks to Ecolopop for the reminder]

Tags: france, french, Une+Vérité+qui+Dérange, An+Inconvenient+Truth, opening, theaters

The “design” of these roadside public toilets can be forgiven, I think, because:

1) They are Toilettes Sèches (dry toilets) that don’t waste (or use for that matter) any water; 2) don’t use any chemicals at all; 3) derive energy from solar panels (if necessary); 4) produce a renewable material in the form of compost; 5) are accessible to the disabled; 6) are well maintained and clean; and most importantly; 7) They don’t smell!

It was the first time I’ve seen these environmentally kind and clean public toilets in France and well, tant mieux. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: clean, public toilets in France? Isn’t that some sort of oxymoron? I am telling you I am witness to this. It’s hard to imagine, I do realize – but it’s for real.

You might think, EIUW! It must have a horrible odor, but it doesn’t. There’s an aeration system that magically helps this issue.

How does it work?

It looks like any other restroom you’ve seen but it’s quiet because there’s no flush of water. Once you do your thing in that toilet, the “deposit” is distributed evenly via a type of conveyor belt. This is activated by the user pressing a pedal next to the toilet. The accumulated human waste and toilet paper are broken down with the help of earthworms. It’s basically compost (much like the compost in gardens) and the process is so efficient, these toilet houses only need to be drained every 5 to 10 years. The compost needs to be removed twice a year or every 3 to 4 years depending on the amount of use. The final compost can be dried and/or removed and used as any other type of compost.

Tags: france, travel, Toilettes+Sèches, public+toilets, environmental, composting+toilets

We just got back from a week in Dordogne and another week back in Provence. So, I now have a little time to do Kat’s meme before the work week starts. It is a (mostly) food related meme that asks how each of the following items below has affected me. Here goes…

Pickled Ginger – I’ve loved this stuff so early in my life, it was love at first taste. Well, what it came with helped, though, I swear I can just eat this alone. My mother always put extra julienned pickled ginger with one of my favorite Japanese dishes: Okonomiyaki.

Gyoza – Another favorite, perhaps not necessary for the dish itself (though it IS yum), but for the process in making it. It always was a group effort that involved everyone helping out. These were some of the happiest times in my life, laughing with my family while making delicious little dumplings. Then, of course, eating them! The little gadget that we used to press together gyoza, was always a fun little “toy” for me as a kid, that made it fun to help out when we needed to make tons of it.

Gefilte Fish – When I was in high school I was invited to a seder, where they served many interesting Jewish foods including gefilte fish. I saw it and was fascinated so I asked about it. The description of it made me feel a little sick, plus it looked really gross. (I was just hoping it tasted better than it looked.) So, I tasted it and it was really hard to swallow. I hated it! Ok, so this wasn’t such a positive choice, but we all did laugh a lot at the table. I still can not eat gefilte fish to-date.

Ma Cuisine Familiale by Tante Cecile – This is a humungous hardback cookbook in French and has a recipe for every day of the year. This cookbook just mysteriously “showed up,” I swear. I have no idea how it got into our house; I have no idea who brought it. An educated guess, though, would be my mother-in-law. Gasp! You mean she hates my cooking? How could she?! I look at the cookbook all the time but I haven’t made anything from it yet, even though I love cooking. Do I have a block of some sort? Mais non… One of these days…

Tony Bourdain – There’s no other TV chef personality who I love as much as I hate, as with Tony Bourdain. He is so egotistical, obnoxious and nasty, just as much as he is hysterically funny, charming (in a raw, mooky sort of way) and brutally honest. I love his no-holds barred attitude, and I loved his book, Kitchen Confidential. It made me laugh out loud.

My Sister – always seemed to get the most out of life, more than anyone else I’ve ever known. Early in life as a teen, she became an award-winning photographer, she played guitar, violin and recorder, and as kids we sang songs all the time while she played guitar. Music was always playing in our house. She was a great athlete and won many tennis tournaments. She also instilled in me a love for food and cooking. We were always creating something and trying and inventing new recipes was one of her favorite activities, so as her little sister, I learned about food very early in life. She was creative, inquisitive, appreciative and ultimately positive and tried to get us to try everything – especially to understand the world, explore it and make it a better place. She was a great role-model for me (though I am still much more cynical and negative.) It was almost like deep-down she knew she would have a short life so she lived life to its fullest. She died at age 35.

Feel free to tag yourself with this meme.

Tags: meme, food, chefs, recipes, food, ingredients

This suitcase is cool! It can be extremely helpful and make your travel life a lot easier because it weighs itself, assuring that you won’t be stuck at the airline counter at the airport with a fee for bags exceeding the maximum weight allowed.

I HATE when that happens!

Go to the site for more information:

Ricardo Luggage