Rosemary Baby

Hillsides abound with wild rosemary, thyme, and fennel.  I'm sure there are other herbs I have yet to discover.  What a pleasure it is to go for a hike and run my hands along rosemary stems and enjoy its perfume.  The same for thyme.  See below.

To the left is rosemary.  These large shrubs crowd one another going up the hillside. Below is the stately stalk of fennel.  The color will change to a darker green as it matures and each of those clusters you see will be filled with luscious
anise flavored seeds in the fall. 

There is a large shrub of thyme just outside the door to the gite I have for two weeks. A gite is a type of holiday home for rent in France.

There are two apartments.  Mine is on the upper level.  See below.

Here is the thyme that sits just outside the door.

There is even a rosemary shrub growing out of the rock wall along the passageway to the washing machine.

 

The place comes with a barbecue.

And the fuel supply is a stack of old large grape vines.

On a previous trip I ate at a restaurant somewhere in Provence aptly maned 'Le Grillon'.  The chef's assistant built a fire of ancient grape vines in a raised barbecue pit in one corner in the rear of the restaurant.  Once it burned down to glowing coals the chef cooked patrons orders.  That night I ate grilled lamb chops perfumed with sprigs of rosemary.

In he next few nights I will barbecue chicken breast (locally raised free range) on my grill and toss a handful of rosemary sprigs (which I will have soaked in water for a bit) on the coals to flavor the meat.

For now it is off to see the mayor of Fraisse Corbiers who I hear sells goat cheese and yogurt.

Oh, one thing about doing my wash this morning.  I remember in Budapest going on line and getting the instructions in English for the model of washing machine sin the apartment I was staying in since everything was written in Magyar (lots of z's etc. in their words).

This time everything was written in French.  However, it seemed intuitive. So ,I got the machine going.  Later I checked my English-French translator and discovered I had used the wool cycle.