Coming up the drive to James' family home in South France after a grueling 12 hours of delayed flights, missed connections, and knee-knocking airplane rides invites you to breath a little deeper and walk quite a bit slower. The house is in Gattiere, a secluded town north of Nice where every shop closes for an hour at lunch and you can walk from one side of town to the other in minutes. A beautiful change from the hectic New York concrete skyline.
Lunch was everyday on the patio, over looking various French towns. On a clear day, you can see the Mediterranean just beyond the hills in the distance. Here the family gathers - having just woken up or been working in the gardens since dawn - and the day commences...
Afterwards, the afternoon is yours... to catch some sleep like James' brother Simon here, or catch some sun instead and contribute to the gardening facelift that the grounds around the house are undergoing... everyone here saved at least one tree from the ivy or built one section of a pathway wall...
Outside the house is an open-stove fireplace. The quinessential pizza oven! I have never had a pizza anything like what came out of this oven... fresh ingredients, wood-burning stove, cooked to perfection!
Easter lunch was a more forman occassion... we all gathered with friends of the family for a delicious meal after attending mass service at a tiny church in the center of the town.
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