Join us here in The Bistro for a discussion on the entire Gamache series. Feel free to ask or answer any questions about any of the books or the series as a whole.
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3,639 replies on “The Bistro”
How exciting, Anna. What fun along with hard work. I CAN’T EXPRESS MY JOY FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY. You will handle your responsibilities(opportunities) very well I am sure. Best of luck with the house hunting.
Yep lots of dinners apparently! And other social events. Apparently spouses work hard. The spouse of one of the European attache’s gets a stipend and a medal of service. I advocate that for all of us. At least a clothing allowance to attend all these functions. I have not a thing to wear. I am guessing jeans just won’t cut the mustard.
Lots of house hunting yesterday and to begin again today. Only one prospective property so far. Oh dear. It is harder than you would think. DC is a lovely town though. Very green and nice architecture.
I am still jet lagged, much more so than when I went to Dallas. I wake thinking about dinner at 530 in the morning! I have tried one local delicacy…deep fried oreos!
Yes – such an adventure. The dining room table is intriguing. Does that mean that you will be hosting dinners a lot? It occurs to me that I haven’t a clue as to what your hubby will be doing, and so don’t know what his duties might include, nor what yours might as his wife. There are a number of the kinds of jobs, I think, in DC, where the wife takes an active role in the social part of his job. Traditionally, I think there’s a bit of a throwback to a time when women didn’t “work”, so a wife was supposedly available to handle any social aspects of her husband’s job. I think that hasn’t changed that much in DC, and interestingly, when a woman holds such a job, her husband is NOT expected to fill the same role… So, there might be a few dinosaurs in DC. I’m finding the whole prospect very interesting and can’t wait to hear more about it. But for now – go! Find a house!
Hi Julie and thanks for the welcome. So far we have met some very nice people and given the craziness of most Australians everyone seems very calm and normal. Jet lag has hit us very hard as there are a lot of time zone changes between Australia and DC. We have checked out the local area a little but don’t get a car until tomorrow which has been a bit of a limitation. Just had lunch with the people we are replacing and have absorbed a lot of information. House hunting starts in earnest tomorrow after a morning of briefings and administration. Have to find a house to accommodate a big dining table that comes with the job…..not so easy. and so the adventure begins.
Welcome to the US, Anna! I hope you don’t find us too crazy over here! Hope all goes well with house-hunting – I kind of envy you, as this seems like a very big adventure!
i everyone from DC. It is a bit wet here today but nice weather should return for our house hunting early in the week. Hope all are well. Very odd to think we will be living here although I won’t for a few more months. Even odder to leave husband behind! All well here so far. I hope everyone is ok.
Love the PAIN DORÉ recipe – would never have thought of doing muesli on it, and am not sure I’m going to go out and buy muesli just for that, hahaha. But it gives one ideas of crushed nuts, or other such “crusts” to add. And now, of course, I WANT some! Maybe for lunch today.
New recipe ready! http://gamacheseries.wpengine.com/the-brutal-telling-pain-dore/
I saw it, too, Anna, and had the same thought. How wonderful – now just make sure you live longer than me! I imagine she’s in for a few heavy years in the next few.. don’t know if she will be able to keep up the pace of one book per year, but I’ll wait. Gamache may have taught me patience!
Thanks Julie. I see it will be up to 87 degs in DC when I am there so I might need the lemonade.
Did you all see Louise’s interview at the Book Fair? Toddle over to her Facebook page and have a look. She looks wonderful and I always love hearings her enthusiasm and joy. Just what I need. The good news is she says she will write the Gamache series until she dies! Here are my wishes for a long and and joyful life Louise.
Oh, that’s not as good, is it, Anna? I’ll be thinking of you having your chocolate while I’m slavering away in the hot sun here…
Freezing here Julie so not craving lemonade as much as hot chocolate!
Who’s for lemonade? I love the description of it on the Nature of the Feast site – the recipe is basically what I do already, but it has my mouth watering for some Meyer Lemonade… yummmm.
It is. When your eyes start changing faster than you can get used to a new prescription, it’s very hard. I was going through that, as well as the other problems. I’m hoping it settles down now, as my insurance only wants to pay for new glasses once every two years…
Yes we will be back in DC at the end of the year.
I am glad all the blind can see here again. My own eyes are changing rapidly and my new glasses are no help. Sigh. Not cataracts yet though. Reading is so much a part of who we are that any change is difficult.
I really don’t know why it would be harder to get here, Anna – it doesn’t make sense to me – something like 60% of adults are lactose intolerant in some way or another. But people seem to have gone to soy milk, or coconut milk, rice milk, etc., rather than lactose free animal milk, so it’s only very recently that you could get lactose free milk that was still a dairy product. All the plant-based milks may very well be better for you, but they all had a “funny” taste to me. I was talking to people last week who say that lactose free cow’s milk is too sweet, but I don’t notice any difference in the taste at all. Different palate’s… and no accounting for taste, hahahaha. Too bad you won’t get to do much sight-seeing. But you’ll be back later, right?
Not a lot of sightseeing on this trip to DC Julie. I will be house hunting and then leaving Peter behind to take over his new job while I fly back. I will only be there for a few days. I hope you find some lactose free ice cream. I wonder why it is so much harder to get over there?
Hope everyone had a nice Mothers Day!
Good to ‘see you’ Millie!! Glad you were finally able to read Evangeline. Just glad you were able to read actually.
Hello all my much missed Bistro friends. Thanks to those that kept me in your thoughts. You have been in mine, I assure you. My right eye took longer to heal than expected thus the delay in getting glasses. But I can see up close again, and read and type and pop in to say hello. The first thing I read was Anna’s “Evangeline” story. It was a treat and I loved it. Now I’ve read all the comments from where I left off, but I should have made notes in order to comment here. 🙂
So I decided to just embrace you all for now. I wish all the moms, grandmothers, aunts, sisters and dear friend to someone special, a very Happy Mother’s Day.
How wonderful to hear from you, Millie. Hugs to you!
Hugs back, Barbara.
Yippee – I’m so glad you are able to read and “talk” with us again, Millie! I’m lucky in that my glasses still work “sort of”, so I can still read while my eye heals and settles down. They won’t be able to give me new glasses for at least 6 weeks, though, as they say little changes will keep happening, and the vision SHOULD keep getting better and better in the right eye as my brain adjusts, I think, is what it is. Since they’re only doing the right eye, once all that adjustment is made, I’ll be doing that. So happy to have you back!
I’m very happy to be back here and life back to a semblance of normal.
Oh – Anna – thanks for the info on the ice cream – I’ll go and take a look at both websites – that would be wonderful. Otherwise, I might just try my hand at making my own ice cream… I’ve done it before when I was young, but it was such a lot of work and certainly wasn’t cheaper than buying ice cream, hahaha. But since it WAS better than any other ice cream I’ve ever had, and I should be able to find lactose-free cream, or at least ultra-pasteurized (which cooks the lactose out of the cream), that will work… I know Vern misses ice cream, too, though he shouldn’t have it because of the sugar…
Anna – you are quite the globe-trotter! I know you’ve told us this before, but how long are you guys in DC? That’s a city I would truly love to visit. Our Jane Austen group is having their big event there this year, but so very expensive, and I’d prefer to do it in a more leisurely manner than to cram things into 3 days, so I’m not going this year. One of these days, though, I’m going to do it. I always say the thing to do before you visit DC is re-watch Born Yesterday (the original, with Broderick Crawford and Billie Holliday). It would inspire anyone, I think! Have fun, whatever you get to do while there…