Lazy Sunday in France with author Ann Mah

The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah

Welcome to another Lazy Sunday in France, where this week Ann Mah is taking us to Paris for a perfect family day. Ann is the author of Mastering the Art of French Eating, a delicious look at French regional specialities (read my review here) and this week will publish her first novel that is set among the Burgundy vineyards. I’ll be posting my review on Tuesday, but I guess there is no harm in telling you now that it is a beautifully written book, full of long buried family secrets just waiting to be released.

 

Ann Mah photo by Katia Grimmer-Laversanne

Lazy Sunday in France by Ann Mah

Sunday morning is my favourite time in Paris especially if my husband has gone out early to pick up croissants or miniature tartes aux pommes from the boulangerie. On a perfect day (which is what this is, right?) we eat them with the windows flung open, accompanied by hot tea and summer peaches, which always taste sweeter and juicier when you can slurp them at leisure. 

 

Paris, photo Ann Mah

Sunday mornings are for making lists, which I love to do, poring over beloved cookbooks and deciding what to make my family for dinner. A little later, we’ll take a walk to do our shopping, joining the crowds at the rue Cler and buying enough food to keep us until Tuesday, when these stores will open again. 

Back home again, I spend some time admiring the fruits and vegetables I’ve just bought. The fragrant melons and soft-skinned tomatoes. The length of baguette, the paper-wrapped triangle of cheese, the pink translucent slivers of dry-cured ham are a delicious and easy lunch for three.

 

The toy boats at the Luxembourg Gardens

In the afternoon, a walk? A trip to the Luxembourg Gardens, where we sail a small toy boat in the fountain, chasing it around the basin with a stick in our hand? Perhaps a nap on the grass. Or an ice cream? Definitely a cold drink to refresh us before the bus ride home. 

The sun is still bright overhead, but the shadows are lengthening as we near our apartment building. Since this is a perfect Sunday, dinner is already made. I need merely sip a glass of wine while it warms on the stove. After we eat, we’ll put our daughter to bed, pour another glass and chat about the week ahead. The temperature will turn chilly enough for us to burrow under heavy covers. In bed, I read my book and drift to sleep, dreaming of my next Sunday in France, simple but so very sweet. 

Lazy Sunday in France for French Village Diaries.

©AnnMah2018

Don’t forget to join me back here on Tuesday to read my review of The Lost Vintage. You can also read my review of Mastering the Art of French Eating here and read more about why Ann loves France in my France et Moi interview with her here. Links to Amazon for both of her books can be found below.