Thinking of the Fires in France This Week

Cotignac in the news today: tragic fires

Fire in the vineyards in the French village of Cotignac in the Var department in France.
This is one of the many wildfires burning in France this week. 
This photo is especially meaningful to me because I have been there several times.

Cotignac, 1976-1994

We visited the village of Cotignac several times from the 1970s until the 1990s. Our friend Michelle, who lived and worked in Paris, shared a second home there with her sister and brother. This house with its beautiful surrounding vineyards had belonged to Michelle’s grandparents; however, her father had left the village for Paris as a young man seeking a more urban life.Thus, Michelle was born in Paris where she went to the university and had a career in scientific research.

Cotignac was a very idyllic place. There was a wonderful market in town, and vineyards all around. The grapes harvested on Michelle’s property were made into wine at the local coop, and Michelle always had a lovely bottle to share with friends at her Paris apartment. Seeing the news of the horrendous wildfires there this week was very depressing. Here are a few photos from my visits there in the past.

The vineyard near our friend Michelle’s house near Cotignac.

For more photos see https://maefood.blogspot.com/2023/06/la-france-profonde.html 

Blog post and photos © 2024, 2026.

Cranbrook

The House

Cranbrook House, Bloomfield, Michigan, as we saw it yesterday. It was built in 1905.

Cranbrook House was the home of George and Ellen Booth. They were heirs to the Scripps family fortune, which mainly came from the national newspaper chain, and they actively participated in managing and enlarging the Scripps newspapers. Ellen’s family had founded the papers in the 19th century, and they remain a major force in journalism today.

The house is an Arts and Crafts-style masterpiece designed by the well-known architect Albert Kahn, and furnished and embellished with works by local Detroit artists and craftsmen, as well as by imported objects, tapestries, paintings, and sculptures.By zillionaire standards, this is a modest house, neither very large nor very opulent. Here are some photos that I took while touring the house:

The Gardens

The house stands on a large tract of land, which includes many gardens. Several institutions, especially a private school and an art school, also stand on the estate.

Cranbrook Academy and Art Museum

The complex of buildings and gardens includes an art museum and a school. On our visit yesterday, we visited only a smll part of the estate. While we didn’t go into the museum we did enjoy seeing the fountain with a set of sculptures by the sculptor Carl Milles, as I mentioned yesterday.

Photos © 2026 mae sander

Statues at Cranbrook Inst.

Beautiful Dinner

 

Alice cooked salmon, zucchini, ravioli, and sauces for us.

Gardens, Pizza, and Tibetan Food

Walking around the Botanical Gardens

A water lily in the greenhouse

FOOD 

Lunch yesterday: pizza

Dinner yesterday: Tibetan food. Momo (dumplings), along with chicken, beef, and vegetarian dishes.

Blog post © 2026 mae sander

Blintzes for Breakfast

 

Good Week Starts Now

Fixing a cold sweet-potato dish in the morning

A trip to Costco: while Len checked out I waited in the food court.

My brother and sister-in-law arrived in the afternoon for a several-day visit.

Len barbecued chicken which we ate with the sweet potatoes and other vegetables.

Just published and auto-delivered from amazon: the new book by Colson Whitehead.
I’ll be reading it next — and put off reading other books.

Blog post © 2026 mae sander

More on The Odyssey

Translations of the Odyssey that are being avidly read as people anticipate the new movie.
I read the one by Emily Wilson — see this blog post on my reading: The Odyssey

 The New York Times this morning reports: “So far this year, sales of the ‘Odyssey’ rose by 76 percent compared with last year, according to Circana BookScan, a book industry sales tracker.” (source)

Do you find it amazing that this ancient epic apparently has so much to say to modern readers? Have you been reading (or rereading) it? Or just waiting for the movie? Are you convinced, along with various pundits, that people have stopped reading and switched to short-attention-span videos? Besides reading about writers’ views of Homer’s poem, I also just read a long article that says we are post-literate, so I guess it doesn’t matter —

Pessimism from The Atlantic (link)

Miriam’s Jam

Miriam sent me photos of her adventures in making jam with fruit from the Seattle Farmers’ Market. Some are from last year and some from this year:

Photos © 2025,2026 Miriam Wanner