We went to France a couple months ago. It was when summer had turned to fall here but when it was unofficially still lingering there. When the afternoons were almost warm enough for sandals but the nights chilly enough to turn on the furnace.     There was a fireplace in our kitchen and a ghost in our bedroom. There was taxidermy in our living room and fish pond in our front yard.     There were friends and meals and many bottles of wine. There were markets and broncantes and numerous trips to the grocery store. There were oysters.     There was the best yogurt I've ever had (Sweden & Beijing run close 2^nd & 3^rd mind you) and some of the best cheese. There were croissants and religieuses and a good lot of canelés. There too, was a truckload of Rosé.       And perhaps most exciting of all, there was baguette delivery and hunting for hare. The latter, something I've always dreamt of doing (more on that soon). And the former, somehow one of the the best surprises to date.

  There were roadside stands selling cepes, old men selling honey, and chickens with their heads in the grocery store. And hands down, there were the most beautiful butcher shops on earth.       There was cognac and chocolate and the kind of magic that only comes from getting lost. It was amazing.     xo, N               Plus, a few things I like: this table the second photo in this post the the wall in this photo this situation these scoops this hair red and pink together and this sweatshirt                             Photos: Michael Graydon