The last sunset of 2025 was spectacular. One of the things I love about being on the same (almost) time-zone as my brother and sister is that we can all post sunset pictures within an hour of each other — and we all start Friday happy hour at the same time. When I’m in the States those things are always out of step. If they are chilling on a Friday it is only lunchtime for me, and if my sunset is stunning they are already asleep. But here we can chatter on WhatsApp at about the same time (what is an hour when we are used to five or six?). So this year we all posted the last sunset but my overachieving brother & SIL also posted the first sunrise.
In the realm of sibling competition, it was lucky for us that we didn’t see hide not hair of the sun here until mid afternoon. We are deep into a spell of freezing fog with low temperatures hovering around 19-20ºF/ -7ºC and highs remaining at or below freezing. Our apps tell us that the “feels like” temperature is 4-5 degrees warmer than the actual temperature because the air is so humid (just the way relative humidity works in summer in New Jersey). And in addition to making it feel warmer, that excess of moisture freezes most spectacularly. I drove my nephew to the gym in Gaillac on New Year’s Day and the drive was utter magic. I always love that drive, but today every twig, branch, stem of grass and cobweb was glazed, and when the sun broke through the fog on the way home, everything was twinkling and tiny bits of ice were falling like snow.
We spent New Year’s Eve with our friends Yvon and Nadine, my SIL Françoise and nephew Boo, Andrée, and one of her helpers who stayed over because she was also working the next morning so joined us for the celebration. I love the fact that her helpers are so integrated into her (and therefore our) life that inclusion at meals and gatherings with family and friends feels natural.
And I also love how much they care about my mother-in-law, giving us a break but more importantly giving her a break from us. They have their own WhatsApp group so they can negotiate changes to their shifts and share notes without asking us to try to organize things, and they organize surprises and treats for her. Equally important, they can (mostly) cope with the foibles and challenges of a 94 year old woman and focus on what makes her charming, interesting, and so in love with life in spite of herself sometimes. We are beyond lucky!
More than fifty years ago, the Jacobsohns arrived in Mouzieys with the Parisian au pair who had been with them in New Jersey. Of course, she and a local boy fell in love and still live five minutes walk from us. Jack makes what everyone says is the best foie gras, and among other things Giselle’s salad dressing is a dream. Until they retired, they owned a pizza and casual food restaurant in a village nearby where the midnight train to Paris used to stop; in my early years as a visitor we went there every time someone was leaving for the US or UK via the night-train to Paris, returning home late at night with a car full of wailing children. It was there that I learned how much I love truffles.
Later, a family friend visited and fell in love with Jack’s brother, alternating between New Jersey and a town near to us. That friend stayed with us after Christmas and gave us one of the bottles of champagne with which we toasted 2026, Giselle fed the outside cat when Walter joined me in the US in November, and we are going to their house for Le Goûter on the 2nd. These kind of connections make it easier for us to settle here, but our hosts for New Year’s eve are more like additional siblings than anything.
As usual, the food was simple and perfect. I got to eat oysters and smoked Salmon while the others had foie gras (Andrée did help with the oysters), then we had baked cod and small boiled potatoes with a sorrel sauce and a lemon sauce for the fish but also delicious on the potatoes. Followed by our second Xmas Bouche from Nadine.
We walked around the village in the fog as we tried to make space for the next bottle of local champagne. It was utterly silent and the fog created eerie shadows and discombobulation.
And then it was midnight. Happy New Year all. May 2026 bring surprises, delights, and maybe even a little peace…
