Still waiting for my luggage.

FRIDAY

I woke Friday morning to the crowing (do roosters crow?) of roosters in the distance. So many of them I couldn't immediately identify the sound -- a surprisingly pretty sound.

Pictured here, first course on the patio Friday night, fresh from the garden. Just Kippy, Jerome, Honey (Kippy's summertime assistant, who will also participate in the class) and I at the table that night. It'll be our last quiet meal before people start arriving later today.

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SATURDAY

My first two students arrived this afternoon. Wendy and Leslie from Queensland, Australia. They settled into their rooms and almost immediately we were all shuffled into two cars and driven to the home of Caroline and Serge, old friends of Kippy's and Jerome's. Wine on the patio, dinner inside ( a platter of cheese to die for--better than any dessert. I have got to find these cheeses in Atlanta), a tour of their incredible home which twisted and turned, upstairs and down, surprising us at each turn with huge vaulted rooms, architecture unlike anything I've ever seen in the States.

My luggage arrived, mangled.

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SUNDAY

It's 4:00 a.m. now, everyone in the house is sleeping. I'm anticipating the arrival of the rest of the students today. They'll all be flying in from the States - New Jersey, Oregon, Atlanta and Kentucky -- and will be ushered to bed after a bite to eat. While they sleep, some of us might sneak off to a Sunday brocante (flea market). I'll be looking for a vintage towel rack for my kitchen, old drawings or paintings of France, and maybe just some surprising little treasure I simply cannot live without.

Here are Kippy and Honey starting the day in the kitchen.