Bastille Day Fireworks – Eiffel Tower
Today is Bastille Day, or French National Day, which commemorates the official start of the French Revolution.
Such a wonderful day and, you’ll soon find out, I couldn’t pay my husband to lay a French kiss on me today.
The holiday is celebrated on 14 July each year. In France, it is formally called La Fête Nationale or Le quatorze juillet. (That would be the fourteenth of July for us non-French speakers).
I was all set to chat it up here at the blog about all the fab things the French have given us (and not just the sexy kissing, wine and fries, although I do love all those things).
I have links to cool health-conscious French recipes and interesting facts about Bastille Day. But…
Somehow, the flu is running around Southern California in freaking July and I have it. Don’t ask me how…all I did was go to PT and the grocery store. I’ve been laid out since last Thursday, flat as a pancake, on nearly every flat surface of our house, including the floor since this flu gives you the spins.
I’m starting to be up, and I promise you, I barely breathed on the monitor while I wrote this. 🙂 I just wanted to check in and let y’all know why you haven’t heard much out of me this week.
I’m still doing PT and, since they told me to “come on in” despite the flu, I’m treating the place like a preschool full of three year-olds with the cooties (that would be very carefully, with lots of hand washing).
More from me soon, I promise. I’ll probably be doing exercises like the “Side-lying Clamshell” when you read this. *clutches sides laughing*
Do you have any killer French recipes you’d like to share? Do you celebrate Bastille Day at your house? Are you seeing year-round flu seasons in your neck of the woods? And most important…Do you have any cool names of PT exercises that make you giggle like a teenage boy? Enquiring minds always want to know these things here at More Cowbell!
~ Jenny
Jenny Hansen's Blog 
I love Bastille Day, Jenny, every since being on a summer program in the South of France in college. I did ask the fellow who asked me to dance on the main plaza of the town if he planned to lead with my left breast, since that is what he grabbed.
I’m fresh out of funny names for PT exercises, but “downward-facing dog” in yoga hits me funny (and dirty).
No flu nearby for me, but hayfever is kicking my butt. I hope you’re back to fighting trim soon!
LikeLike
Shut the front door! Hand to left breast on the main plaza?! That was one cheeky Frenchman, Elizabeth. Do you cook special dishes or add any pomp and circumstance to the day?
My husband has hayfever and it is just about the most miserable allergy I’ve ever seen. I feel for you, girl.
p.s. Downward-facing dog is the most hilarious yoga pose name in the world. If you’ve ever watched a dog stretch, it’s completely apt. And still it makes me giggle…
LikeLike
I usually make Madeleine cookies, from the recipe I got from the woman I stayed with.
And the name may be apt, but it still makes me giggle.
LikeLike
Oooooh. How do you make Madeleine cookies?
LikeLike
Here’s a recipe, Jenny: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/french-butter-cakes-madeleines/ (this is very close to what I have). You can use orange zest to change things up, but you have to have a madeleine pan. I could tell you the whole history of the shape, but I’ll shut up now. 🙂
LikeLike
Why would you shut up? Give us the history, girl!!
LikeLike
Ha, I try to keep my nerdiness to myself, Jenny. Madeleines are baked into scallop shell shapes, which are the symbol of pilgrims to San Juan Compostella in Spain. The woman who gave me the recipe said they were made in honor of pilgrims to Compostella, but I don’t know if it’s true. Marcel Proust in Remembrance of Things Past, writes about the rush of memories from tasting a Madeleine. That passage is often quoted as an example of smells and tastes evoking memories. 🙂
LikeLike
So sorry Jenny. Proud of you for dragging yourself to PT. You are a fighter!
LikeLike
I am definitely fighting for this hip this month. Geesh. And yes, I went to PT again today. I’m feeling all big and bad because I can open my legs. It’s the little things, right?
LikeLike
No flu, no Bastille Day. And although I have had my share of PT, I was too high on painkillers to remember any of the actual names or any of the ones I probably made up because when you’re high on painkillers it’s really easy to act like a giggling teenage boy.
Hope you’re mended soon!!
LikeLike
Wow…high on painkillers is the way to do PT! Except for the pain that got you there part. I do love the idea of the story lurking back there, and you giggling on the PT table, so I’ll just focus on that.
I have to admit, if I didn’t have to drive over there, those painkillers would be looking sparkly about now. 🙂
LikeLike
So sorry you’re dealing with the flu on top of recovering from your surgery. Being sick sucks. Big time. Feel better, Jenny.
LikeLike
I’m SO much better today. Being out of bed and showered made me feel like a conqueror this morning. 🙂
Now that I’ve kicked PT ass, that bed is calling me though.
LikeLike
We celebrate Grandma Holton’s birthday on July 14. She’d be 114 today…
LikeLike
That is so special that your family does that, John. She must have been very special. My husbands entire family remembers my daughter’s birthday for a similar reason. She was born on his grandmother’s birthday (she’d have been 124 that day). It’s a fine family tradition. 🙂
LikeLike
Jenny, sorry you are hit with the flu after all you are going through with the hip. Feel better 🙂
The French? Well most think my last name is French and in that language my last name means “times” like in 3×5 === like I care. My name is a morph of a strange dialect in Italian. I am first generation Italian … and then … And then my middle brother married a French woman and had one child who was raised there. My dad was a linguist and was literate in French, Italian, Spanish and English. Most of my French family has traveled the ocean for years.
And I am still struggling with English, know about two dozen French words and I make a killer quiche. I have even adopted it to a low fat version. According to my French family, they did not invent French fries … like Italians didn’t start spaghetti … it was the Chinese.
Well, so much for that. Get well and keep posting those great pics of the produce from your garden !!! 🙂
LikeLike
Oooooh, I love all that name history, Florence! I knew you were Italian through and through, but I didn’t know all that coolness about Fois. And making a killer quiche should NEVER be discounted. I would love to know how to make a killer quiche. 🙂
I promise, any of you who pal around with me on Facebook will see pics of the garden. Maybe I should do another video of it once I get a voice back and I’m not bouncing around on crutches.
LikeLike
Bastille Days is pretty big here. There’s a free, 4 day party/festival downtown to celebrate it. It usually draws about 250K people. There’s live music, tons of great, international foods, and just a great party in the streets of downtown Milwaukee. There’s also a run they do every year to kick it off called the Storming of the Bastille. Good times, although I haven’t gone in years.
I hope you get better soon!! There some kind of flu bug going around here lately too, but thankfully, it hasn’t hit our household.
LikeLike
The flu is going around in a lot of places in the U.S. right now. A few of my pals in the Phillipines have it too. We’ll all pray you don’t get it. It sucks.
And now I have yet one more reason to come visit my pals in Wisconsin. That festival sounds magnificent!
LikeLike
Oh Jenny, you poor hunny! Glad at least that you are starting to recover…enjoy that lovely garden of yours during your convalescence! #TryingNotToBeJealous. 😉
LikeLike
Trying not to be jealous…this from the girl who has tomato plants taller than herself? Your garden ROCKS! But I agree, I’m very spoiled with the year-round action in my backyard. That’s something only SoCal or a great greenhouse will give you, unfortunately.
LikeLike
Oh, and here’s a recipe for a cocktail called a “French 75.” I have no idea how it got the name, and I doubt it’s French, but you won’t care after the first sip: http://liquor.com/recipes/french-75-2/ I absolutely love these. Paul makes them for me quite often – instead of the simple syrup, he stirs in a spoonful of sugar before pouring in the champagne. Sometimes he’ll put in a splash of blue curacao, which we’ve dubbed a “blue 75.” Bliss. 🙂
LikeLike
Oh my god, I want a Blue 75….STAT. By the way, this part made me laugh: “Paul makes them for me quite often.” It’s nice to know I’m not the only girl around here who has her own personal happy hour favorites. 🙂
LikeLike
If it means I can have an icy adult beverage, I’ll celebrate anything. So, Happy Bastille Day!! Viva La France.
Sorry you’re not well. I hope it passes quickly so you can get back to the business of getting better.
Take care.
Patricia Rickrode
w/a Jansen Schmidt
LikeLike
This is probably because they made me take antibiotics after the surgery. I think people get sick easier after antibiotics.
Ah well, I’ll be better soon. And in the meantime, you need to tip a glass for me too. Viva la France!!
LikeLike
Best wishes for a speedy recovery. You don’t need this and PT . . . mind you they won’t let you do that with the flu either, will they? Everything has its upside, I guess?
LikeLike
That’s why I think I got the flu from the PT place! They had me come in both Friday AND today. So yep, the flu isn’t getting me out of much (besides my skin over the weekend, figuratively speaking). 🙂
LikeLike
Pingback: Pinterest Recipes » No Title
Bummer on the flu. Being sick in the summer should be outlawed. Glad you are getting back up and around, and back to entertaining us at the keyboard. 🙂
In my neck of Wisconsin, we are descendants of Germans, Belgians, and Dutch – not many of the French fur trappers stuck around apparently after Jean Nicolet left- so the closest thing to a French recipe that I grew up with was Chili Fries, Ranch Fries, Cheesy Fries, etc. And people wonder why I have such a voluptuous figure. 😉
LikeLike