The Cook’s Atelier Storefront

One of my best cooking school experiences has been at The Cook’s Atelier in the storybook town of Beaune in the heart of the Burgundy, France region. An easy weekend getaway by train situated, either about an hour south from Paris or about two hours north above Avignon. My husband and I met dear friends in Beaune for a fun weekend. The gals had pre-booked “A Day in Burgundy French Cooking Class” and shopping on their agenda, and the fellas scheduled superb wine tasting venues.

The Cook’s Atelier is a small family business offering French culinary cooking classes, private events, a culinary boutique, and wineshop all situated in a 17th century lovingly restored stone building, beautifully lit by three floors of floor to ceiling windows overlooking a central atrium with a skylight. The original wooden spiral staircase magnificently connects all the floors. Marjorie Taylor and Kendall Smith Franchini are mother and daughter American expats who dreamed of living in France and showcasing their culinary skills and wine background in one of France’s gastronomic meccas. Kendall fell in love and married Laurent, a Frenchman from Provence, moved to Beaune, started a family, Marjorie joined them, and the entire dream and family business has taken off.

The Cook’s Atelier is a visual masterpiece for your senses, from the start of the day to the finish. Your day begins with meeting at the Beaune market with many of their special artisan food producers and buying seasonal ingredients for the cooking class and extended savory lunch. A quick walk through the historic heart of town, and you are at their storefront, ready for your hands-on cooking class. The teaching kitchen is on the top floor, the dining room on the second, and ground floor is the culinary boutique and wine shop at street level. Students are taught and work on recipes for lunch, learn basic techniques, simple recipes, and culinary tips in general.

Handsome Merchandizing Mixes New and Vintage Pieces

Looking Down Through the Atrium

The Cook’s Atelier Teaching Kitchen Ready for Students

The Table is Set for Our Hard-Earned Lunch

“Rack of Lamb with Herbs” and Spring Vegetables was Star of the Lunch

Marjorie and Kendall, A Dynamic Duo

Lunch was seven courses from appetizers to dessert with accompanied wine pairings chosen by Kendall’s husband, Laurent. The copper, the tea lights, the peonies, the embroidered napkins, the soup tureens, all of the details were so simple yet stunning, and lunch was absolutely delicious! A day of savoring “joie de vivre!”

Marjorie and Kendall wrote and published in 2018 a beautiful cookbook, The Cook’s Atelier, with many of the recipes that were featured in our “A Day in Burgundy French Cooking Class.” This cookbook is beautifully written and is organized by the seasons, and how their year unfolds which I always love. My dream is to return once again to this special region of France, and immerse myself in one of their week-long intensive cooking classes. If you can’t make it to France, like this year, many of their curated products are available online at www.thecooksatelier.com with worldwide shipping available.

Do you know of The Cook’s Atelier? Have you experienced a day that totally takes you to another level of experience and thinking, you are forever changed?

I heard distant rumblings about Sharon Santoni from her first book, My Stylish French Girlfriends, then she was featured in the May/June 2018 Victoria Magazine, sharing with us her just-released second book, My French Country Home, and her gracious taste in French country living in Normandy, France, and I was hooked. 

Sharon Santoni grew up in England, fell in love, married a Frenchman, raised their four children in a rural dream home and cultivated garden, and embraced her French life. Soon to be an empty nester, Santoni got the idea to start a blog, My French Country Home, sharing her daily life in rural France and all that it offers.

Fast forward, her blog is now read by thousands all over the world, two beautiful books under her belt, and an accidental entrepreneur with her quarterly subscription mail order Stylish French Box. From spark to fire, sometimes life is like that! She muses frequently  about reinventing oneself, lessons we can all learn from her.

If that is not enough, Santoni loves to troll nearby brocante flea markets for unique treasures for her home, garden, and entertaining. She is my kind of girlfriend!

Victoria Magazine, May/June 2018

For some time I have wanted an urn in my garden, an urn that was simple but gave a nice touch to the garden. Urns are easy, as they can be planted, take the weather, moisture, and look great just where they are placed.

So in my mind, I began the hunt for the perfect white urn. Why white, because I have two existing white fountains, white is in my garden color palette, and I have a white stucco home. White is a theme. I have found white urns are a bit harder to find than other colored urns. 

So my journey began to find a white urn that would work well in my garden. In my travels and every day life, I came across fabulous urns and began to have "urn envy."

Recently, I stumbled across an urn that I thought would look great in my garden. I should say "urns" as I found three, and made a little vignette. Where did I placed these urns? In a perfect spot, the olive grove. Interestingly, these urns are almost a collage of the fabulous urns I had seen and been admiring, only better, because they seem perfect for my garden in color, form and size. Their white color draws your eye to their heavenly spot, in a most simple and natural way.

Urns in My Olive Grove

I found urns for my garden, at the most surprising place, HomeGoods. These urns are very reasonable and beautifully handcrafted in Mexico by local artisans. Suggestions to find urns for sale are nurseries, garden shops, flea markets, and home decor stores. Know what you are looking for, and keep your eyes open!

Teak Containers Can Be Beautiful

Teak is not just for furniture anymore, teak has evolved into accessories for your garden, outdoor rooms, and patios, too. The same teak principles apply to teak accessories, in that they age to a beautiful gray patina, withstand weather, and overall are very durable.

If planting a teak container, you will want to line the inside container with a plastic bag or plastic lining before adding your soil, plant material, and moss. If you plant a succulent such as this Sticks on Fire (Red Pencil Tree), Euphorbia tirucalli, in the photo, this container will require little water to maintain it.

Besides plant containers, you can find versatile teak accessories for hanging on walls, serving bowls, trays, art objects, and the list goes on. One source for teak accessories is Teak Closeouts. 

Think teak for timeless and trouble-free.

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We all know how beautiful boxwood can be clipped in a formal garden, but have you thought about using boxwood as literally a very "green" oasis for your floral arrangements? I have a dear friend who is very talented in creating magnificent floral arrangements from her garden. On a recent visit to her showcase garden, she showed me how to use her boxwood from her garden as a way to secure her flowers in their vases. Clipped boxwood anchors your flower stems, looks great especially in your clear vases, and is what I call "garden economizing"--free from your garden.

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The added advantage of using boxwood is that it will keep for a long time in your vase, far outlasting your cut flowers. Simply cut boxwood pieces to your desired floral vase or container size. Arrange them under water until your vase is full of boxwood clippings, and next add your cut flowers. The boxwood will hold your flowers in the spot you place them. I love the look, very classic, very green, and very earth-friendly.

Please share if you use a green, alternative to oasis for your floral arrangements. Please comment on which boxwood your enjoy the most.

I love burlap as a medium, see my post, Beauty in Burlap for more ideas. Burlap is easily found in art and craft stores as a finished garland. Over the holidays I made this rustic burlap wreath and finished it with a plaid holiday ribbon. Now that the holidays are tucked away for the year, this beautifully textured wreath can become a "wreath for all occasions" simply by changing out its ribbon style or embellishment.

The wreath is simple to make, requiring little other than a wire four-ringed wreath form of your preferred size, a spool of 6" wide burlap garland that is 10'long, scissors, and a favorite ribbon of your choice.

Begin by unraveling your entire 10' of burlap garland. Leaving a beginning tail which you will tuck in later, begin weaving your burlap garland through your wire form, first under, then over your wire. As you weave under and over your wire, pull out a loop of burlap each time you weave in and out. Create your loops the same size, which becomes your burlap form. Leave a tail at the end of your wreath, as in the beginning and tuck it into your wire wreath form to finish.

The burlap garland is cumbersome in the beginning with 10' to thread through the wires, but soon after the burlap wreath starts to take shape. Knobby loops begin defining the textural beauty of this wreath.

In celebration of my beautiful hens, I have my wreath currently adorned with a copper feather ribbon.

Around the holidays, you can easily change the look of this wreath to a more holiday festive look. The same goes for spring with a pastel ribbon, or the fall with a black and white checked ribbon. You have unlimited possibilities with this wreath for all occasions. Don't forget that wreaths can dress up a window, or a candle and hurricane on a table, besides a special door.

Please share if you adorn a wreath for a special occasion other than the holidays. Please share what your favorite wreath.

My new favorite perennial plant is Verbena bonariensis, also known as Purpletop Vervain. I planted it in mass on one side of my courtyard next to my olive trees and white iceberg roses, and I have really been enjoying it. It is very low maintenance with high "plant appeal."

It is native to South American and has naturalized in California. It does best in USDA Zones 6-10, prefers sun, and little water. It is a tall structural plant, 4'-6' high and at least 2' wide at maturity. Yet it has this airy quality which brings lightness and motion to a garden setting rather than density. It has clusters of captivating lavender-hued flowers that bloom prolifically from summer to fall. It is an incredible magnet for butterflies and delightful birds such as hummingbirds and goldfinch as an added bonus. Verbena bonariensis can reseed easily and aggressively, so be careful where you plant it.

There is even a dwarf version called Verbena bonariensis 'Little One' which reaches 18-24" high by 12-18"wide in size. A good source for both of these Verbenas is Cedros Gardens, (tel) (858) 792-8640, in the heart of Solana Beach's Cedros Design District.

Here are some tips for using Verbena bonairensis in your garden. Plant it in mass like I did, either as a background or in a foreground as it has such a nice "see-through" quality. It pairs well planted among roses, as mentioned in Carolyn Parker's everything rose blog, Rose Notes. Since it takes hot and dry conditions very well, think about planting it in your driest garden spots. I planted Verbena bonariensis "Little One' directly in my pea gravel around my water fountain. It looks like a cheery volunteer, yet adds interest and a dab of color. Or plant it in a dry spot along a flagstone pathway for a little bit of a surprise element for those walking by.

Please share if you have Verbena bonariensis in your garden. Please comment on how you have it planted and styled in your garden.

I collect bird nests from all over my garden. Sometimes a strong wind sends them to the ground. Thank goodness I find them empty, after the young birds have "flown the coop." I marvel at how well they are engineered. Some are large, and some are small. I recognize these nests are made from materials that come out of my garden. It gives me great joy to see the results of my garden from another angle.

I feel these special bird nests are symbolic of new beginnings, life, good fortune, and more. I count my blessings that there are so many of them. When I recently hung a European coat rack, I knew that was the perfect spot for my bird nest collection. Nature is by far the best decorator.

Please share if you collect bird nests. Please share the best bird nest you have found.