For the past six months, we’ve been holding our breath in the anticipation of our trip.
Three years of being away is simply too long, we’ve concluded. It is difficult to put into words the flooding emotions when we are finally here, surrounded by so much beauty. So, cheers to thirty days of no work, no blaring alarm at 5:30 a.m., just fun, just us, just France, Germany and Austria.

In this first post of our trip, we drove from Angers with our family to the chateau de Villandry, the last large chateau built in the Loire Valley during the Renaissance. The English-style gardens surrounding the chateau made us wish that our thumbs were greener.

Minh Chau’s paella and a glass of wine…
a perfect dinner…

ingredients: mussels, shrimps, chicken, chorizo, Spanish rice, peas, onions, garlic, saffron, thyme, cumin, oregano, smoked paprika, pepper, lemon, parsley, chicken stock
cooking time: 1h 30min