Emily in France 🇫🇷 I Love Writing on Trains
On writing on trains.
I recently read an article written by a fellow writer who uses their laptop's dying battery as their own personal Pomodoro timer. And while I've been known to use both, my favorite way to induce a state of productivity is to write on trains. Specifically journeys lasting less than three hours. Give me a train to the south with three changes and a forty-minute layover in each station, and I'll give you a whole novel.
(Well, maybe not a novel. But at least a restaurant review, an interview transcription, and a travel piece.)
There's something about writing about trains that increases my output like nothing else. Maybe it's the fact that it's hard to move around on a train, especially if you have the coveted window seat. (You know, the one with the charging socket.) Maybe it's the fact that the very essence of train travel implies an end time that, despite its reputation, in my experience, the SNCF tends to honor pretty well. (The Italian train system is a whole other story.)
Or maybe it's because when I'm on board a train, I'm intimately aware of the fact that the time for wrapping up loose ends is now: The moment I disembark is the moment the next story begins.
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Cheese of the Week
On one recent train journey, my destination was Saint Pierre des Corps, from whence I travelled into the heart of the Touraine. As part of my whirlwind day there, I was lucky enough to get to sample a six-month-old Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine. The usually creamy goat cheese had taken on a Parmesan-like texture and a lovely nuttiness with the faintest barnyardy whiff.
Bleu des Causses has roots that stretch all the way back to Ancient Roman Gaul. It's essentially a cow's milk version of piquant favorite Roquefort, made on the same limestone plateaus of the Massif Central. It's nutty and slightly sweet with the damp, crumbly texture Roquefort fans know and love.
To discover more of my favorite cheeses, be sure to follow me on Instagram @emily_in_france, subscribe to my YouTube channel, and tune into the Terroir Podcast, where Caroline Conner and I delve into France's cheese, wine, and more one region at a time.
What I'm Eating
The food from Chef Rebecca Rohmer at Riv’K is truly delightful. It’s daring and exciting and enticing and delicious, with its surprising and thoughtful marriages of Israeli and Asian flavors. But on the flip side, this restaurant has a side that’s somewhat less laudable: It is not a comfortable place in which to dine. More on the blog.
Discover more of my foodie finds via Instagram @emily_in_france and on the blog.
Where I'm Going
1. It's been a long time since I went to my once-local Martin, but with my aunt in town, it's definitely on the schedule.
2. I'll be spending just one night in Paris before heading off to Nantes to see my friend Double C in a women-only rap battle at Drole de Barge Nantes.
What I'm Writing
1. France is home to over 3,000 goat cheese producers, who make a wide variety of cheeses ranging from fresh, soft chèvres to solid, snowy white tommes; from unadorned disks to pyramids with an ashy, grey hue. Flavor profiles run the gamut from grassy to lactic to herbaceous; textures may be creamy or fudgy, runny or firm, and origins span nearly every region from Champagne to Corsica. I delve into the Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine in my most recent column for My French Life.
2. Chicago physical therapist James Lee's in-demand Chilee Oil pays tribute to Chi-town and his nonagenarian grandfather. For InsideHook.
3. For top-notch "ant caviar" and agave worms, head to these Miami restaurants daring to put alternative proteins center-stage. For InsideHook.
What I'm Saying
Bouchon means cork but also traffic jam, in French. But neither is the meaning that I'm discussing on this episode of Navigating the French with Lucy Vanel, a culinary instructor based in Lyon. She's opening our eyes to a unique restaurant local to Lyon known for a specific set of dishes – and emblematic of a very Lyonnais humor.
What I'm Reading
1. Go Go Kiwi is a relatively new organic grocery store attempting to miitigate the cost of organic by scaling prices based on income. In Frenchly.
2. I always love stories of kindness. This one details the upperclassmen who opted to sign a sixth-grader's yearbook when his peers refused. In the Washington Post.
3. I know what it's like to be bound to a list. Without my lists (color-coded, ranked, and ever-evolving), I would likely be too overwhelmed by the sheer variety of tasks at hand to get anything done. So I loved this exploration of the literary value of a good list for LitHub.
A bientôt !