Hello friends! Gourmet Girl Denise here from the beautiful Loire River Valley, France. Spring has come early to the Loire this year, and the winter was very mild. Many of you may already know that in the States I worked as a landscape designer, and although I have yet to create gardens for clients here […]
cookbooks
The Hunt Is On!

Hello Friends, Gourmet Girl Denise here. The last leaves have fallen from the trees here in the Loire River Valley and there is a chill in the air. Two weeks ago the night temperature dipped below freezing, and when I awoke the next morning and stepped outside my tomato plants were black and had turned to […]
A Year To Be Thankful

Hello Friends, Campers, and lovers of the Culinary Arts! Gourmet Girl Denise here from the Loire River Valley, France. Fall has passed and winter is upon us here in North-West France. The skies are gray with intermittent sunshine, weak as it is, and the leaves have fallen from the trees. Nature is beginning its’ long sleep, […]
Le Foire aux Pommes-Apple Festival in Mouliherne, France

Hello Friends, Campers and food aficionados, Gourmet Girl Denise here from the Loire Valley, France. This past week I was blessed by a visit from some old friends from Santa Barbara. As ‘Le Petit Saint Barnabé’ is still under construction, and I do not have a suitable guestroom as yet, my dear friends stayed in […]
Harvest Time in the Loire River Valley

Hello Friends and Fellow Campers! And of course, all food lovers where ever you are. Gourmet Girl Denise here from the Loire River Valley, France. On September 15th I will have been in France for one year. Wow! During that year I opened a French bank account, (no easy task!), bought a car, began house […]
Bounty from the Garden

Hello Everyone! I’m back online after a glitch in my partially completed electrics here at Le Petit Saint-Barnabé in the Loire. Internet runs on DSL here, so if a telephone line gets knocked out by the wind, no phone, internet or TV. I suppose even Paradise has its’ drawbacks. I do live in the countryside, […]
Midsummer Update from the Gourmet Girls

Dear Friends and Followers, Gourmet Girl Gail here. It’s been a great summer so far! In between my work as an editor and book Sherpa, I’ve participated in a few events for the Gourmet Girls Go Camping Cookbook, and we’re still booking up for events through November. Yay! By the way, a number of new […]
Born to Cook

Hello, fellow campers, world travelers, and gourmets! Denise here from the Loire Valley, France. My partner and gourmet gal Gail recently sent me a wonderful article commemorating the life of Robert Haas, the founder of Tablas Creek Vineyards. It was written by his son and was a lovely retrospective of all he accomplished in his […]
The Soul of a House
Hello friends, Gourmet Girl Denise here, live from the Loire River Valley, France. I know this blog is about camping and the food we can prepare camping, but I wonder if we might digress a bit this time. In some ways this blog is related to camping as it is its’ opposite; staying home, or […]
Dinner at the Moulin Bregeon
Hello, fellow food lovers! Gourmet Girl Denise here from the Loire River Valley France, where spring has sprung and life is busting out all over! This is the view as I drove into my new hometown in Mouliherne today with her twisted bell tower and the view of a huge ornamental cherry in my front […]