Hello Food and Travel Lovers!
Gourmet Girl Denise here. Greetings from the Loire River Valley in France! It’s been a couple of months since I wrapped up my business, packed up my computer, crated my beloved kitty, Milo the Magnificent, and jumped onto a plane headed for France. Trying to juggle all of those things onto the plane was a daunting task, not helped by the fact that I could hear Milo meowling in the plane cabin from down in the baggage area all the way across the U.S.A. and the Atlantic Ocean. He was definitely not a happy Kitty cat!
In these past two months I have had some amazing experiences, from woodland walks with Milo,
to a meal fit for a queen at a wonderful restaurant in a local village, 
to meeting my first friend, who turns out to be an American expat who lives just around the corner from me in the hamlet of Liniéres-Bouton. He owns and runs a wonderful boutique hotel here that is an old water mill. It’s called The Moulin Bregeon and the rooms are exquisite, as is the food. I’ll send pics of it in a future post.
I have fallen in love with the Pays de Loire; the gold and red autumn leaves that have just reached their apex (here is the road I take to the market),
the rolling hills covered in a patchwork quilt of farm land and forests (these following two pics are just around the corner from where I live),
and of course the many farmers markets held one or two days a week in every surrounding village. 
You can hit one every day if you time it right. And some of them are huge! They don’t just sell fruits and vegetables either. Some markets have clothing vendors, butchers, bread makers, olive stands, cheese sellers and even livestock! Talk about one stop shopping!
The one thing they don’t have here is Thanksgiving. So this will be the first time I won’t be breaking out the fine china, cooking a turkey, making my Chipotle cranberry sauce, and lifting a glass of bubbly in thanks with family and friends. It’s a change, that’s for sure, but one I know will lead to future gatherings here in La Belle France, in my new home, and with new friends. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!