There Is No Cake At Versailles

I'm lucky enough to have my family very close--only a 20-minute drive from the city to the suburbs. My lovely mother recently made a comment that going from my apartment to their house was like going to the country for me. "No," she corrected herself, "it's like going from Versailles the the Petit Trianon."

And on some level, she's right!

The Orangerie at Versailles:

The fields around the Petit Trianon:
(Yes, I took those pictures myself. From the Paris trip just about a year ago with my mother.)

However, I don't think they did much knitting or clothes sewing or bread baking at Versailles, and I've been doing a lot of that. Enough of it that I think sometimes, "My god, what could I do if I applied this energy to something worthwhile, like finding a cure for cancer?"

But then I make an experimental bread recipe (found in the May "Vogue" magazine, thank you very much) and I think I couldn't possibly spend my time better. This is some seriously tasty bread.

And it cooks in a Le Creuset French casserole (at temperatures that some kilns reach, I think). It all fits.