A New TV Series from Julia Child's Old Kitchen in Provence

Today the Magnolia Network launched a seven-part "docu-series" called La Pitchoune: Cooking in France, about the Courageous Cooking School, set in Julia Child’s former home in the South of France. Episode #1 is now streaming on the Magnolia app, HBO Max, Discovery Plus and other channels. 

It's a great story! In 2015, Makenna Held happened on an article in the New York Times (“The House that Julia Built”) about La Pitchoune, the home that Julia and Paul Child created on a former potato patch in 1966. The land, on a peaceful hillside not far from Grasse, was owned by Simone (Simca) Beck and her husband Jean Fischbacher. Simca was Julia’s close friend and her collaborator on the Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volumes I and II.

The idea was that once Julia and Paul had no use for the house, they would return it to Simca and Jean. In the meantime, it quickly become the Childs' cherished getaway and a magnet for food world luminaries such as James Beard, MFK Fisher and Richard Olney.

And now it was up for sale--listed with Sotheby's at €880,000--and back in the US, Makenna was completely smitten. “I fell in love with the heart cut-out shutters, the gorgeous ivy walls, and OF COURSE the kitchen,” she remembers.

Remarkably, Julia’s kitchen (with its now-famous pegboard system that Paul Child designed) was still largely intact “since the last meal she cooked there, a typically Provençale boeuf en daube, in 1992,” according to the Times.

“You could almost say we’re selling the kitchen with the property thrown in,” Alexander Kraft at Sotheby’s said at the time.

Makenna knew right away that “La Peetch,” as Julia called it, would make the perfect cooking school…partly because someone else had already done it. Another American named Kathie Alex (who had come to France in 1979 to take cooking classes with Simca and work as a stagiaire at the legendary Moulin de Mougins) had rented the house and taught cooking there starting in 1993. Kathie bought the property in the late 1990s and was now ready to sell.

Makenna--who describes herself as an entrepreneur, artist and business mentor—wasn’t able to fly to France to check it out herself so she sent a potential co-investor in her stead. They put in an offer and “six months later I was in France!” she remembers. “I left everything behind and more or less moved to the South of France, never having been anywhere near the Riviera!" 

"Yes, I already spoke French,” she continues. “No, I was not a chef. Just a very adept home cook who had a big idea that recipes are great in books but aren’t a great way to teach.”

She bought the property site unseen in 2015. Since then, a lot has happened for Makenna including a divorce, a new marriage and the birth of a daughter named Magnolia. And of course the launch and success of the Courageous Cooking School program which she calls an immersive and (mostly) recipe-free experience. Today she runs the business with her husband Chris Nylund and their “best friends” Kendall and Ross Lane. Kendall is the executive chef while Ross is the beverage director and “the fixer of all the things.”

People who want to experience La Peetch can do it three different ways. You can sign up for The Courageous Cooking School (a five-night, all-inclusive learning retreat), book it as a catered vacation rental (with multi-course meals catered by the staff) or, off season, rent it with family or friends and enjoy “full access to our entire batterie de cuisine and no one to bother you so you can cook up a storm!”

And now, thanks to producer Citizen Pictures (and Makenna’s unwavering belief in the project), you can see the whole delicious story unfold on TV…a poignant twist considering Julia’s own legendary TV career, which began in 1962 with her Emmy-winning series The French Chef.  

To read how coincidence, luck, "strategized opportunities" and good old perseverance finally paid off in making this show happen, see Makenna’s Instagram post here.

And then...don’t be surprised if there’s another series one day soon because Makenna just announced that she just bought a restaurant. She's sharing no details yet about what or where but stay tuned!

For More Info...

The original New York Times article is here and the story I wrote when Makenna first bought the house is here. 

You can follow Makenna in a lot of places online but some good places to start are here, here and here. 

To learn about Magnolia Network and see the new show in your country, go here and here.

Finally, to see the amazing roster of other shows produced by Citizen Pictures, click here.

Love Antiquing? Want to Be on TV?

I just received the following email which sounds like a really fun opportunity for one of you...or perhaps for someone you know? 

Dear Julie,

I love your blog and thought you might be able to help...

We are Purple Productions, part of All3Media Group, based in the UK. We've recently been commissioned by BBC 1 Daytime to produce a brand new antiques programme/pilot.

The aim of the programme would be to help expat British homeowners who have finished restoring/renovating--or are in the process of renovating--an amazing property in Provence.  The idea is to have an experienced antiques dealer help them find beautiful objects and furniture to add the finishing touches to their homes.

This is a pilot and if filming goes well and the channel is happy, it will be commissioned as a series.

As it’s a pilot we can help with some of the costs but in the series it will be the homeowners who’ll be paying for the actual items. What the programme will offer is the expert advice and invaluable contacts of our dealers, to get the homeowners not just incredible items but hopefully at very competitive prices. They'll be using all their knowledge and contacts to get our homeowners the best deals!

Ideally we'd like a full-time resident in Provence but part time will work too...as long as they're British.

We hope that filming for the pilot will take place in late February and early March, in the Avignon/Provence region. 

We need to find just one homeowner soon to hit our schedule and really appreciate any help you can offer! Do you know anyone who might want to take part in this BBC 1 pilot? If so we’d love to hear from them. They can contact us at: info@purpleproductions.co.uk

Many Thanks,

Dympna Jackson
Creative Director
Purple Productions / Objective Media Group North

Photo: Courtesy of Cachepot Brocante via Instagram. 

Curtain Up! A Theater Debuts in Avignon

A new, 50-seat theater will open in mid-January in the heart of Avignon, in an 1875 hotel particulier just behind the Opera House, just off the Place Horloge.

Called Theatre Le 9 Avignon, the venue will host a range of performances including classical music, cabaret, comedy and small-cast plays. Arnaud Lanez, communications director of the Avignon Opera, has signed on as the “conseiller artistique.”

The first, “toe-in-the-water” season launches January 12 with a free performance of Les Notes et Des Mots, a three-person evening of music, song and poetry by Tatiana Probst, Barbara Probst and Francois Lambret. The schedule then continues until July--when the space will be rented out for the Avignon Theater Festival--and starts up again in fall.

To call the Theatre Le 9 a very-personal labor of love would be a wild understatement. Owner/director Hilary Lemaire conceived the project and chooses all the shows; her husband Jean-Pierre Lemaire, literally built the theater and the beautiful home that surrounds it.  “I always loved the idea of living above the shop!” Hilary says. When you arrive for a performance, don’t be surprised if it’s Hilary or Jean-Pierre who greet you at the door, take your coat and usher you into your red-velvet seat.

For Hilary, the theater is the culmination of a life spent in theater, both on the stage and behind the scenes.

For Jean-Pierre, an “idea guy” and an experienced master builder, this was an important renovation project for his most-important client yet: his wife.

Hilary calls herself London Irish: “born in London but proud of my Irish heritage.” She trained in theatre at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance (London) and went on to marry a jazz musician. “It was a cool but not very lucrative career,” she says, “and one of us had to pay the rent.” Hilary found work as a teacher but the marriage didn’t last; she transitioned into journalism and became features editor of Campaign, a journal for the advertising industry. There she met her second husband and together they embarked on what Hilary calls “an amazing adventure,” which, thanks to his job with Heinz, gave them ten wonderful years in Asia.

In Japan, Hilary rekindled her theater career, working for--and eventually running--Tokyo Theatre for Children. She was also involved in community theater, as both an actor and a director.  

After four years the couple moved to Hong Kong, where Hilary performed in a professional, English-speaking theatre company and eventually created her own company, presenting cabaret performances. She also wrote a series of touring murder-mystery shows.

When retirement beckoned, the couple settled in Antibes on the French Riviera, which they had always loved. There Hilary created The Red Pear Theatre, presenting more than 150 shows with artists drawn from London, Dublin and the US. She also designed and led a workshop program that brought actors into the classrooms of five local international schools.  Actors were in and out of their home constantly, with Hilary often donating proceeds from their performances to Educating Cambodia, an organization she still supports. 

After a long illness, Hilary’s husband passed away in 2010. “There was a period of adjustment,” she says, “and then it was time to turn the page.”

Hilary met Jean-Pierre in Antibes when a friend sent him over to help her with an electrical problem. “He rang the bell and it was a coup de foudre,” she told me. Eventually the couple decided to move to Avignon and set out to find the perfect building, one that would lend itself to the unusual combination of home and theater. “The estate agent showed us everything he thought would appeal,” she recalls, “but nothing did, of course. Then he mentioned a house that had just come on the market but needed way too much work. Jean-Pierre was looking for a challenge, wanting to create something very special. He looked at the rabbit warren of tiny rooms, the pigeons, the mess and then at me; he saw me smiling and we both said, ‘yep, this is it.’”

The house had gorgeous bones and a fine pedigree but was a total ruin. While Jean-Pierre isn’t exactly an architect, engineer or contractor, he does all those things and more: electrical, woodworking, cabinetmaking, plumbing. (Hilary calls him “a creator of buildings who has the ideas and the skills to realize them.”) And so he set to work making Hilary’s dream house. He evacuated 265 tons of rubble and 40 tons of wood...and built an entirely new house within the old walls. Wiring the building took nine kilometres of cable; he went through 400 sacks of plaster at 30 kilos each.

“And I did it all with 20 tons of amour,” he says.

Today the house has reception rooms and the jewel-box of a theater on the ground floor, with living areas above. In the reception rooms, Hilary will be showing artwork, clothing and jewelry from artisans she loves. A large, terraced courtyard garden will be used for drinks at intermission and post-show mingling with performers.

“The goal was to restore the home to what it had been...but with modern ideas,” Hilary says. “For example, I wanted the garden to have a Japanese element.  I lived in Asia ten years and loved the contrapunto idea of blending modern, classic and Aisan influences. Some of my furniture comes from those years and I wanted the garden to be a zen experience.”

A private launch party on December 20, with three performances, built the buzz around town and gave Hilary the chance to test her sound and lighting in front of a packed house. “Arnaud from the Opera proclaimed the acoustics ‘perfect,’ she says proudly.

Performances will be international...some in French, others in English. Hilary says her years with Red Pear in Antibes “will bear fruit” while many of her heavy-weight London theatre-world friends have agreed to perform as well. To draw younger performers and theatre-goers, there will be a Master Class program and connections are being forged with local universities. Certain performances will be fundraisers for Educating Cambodia.

So what’s on? The debut season launches with Les Notes et Des Mots, for one night only, on January 12. Tickets are free (limit two per person) and can be reserved by email or phone (see contact info below).

On Monday Feb 13, Hilary presents Love Letters, with Anne Reid and James Bolam. Reid is an English stage, film and TV actress known for the soap opera Coronation Street (1961–71); the sitcom Dinnerladies (1998–2000), and her BAFTA-nominated role as Celia Dawson in Last Tango in Halifax (2012–16).

The next night (Feb 14), Reid will perform My Funny Valentine, a cabaret show in English created for this venue with Jason Carr, a two-time Tony Award-nominated pianist. “Anne came to Antibes and happened to mention that all she’d ever really wanted to do is cabaret,” Hilary explains. “I said ‘just give me a date!’ She went back to London, found a musical director and returned a year later with her first cabaret show. Since then she’s done cabaret in New York and London...she absolutely loves it. It means so much to me that me that she’s coming!”

On Friday March 24, there will be a concert of arias with soprano Julie Roset and pianist Helene Blanic. Roset recently won a competition sponsored by the Avignon Opera and as part of her prize, Hilary provided funding to continue her studies. This concert is her thank you. “Julie is delightfully expressive and has an infectious personality,” Hilary reports. “Having that in this intimate setting will be wonderful. I can’t wait to have her on our stage!”

On Friday April 28, look for a concert by the eight students of a one-week Master Class with soprano Francoise Pollet. (“Francoise is the diva,” Hilary proclaims. “To her, you bow down.”) The performance will be the culmination of the students’ week-long training.

Friday May 26 there will be a two-person dramatic evening with Pierre Rochefort and another actor to be named soon.

On June 29 and 30, the first season wraps with Tom Crean: Antarctic Explorer, a one-man show in English, written and perfomed by Adrian Dooley. Crean was the only member of Shackleton’s crew to go with him three times to the South Pole; Hilary describes the work as “pure magic...the best one- man show I’ve ever presented.” 

Theatre Le 9 is located at 9, rue Racine, just off the Place Horloge. The website is still under construction but info on all performances is on the Facebook page here. For info and reservations: +33 (0)4 84 14 27 28, le9theatreavignon@gmail.com.

Photos: (1) Jean-Pierre and Hilary, during construction. (2) The theater takes it's name from the address, at 9 rue Racine. (3, 4) The theater itself, before and after. (5) Anne Reid will perform February 13 and 14. (6) Reception area for pre- and post-show mingling. (7) Part of the couple's lovely kitchen, upstairs of the theater.

Extras Needed: Eat Free and Be On TV!

First Dates is an award-winning dating show on UK television that aims to bring singles together to find true love. 

According to production researcher Leonore Raab: "Our casting team carefully and considerately matches these people. We've had a wedding, a baby and a lot of lasting couples from this--so in a lot of ways it has been a success!"

Now Channel 4 and Twenty Twenty TV are working together to launch a summer spin-off series called First Dates Hotel, being filmed at Le Vieux Castillon, a four-star hotel in Castillon Du Gard, near Uzes. This time, Leonore tells me, "we'll be bringing singletons down from the UK and helping them find love in the most romantic country on earth... in France!"

And that's where you come in. The producers are looking for extras to appear in the background while they film restaurant scenes. While they were hoping for real couples on real dates, they'll be happy to have people who simply come in pairs: husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend, just friends.

Everyone who participates will get a 30€ stipend, which will pay for a special three-course menu or a two-course meal with a drink.

Extras are needed at lunch and dinner every day between Sept 12 and 18. To request your spot, email Leonore right away (firstdateshotelBG@twentytwenty.tv) with your name, age, address, phone number and photo. Sorry for the short notice but the deadline to reach out is Thursday Sept 8th.  

Sunday: Anthony Bourdain in Marseille

Season Six of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown--the CNN original series --premiered Sunday Sept 27, with Bourdain visiting Cuba. The Emmy Award-winning series follows the popular chef/author as he travels the globe to uncover "little-known, off-the-road and seemingly-familiar" regions, to celebrate their diverse foods and culture.

The eight-episode series will also feature Bourdain traveling in Okinawa, Ethiopia, California’s Bay Area, Borneo, Istanbul, Charleston, S.C...and Marseille, France.

The Marseille episode will air in the US on October 4 and you can see the full episode here. 

"If you've been to France, chances are you haven't been here," Bourdain says in the opener. "France's second largest city, the oldest city in France. It sits right by the Mediterranean, the food is famously good. Yet it's a victim of bad reputation, bad history. Marseille. As it turns out, exactly the kind of place I like..."

Bourdain's sidekick for this trip is his great pal Eric Ripert, chef/co-owner of the Michelin three-star Le Bernardin in New York. Born and raised in Antibes (roughly 100 miles away), Ripert tells an incredulous Bourdain that he's never been to Marseille. So off they go to discover it together:  zipping around on scooters, bobbing around in a fishing boat, drinking Pastis, sniffing melons in the market, playing petanque, exploring the beautiful cliffs and coves of the Calanques and chatting up colorful locals such as crime novelist Cedric Fabre, cliff diver Lionel Franc, chef/restaurateur Georgiana Viou and Le Monde journalist Gilles Rof.

And of course, they eat: pied paquets, Algerian couscous at Le Femina, Corsican meats and cheeses, grilled sardines, octopus stew, pizza, bouillabaisse and much, much more. 

"Marseille is the pizza truck capital of France," Bourdain proclaims as the two chefs head off to man the popular JD Pizza Truck alongside owner Jean-Denis Martinez. En route, Bourdain asks Ripert if he knows how to make pizza. "Never did a pizza in my life," Ripert says.

"This is going to be like I Love Lucy," Bourdain says. 

"More like Laurel and Hardy," Ripert shoots back.

Busy making pies, Bourdain remarks on how pizza toppings here--crème fraîche, reblochon, figatelli, lardon, figs, chevre--seem somewhat more high-end than at home. A customer asks for anchois and Bourdain thinks he's being sworn at. When the line of customers starts to back up, Bourdain chides Ripert for "dicking around with your insane perfectionism...Michaelangelo worked on the Sistine Chapel for less time!"

Finally Bourdain takes a time out and Ripert asks him what happened. "Hey this is France!" Bourdain tells him. "You get a nice break! Have I worked my 22-hour-week yet?"

Of course Marseille's most-famous dish, bouillabaisse, is featured prominently in the 0ne-hour episode. In what Bourdain calls "the requisite fishing trip scene," the two head out with a local fisherman who works exclusively for chef Gérald Passedat, the "extremely demanding" chef/owner of Le Petit Nice, the only Michelin three-star in Marseille. He pulls his boat up right to the restaurant with his daily catch.

Ripert claims he never goes fishing, doesn't know how and never catches anything, while Bourdain gripes good natured-ly about too much fishing: "I must have done 20 fishing scenes in my life and I think I've had one good day out of all of them. Other than that it's been one humiliating goat rodeo after another..."

Afterwards, seated on the restaurant's terrace for lunch, Passedat asks the chefs "Would you mind to have the bouillabaisse?" 

Passedat's take on the famous dish is spread out over four courses, starting with a shellfish carpaccio of raw mussels and clams. Later come slipper lobster, weaver, angler and red gurnard, lightly seared and given "just a touch" in the oven.

"Incredibly beautiful, insanely good," Bourdain proclaims. 

Then it's on to the main event:  "A broth so intense it requires over ten kilos of rock crabs and various bony tasty little fishes to make just one kilo of brown, gloriously brown, magical liquid. Dorade and dentelle, steamed over seaweed water...saffron potatoes...and then finally that magical brown broth."

"This is unbelievable," says Ripert....high praise from the man widely regarded as the top seafood chef in New York.

"I had the inspiration to make this bouillabaisse when I was a child," Passedat tells his two fellow culinarians. "On those rocks, when I was with my knife opening the mussels, eating the mussels. In my cuisine there is no cream, no butter, it's not traditional at all. Just based on the fish. It's my way of thinking, my cuisine here...Provencal."

Another day, over lunch with crime writer Cedric Fabre, Bourdain asks: "Why is this such a fertile ground to set a crime novel?" Fabre talks about the city's rich multi-cultural make up and its deep North African roots.

"In Marseille there's a very poor area and a very rich area," he says. "The difference between those two areas is the worst in France...so that makes an interesting city. When we write a crime novel, we write about those differences...so that's interesting. 

The adventure continues outside the city too, as the chefs hit the road in a 1972 Citroën Maserati. They head for the gorgeous old village of Lourmarin in the Luberon, about 90 minutes from Marseille, where they pack a picnic from the Friday market stalls and spread out to eat on the grounds of an ancient chapel.

Over lunch, Bourdain asks Ripert a classic Bourdain question: "You know Martha Stewart pretty well...give me an honest answer. In a street fight, could she choke me out?"

"I think if she goes to the dark side, I think so," Eric says. "I think so too," Bourdain comes back. 

Then he gets philosophical, asking Ripert, a Buddhist, if he ever worries that his next life won't be anywhere near as good as this one. 

"No, I have good karma from my previous life!" Ripert tells him, while slicing and salting tomatoes.

But Bourdain presses him. "What if the worst case scenario happens? Your next life is going to probably suck! The best case scenario, in your next life, maybe if you would be if you get to sit in a sub shop in Asbury Park, New Jersey. More likely, you'll end up a mime! A diseased, itinerant mime wandering the streets scrounging for money. I'm just saying how much better can it be than this? Enjoy every minute of this now, Eric, and pray, pray, pray that this is it and the end of the day they roll you into a hole in a ground and you're diet for worms! Because if you're right and there is a next life, you're fucked my friend."

"You're a desperate case," Ripert tells him.

Back in Marseille, the guys are invited to dinner at Chez Georgiana, where chef/owner Georgiana Viou hosts a monthly meal for her women chef friends. There are so few women running professional kitchens in Marseille that they fit around a small dinner table (although three were absent that evening). 

"Marseille is not an easy city," one of women says. "It's not a museum, a Disneyland, you know. Everything is kind of dirty and complicated. But when you are in Marseille, you have the fantastic light and the sea...you can have the best fishes...yes you are home...I mean, it's just like being home."

For the group, Georgiana--who was born in Benin and came to France via Nigeria and London--whips up a beautiful beef tartare with apple and celeriac, topped with botargo (also known as bottarga or poutargue, it's salted fish roe). "Counter intuitive, but truly amazing and delicious," Bourdain deems it.

"I'm coming from Paris and I used to cook with butter and cream," Georgiana explains. "Today I can't imagine my cuisine without olive oil, without vegetables, without seafood, without spices..."

The botargo is a good idea, Ripert says, better than anchovies.

"If you want you can do it at Le Bernardin and you can call it Georgiana's Tartare," she tells him with a laugh.  The meal moves on to a main course of pieds paquets, which Bourdain calls his single favorite Marseillaise classic, "a dish which encapsulates everything I love and believe in about food." 

Towards the end of the show, the chefs are invited to an al fresco lunch at a sea-front cabanon that's been in the same family since the 1940s. First comes panisse (chickpea fritters) with aïoli, then Mediterranean sea snails with anise and wild fennel, followed by fresh grilled sardines marinated in lemon and olive oil. "Perfect happiness," Bourdain says.

"So when are you retiring?" he asks Ripert over lunch.  

"As soon as possible, seriously!" Eric says, looking out to sea...and clearly enjoying the sunshine, the company,  the meal, the whole scene.

And when are you going to come back?  

"I don't want to leave!" Ripert says. "People come from all over Europe, spend hours in their car to be here. My grandparents and my uncles used to have that lifestyle, but I forgot about it. Now I'm remembering."

"[You could] open a chain of cynical surf-and-turf restaurants and cash out in two years," Bourdain tells him.

Ripert replies: "If it is to be here, yes...I will do it."

Whether you know Marseille well or have never been, this is a terrific hour of TV filled with interesting characters, rich history, beautiful scenery, fantastic-looking food and of course lots of off-kilter, off-color Bourdain humor.  But when he proclaims his love for the city and its people, you get the feeling that it's genuine. And Ripert appears to be every bit as besotted.

"I could retire here," Bourdain says.  "That's sort of the measure of a place for me, if you start thinking thoughts like that. Like that must be nice, I could live there, just me and my watercolors, puttering..."

"I could retire here too," his friend tells him.

"Life is good," the chefs agree with a laugh. "Life is very good in Marseille."

The Marseille episode of Parts Unknown first aired October 4 at 9 pm ET/PT in the US.  The show was also syndicated to Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. 

You can now see the full episode online here and read more about it on the CNN site here.

You can follow Parts Unknown on Twitter and Facebook...

Follow Bourdain on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram...

Follow Eric Ripert on Twitter and Facebook...

See Bourdain's last trip to Provence on my blog here...

And read about the huge food market that Bourdain is building on New York's Pier 57, see the recent New York Times article here.

Gordon Ramsay is Coming to France

The producers of Channel 4’s award-winning Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares are launching a new series to be set in France. And they're looking for British-owned restaurants, hotels and B&B’s throughout Europe who'd like some help from the multi Michelin-starred chef. The deadline for applications is May 3rd. 

Producer Nicola Lloyd says “This series will see Gordon travel to Europe’s holiday hotspots to help Brit-owned restaurants, hotels and B&Bs that are struggling to make ends meet.  We’d love to hear from any owners, managers or head chefs who feel they could benefit from Gordon’s help and advice.” While they're looking  for Brit-owned businesses all over Europe, the producers tell me they're particularly keen to hear from Brits in France. 

The series will be filmed during May and June and will be broadcast on Channel 4 later in the year. There's more info on the Channel 4 website here. If you or someone you know qualifies, please email or call: restaurants@onepotatotwopotato.tv, +44(0)203 227 5867.

You Get to Be on TV. I Get $500.

You know those TV shows about families who take the big leap, move abroad and then set out to renovate some old dump a charming but needy old house? Ever wonder how they find the folks to feature...or how your family could get chosen? Yes? Then you'll be interested in this email I just received... 

Hi Julie,

I came across your blog while doing some research for a new HGTV show I am working on for Debbie Travis and thought you might be able to help me out. You probably meet many people who dream of moving to--or who have recently moved to--the South of France.

Debbie Travis is well-known on the home decorating front throughout North America and around the world. She's an international television personality, bestselling author, syndicated newspaper columnist and Home Collection designer. A link to her biography is here. 

This is a new home reno show featuring Canadians and Americans (families, couples or individuals) who have recently moved abroad (within the last six months) or who are about to move...and whose new home needs to be "done up." A purchased property is ideal, but we are open to looking at rental situations as well.

We want to document what it's like to move to your dream country and what challenges someone who makes a big move like that faces. What's wonderful about it and what's difficult or surprising.

We haven't finalized the name of the show yet (it's brand new) and are still working with the network on that. We'll be shooting the pilot in April, then other episodes to follow in the late spring, summer, and fall.

The show will air on HGTV in Canada and the US. 

The participants will get their home made over, designed by Debbie. It will be different for each one, depending on their needs and wishes.

I know from your blog that you've been abroad too long for our show, but we're offering a finders fee of $500 to anyone who refers someone who is then chosen for the show. So I thought you may know, or run into, expats in France (or elsewhere) who might perfect.

A link to the casting call website is here. 

Thanks for your time - any help spreading the word would be appreciated! Your readers may also email me at: renoabroadcasting@gmail.com 

Kind Regards,
Linda Rae

Montreal, Canada 


Photo by Navid Baraty. No word on whether this little fixer-upper is for sale...

Raymond Blanc: A Very Hungry Frenchman

Raymond Blanc may be Britain’s most-famous French chef, yet he has never cooked professionally in France. (Born in Besançon, the popular television chef, cookbook author and hotelier has held two Michelin stars for 28 years at his Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Oxfordshire and operates a number of other restaurants as well.) In Raymond Blanc: The Very Hungry Frenchman, a five-part series beginning Thursday, Feb 2 on BBC2, Blanc has the opportunity to show us the country he loves and the French recipes that inspire him. In each episode, the chef explores the distinctive produce and cuisine of a different region of France, from world- famous Burgundy to his less well-known but much-loved home region of Franche Comte, where his 90-year-old mother still lives. We also explore Lyon, German-influenced Alsace and of course, our favorite: Provence. 

In each hour-long episode, Blanc sources the freshest ingredients, shows us how to make the dishes, and then together with his young British protégés, Katie and Kush, cooks a menu of traditional dishes at a local restaurant for one night only.

The Very Hungry Frenchman will be broadcast on BBC2 at 8 p.m U.K. time. The current airing schedule is as follows:

Thursday February 2 - Franche Comte

Thursday February 9- Burgundy

Thursday February 16 - Lyon

Thursday February 23 - Alsace

Thursday March 1 – Provence

There's no word yet on where else or when else the series might be shown but BBC2 often makes its programs available online once they've been broadcast. For more info, click here and here.