Hello Lovely People!
The past month has been a bit of a crazy whirlwind! I landed in Paris and a couple days later headed down to the countryside outside Bordeaux where I spent a week helping my friends Eva, Carey and Elise with their food and photography workshop. We arrived just as summer was fading into fall and it felt like there couldn’t be a more perfect time to be there.
We visited a chateau dating from the 16th century, drank some beautiful wines and visited Bordeaux’s vibrant Marché des Capucins. We cooked for 14 people in a tiny galley kitchen and shared meals around a table decorated with fall foliage and tiny apples picked from the garden. We spent afternoons wandering among the rows of grape vines and picking wild peaches and figs along country roads with Didier, our local foraging expert (which is how I discovered, after all these years, that I actually do like figs!).
The best part though, was making new friends and sharing ideas with all the wonderful women who led and attended the workshop. I am ever grateful that my life includes travel to new corners of the globe and the opportunity to meet and learn from creative and talented people from all over the world.
Since I left Bordeaux, I’ve been criss-crossing Paris leading a culinary tour and shooting for the guide I’m working on. Yesterday, I landed in Lisbon and have been running around town with my friend Filipe, getting ready for the arrival of our retreat guests tomorrow. (I always get butterflies the night before they get here!) So basically, it’s been four weeks of crazy, wonderful chaos and doing the things I love most.
I should sign off now and get some sleep so I’m ready to welcome all our guests tomorrow. But I haven’t posted in awhile and wanted to drop in and say hi and share some images from my week in Bordeaux.
I’ll be back as soon as things slow down a bit with images from Paris and Lisbon. In the meantime, you can follow along on my adventures via my Instagram stories!
XO,
Olaiya
