The Big Chill, 2009

Thanks to everyone who sent it suggestions for the New Year trip to the hills of Provence... also known as, the Big Chill 2009 because my friend's old stone house had no heat!

But the trip was wel lworth the occasional shivers. And thank goodness for my sub-zero, Everest-worthy down-filled mummy sleeping bag. It truly saved me. That and some cashmere pyjamas!

Among the culinary highlights:

A New Year's "linner" (late lunch, early dinner) at a restaurant in the middle of a vineyard, where I sampled rare steak topped with a fresh slice of nearly raw goose liver... a spicy goulash made with wild boar meat... and the best French vanilla ice cream I ever tasted.

Other memorable meals included a couscous topped with spicy merguez sausage, a delectable coq au vin made by the personal chef to the Formula 1 manager accused, and eventually cleared, in those allegedly Nazi sex tapes (!), a wonderful veggie breakfast frittata, and even chocolate-topped Rice Krispie treats.

Of course, to work off all the calories we hiked through the hills and vineyards and lavender fields of Provence, once to a river gorge and once to a castle. Another day we help chopped down trees and schlepped the logs to the wood shed.

And in the end it was the wood that made the weekend what it was... because the wood fed the two fireplaces we gathered around each night to fend off the chill.

And it was in front of one of the fireplaces that the best moment of the weekend occurred. Two of the friends had taken out a marriage license in New York City the week before... another had been certified as a "minister" of some type online, and so as the town's church bells struck midnight, the couple were wed, with seven other friends gathered around, clad either in their New Year finery, or in my case, in my cashmere pyjamas, as we all hoisted glasses of champagne in their honor.