Snow in the French Alps

le coin du feu (kwan dew fuuh) noun, masculine Download soundfile

    : fireside

"But there is another realm where we can always find something true, the fireside of a friend, where we shed our little conceits and find warmth and understanding." Mais il existe un havre où l'on peut toujours savourer une relation authentique: le coin du feu chez un ami auprès duquel on peut se défaire de ses petites vanités et trouver chaleur et compréhension. –Kressmann Taylor
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A DAY IN A FRENCH LIFE by Kristin Espinasse
"Childhood Memories"

The words "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire" meant little to the pint-size Phoenician who once sang them. More than thirty years later, and Jack Frost still is nowhere to be seen outside my window. (Though it is snowing in parts of Provence…)

One thing roasting "fireside" in my childhood home was a cheese crisp: grated cheddar over a flour tortilla (this, beneath the oven's grill). As for snug fireside seating, my mom got creative: she pulled a few chairs across the cramped linoleum floor, up to the oven's open door (on which we set our feet).

And there, early morning in the Arizona desert, feet resting on the warm oven door–a box of black licorice between us (or Orangettes, depending)–Mom read novels. And I, warm and toasty beside her, watched stories light up her beautiful face as she sowed the seeds of literature in my heart.

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Postnote: After writing this post, in 2007, I received the following email from Mom:

My sister Heidi and me. After our parents divorced, Dad came to visit us in Phoenix. This is his Corvette.