I have loved you for a thousand years,
I’ll love you for a thousand more.  -Christina Perri

My husband, John, and I dated during tumultuous times in our lives. Tumultuous because we were both at the dawning of our careers and were assiduously travelling around the globe on assignment; John, more often than I, and often on a moment’s notice. These were the days before smartphones and even smarter apps and if all our free time together was being spent on the burgeoning romance, then all our savings were being depleted on long distance phone calls.  When John found himself with a week to spare in between two European assignments, he asked me to meet him in Marseilles. At the time, I knew very little about Provence and I wondered “Why not Paris?” but I easily accepted just the same. Continue reading “a thousand years & classic ratatouille” →