Kringel and kayaks

It was time to celebrate Anton's birthday and I had an idea I would make a kringel to celebrate the event! If you know me well you know that the special birthday cake/brioche for an Estonian is a wonderful saffrony and cardamom flavored delight with dark and golden raisins and topped with almond slivers and powdered sugar. It is however, not an easy thing to make so that it is not too floury and has enough but not too much moisture in it! My first attempt, created with my Estonian "cousin" Ene was not quite perfect but not bad either. We spend the entire day in pyjamas as we labored over the kringel! What an event!!!
This time I was armed with notes from previous kringel baking (this will be my fifth kringel). Just to make sure I didn't completely ruin it I brought some Fleischmann's yeast packets from Portland and a little jar of saffron threads from Trader Joe's. The saffron was funny since we are next to Spain here and there is reasonably priced saffron everywhere...sigh!
I borrowed Emmanuelle's mixer and set to work in the tiny French kitchen.

Think about all the delicious food that comes out of these small kitchens...I felt I could do it too! I started at 8:20 am and the first kringel went into the oven at 2:40 pm. During the 3 hours rise in the middle JC took me to lunch!!! I was NOT in pyjamas by the way!
Here are the pre and post bake results:

 The taste was great but....it was hard to get the exact butter measurement (oz versus grams) so I think that's why the one on the right sort of spread out. Also, I could not make the traditional pretzel shape for this because the oven was too narrow for the larger baking pan. It tasted great however! Everyone seems to agree!

Maya and JC had a jump on the trampoline to celebrate!

Signs like this are popping up all over the place and that means...back to school...which strikes a piercing chord in every teacher's (and former teacher's) heart!!!

So...we decided we had to get some time on the river Sorgue before it was too late!

Emmanuelle reserved for us at the great Kayak Vert and we set off for two hours of pure pleasure.

Sorry...no photos of us or on the river. Just didn't want to risk dropping my phone into the water like I once did at Hood Canal and that was that!!!

The Sorgue comes shooting out of the mountainside in Fontaine de Vaucluse...a spring which is fed by the snow melt and little streams in the Vaucluse.

In hot summers, like this one, the water is like a tiny trickle coming out of the rock but in the winter its like a roaring rapids. Geologists in the area are still mystified at how even during hot,dry weather the river still flows steadily along. There is probably a secret source in there somewhere!

The town used to be a sleepy little village where they made paper, santons and where Petrarch wrote poems to Laure his true love. Today it is a bit more commercial with all kinds of "souvenir" type stalls in among the regular shops.

Here are some cute little shop windows and displays I thought were fun.

 This shop is in most of the villages around. Can you see all the lace dresses and tops???

I just loved these little deux chevaux cars on the colorful tablecloth!!

This is a type of beer but I just found the tray so pretty and provençal. This shop was closed unfortunately so one less item for the suitcase!!!

The XIth century church is St. Véran

It is very simple and Romanesque.

At the door I could not resist a photo of this sweet dog waiting outside for its owner who seemed to be the sacristan.

Leaving town we passed by the Petrarch museum ....

and these very interestingly "transformed" recycling bins!!

Next time I'll tell you about the Luminescences in Avignon! à bientôt!!