From l’aéroport in Paris we traveled by train to Loriol-sur-Drôme—the town where Jean-Claude, Sabine, and Gaïa (Stephanie’s dad’s family) live. We stopped there to take a much-needed shower before continuing by car to Ruoms, a village across the Rhone where Sabine’s family has a country house.

On Saturday (the day after our arrival in France), Jean-Claude and Sabine held a reunion at the house for over 100 friends and family (hence the program of preemptive jetlag before we left). We were there to help out and, of course, partake in the festivities—which included lots of eating, drinking, and pushing Gaïa, Stephanie’s 20-month-old half-sister, on the “ba-la-lo”, her word for balançoire (swing). We took it easy on Sunday, enjoying the leftover ratatouille et rosé, and then we spent most of Monday packing up the house before heading back to Loriol.

Last time Stephanie and I were in Ruoms, we sampled some 50 year old eau-de-vie (French moonshine) that Jean-Claude had found under the stairs, but this time, we discovered a new treasure. In the middle of cleaning up, we spotted some old ceramic cheese molds (faisselles anciennes de terre cuite) at the bottom of a closet—but it’s what they were sitting on that really captured our attention: a specially designed ceramic bowl intended to collect the whey draining out of the cheese molds. Neither of us had ever seen anything like it—we don’t even know what it’s called. Any ideas?