Page 130 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL SUMMER 2019 PORTUGAL

written family recipes sent my heart pounding.
Who had placed them in the valise? Indeed,
who sent the valise to my grandparents in Mo-
rocco after the war? We will never know. As
for me, a new idea was already taking shape:
What would I do with this gift? Memorialize
my great-grandmother by publishing her
recipes? Outline another cookbook?
Three years later, Prosper's journal had
paved my way to Châlons, where I was now
standing beside Bruno and Janie at the foot of
Blanche's great-grandparents' grave. I could
barely make out the names of Moyse (sic) and
Henriette carved into the crumbling stone well
over a century ago. FAMILLE NEYMARCK. I
knew from Prosper's writings that Moyse was
a butcher, and so was his son Michel, who
supplied meat to the armies of Napoleon III. I
looked in vain for Blanche and Prosper's
names. They did not figure on the headstone
since their bodies were never recovered after

130 WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE WINTER/SPRING 2024