La rentrée and Georgia on my mind...with a peach salsa!

If you live in France or are familiar with France, you know that the real new year here doesn't begin on January 1 but on the first Monday in September, which marks the phenomenon known as la rentrée. Oh yes the dreaded rentrée, when the French come back from their (typically) one month to six weeks of vacation taken in July/August. Whether holidaying on the beach in the south of France, chilling up in the mountains somewhere or opting for destinations far away, the French sure certainly make sure that they take full advantage of their 30+ days of vacation a year (as they should!). Thus if you happen to be in Paris in August, you might get the feeling that you're in a ghost town, as many restaurants and shops shutter up for the entire month and Parisians flee the city in mass (thus leading many - including myself - to tell you that August is the nicest month to visit Paris...Paris sans les parisiens of course!).

After two wonderful weeks of visiting my parents and brother in the suburbs of Atlanta, Luis and I are experiencing la rentrée in all of its splendor, which means packed Metros with scowling commuters pushing and shoving, crowded shops, looks of grouchiness and exasperation and the onset of brisk fall weather (I'm already wearing my trench coat!). It kind of makes the warm sunshine of Georgia, Southern hospitality, the hours spent lazing around watching American TV (hello, Food Network and Cooking Channel!), leisurely morning walks and all of my mom's wonderful cooking seem like a distant memory, even though we just got back a couple of days ago.  

Of all the wonderful food that we gorged on while there, I had a particular fondness for those wonderfully sweet and juicy peaches for which the state of Georgia is so famous. Georgia peaches, in case you didn't know, were introduced along the state's coast by Franciscan monks back in 1571. A planter and Confederate officer by the name of Raphael Moses was one of the first to market peaches within the state in 1891 and is said to be the first one to have shipped and sold peaches outside of the South (in champagne baskets, to preserve the flavor!). So Georgia isn't called the Peach State for nothing!

With all this juicy goodness, I couldn't help but to whip up a sweet and spicy salsa during our visit, using some of those gorgeous Georgia peaches. Now that we're back in Paris, I might have to see if I can find some end of the summer peaches lurking here somewhere and make a new batch. Even if la rentrée is tough, it'll be much sweeter with this peach salsa and Georgia on your mind!

PEACH SALSA

Makes 2 cups 

1 1/2 cups chopped ripe peaches
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1/4 cup finely chopped coriander
1/4 cup chopped and seeded tomato
1/2 serrano chile, finely chopped
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 teaspoon juice from pickled jalapenos
Salt to taste

1. Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl and serve with your favorite tortilla chips. It's as simple as that!