Peter and Jill in Saint-Aignan

Peter Hertzmann was one of our steadiest and most frequent visitors here in Saint-Aignan between 2004 and 2022. He passed away at age 75 last December. A day or two ago his wife Jill Chinen sent us these photos that she took on a few of their visits. Peter was a food writer and accomplished cook. It was always fun when Peter and Jill wereo here because we spent time shopping in outdoor markets and supermarkets, cooking, eating and drinking, including enjoying meals in restaurants. We also did some sightseeing, of course.

If you want to see and read more about Peter and Jill's visits to Saint-Aignan, follow this link. Before we met them in Palo Alto (California) in 2002, about six months before Walt and I moved to France, Peter's culinary specialty had been Chinese food. Sometime in the 1990s, I think it was, he had traveled to France and discovered a whole new cuisine, French. We were some of the fortunate beneficiaries of that discovery.

Jill took these photos between 2014 and 2017. I really like the one below because it shows how close and friendly Tasha our Sheltie and Bertie our black cat became almost immediately when we brought Tasha home in 2017.

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Here's Peters obituary, which appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on May 5.

Peter S. Hertzmann, a longtime resident of Palo Alto and the past few years, of San Francisco, died at home on December 23, 2023 while under the care of Hospice. He was 75.

Peter was an exceptional man of many talents who enjoyed sharing his broad knowledge, especially on all aspects of food, computer applications, photography, and medical devices. He was proud to have been on the team that had worked on the lighting for the Space Shuttle in 1975-76. Peter was a cofounder of Laserscope, a medical laser company and held many patents in that field. His passion for learning and sharing his knowledge was such that if you had asked Peter for the time, he would have enthusiastically told you how to build a watch.

He enjoyed sharing information on food preparation and cooking by teaching at different venues, including volunteering at Job Train and the county jail. Peter also wrote several books: one on knife skills, another on amuse-bouche, and yet another on cooking techniques. To understand some current food cultures, he educated himself and others on food history; this led him to become an avid and long-time volunteer for the San Francisco Chinese Historical Society, giving docent walks of Chinatown. His most recent interest was in New York’s “Tenement Museum.” He also was a regular participant of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, as well as the Dublin Gastronomy Symposium.

He is survived by his wife, Jill Chinen; his son, Aaron; his brother, Paul; and his sister- in-law, Susan Herzig. He is dearly missed by many of us who had the good fortune to have known him. Beneath his sharp wit lay a truly warm and gentle soul. In lieu of condolence gifts, his family requests that donations be made to the “Tenement Museum” in New York.