When you think of France, the first thing that springs to mind is the food. Baguettes, cheese, wine, macarons, garlic, onions, truffles…….well you get the idea.
I thought you might be interested to know the reality as I have found it.
In our village, we have no produce market. We have a small supermarket (like a tiny IGA), a boulangerie (baker), a boucherie (butcher) and thats it as far as buying your food. There are markets in surrounding villages, but you need a car to get there or you can go via the bus, although you may need to catch a bus to Valence first and then catch a different bus to get to the right villages. There is a large discount supermarket about 400km up the main rd. The sort of place that sells discontinued lines, however it does also sell meat, veg and a large range of grog!
BREAD
In our village, you can only buy white bread. They come in the form of a “baguette”
which are thin and short or a “flute” which are thicker and longer. In Australia what we call baguettes, here they would be flutes. In Valence the boulangeries have a much larger variety, as do the markets. I have found 2 loaves of sliced sandwich bread – top shelf at the back at the petrol station…. Bread is bought daily as it only lasts for one day. The second day though it is great for french toast!(thats Australian French Toast, not actual French French toast…….hmmmmm) What I love is that the teeny tiny supermarket in our village don’t get bread delivered, just the dough – they cook them on the spot. In the mornings you have the beautiful smell of baking bread wafting out of the shop! Its great when the morning is crisp and you have a warm flute tucked under your arm. Ours is usually half gone by the time we get home!
The way it’s eaten…
In Australia we would lather our baguette or flute slices with butter. Not so here. Here butter is not a spread. You will not get it with your breakfast at your hotel (unless you are getting an American breakfast and even then you might not get it) – you have to ask for it if having a sandwich made and you will get weird looks. Health wise, I believe a long time ago I read something about you shouldn’t have bread and butter together as that combination kind of locks the fat into your system….. something along those lines. Something I have noticed here though, are there are very few seriously overweight people compared to Oz……. Even though the diet is seriously rich and wine is drunk daily – they must be onto something. It isn’t what they are eating, its how they are eating it. Small portions, main meals at lunch, eating slowly, a glass of wine not 4 and eating proper food made from proper ingredients. Stuff like cheese doesn’t turn up as pre dinner nibbles, its after dessert. Dinner would typically go something like this – aperitif (such as pastis, muscat, rose), entree, main, dessert, cheese, coffee. They would not be mixed. You wouldn’t order coffee and dessert at the same time for example. They are all individual elements that make up one meal. Of course you don’t have to have each element – unless maybe in a fancy restaurant it might be expected. At our lunches we usually have main, dessert, coffee or just a main and coffee.
Breakfast
I am still trying to work out breakfast. I might actually have to bail up a few French people to ask. I have found very few healthy cereals, they all seem to contain chocolate in some way. (even Special K……even the muesli actually! ) If you go out for breakfast you will be hard pressed to get anything more then a small crossiant or pain au chocolate. I have not found a cafe, brasserie or restaurant that offer any kind of breakfast food. There are heaps of people that go out for a coffee for breakfast though. un cafe, newspaper and a cigarette is what you will see. The coffee is very strong, very small and very sweet……….. I like.
Trying to eat healthy?
A couple of times, I have decided that I needed something fresh. I have gone down the salad road. Here salads are an entree and served separate from the meal. It is perfectly ok to order a salad as a main meal though. I will warn you that all this means is that they will add a lot of extra lettuce so that it fills up a big plate instead of a small one. As far as good food and the salads I have experienced…..it hasn’t been a great success..
salad number 1. Goats cheese salad.
lots of lettuce, a few strands of vegies, some nuts, a poached egg and the tiniest piece of goats cheese I have seen. I was not super impressed given that goats cheese is incredibly cheap here. A whole round for 80cents. rating. 5/10
Salad number 2. Can’t remember the name but here are the ingredients as listed on the menu. cucumber, lettuce, tomato, croutons, lardons, chorizo.
Now remembering I was after a refreshing salad, I was expecting lots of veg and a light sprinkling of croutons lardons and chorizo.
What I got was some lettuce completely covered in lardons (fried chopped bacon), chorizo (slices of fried spicy sausage) and croutons (which are normally toasted but these were fried). I had a wedge of tomato and a thin slice of cucumber on the side. It was also served as a main, so on a massive plate. I ploughed and I mean ploughed about 1/4 of the way through and I swear I could feel my arteries clogging…..totally o/d on fried stuff and salt…. rating 2/10
salad number 3. Goats cheese spring roll salad.
Not great. Spring Roll pastry stuffed with goats cheese, sundried tomato and deep fried. On a very large plate of lettuce covered in balsamic vinegar. The spring rolls were very greasy but the filling was ok. It was not a wonderful experience. Although they get points for effort and the enthusiasm of the waiter who seemed very proud of this particular dish! Rating 5/10
Regional Food
Every region in France has its own defining cuisine based on the produce of the area. Provence is known for its olives, garlic, lavender for example. Where we are cherries, chestnuts, goats cheese are I am very interested in the traditional regional dishes and will try them where I can.
NOTE: This is a non edited post. I found it in my drafts folder 12 years after I went to France and have decided to publish it. 😀