France Is Fab

This posting is so overdue.  We have been home from France for a month and a half and I am just now putting pen to paper, so to speak.  We stayed one week in Paris and then spent one week at a chateau in the countryside of Bordeaux.  So the first part of our vacation was very cosmopolitan and the second part very country.

 I went to France very well researched on everything from where to eat to what to wear.  I arrived with some preconceptions, some turned out to be well founded while others were proven wrong.

Some observations about Paris:

Driving in Paris is interesting.  There are no lanes, or rather, everyone chooses to ignore them.  You aim your car in the direction you wish to go and go for it.  Everyone else will either avoid or hit you.  This also applies to scooters, bicycles, and pedestrians.  The amazing part is that there seems to be few accidents and very little road rage.

The burger (steak hache) has swept the capital.  Every bistro or brasserie is serving some variation of the American staple.  Some were brilliant in execution, some abysmal.  I made a pact with myself that a burger would not pass my lips while in France and it did not.

Jeans are indeed worn in Paris.  It seems that the North American habit of 'dressing down' has finally hit France.  I chose to dress like my preconception of a Parisienne.

The French are not unfriendly.  The opposite is true instead.  Whenever we would open our mouths to speak French, the locals would immediately switch to English.  Not sure if this was to be helpful or to stop us from murdering their language.  Everywhere we went we encountered friendly, helpful and  kind people.

There is no dog poop on the sidewalks of Paris.  The French train their dogs to 'go' in the gutter and every morning they flood the gutters and flush everything out.  So sophisticated.

While in Paris we cruised through markets everyday and observed all the locals doing their daily shopping.  In the Bordeaux region we went to all the local markets, purchasing some of the  best food products I have ever seen.  Everything is fresh, beautiful to look at and the taste is off the charts. The locals purchase what they need daily, buying the best of what they can afford.  The average person  spends double on food purchases than we do.

I am increasingly frustrated by the lack of fresh markets here.  The expectation here is that food shopping will be clean, convenient, sterile and completely devoid of style and love.  I have spent years gathering my favourite bakeries, butchers, farmers and cheese mongers.  I can spend hours driving around collecting all the things I need for the weekend. It is my version of 'foraging'.  How much more romantic, convenient and soul satisfying would it be to wander down a street and find everything you need in your own neighbourhood.

I had been dreaming of going to France for years.  I had visions in my head of picnics in the countryside... of prepping food at a wooden table under a huge tree... of chickens.  Chickens always played a role in my mental pictures.  They signify peace to me.  Good food, relaxing and bucolic scenes go with chickens.  Plus I like the sounds they make.  The chateaux we were staying at had two roosters living just beyond the garden wall.  They would crow all day as they went about their business.

I had a MOMENT one evening in the Bordeaux region.   Some of our friends were showering and readying themselves for another epic night of feasting...  others were setting the table outside (underneath a huge Liburnum tree), wine was being poured, candles were being lit.  I was alone in the kitchen prepping dinner, a delicious glass of Grand Cru in hand.  The menu for the evening was Duck Confit with a Toulouse Cassoulet along with local charcuterie and cheeses with the freshest baguette imaginable and a simple salad to end things off.  I was watching the light rays from the sunset move across the tops of the trees on the neighbouring hill.  The roosters were crowing and muttering to themselves.      It was a perfect French moment.

I was living my dream.

(All photos are by Hamid Attie)

In my next posting, I will 'food geek' out and talk about the amazing places we ate in Paris and Bordeaux and also go into the meals we made at the chateau.