Trip to Burgundy – Day 2 (Sunday Feb 26, 2012)

Given how quiet Burgundy is at this time of year, we knew that it would be even more so on a Sunday when many things are closed. Therefore we did not have much on our agenda other than visiting the local market in Semur-en-Auxois and having lunch at Restaurant Bernard Loiseau– a restaurant in Saulieu.that has been awarded 3 Michelin stars.

 

We slept in as long as we wanted, got ready (what a great shower our rental house had!) and headed up into Semur. This time we walked around the bottom of the hill to find the road up to the main village entrance. We kept our eyes open for an open boulangerie as we were pretty hungry, and really, who can resist fresh baked goods for breakfast? We saw one on our way but decided to wait and see what the market in the village center would provide.

 It was a very small market – only about 15 vendors or so. Didn’t take us long to walk through it. Knowing we were going to have quite the lunch and not knowing if anything would be open for dinner, we decided to make it a cheese, salami & bread kind of night. We stopped by the fromagerie truck 1^st to pick out some cheese. The cheese man was super friendly and kept giving us tastes of cheeses. We ended up with a yummy Comte that he recommended, Roquefort, Époisse (the local stinky cheese you sometimes can’t travel with), and a Brie. Cheese in hand, we wandered off to find some fresh bread and croissants. We ended up heading back to the bakery we had seen earlier and got 2 loaves of bread and croissants. The dogs were wanting some too.

 After dropping our stuff off at the house, it was time to head to Saulieu where we would be dining at Relais Bernard Loiseau, a Michelin 3 star restaurant. We arrived in town a bit early and wandered around. Another cute French town with fantastic buildings. While walking, we realized a big mistake we had made – we had forgotten to pick up a bottle of wine to go with our bread & cheese dinner. Looking at all the closed stores, we realized that was truly a big mistake to make on a Sunday when most things are closed. Luckily there was a boutique associated with the restaurant that was open, so we were able to pick up a couple of bottles. Whew!

We were very nervous about our meal at Bernard Loiseau as we are not the most adventurous eaters and often, fancy restaurants are full of things we can’t/won’t eat. But we figured we needed to give it a try. The restaurant is located inside a “hotel”, and they seated us at a little table in a lounge area when we arrived. We wondered if it was like waiting in the bar for your table to get ready, but they served us an apertif and some snacks, so I think it was part of the whole process. Indeed they give you the menus while you are in this area, and you place your order there. We sat and enjoyed the apertif and snacks, though neither of us could bring ourselves to try the snail. Noticing we looked a little lost while looking at the menu, a very nice waiter came over to explain things in English for us. As usual, there was a lot of shellfish we couldn’t eat, and other things, but there were quite a few items we could choose from. And for once, I could actually enjoy the tasting menu as it wasn’t full of shellfish or pig parts! Sean ordered a green salad and fish, and I got the tasting menu. We ordered a half bottle of wine (since Sean was driving) to enjoy with our lunch. That is one thing I love about France – so many wonderful options of half-bottles of wine.

They have an apertif in the Burgundy region made with a type of white wine called Aligot and Crème de Cassis liqueur (a regional specialty) – you must try it if you ever see it on the menu. The apertif the restaurant served was similar to this with the addition of some sort of chocolate liqueur, and made with champagne instead of Aligot. It was very tasty though chocolate before my lunch was little too sweet - I would have enjoyed it more without the chocolate. It is similar to a kir royale if you have enjoyed one of those. They served gougéres with it that are another Burgundian specialty – delicious little bready cheese puffs. I have made these for parties before, but these ones were so light and delicious, we could have eaten 100 of them!

 After we placed our orders, they brought another plate for each of us composed of 3 different items – a crisp with cheese, a smoked salmon and fish egg item, and then the aforementioned snail crusted in something (sorry, can’t remember what). Again, very tasty and so nice to have as a start to our meal. When we were finished with the drinks and snacks, they brought us to our table in the dining room to begin our meal. They offered us bread served with 2 different choices of delicious butter (have I mentioned how yummy the butter in France is?) and salt. Wow – that bread and butter & salt combo was to die for. We had to remind ourselves that we had more food coming, or we would have stuffed ourselves with bread.

To start, Sean had ordered his green salad special as there was no simple entrée (in France entrée = starter/appetizer) that appealed to him. Unfortunately the salad the chef made for him wasn’t very exciting, and was full of the lettuce that we find a little too spindly. It had a very simple oil and vinegar dressing and tasted fine, but definitely not 3-star worthy. My entrée was a mushroom soup with some foie gras and foam - I finally was ready to try some foie gras. Boy was it delicious! It was slightly seared and just so creamy and delicious with every bite of soup. The portions were small versus American sizes, but just right. Left you not too full and still wanting a little bit more. As a watcher of the show “Top Chef” I enjoyed my experience with foam! 

The fish portion of my menu was served next. Sean got to just eat bread and relax while I ate this course. It consisted of 2 different preparations of a white fish. One was simply steamed with a rutabaga reduction sauce. This had a nice soft texture, but the flavoring was very bland. I definitely felt that I had made better fish myself, but I like strong, bold flavors. Steamed fish is also my least favorite preparation method as I prefer grilled or sautéed. The other fish item was absolutely delicious. Another piece of white fish (brandade) coated in a sesame-gnocchi mixture served on a puree that was so flavorful I couldn’t stop eating it once I started.

Next came our main dishes – Sean’s was a delicious Bernard Loiseau classic – sautéed whitefish served on cooked shallots in a red wine sauce. It was very light and yet very flavorful. The fish was cooked perfectly and was a nice size. My next course was a lovely piece of beef (wish I could remember exactly what cut it was) served also in a red wine sauce with cabbage and the always-present piece of lardon/bacon. The meat fell apart it was so tender, and the sauce was rich and yummy. I’m not a huge cabbage fan, but I ate some of the side and it was fine. Still not my favorite vegetable!

Dessert, oh dessert. Gotta love the fancy desserts. We both went chocolate – all the way. Sean’s dessert was an incredible work of art with so many different types and presentations of chocolate that we lost count. It was hard to figure out where to even begin to eat this beauty. But eat it we did. Parts of it we enjoyed more than others, but overall, we loved both our desserts – worth the experience! In addition to our 2 chocolate desserts, they served us each a plate with 3 little chef desserts on them. They also were quite beautiful and more fruit-flavored which was a nice change from all the chocolate. Sean couldn’t even begin to eat his 3, but I felt I owed it to the chef to eat all of mine. J They were lemon, strawberry, and some other fruity deliciousness.

All in all it was a fantastic lunch. Some of the dishes were better than the others, and it is not an inexpensive proposition, but it was well worth it. The entire experience was very delightful – fine French dining in a friendly and inviting atmosphere. Bernard Loiseau’s widow even came to chat with us and say hello. Of course she knows all of our great Bay Area chefs! It’s a sad story about Bernard Loiseau – he committed suicide a few years ago when he heard a false rumor that his restaurant was losing a Michelin star. The new chef manages to put his own imprint on the restaurant while still keeping the influence of the original master chef.

We drove home after our 3-hour lunch happy and full. We were glad that we had planned a mellow evening at home with just our cheese (yum!) and bread and wine. We napped, read, watched tv and just relaxed – true vacation mode.

 

Where are you?

This bench is waiting for you in Parc St. Cloud

Some blooms are showing

 

It’s amazing here right now. With the cold spell broken, there is definitely a sense of Spring in the air, and everything just seems so much better. I wish someone were here to enjoy this special time with me. (Yes, S is here on the weekends) You always hear about “Paris in springtime”, now I get it. Don’t get me wrong, we still have days that are cold and grey, but the sun is peeking out much more often, and there is such a sense of lightness in the air & in the attitudes around. Everyone is smiling more, and there is a “buzz” in the air as people emerge from their winter cocoons. We have spent the last week plus just getting out and enjoying life. Even the day of solid rain we had last week couldn’t dampen our spirits.

on rue Montorgueil

Arc de Triomphe

Wandering around the Marais

 It has been a perfect time to enjoy Paris. Drinks enjoyed sitting outside at a café watching the world go by. Hours spent wandering around the streets finding interesting shops to duck into. Walking hand in hand past the Eiffel Tower to discover a new restaurant. Just soaking up the world where we now find ourselves. Don’t get me wrong, I know it is still chilly out (we are still wearing sweaters & coats), and there is probably more inclement weather heading our way, but let me just enjoy my moment in the sun.

Tuilleries garden

Why don’t you come enjoy it with me too? :-)

D

Trip to Burgundy (Bourgogne) Day 1 Feb 25, 2012 (looooong)

We had a great day today. Had to get up at waaaaay too early to get the girls to school to catch their bus to the train station - we got them to ASP at 5:15am! They had a high-speed train from Paris to Anzére Switzerland to catch - so happy that we just had to get them to ASP (5 minute drive) versus trying to get them to the train station in Paris at that hour! They seemed fine & happy to board the bus. Very weird that they are so far away from us with no real contact. We haven't gotten them phones over here yet, so we don't have a way to get a hold of them directly. Just have to count on it all going well. One of the teachers on the trip is posting photos and I have emailed him so I know they are alive and well. In fact, he told me that they got moved up today to the top skiing group - guess all those years in Tahoe paid off! I still can't believe they are off in Switzerland on their own. Way too cool...

This is the chalet where the girls are staying

S & I headed back home after dropping the girls off at ASP - I was planning on going back to sleep, and he was going to get some work done until the park opened at 7:30 so the dogs could get a walk/run before we headed out. But I got a text from a friend of mine at 6am saying the highway was already full of traffic heading down in the direction we would be driving, so we decided to try to get out earlier. We had been so busy packing for the girls that we didn't get a chance to pack ourselves yet, so it took awhile to get ourselves and the dogs organized. I think we finally left our house around 8:00am.

I printed out a route from viamichelin.com, we pulled the route up on the maps on our phones, AND we plugged it into our GPS - then we were off. I'm happy to report that we only got lost once on the way down, and thanks to my friend's text, we weren't stuck in traffic for as long as we could have been. She told me about another route to take to get us off the congested highway. Thank goodness! We were stuck on the crowded highway for probably 1/2 hour and even that little amount was almost enough to make us cranky. Almost, because we agreed before we left to try and just take the trip as it would come - getting lost, traffic, etc. Just go with it and try not to get frustrated.

After 2+ hours of driving, we got off the highway out of the traffic jam (most people were probably heading to Switzerland to go skiing) to head towards Auxerre. We decided to stop there to take a break, let the dogs out to stretch their legs and go to the bathroom, and see the gothic church there. The Cathédrale Saint-Étienne d’Auxerre is known for its massive stained glass windows and most of it was built between 1215 – 1233. The church was really cool (literally almost freezing inside!) and Auxerre is a really cute French town. 

We walked around the town with the dogs for quite awhile exploring, and then decided it was time for some lunch. We put the dogs back in the car to hang out while we went & ate. We found a promising looking place that had a wood-burning pizza oven, and since we are always on the lookout for good pizza for our friend Brad and all the folks at PizzaQuest.com we decided to give it a try. We knew we would be eating plenty of typical French food over the next few days so we were excited for some tasty pizza. It's always a risk in France to get pizza - while you can find it everywhere, it is often very disappointing. Too doughy, too saucy, undercooked, weird toppings you don't recognize that shouldn't be on pizza, etc.

Chez Carlotta was cute on the inside and smelled delicious, but only 1 other table had customers. We never know if that is truly a bad sign as we always seem to get the timing of our meals off - we eat too early! We got seated at a tiny table way at the back of the restaurant where it felt nice and cozy. The menu featured lots of salads and pizzas, and an offer of Lasagna Bolognese. They also had daily specials on the board as almost all restaurants do. S was very intrigued by the Lasagna Bolognese, and I chose the pizza of the day that featured egg (cooked like an omelet), potatoes, tomato sauce and ham (jambon blanc). Why this was called the Pizza Tortilla I'm not entirely sure other than it could have been a variation of a Spanish Omelet with the egg being the tortilla? I got it without the ham as I'm still just not a huge ham fan. We had salads to start and they were very good. So often the lettuce here is just so amazingly fresh and delicious that we love to get salads. Plus the true "French dressing" apparently is NOT the stuff bottled in American, but a mustard-type vinaigrette. It is almost the same dressing everywhere - luckily we like it. We ordered 1/2 bottle of chianti to go with our meal (since we still had to drive). I just love how easy it is to get 1/2 bottles of decent wine in France - I wish America had them on menus more often.

S's lasagna arrived hot & bubbling - he even took a video of it sizzling away. The pizza looked very promising when it landed on our table - thin crust, and slightly burned from the wood oven. When I bit into it I was very happy - it was just as I hoped. Good crust tasting of quality flour, not soggy under the toppings, not too much pizza sauce - just freshly smashed tomatoes - not overwhelmingly cheesy, and the egg and potato were tasty additions. Overall we were very pleased and happy with our find. The only flaw was the dessert. We ordered the chocolate cake with crème anglaise, and unfortunately it was rather dry and uninspired - kind of tasted like a strange brownie. The crème anglaise was tasty so we tried to roll each bite of cake in the sauce to make it a bit more moist and tasty. Another pleasant discovery - things are much cheaper here “in the country” than where we live next to Paris! The lasagna was 8 euros, the pizza was 10 euros, the cake was 3.50 - such a small price compared to Paris. All in all, a good restaurant we would return to and bring friends with us.

After lunch, we got back in the car and headed off again. I had additional sites planned for us to see before hitting our final destination. Next up on the list was the village of Vézelay to see the Basilique Ste-Madeleine - the largest Romanesque church in France. It also claimed in the past to guard the relics of St. Mary Magdalene, and if you go down into the crypt there is a display that supposedly contains a relic of Mary Magdalene. The church was very beautiful and full of light – again freezing cold inside. The medieval town of Vézelay looked very charming as we drove up the narrow streets to visit the Basilique – full of character and interesting buildings. Like many of the other towns we would visit on this trip, it seemed surprisingly empty. I guess February is not a busy time in Burgundy! We drove through many villages on our trip and would rarely see even one person. Very quiet and peaceful, but a little strange also. Behind the church was a beautiful area where you could enjoy views out over the valleys and hills of Vézelay.

Even Zoe likes the view

Next we drove to Époisses – home of the famous stinky but delicious cheese, as well as a châteaux. I had planned to stop and visit the châteaux and a fromagére, but the châteaux was closed and we didn’t see the fromagére as we were driving. It was getting late and we wanted to get to our rental house before it go to dark, so we just drove through and headed to Semur-en-Auxois where we were staying.

Semur-en-Auxois is another amazing medieval city set up on a hill surrounded by stone ramparts. We rented a house outside of the ramparts down on the River Armançon where we had space for the dogs. Thanks to all our maps we found the house with no problems, and got there before dark It was a very charming and interesting house called Le Moulin Vert (though we saw no windmill) set behind another larger house and right on the river. The dogs were very tempted to go into the river and get the ducks, but since neither of them are big swimmers, they only went in a tiny bit, thank goodness as I was worried they would be swept away.

 The house was very interesting, a bit funky, and freezing cold when we got there. We quickly turned up the heat, searched and found some space heaters and tried to warm things up. We decided to walk up into town to explore, grab a drink and find somewhere for dinner – somewhere warmer than the house! I had done some research on restaurants, but we weren’t sure where they were located or what was open. We found a path down the street from our house that consisted of a bunch of steps going up the hill, through the ramparts and into the city. We walked along the ramparts and looked out over the area of Semur that was outside the city “walls” and then headed inside the city towards the church – Eglise Notre-Dame. Often the heart of the city, we figured the church would hopefully be where we would find more people, stores and places to eat - the area where we entered Semur was very quiet with nobody around. We could hear the church bells and followed the sound until we found civilization. 

Semur-en-Auxois

 We walked from one end of the town to the other, and found the main entrance to the village proper – I guess we came in the back way. It was much more lively in this location with plenty to look at. You walk along a lovely cobbled street, pass through a medieval gateway (Porte Guillier) and are on a pedestrian street with shops and cafes. We stopped into a bar after awhile to enjoy a beer and warm up by the fire. How is it that Burgundy, which lies South of Paris, is colder than Paris? It got quite chilly after the sun went down. When we finished our beers we decided it was time to find somewhere to have dinner. We paid up (only 5 Euros for 2 beers!) and headed back to the church where one of the recommended restaurants was located. We stopped in to have dinner, but they informed us that they were fully booked – even though almost all of the tables were empty. But again, we were a tad bit on the early side – before 8:00pm – as most people seem to have dinner much later in France. We continued on down the street towards another restaurant we had seen and luckily they had a table for us. Again we were worried as it seemed like we were the only people there, but very quickly after 8:00 the restaurant started to fill up.

Enter the village through this "gate"

S enjoying the cheapest beer we've had in France!

Le Saint Vernier was a Burgundian restaurant that served local fare – though they had a couscous special that night that everyone else seemed to enjoy. It was full of random meat that we just weren’t ready for that night, and I wanted to try some of the regional specialties. I ordered Oeufs Pôche Chablaisienne to start, S ordered a salad, then I ordered the chicken sautéed in époisses cheese and S got Boeuf Bourguignon. Everything was tasty, but nothing outstanding. I enjoyed the egg dish a lot – especially soaking up the sauce with extra bread – but everything else was good, not great. The beef was a little fatty, the sauce could have been more rich, and my chicken could have been more tender. Both dishes were served with the same 2 sides – potatoes and a pickled eggplant/carrot/cauliflower salad - that again were fine, but nothing I needed to finish eating. We shared a dessert of 3 crème brûlées that were a little too watery to be true crème brûlées in my book. I can’t remember what the flavors were – must not have been too memorable. I think one may have been strawberry, one regular and I’m not sure about the last one. They tasted ok, but the texture was so runny it was hard to get past. Not at all what I expected.

OK, I thought those other things in the bowl were mushrooms. But looking at this pic it looks suspiciously like a snail!

This sauce was made with the famous stinky cheese

The trio of crème brûlées - see all the liquid?

After dinner we wandered back home and to bed – the day had started much too early and we were exhausted. I’m surprised I made it through the whole day without a nap, but I guess with so many beautiful things to look at and enjoy, you get energized. We had a great first day and still had 3 more to look forward to.

zzzzz D

Emotional Rollercoaster

I know between all the members of my family, and the number of days we’ve been living here in France we have been on quite an emotional rollercoaster. There have been bursts of ups & downs for us all spread throughout these past 7 weeks, but I’ve never felt them so keenly as today – and only my own. One minute I’m happy and excited and enjoying the day, the next I am feeling so down & lonely I could burst into tears at any minute. I want to go home! Those are the words echoing through my head this afternoon. Usually taking the dogs for a walk in the park makes me feel great, but today it only enhanced my loneliness. It’s hard being without S during the week. It’s hard not having any girlfriends to call to go out with. It’s hard spending so much time with only myself as company. I’m not used to it. I’m normally a very social person who gets a lot of energy from being around others.

It’s just one of those days when I’m wondering what on earth I’m doing here in this foreign place – what is the point of all this? This house is not my house. My family and friends are not just a phone call or quick trip away. This language is not mine. It’s so hard to get even the simplest of tasks done – I have a package to pick up at the post office, but it takes so much energy to figure out how to get there, where to park, what to say when I get there, etc. that it’s hard to get motivated to go. I had to work up a ton of courage yesterday just to go to the butcher to try and get the cut of meat I wanted. The learning curve is so steep that I’m afraid I’m never going to be able to get up it.

I know it’s just a bad day (for whatever reason), and this will pass, but as of right now I just want to go home!

Really? We packed that?

That phrase had been uttered often in the last couple of days. Apparently I was planning on becoming a master baker here in France (though I don’t bake much at home), and thought that we would be throwing lots of parties (how many platters do I really need?)!

Our stuff finally arrived here at our house from the States on Thursday Feb 7th. First the rental company had to come and clear away all our rental stuff (7am – 9:30am), and then the relocation movers came & started unloading onto our front porch/verandah/deck (whatever you call it!). They had to bring 3 smaller trucks as there was no way the big container could fit down our very narrow streets. They would unload 1 truck outside, move all that stuff inside, then repeat the process with the next truck. It all went much more smoothly than I had expected. It only got hectic when they would all approach me asking “where does this go” one after the other. Often I had no idea where anything was to go! 

 Empty family room/dining area after rental stuff gone...

 Empty master bedroom...

I would try to unpack boxes as we went along, focusing on the kitchen area. Getting the kitchen sorted out was my first priority along with getting our King and Queen beds set up so we would have somewhere to sleep that night. S finally made it home from the US around 2:00pm and could start helping out then – felt very good to have someone else with me. I was lucky enough to be able to lean on a couple of friends to get R&C to and from school so we didn’t have to worry about being able to get out of the driveway to get to school!

The 6 guys worked hard and fast as it was freezing cold outside - literally. I felt so bad for them, and for me as the house kept getting colder and colder as many of the doors had to be left open to move things in. But at least I could stand in front of a space heater and try to warm up. Two of the men spoke decent English so we were able to communicate which was good. They were very nice and hard-working – they even shared some of their pizza lunch with me. I should have bought them lunch! I was so distracted, food was the last thing on my mind. At the end of the 1^st day, the trucks were mostly empty, our 2 beds were put together and we were surrounded by boxes.

 Family room/dining room full of stuff...

 Master bedroom - at least the bed is there!

Thursday was also La Chandeleur or Crêpe Day here in France. It was originally a religious holiday, but now it is a day to eat crêpes! I can get behind that kind of holiday. You are supposed to make them at home, hold a coin in your writing hand, and flip the crepe in the pan with your other hand (for good fortune) but since our kitchen was full of boxes, it was a great excuse for us to visit one of our local crêperies. I was worried it might be popular due to the holiday, so I picked up the phone and made a reservation for the 4 of us. I was so proud – I spoke all in French, he spoke French back to me, and so it went and I had successfully made a complete phone call in French. Woo hoo! We went to Crêperie La Bonne Humeur near our train station and had a fun and delicious meal.

Friday Feb 8^th, the movers showed up at 8:30am to start putting furniture together, unpacking boxes, etc. Man, oh man, we brought waaaaaay too much stuff. We all could barely put things where they were supposed to go as there were too many things in the way. Once the movers got my 2 kitchen hutches in their place, and the kitchen table, I could really go to town determining where on earth I was going to put all our kitchen stuff. Our kitchen is very tiny without much cabinet space, so we have to use the dining area (the hutches) to hold a lot of our stuff. I managed to fit most everything we use more often and sent the “special” items down to the basement. We are lucky that we have a large part of our basement that is actually finished with wardrobes and shelves built into 1 end of the room. There we can store all of our extra stuff – clothes that we don’t need, extra food items, serving platters, etc. The bad news was that out of the 16 pans I shipped over, only 5 will work on the induction cooktop that we have. I really wish I had been told ahead of time that the cooktop required special pans. Now I’ve got useless pans and I need to go buy a couple more. Good news is I need less room in the kitchen for pans!

While I was concentrating on the kitchen, Sean was concentrating on building all the furniture items that we had purchased at Ikea before we left. The relocation company brought the Ikea boxes over on the boat, but wouldn’t put them together since they hadn’t taken them apart. We bought bed frames and nightstands for both girls, a nightstand for me, 4 wardrobes…many French houses & apartments do not have closets, so you have to use wardrobes. One of the bigger bedrooms here actually has a big built-in closet but I decided I’d rather have my bedroom be the one downstairs with the bigger bathroom with walk-in shower. So we needed to buy a bunch of wardrobes to house all our clothes. Can you tell me why on earth I shipped over clothing and shoes that I haven’t worn in years? What was I thinking? I have a feeling I’ll be cleaning out these wardrobes over time…

 Took a break from unpacking to enjoy a beautiful sunset

Our exploring time has been cut short by all this moving-in stuff, but now that we are getting more settled, we’ll be able to be more free to get out there soon…

To keep you going:

D

To Eat or Not to Eat – that is definitely NOT the question!

Just where or what!

We often use eating to start the planning of our trips and excursions. "Where is there a good place to eat? OK, what can we see that is around that?" I know it’s not the normal way to be a tourist, but it serves us well. We often get to other parts of cities that we wouldn’t have seen if we had just stuck to the typical tourist destinations. When we are planning our jaunts into Paris, I always consult my Excel file of places to eat to find us a place to have lunch or dinner. There are times where we do wander around and stumble upon a restaurant, and there are times we are desperately hungry and all plans fly out the window. Flexibility is good, but I also find that having some key destination helps guide us. We love the search for a new, good restaurant.

Now I’m going to say something that I know is going to upset a lot of people. Some of you may have guessed by now, but I’m not a big French food eater. I know, I know. When I cook for myself (& kids by default) I tend to focus on quick, lowfat meals, and many French recipes do not lend themselves to those 2 descriptors. When eating out, we want to enjoy something tasty, enjoyable, and something we can recognize. I’m a slightly picky eater, and S is much worse than me, so our palates are a little limited. Add in my shellfish allergy, and it can cause trouble when trying to find some French food to eat. We don’t do much pork or veal, we like our beef cooked (French like it bloody & no matter how many times you send it back, you are bound to still have red/pink meat), we don’t do organs…the list goes on and on. So you see the limitations in going to eat at French restaurants. I love the yummy sauces, it's the protein items they put in them...

No, that's not chicken, that's sweetbreads

On top of our pickiness, there is another problem with heading out to eat French food. I hate to say this also, but many places to eat are not up to par with their food. Even the French will admit that the quality of many restaurants/cafes/brasseries have gone downhill. Yes, sometimes you will still get lucky just trying a random place, but often you do need to rely on the recommendations of others. And many of the good places can be hard to get into – you need to plan ahead and make reservations. We haven’t been good at that thus far, but will be making an effort to improve soon. One person made a comment that we liked – something to the effect of “French food is very deep but not very wide”. We have found this to be pretty true. While the quality of the dishes can vary greatly place by place, the actual selection of dishes offered can be very narrow. It’s amazing how so many French eating establishments offer the exact same dishes. How can every café in St. Germain have the house specialty of slow-cooked lamb shank in prunes? Now I know part of this depends on what type of restaurant you are in: Cafes offer certain foods, brasseries offer certain foods, etc., but I still would expect SOME variety on the menus. At least it gives you a sense of comfort knowing what to expect - if you find a dish you love, you can try it at many different places. And all those places just look so darn cute and French - how can you resist?

 OK, one thing we would like to know: what’s with the pig? The French loooooove the pig! They put jambon (ham) or lardon (bacon – but basically barely cooked so pieces of fat) on or in everything. We don’t eat ham, and like our bacon crispy, so that’s a challenge. There have been times when one of us has accidentally ordered the wrong item, and sure enough, the lardon is pretty tasty, but it’s a little too smoky and rich so a little goes a long way. And where the heck is the turkey? I know it’s not a native bird here, but surely they could introduce it! We miss turkey – especially R. Ham is just not the same. They do have Subway sandwich shops here & I’ve seen R’s eyes light up when we see one, but we have yet to stop in. I wonder if they will have a turkey sandwich for her? I know they offer Indian chicken sandwiches…

We have had some great meals and some ok meals. I don't think we've had a bad one since we moved here. I'm very thankful for all the blogs I read written by expats in France as that is where we get so many of our recommendations. If any of you have any as well, please send them our way. We have promised our friend to try and write some restaurant reviews, and we will definitely try. I just don’t want anyone to be disappointed by the number of non-French restaurants that we visit! And don’t worry, we will be adding traditional French ones to our repertoire – as long as they offer chicken and fish in addition to their sweetbreads and snails!