My Life, My Food, My Places

Sunday was our lazy day. No rush to prepare for school or work and no stressful rush to the metro station (underground) to go to the office. After a slow breakfast, hot chocolate with ‘pain au chocolat’ (chocolate pastry) bread for the kids, coffee and bread or a few croissants for us we prepared to go out for our Sunday mission: The Market. All over Paris there are nearly daily markets as, by law, every district  has to organize two markets a week. There are not only street markets but Paris has also numerous covered markets such as The Enfants Rouges Market. Created in 1615 its Paris oldest food market.  But still today Parisians and foodie-tourists like the Enfants Rouges to buy the fresh produce at the stalls full of color and fragrance. Even in wintertime it is like hanging around on a Provence market is July. Sundays is our market day to get our provision for the week in vegetables, seafood, poultry, charcuteries and cheese of course. And in Les ...

Bread is a serious issue for the Parisians! We learned very fast after moving in our apartment in St Cloud, that bread wasn’t just bread. The first days we bought bread everywhere we passed a bakeshop on our way home from the Metro station. I think it was the third day after we moved in that I met my neighbor, in casu the very friendly elderly woman whom lived on the ground floor, greeted me ‘bonjour’ when I came in with my bread. And after some small talk about where we were from -ah! Des Belges- she asked me ‘the’ question: where do you buy your bread? And that moment I learned that bread is a serious matter for a Parisian! She explained me that you have to pick your Boulangerie (bakeshop) and stick to it. The neighborhood Boulangerie is more than just a place to get your bread, it’s a local institution with their own protocols and like the local Brasserie (café/coffee shop/restaurant) the place to go as ever...

Paris and sandwiches.  A real love story for so many years and still going strong as every year the consumption of sandwiches is growing.  You can buy sandwiches of all kinds, with cheese, salami (Rosette the Lyon is really good), pate but the ABSOLUTE STAR of the sandwiches in France is the world famous ' JAMBON BEURRE', a sandwich of  fresh and crispy baguette with good butter from Normandy and high quality lean cooked ham.  My all time favorite. And obviously I am not alone! I did some research and I learned that in 2016 the French (and the expats and tourists too) consumed 2,350,000,000 sandwiches...yes far more than 2 billion! And 1,200,000,000 of them where 'Jambon Beurre'! If that is not the absolute star! Because the French are so attracted by their favorite lunch that even MacDonalds in his French restaurants is selling the Jambon Beurre, Says a lot about the popularity isn't it? But the French are also eating a lot of Big Macs an...