I've just had a look back at my previous posts & realized that the last five are all about food.
Um, how French of me!
Les français have a reputation for being obsessed with food
& the longer I live in France, the more I realize it's true.
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| local cheese at the market in Annecy |
Fancy cuisine & posh restaurants are great,
but what I really notice here is the extent of people's everyday appreciation of food & cooking.
When I eat lunch with my students,
they talk in great detail about what they ate for dinner the night before
& what they are planning on making for supper that night.
They discuss the best way to prepare leek quiche
or debate how many different kinds of cheese you need to use to make a proper fondue.
My students don't scarf down sandwiches or run out to grab a burger and a Coke.
They bring leftovers from their home-made meal the night before
(which they heat up on a real plate & don't just eat out of the Tupperware box, thankyouverymuch!)
Out of their lunch bags comes
bread (fresh from the bakery that morning),
cheese,
fresh fruit for dessert.
It's all about the importance of the meal-time ritual.
This is the very aspect of French culture that has earned them a spot on
UNESCO's "intangible" heritage list as of last week.
This was big news here & the French are - understandably - proud of this new honour.
You can read an article about it here (maybe not on an empty stomach, though!)
In more food-related news,
this weekend I'll be enjoying a Frenchified American Thanksgiving dinner
chez our friends Camille & Charles.
I'm really excited about the pumpkin pie.
(Even if it didn't make it onto the UNESCO list.)
I'd better not show this photo to Alan. He might just die of jealousy! OR perhaps he'll pack us up and move us all to Annecy. That'd be okay...
ReplyDeleteHappy Thanksgiving. Enjoy the pumpkin pie!
xoxo
I hope your French/American Thanksgiving was a wonderful one! I have had a week full of food, food and more food down on the South West coast in Cornwall - sadly I think this week will have to include a lot less!
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Ahh... the French and their food. I love the way they cherish their mealtimes. That's one of the reasons I fell so madly in love with France. Quality over quantity. It's quite the opposite here in the U.S. However, after celebrating Thanksgiving, I can say ours had both quantity AND quality - Whew, I'm still stuffed. Hope you enjoyed your pumpkin pie! :-)
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