Chefs in France and eco-friendly menus

Ahhhh, an article in Time magazine:

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2037894,00.html

36 Hours in Paris

As always, the NY Times has a great article about Paris:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/travel/19hours-paris.html?ex=1308632400&en=027f61bc073ced96&ei=5087&WT.mc_id=TR-D-I-NYT-MOD-MOD-M181-ROS-1210-HDR&WT.mc_ev=click

For foodies traveling in Paris

some great ideas and photos:

www.huffingtonpost.com/travelsort/best-pastries-paris_b_763003.html

no question that No. 1 Pierre Herme for chocolate and pastry. Unbelievable.

It's true - the French hate to sweat.

Check it out - great article about the French and gym culture.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100927/lf_nm_life/us_fitness_france

Of course, their rates of obesity are much lower than here. Do they know something we don't about unprocessed foods? Mass transit and walking?

Beaucaire/Tarascon and Moules

We made it back to Beaucaire for moules three times during our trip. Once was excellent at our usual spot, Nord/Sud but then we deviated which is always a mistake. We had D's father with us and his lovely girlfriend and we knew that they would not eat mussels but would enjoy the location and the view. So we ventured to another restaurant down the street but with the canal view. The food was very mediocre, but the view wonderful, and it was the spot that night for anyone with a dog.

So on one of our last nights we tried again for moules but drove into a parade grounds. It turns out that each year Beaucaire has a famous provence parade each year during July and we had driven into the traffic and people gathering for the parade, and the route would go just in front of our restaurant. D. parked and we walked back to the restaurant, parking ourselves along the street to watch the people watching the parade, and for us to watch the parade participants from very young to very old, people proud to walk, ride or dance in the event and having a wonderful time.

After it was over, we were finally able to get seated and eat a quick dinner. In all the crowd was quite well-behaved except a few young people, with the police chasing down one young man and his friends actually tried to intervene and physically touch the police officer. In the US that would provoke a very strong response, but in France, the police stayed amazingly calm but forceful in affecting their arrest. No weapons pulled, and the crowd certainly supported their actions.

The parade had everything, singers, dancers, horses, floats, but all provencal style with a theme of dancers from around the world. Of course the US was portrayed with country-western style dancers and music. We couldn't have hip-hop or jazz? or even Elvis? Oh well.

It was the end of our trip and we truly enjoyed the unexpected parade.

Cultural Differences part 2

Another experience we shared this summer was with our German host and friends, watching the World Cup competition as Germany rose to the semi-finals. Whenever a world cup game was being played, it was on the television in the bars, stores, restaurants, people gathering around the television wherever they were to watch. It reminded me of how we used to pay attending to the World Series years ago, with boys sneaking radios into school to listen during class.

Of course we also shared the despair when France lost in the early round, and then Germany did not win their semi-final game. It is almost a national depression as each country pours so much of their national identity and pride into their teams. It is way beyond our devotion to the Olympics or any of our national sports.

Another cultural difference - money, how we spend it, how we view it. Europeans seem to be so used to living with less, being so much more careful about how they spend their money. They are taxed heavily, but have the security regarding their homes, their health care and pensions that we don't have. They truly watch what they spend on utilities, while we merely complain about it. They drive smaller cars and really use mass transit (it exists there) while we talk big about big oil, but don't have the political will to do anything about it. Look at the mass strikes happening in France and Spain today about proposed changes to the pension systems.

We need to learn.

Other food finds of 2010

In addition to the bio coop outside Cavaillon, we also found near the gare (the former train station area) in St. Remy a nice bio store (i.e. a health food store with organic products).

I learned that BIO is really pronounced Bee-Oh, which just reminds we Americans of body odor.

And again we purchased the best olive oil we have ever had from La Fabresse. It can be bought in a store in St. Remy or at the market on Fridays in Eygallieres. It is hard to describe what makes it so wonderful. It has a fresh, unprocessed taste of green. Like D. says, it is liquid gold.