Questionable Thursday Friday Saturday: Ah, aren't the French sweet?

I was planning to continue Questionable Thursdays by just picking one question to answer but because I have blogger guilt love you all so very much, I'll try to answer them all.

Let's start at the top, shall we?

1. ajourneytopurity: "What is your favorite desert there? And favorite food?"

Let me start by saying that I've liked all the food I've ever had while here in France. Especially the kind that come from the Boulangerie (That's French for the-place-where-all-the-fattening-
and-oh-so-tasty-things-are-made-and-the-one-place-where-I-think-
we-can-all-agree-the-French-have something-on-the-Americans!)

(Oh, wait. I just thought of this one time, when we were in Beaufort and we stopped at the boulangerie to get the kids something to eat as it was supper time and we hadn't eaten anything and Mr. French decided to try this disgusting-looking, honking piece of chocolate-looking something that resembled cake but not really and I mean it was huge and the lady behind the counter said something that sounded like pudding and I may or may not have gone on and on about how gross it looked and I may or may not have used some facial expressions to describe my opinion of this particular "dessert" and I may or may not have then talked on and on about how the English are always making these cake-like things stuffed with gross things and then calling them puddings to the people that drove us up to Beaufort and all this talk may or may not have forced Mr. French to abandon the "dessert" and then had the gall to tell me that I ruined the whole thing for him and he couldn't eat it. Maybe. But I don't have a very good memory, so I might have remembered it wrong and ah, it's all getting fuzzy right now.)

Where was I?

Right, food.

We love croissants, pain au chocolat (which is basically a croissant with chocolate inside. Yum!), swiss chocolate, french bread, cheese, I could go on and on. It's hard to pick a favorite. It's all very good. Although they don't know how to make chocolate chip cookies. (And that is what they call them.) They need some help with that. And the puddings. But I don't really remember that.

Here are some other desserts we've had:



It had two layers of light chocolate cake with a chocolate mousse in between with a few cherries in the mousse with sprinkles all around. I'm not a huge fan of raisins in cookies and the cherries reminded me of raisins but other than that it was very good. Nothing was overly sweet or strong in flavor and the texture of the cake and mousse together was suburb. Mr. French picked it out and spent way too much money but it was for a guest, so I guess that's a good enough reason.

One night, when it was still light out, we were a little worn out from the week and we decided to celebrate so we took a long journey, the half block or less, to the bakery. We bought three little desserts and we were turning to start the long journey back when Mr. French thought we could do better at the next boulangerie. (After we'd bought dessert at the first one.) So, like the dutiful wife, I followed him to the next one and we got three more desserts! Then we went home and sampled them all.

(Look at the cute little chocolate mouse!)

I guess you'll have to take my word for it but they were all good. (Except for the chocolate cookies. Just say no.)


2. Abigail: "Mine is similar, I was wondering if you have discovered any foods (or products) that it will be hard to live without when/if you move back. And what food/product do you miss most from the States that they don't have in France?"

We'll definitely miss the boulangerie.


But actually not the one you see here. We've decided not to go to this one anymore because the woman there is consistently not nice, and basically makes us uncomfortable as soon as we walk in the door. It's too bad because they're probably the best.

Also, I find I really like the European style of yogurt here. There are a lot of products that I miss and wish we could get over here, but I think I'll save that for another post.

3. Rebekah asked: "What is the weirdest food you've been served yet?"

We actually haven't been invited to many French households since we've been here and we've never been served anything weird (not like our friends, who are going to Africa, and wanted an authentic French African meal and got fried crickets as an appetizer). There are a lot of strange things that you can get at the store, frozen escargot for one.

The one time we were in a French home for dinner, I did make one faux pas. We were served roasted chicken with potatoes and carrots and to my side sat a serving bowl of salad, fresh tomato and cucumber with vinegar dressing. I helped myself and then, I don't remember how, but it became obvious that that was for the second course. It all worked out in the end, since I waited to eat it until everyone else took a serving, after the first course was finished. The third course was a cheese and bread and the fourth course was chocolate and cake served with coffee and tea.

And just to show how consistent the French are, we went to a soiree put on by the school and the first course was salad!

4. JoyfulJessica: I"s French toast, French fries, French bread and French vanilla just toast, fries, bread and vanilla in France?"

Good Question and I like the humorous tone.

I think French toast refers to that which was traditionally made out of French bread, which gets too hard to eat by the second day.

French Vanilla refers to the way they like their ice cream, with eggs, which is the only way I've seen it here and yes, it's just called Vanilla.

French bread is again, the style, usually a hard crusty bread. They sell one kind of soft bread (it's long like a baguette) but it's called 'Swiss-style'.

And the fries are just called frites. So I guess all your suspicions were correct!

(J after eating the little chocolate mouse.)