France………..Land of Corner (Specialist) Shops.

Browsing through my photo library, I came across these two images.I took them days after I received my very first digital camera – not a lot of reasoning went into my choice of subject admittedly.

Nonetheless, I thought I would publish them to celebrate the sheer dedication the French show to the pursuit of food happiness.
Town centres , especially the small provincial ones are losing their small shops at an alarming rate.
It is comforting to see that the food shops are still holding their own
despite the credit crunch ( I hate that expression) and in an area of modest income.
It is heartening to see that the trolley dash at the local supermarket just won’t cut it when it comes to the best in food. No compromise. How very French.

Let’s Pretend It’s Summer.

Someone has to. It is grey, cold and the mood is low. Winter, I fear is omnipresent. So, what better way to sweep away our dim thoughts than to gaze wistfully at images that re-ignite the fire of summer within us?

One of our favourite haunts is the Cafe des Arts in Chinon. One of many  small eating establishments intimately sited around a shady square in the town centre. Admittedly the cerise coloured plastic chairs do little to enhance the exterior decor,but think good wine, good food and ambience and the grating colour gently subsides into the background.

Being ever a creature of habit , I tend to follow a tried and tested pattern of eating the same thing  – it’s that good, that I just can’t help myself.

I started with one of their huge salads, which was a mixture of the usual suspects (letttuce, tomato etc) along with Jambon de Bayonne, Emmental, saute potatoes and a fried egg, drenched liberally with a tart vinaigrette.

To follow, I had a piece of lamb grilled with herbes de provence and pommes de terre dauphinoise – these were meltingly tender and subtly flavoured with nutmeg and a hint of garlic.

No words to express my delight at this.

Dessert was an indulgent ice cream and to round off I had a coffee and cognac. We drank a bottle of Saumur Champigny.

Simple, well cooked, good service. No more to be said. Have a look at the pictures. Pretend like me.