Of fruit, croissants and chocolate cereal!

Everyone says that the food in Paris is fantastic – and we have found that to be true. However, there are a few caveats to that statement.

First of all, if you are a vegetarian, it is challenging to find appropriate food in a restaurant. Parisiennes are carnivores, meat-eaters supreme! Every restaurant has several dishes to choose from – le boeuf, le canard, le poulet, le poisson, and on and on….. But for vegetarians, main dishes (le plat) are few and far between.

In a previous post, I mentioned that we had lunch at the amazingly-decorated restaurant at the Musee d’Orsay a few days ago. We chose the soup and a cheese plate. It was the most flavourful pea soup and selection of cheeses that I have ever had. I just had to take a picture! Yes, that’s the soup in the cups!

But mankind cannot live on cheese alone, even in Paris! And we have been finding some wonderful restaurants with vegetarian options. Always safe are the Indian establishments of which there are many. So we will manage very nicely during our time here.

A very positive side to our experience with food in Paris is the quality of the fresh food available in the grocery stores. The flats where we are staying are equipped (to varying degrees) with cooking supplies, and we do a lot of our own cooking. It seems to us that the fruit and vegetables we buy are bursting with more flavour than we are used to. What a delight!

David loves shopping for “clementines feuilles”, clementines with the leaves still on them. It’s a testatment to how fresh they are. Today I took this photo above of the bowl full of fruit in our flat, all of which we purchased at the local Monoprix grocery store. Yum!

One big difference we have noticed is the many specialty shops for different kinds of food – the bakery, the patisserie for sweets, the butcher, the cheese shop, the fish shop, etc. And there are so many to choose from! I took a picture of some shops yesterday to show you what I mean – a whole variety of shops in a row.

Of course, when you talk about food in Paris, it is essential to mention croissants and other special treats that you can find at the boulangeries which are found on almost every street. It is impossible to describe what the difference is in the croissants you purchase here. The proof is in the eating!

And this we have done. The count as of today is 3 pain au chocolats, numerous croissants, and plenty of loaves of bread of many varieties. The first time I sat down and ate a croissant accompanied by some chevre, I couldn’t believe my taste buds. What a fantastic afternoon snack!

However, this is still a city of contrasts. We have been amazed at how many varieties of cereal you can buy here with CHOCOLATE in them. I just had to take a picture to show you.

Can you see how many brands there are? There’s even Fitness cereal with chocolate. Special K with chocolate. Creusli with 3 kinds of chocolate.

We haven’t yet dared to buy any of these, but there’s still time!

Regardless of the contrasts we are enjoying the food here. We have learned to look in health food stores for tofu and large containers of yogurt (called yaourt in French – pronounce that if you can!). Other stores carry yogurt but usually in small, one serving size, containers.

We are currently staying at a flat in the Latin Quarter where the hospitals and universities are located including the Sorbonne. I took some photos as I walked around the area yesterday which I will post in another blog soon.

We will ring in the New Year here on Rue Poliveau and then return to our other flat in Montmartre on Sunday.

We hope all of you are enjoying the holiday season and getting ready for a fantastic celebration to welcome 2010!

Bonne annee!