The usual French breakfast-lunch-dinner. Why are French women so graceful
Looking back in crowds in France - be it Paris or a small town - you can hardly see women who are seriously obese, even the average overweight is not a lot. And also you will not see many people, both men and women, with the pumped-up muscles of a disciplined athlete, even just with chiseled bodies.
Why? Because in France, moderation and pleasure are lifelong mantras, this is how they are grown, this is how they remain healthy and this is how they live in general.
Refusal of food and some of its individual types, a negative attitude towards food, consumption of factory food - all this is not the norm.
Most French women don't go to the gym for a fit. They go there because they know how useful it is. They find the right kind of physical activity for them to enjoy and know they will feel great afterward (and look better in skinny jeans).
But ask any ordinary French woman: how often does she go to workouts? Maximum 1-2 times a week. And very rarely in the morning before work, since most fitness centers in France are open from 9 am. So forget about training 5 days a week at 5 am.
Training 1-2 times a week - seems to be not enough? But French women move constantly, walking for hours and climbing stairs. And this is every day!
Walking with the whole family in the afternoon on the weekend is common, but they don't even consider it "exercise." It is also normal for them to walk their children to kindergarten / school and take them home, go shopping and then go up to the 7th floor with heavy bags in their hands.
So, despite the fact that visits to the fitness center or playing tennis happen a couple of times a week, French women are constantly moving. And if they are lucky enough to live somewhere in the French Alps, then fitness is second nature here: hiking, cycling, water sports, skiing and much more are an integral part of any weekend here.
As with active lifestyles and fitness, French women practice moderation in their food too. No type of food is avoided (including fatty dairy products, alcohol, sweets, and all types of bread); however, caution in the quantity and frequency of such treats is how they manage to balance moderation, pleasure, and health.
At lunch, a Frenchwoman can skip bread, but on weekends she will never miss a glass of champagne and lemon tart.
There are no hardships and absolute rules in the life of a French woman. It's all about wise choice, quantity and options, and eating right most of the time. French-style food is very easy to maintain for a long time, or even a lifetime, because you can eat a little bit of everything, although the main emphasis is on healthy, natural food.
You can talk about how French women stay slim for a very long time. But nothing will give a clearer idea than a visual menu of real French women. Rebeca Planttier, a renowned article writer living in France, asked her French female friends to take pictures of everything they eat in a day to show the diet.
There are no whimsical or unusual ingredients here, just everything the average French woman eats in a typical day. Rebeca asked them to photograph everything, including drinks, snacks, and dessert.
Instead of taking a photo of French food, each of Plantier's friends summarized the nutrition and health recommendations they themselves apply in their daily lives. This will make it easier for us to understand their food choices, as well as their lifestyle and cultural implications.
Also, French women included types of physical activity for the week and ways to recover from "gluttony" in special cases: on vacation, on weekends and holidays.
Breakfast
Homemade buckwheat pancakes with almond butter, raisins and a cup of organic vegetable juice.
Dinner
Fish cooked with tomatoes, onions, ginger and pepper, basmati rice, fruit salad.
Snack at 17 o'clock
Apple, herbal tea.
Dinner at 20 o'clock
Homemade vegetable soup (carrots, potatoes, leeks, zucchini) and an endive salad with half an avocado, olives, pumpkin seeds and flaxseeds.
1. If she wants dessert after dinner, she eats a few slices of dark chocolate (80%).
2. She doesn't eat cheese every day, she usually chooses goat cheese.
3. Katy usually drinks up to 1.5 liters of herbal teas and water a day.
4. For fitness, she does Pilates once a week and at least two workouts on weekends: hiking, cycling, skiing, etc., depending on the season.
5. On weekdays, she often eats in restaurants, therefore, when cooking at home, she uses as many vegetables as possible.
Breakfast
Mixed cereal porridge with almond milk, almonds, walnuts, goji berries and fresh pear. Herbal tea.
Dinner
Chicken with leeks, rice, cheese and bread.
Dinner
Pasta with green peas, onions and bell peppers, beetroot and carrot salad with vinaigrette dressing.
1. During the day, the Dolphin drinks water and herbal teas.
2. On weekends, he can drink up to 2 glasses of wine.
3. Avoids sugar and dairy products.
4. Eat a lot of lentils, chickpeas, quinoa and omega-3 foods.
5. If she drinks too much at parties, she drinks a lot of broth all the next day.
6. Pilates and exercises to tone the legs and buttocks during the week.
Breakfast
Large bowl of fresh fruit, yogurt, tea.
Dinner
Salmon with red pepper, avocado and cucumber salad, cheese, 2 types of fruits.
Dinner
Sausage, green beans, potatoes, cheese, bread, fruit, and applesauce.
1. Vanina tries to make herself a light dinner several times a week (less quantity, light composition and preparation) in order to balance unhealthy or plentiful food in restaurants or at parties.
2. Her weekly activities include constant walking, pilates, tap dancing and tennis. She skates every winter and plays golf several times a month.
Breakfast
Quite typical French breakfast of brioche, honey, butter and coffee.
Dinner
Steak and green beans. Dessert: 1 teaspoon of chestnut cream with coffee.
Snack
Chocolate bun (brioche).
Dinner
This type of light dish is often served in France: some meats, capers, blue cheese, bread and fruit.
1. Eats until satiety, no more.
2. Never takes supplements (unless at a party).
3. For dessert - either cheese or sweets, but never both.
4. Always includes carbohydrates in his meals.
5. Eats in moderation for breakfast, main course for lunch, and light dinner.
6. Depending on the size and nutritional value of lunch, you may skip the afternoon snack.
7. Every day: 1 teaspoon of honey, 1 glass of wine and bread.
8. On weekends, enjoy a croissant or chocolate bread.
9. Always eat a lot of vegetables for lunch.
Breakfast
Bread with butter and coffee.
Dinner
Salmon, salad, zucchini terrine (she makes it herself from zucchini, eggs, milk and spices) and fruit salad for dessert.
Dinner
A generous portion of risotto and vegetable soup.
1. No snacks between meals.
2. Exercise every day. The type of physical activity varies depending on how you feel.
3. A short nap, if possible.
4. Regular body care.
5. Homemade food for the whole family is key (Corinne is a fan of the Thermomix kitchen robot for simple, quick and healthy meals).
Breakfast
A campagne baguette (dark bread) with either jam or local honey, coffee, fruit (there was a banana that day) and sometimes plain yogurt.
Dinner
Chicken breast, rice, baked vegetables and endive salad. There is no Greek yogurt in the photo for dessert.
Snack
Usually two fruits (that day it was a banana and an apple) or one fruit and a handful of nuts.
Dinner
A large plate of vegetable soup, a slice of ham and bread.
1. A couple of glasses of wine only on weekends.
2. Exercise daily - in any form. Sophie usually goes out after lunch and plays tennis and swimming on the weekends.
3. Sweets or desserts a couple of times a week. She tries to do it less often.
4. Once a week, eat only vegetables in the form of salads and soups, giving the body a break from digesting meat, fish and eggs.
5. Favorite drink - water. On meat-free days, Sophie drinks up to three liters of water to help the body "cleanse" from the inside.
6. Every three months Sophie goes for a massage / facial and takes a day off from family (alone or with friends).
Breakfast
Bread or crackers with butter, honey, and kiwi and tea.
Dinner
Baked cod, mixed vegetable salad and a spoonful of rice.
Dinner
Vegetable soup, salad, lentil cutlets, steamed endive, yogurt.
1. During the day she drinks water and tea.
2. As a former smoker, Christine tries to keep track of the amount of sweets, as she does not want to gain weight.
3. The day after some grand dinner, she eats vegetables and fish or chicken.
4. If she gets hungry between meals, she will eat some fruit.
5. She tries not to eat bread, red meat and alcohol.
6. She swims in the lake all year round and does water aerobics three times a week, and also rides out of town by bike.
Admit it, we always want to know a little more than we can. To see, at least out of the corner of my eye, how they live in the neighborhood or in other countries, what they eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner. For example, the French? They do not eat frog legs, in fact! How do the most ordinary Frenchmen make up their daily menu? I managed to stay in three completely different French families with different lifestyles and pace of life, different habits and income levels. So, France, today, three families and French cuisine as it is.
Summer in the French countryside
Guillemet and Olivier live outside the city 50 kilometers from Paris in a large two-story mansion. They have their own farm, and the office is located in a separate building near the house, therefore, what is called "torn" between home and work, they do not need. Their three children, Charles, Laurence, and Mathieu (7, 5 and 3 years old), are supervised by a nanny when their parents are at work.
Guillemet is a very caring mother and takes care of her family's nutrition very scrupulously. Every evening in a special notebook she writes down the menu for the next day. Oddly enough, it is not customary for them to have a full breakfast, as most nutritionists advise. Guillemet does not eat breakfast at all, Olivier drinks a cup of coffee, children eat cornflakes with milk or yogurt.
It is customary to sit down for dinner in the family at exactly 13.00. Guillemet even gets angry if the husband is late at work. Lunch starts with a salad - just lettuce leaves seasoned with balsamic or wine vinegar and olive oil. After necessarily meat or a fish disheg beef medallions in sun-dried tomato sauce, fish fillets baked with lemon slice and herbs. For garnish - steamed vegetables: potatoes or cauliflower.
The French don't eat soups for lunch, and for dinner this is an infrequent dish, although the word "dinner" in French sounds like le souper. Only once in a few weeks of my stay in this family I was for dinner. It's simple: zucchini, broccoli and champignons are fried separately in olive oil, then chopped in a blender. To this mixture add heavy cream, salt, pepper and slightly heat before serving.
Lunch or dinner must be completed with cheeses... A plateau is served with different types of cheeses (5-7 varieties), which can be combined with slices of French crispy baguette. It's delicious! And only after this cheese "ritual", we can assume that lunch or dinner is over.
Despite having three children, the family has a cool attitude towards sweets. For dessert, they eat fruit or the easiest homemade pies to make.
By the way, peaches in this family are customary to eat ... with a knife and fork !!! At the same time, first you need to remove the peel from the peach (again with a knife and fork), and only then, cutting off a piece, enjoy the fruit. Experiment somehow in the kitchen secretly so that loved ones do not accuse you of being too aristocratic, try a peach with a knife and fork. And, if you still have enough patience, believe me, the peach will taste completely different. Fortunately for me, five-year-old Laurence, due to her age, was also not an expert in curly slicing of peaches.
Provincial charm with an Italian accent
Anna and Joel - pensioners. They live in Bourges - in the Middle Ages, the historical residence of French kings - in their small house, buried in flowers, with a green lawn and red maples in the yard.
The unhurried pace of life also affects the format of lunches and dinners. They eat leisurely, as if it is not just food, but something more - a ceremony or even an old tradition. Lunch starts with a snack. Most often it is traditional lettuce topped with olive oil and balsamic or wine vinegar. By the way, Joelle brings salad to dinner directly from his small vegetable garden, where strawberries, tomatoes, onions, basil and ... potatoes also grow. Yes, the elderly French are also very fond of all kinds of summer cottage affairs, but, of course, not on such a scale as our pensioners. 
One day we were surprised parma ham with melon... Ripe melon, preferably chilled, is peeled from seeds and cut lengthwise into large slices. The ham is cut very thinly, almost transparent slices and laid out on a plate, put a slice of melon on top. It is believed that this dish was born in Italy, but, in my opinion, it fits very organically into a French-style lunch.
For the main course portions of rabbit are fried in a mixture of butter and olive oil until golden brown. Add the chopped onion and fry it until transparent. After that, sprinkle the rabbit meat with flour and fill it with chicken broth. Add garlic, a glass of white wine, a mixture of peppers, a handful of raisins and a sprig of rosemary. It takes about an hour to simmer under the lid. Separately mix the yolks with the cream, add a couple of tablespoons of cooled juice from the container where the rabbit was stewed, and pour this sauce over the dish. The rabbit was garnished with asparagus beans, lightly stewed in a saucepan with butter and garlic.
Traditionally, lunch ends with a cheese plate with 5-6 types of cheese to choose from. Bread in Bourges, by the way, is completely different and also unusually tasty.
Unlike the previous family with three children, the venerable Anne and Joel turned out to be those with a sweet tooth. Every day we enjoyed different delicacies. One of them is a simple French dessert with cherries. The dough is made from a mixture of milk, flour, eggs and sugar. Pitted cherries are poured with this mixture, and after 20 minutes the most delicate dessert is ready. Be sure to get a couple of cherries on a twig with a leaf. And after you take the clafoutis out of the oven, decorate the dessert with them. It's very elegant. Almost a work of art. An important detail: it is better to use cherries or red cherries, so that when baking, the juice of the berries does not stain the dough so much.
Crazy crazy metropolitan life
Daughter of Anna and Joel - Marie -has been living in Paris for a long time. She works as a teacher of French language and literature at one of the colleges in the capital. He rents a one-room apartment with his fiancé François in the Marais, one of the oldest districts of the city.
For breakfast she treats me to cereal with milk and toast with confiture., moreover, jars of jam for every taste: apricot, strawberry, blueberry. A magical taste overlooking a quiet French street and neighboring balconies with bright geraniums. But Marie admits that such measured breakfasts happen only on weekends, when there is no need to rush to work. Often the breakfast of a resident of this French metropolis consists of a cup of coffee.
An important detail
All those French lunches and dinners weren't complete without a glass of wine. The French intuitively know how to choose red or white for a dish so that sometimes it seems: your lunch or dinner is not just a set of dishes, but a clearly thought out plan in advance. A plan to conquer your taste buds.
The food system in France is directly opposite to the sensational rule: eat breakfast yourself, share lunch with a friend, and give dinner to the enemy.
The French breakfast is very modest and not without reason is called a small breakfast. (le petit déjeuner)... Most often, it is limited to a cup of coffee and a small bun, bagel or sandwich. It is interesting to note that the French prefer sweet sandwiches at breakfast - often bread with butter and jam / jam.
Lunch (in French terminology "breakfast", le déjeuner) starts at 12 noon. It usually consists of snacks, green salad, meat or fish dishes, cheese and coffee.
Evening meal, at 6 - 7 pm, called lunch (le dîner) and also provides several dishes: an aperitif, a green salad, a hot dish (meat with a side dish), a cheese plate (several types of cheese cut into small pieces and laid out on a plate specially provided for this) and coffee with sweets (often with chocolates, cookies).
The culinary traditions of the French have been preserved not only in good restaurants, but also in ordinary families. At festive family dinners, and especially at dinners with guests, you can perfectly see the main features of French cuisine.
Before lunch, guests are offered an "aperitif" - alcoholic drinks with nuts, almonds or dry biscuits - to stimulate the appetite. The actual dinner, as in the 16th century, begins with an "introduction": vegetable, meat or fish snacks. Soup is now rarely eaten, more often in the village. Fish, meat or poultry, with matching white or red wines, form the basis of a festive city meal.
Abroad, the French are considered to be frog lovers, and it is no coincidence that the French really willingly eat the tender white meat of the frog's hind legs, which tastes like chicken meat. However, for a family dinner, this is quite an expensive pleasure, so they don't eat frog legs every day.
In an ordinary French family, they most often eat a steak with chips, a stew with vegetables, a rabbit stew or. Along with beef steak, horse meat steaks are prepared, which is sold in special butcher shops.
Of the dishes exotic for the Russian people, the French love shells and snails. Some shells are eaten raw - they resemble oysters. Others are specially cooked - their meat is similar to the meat of crabs or crayfish. A very tasty dish is obtained from large grape snails "escargot": they are baked in oil with parsley and garlic and served right in the sink.
For the main family holiday - Christmas - in the old days they cooked fried wild boar. Then he was replaced by a pig, now more and more often a turkey. The Christmas table is usually decorated with a dish with oysters and a special oblong cake - "Christmas log" ... The final part of the festive lunch consists of green salad leaves, cheese, fruits, sweets and coffee. After coffee, guests are offered cognacs or liqueurs; they are collectively called "digestive" - \u200b\u200bfacilitating digestion. If the aperitif opens the festive dinner procedure, then the digestif completes it.
These are the simple traditions of an ordinary French table! Don't forget to check out our French recipes page. This is a selection of fairly simple and easy to implement culinary recipes, for which you do not have to spend a lot of money on unique spices and ingredients. You can easily cook everything yourself!
In the preparation of the article, materials from the book by V.P. Smirnov "France: traditions, people, impressions"
Did you like the article? to always be in the know.
France has rightfully earned the reputation of a trendsetter of the culinary arts. Food for the French is not just an opportunity to satisfy hunger, but also an important element of the way of life that characterizes a person from all sides.
History of French cuisine
Classic French cuisine dates back to King Francis I, who ruled in the 16th century. At this time, the so-called "bourgeois cuisine" appeared, which is a cross between the cuisine of the common people and the "highest culinary".
An ordinary bourgeois lunch began with an introduction (appetizers and the first course), then the main part (meat and fish dishes) was served, and cheeses and fruits were consumed as the end of the meal.
Already at this time, high-class Parisian restaurants appeared, whose clients were the French aristocracy and noble foreigners.
In the 18th century, France began to occupy one of the leading roles in Europe, as a result of which French cuisine spread among the entire European aristocracy.
French chefs were very much appreciated in the courts of other countries, as they were able to change the taste of the product almost beyond recognition by combining various ingredients and create a luxurious table setting.
Under Louis XIV (the sun king) the ceremony of serving any dish turned into a solemn procedure. The king liked to eat well, and usually his meal consisted of the first, second, large number of salads, dessert and a few mugs of Burgundy wine diluted with water.
The whole world knows the names of outstanding French chefs: Savarena, Dugleret, Escoffier, Karema... Antoine Karen cooked for Talleyrand, Emperor Alexander I, Baron Rothschild.
The great masters conveyed their experience in books. Karen compiled The Art of French Cuisine, and Escoffier published a cookbook containing over a thousand recipes describing the many subtleties of cooking.
French food traditions
Regardless of material and social status, food plays a very important role in the life of the French. French chefs traditionally cook only from the freshest ingredients, trying to preserve all the features of the product after heat treatment.
Dairy products are practically not used in French cuisine. The exception is cheese, dearly loved by the French.
The country produces dozens of different types of cheese from goat, cow and sheep milk. The French almost never eat cereals.
The inhabitants of the country are very fond of fresh vegetables and fruits. Popular dishes include spinach, various types of cabbage, eggplant, potatoes, beans, tomatoes, artichokes, asparagus, and leeks.
The peculiarities of French cuisine include the use of lean meats: lamb, veal, chicken and game. In addition to traditional cooking methods, the French often cook meat over charcoal or open fire. An honorable place in the menu is given to seafood and fish dishes.
When preparing meat and fish dishes, alcoholic beverages are necessarily used - cognac and wine, which give a unique aroma and specific taste.
The main feature that distinguishes French cuisine is the presence of several hundred different sauces. Using sauces helps to enhance the flavor of even the most common dishes. If a French woman has broth in the refrigerator, it will not be difficult for her to whip up an original sauce for the main dish.
What do the French prefer for breakfast, lunch and dinner
For breakfast, French housewives often prepare omelets with mushrooms, ham, cheese and lots of greens. Also, most of the country's residents prefer orange juice, fresh baguette, butter, jam, cereal, yogurt, hot chocolate and, of course, coffee in the morning. The French are real coffee lovers and cannot imagine the beginning of the day without this invigorating drink.
Contrary to popular belief, the French do not eat croissants for breakfast very often, as these pastries are very high in calories.
Modern residents of French cities often dine outside the home. Lunch usually consists of first and second courses, and cheese or fruit for dessert.
For dinner, the whole family usually gathers, so a large number of various dishes are put on the table - meat, fish, various salads, vegetables and fruits.
Favorite drinks of the French
France is one of the favorites in wine production. The French themselves cannot imagine a full meal without wine, but recently its consumption has dropped significantly. This is most likely due to the fact that many people in France are overworked and cannot afford to relax with a glass of wine during the day.
The most popular in the country is dry wine, which is also used to make sauces, marinades and baked goods. Residents of the country choose from strong drinks cognac, absinthe, calvados.
Young French people prefer beer... During a meal on the table, the French are sure to have mineral water... For breakfast, many people prefer freshly squeezed orange juice.
National dishes of France
French recipes can delight any real gourmet. Of all the variety of dishes, traditional ones can be distinguished, the most accessible to most people.
One of these dishes is steak with bloodserved with fried potatoes. Stews made from white meat with white sauce are very popular.
A special place is given to pate, made from chicken, pork and goose liver, as well as from rabbit meat with pork and duck. The French are very fond of fish and seafood, which are most often baked or fried.
The legendary French dish known all over the world is snails... Burgundy snails are usually served in their shells with butter, onions, garlic and herbs.
Oysters are a favorite food among gourmets
They are very popular among connoisseurs of gourmet cuisine. It is believed that these mollusks can be eaten only during the months, in the names of which there is the letter "r". Oysters are served live and eaten with lemon juice.
Everyone knows that in France they use a special meat breed of frogs. Frog legs can be purchased at any supermarket. Before use, they are pickled, doused in flour and fried until golden brown.
French cuisine varies depending on which region of the country they are prepared in. Some culinary delights get their name from the locality in which they were invented.
These dishes include périgord pate, bayonne ham, Provencal tomatoes, beans and sausages in pot Toulouse. The Marseilles ear called bouillabaisse... Also, French culinary experts usually prepare onion soups and thick puree soups from first courses.
Normandy is famous for camembert cheese and apple calvados, and Burgundy - dijon mustard... Brittany's chefs prepare wonderful crepe crepes with a wide variety of fillings. Burgundy has always been famous for collection wine, rare varieties of cheese, dishes of truffles and beef.
The French are a big sweet tooth, so you can find many dessert recipes in their kitchen. Even people who watch their weight will not be able to resist cherry pie clafoutis, open cakes with fruits, various soufflés, jellies and creams.
French cuisine traditions - video recipe
Try making a leg of lamb with honey, chickpeas and aromatic Moroccan spices.
The recipe in this video
We will be pleased if you share with your friends:
Admit it, we always want to know a little more than we can. To see, at least out of the corner of my eye, how they live in the neighborhood or in other countries, what they eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner. For example, the French? They do not eat frog legs, in fact! How do the most ordinary Frenchmen make up their daily menu? I managed to stay in three completely different French families with different lifestyles and pace of life, different habits and income levels. So, France, today, three families and French cuisine as it is.
Summer in the French countryside
Guillemet and Olivier live outside the city 50 kilometers from Paris in a large two-story mansion. They have their own farm, and the office is located in a separate building near the house, therefore, what is called "torn" between home and work, they do not need. Their three children, Charles, Laurence, and Mathieu (7, 5 and 3 years old), are supervised by a nanny when their parents are at work.
Guillemet is a very caring mother and takes care of her family's nutrition very scrupulously. Every evening in a special notebook she writes down the menu for the next day. Oddly enough, it is not customary for them to have a full breakfast, as most nutritionists advise. Guillemet does not eat breakfast at all, Olivier drinks a cup of coffee, children eat cornflakes with milk or yogurt.
It is customary to sit down for dinner in the family at exactly 13.00. Guillemet even gets angry if the husband is late at work. Lunch starts with a salad - just lettuce leaves seasoned with balsamic or wine vinegar and olive oil. After necessarily meat or a fish disheg beef medallions in sun-dried tomato sauce, fish fillets baked with lemon slice and herbs. For garnish - steamed vegetables: potatoes or cauliflower.
The French don't eat soups for lunch, and for dinner this is an infrequent dish, although the word "dinner" in French sounds like le souper. Only once in a few weeks of my stay in this family I was for dinner. It's simple: zucchini, broccoli and champignons are fried separately in olive oil, then chopped in a blender. To this mixture add heavy cream, salt, pepper and slightly heat before serving.
Lunch or dinner must be completed with cheeses... A plateau is served with different types of cheeses (5-7 varieties), which can be combined with slices of French crispy baguette. It's delicious! And only after this cheese "ritual", we can assume that lunch or dinner is over.
Despite having three children, the family has a cool attitude towards sweets. For dessert, they eat fruit or the easiest homemade pies to make.
By the way, peaches in this family are customary to eat ... with a knife and fork !!! At the same time, first you need to remove the peel from the peach (again with a knife and fork), and only then, cutting off a piece, enjoy the fruit. Experiment somehow in the kitchen secretly so that loved ones do not accuse you of being too aristocratic, try a peach with a knife and fork. And, if you still have enough patience, believe me, the peach will taste completely different. Fortunately for me, five-year-old Laurence, due to her age, was also not an expert in curly slicing of peaches.
Provincial charm with an Italian accent
Anna and Joel - pensioners. They live in Bourges - in the Middle Ages, the historical residence of French kings - in their small house, buried in flowers, with a green lawn and red maples in the yard.
The unhurried pace of life also affects the format of lunches and dinners. They eat leisurely, as if it is not just food, but something more - a ceremony or even an old tradition. Lunch starts with a snack. Most often it is traditional lettuce topped with olive oil and balsamic or wine vinegar. By the way, Joelle brings salad to dinner directly from his small vegetable garden, where strawberries, tomatoes, onions, basil and ... potatoes also grow. Yes, the elderly French are also very fond of all kinds of summer cottage affairs, but, of course, not on such a scale as our pensioners.
One day we were surprised parma ham with melon... Ripe melon, preferably chilled, is peeled from seeds and cut lengthwise into large slices. The ham is cut very thinly, almost transparent slices and laid out on a plate, put a slice of melon on top. It is believed that this dish was born in Italy, but, in my opinion, it fits very organically into a French-style lunch.
For the main course portions of rabbit are fried in a mixture of butter and olive oil until golden brown. Add the chopped onion and fry it until transparent. After that, sprinkle the rabbit meat with flour and fill it with chicken broth. Add garlic, a glass of white wine, a mixture of peppers, a handful of raisins and a sprig of rosemary. It takes about an hour to simmer under the lid. Separately mix the yolks with the cream, add a couple of tablespoons of cooled juice from the container where the rabbit was stewed, and pour this sauce over the dish. The rabbit was garnished with asparagus beans, lightly stewed in a saucepan with butter and garlic.
Traditionally, lunch ends with a cheese plate with 5-6 types of cheese to choose from. Bread in Bourges, by the way, is completely different and also unusually tasty.
Unlike the previous family with three children, the venerable Anne and Joel turned out to be those with a sweet tooth. Every day we enjoyed different delicacies. One of them is a simple French dessert with cherries. The dough is made from a mixture of milk, flour, eggs and sugar. Pitted cherries are poured with this mixture, and after 20 minutes the most delicate dessert is ready. Be sure to get a couple of cherries on a twig with a leaf. And after you take the clafoutis out of the oven, decorate the dessert with them. It's very elegant. Almost a work of art. An important detail: it is better to use cherries or red cherries, so that when baking, the juice of the berries does not stain the dough so much.
Crazy crazy metropolitan life
Daughter of Anna and Joel - Marie -has been living in Paris for a long time. She works as a teacher of French language and literature at one of the colleges in the capital. He rents a one-room apartment with his fiancé François in the Marais, one of the oldest districts of the city.
For breakfast she treats me to cereal with milk and toast with confiture., moreover, jars of jam for every taste: apricot, strawberry, blueberry. A magical taste overlooking a quiet French street and neighboring balconies with bright geraniums. But Marie admits that such measured breakfasts happen only on weekends, when there is no need to rush to work. Often the breakfast of a resident of this French metropolis consists of a cup of coffee.
An important detail
All those French lunches and dinners weren't complete without a glass of wine. The French intuitively know how to choose red or white for a dish so that sometimes it seems: your lunch or dinner is not just a set of dishes, but a clearly thought out plan in advance. A plan to conquer your taste buds.
