Thread: Throw me in the briar patch - need to increase red wineconsumption...
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Default Throw me in the briar patch - Now a discussion on France
"Steve Y" > a écrit dans le message de news:
...

> Diet. I think this depends on income. Those on limited incomes will
> exist on whatever their local "Hard Discount" has to offer when they go
> once a week, not everyone will have the opportunity to get to the local
> markets (that thankfully still exist). There are plenty of companies
> offering frozen food delivered to the door for those that don't have
> time to go shopping

Sure it plays a role, but there (ime) is a distinct difference between the fare
offered by poorer families in France and the UK. Maybe it's the 'Brits eat to
live, French live to eat', thing. A question of pride. As for delivery services,
perhaps it's the greater distances involved, but one of the major groceries
distribution services in France stopped covering my part of the Vaucluse a year
or so back because it simply wasn't viable. People aren't so interested in
convenience as in quality, especially away from the main urban areas.

Times are a'changing though, the traditional lifestyle is certainly under
threat.

> Healthy Stuff. Here in the Beaujolais we don't have crisps (chips in
> colonialspeak) but we do have and are offered "saucisse", "jesus" and
> grattons, all of which have slightly raised levels of fat that my Doctor
> regulalrly warns me against.

France, a colony? Sure you don't live in the Dordogne? Ok, but what about
fried breakfasts, fish 'n chips, all that sort of thing. Or has the UK gone
cordon bleu since I jumped ship?

> Cakes etc. A French meal without patisserie being offered ?? Most
> cafés/restaurants will offer you a biscuit or chocolate with your
> coffee. The French love their sweet stuff.

A wafer thin slice of dark chocolate as often as not. And as for ptisserie,
usually a healthy, fruit-filled French-style 'dry' pastry. Often with the
alternative of the likes of a fruit salad. And I've rarely come across a French
family that doesn't put a bowl of fruit on the table as a desert option.

> The two things that make me realise that the French aren't all fixated
> on the healthy good stuff are UHT Milk (bought by the 6 pack every 2
> weeks) and Mousseline (Mashed potato lookalike that arrives in powered
> form from a Rhone Poulenc factory near Marseilles)

Not sure that heat-treated milk is bad for you - but in twenty years here I
can't recall ever being offered any. They don't drink milk, just stick some
(boiled usually) in a coffee sometimes. And as for mousseline, the French
families I've eaten with (I meet a Brit once in a blue moon) would never live
down the shame of serving that stuff.

Still, the younger generations are gradually being seduced by the high octane
packaged fast-food lifestyle, and in maybe a decade or two, we'll catch up with
the UK of today I reckon. Sad to say.

pga


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