La nourriture (Food)

I'm concerned with my diet in France. I eat bread and butter/or/cheese at literally every meal.

When you walk down the streets of Tours during lunchtime you cannot walk one block without seeing at least 3 people eating baguettes or baguette sandwiches.

I talked with my host mom this morning about the diets of Americans and French. I told her that a lot of Americans are carb weary because of the Atkins rhetoric we hear all the time. She cooks a lot of good food, but we eat cheese, butter, and cream sauces often. I wonder how the French stay so skinny!

Her answer was that it's the processed foods that make one fat not the natural stuff like bread, potatoes and butter! She also said that France was catching up with America in terms of weight gain. :P

It also seems as though the French don't drink as much during meals. They'll have a glass of wine during dinner or a glass of water but the glasses here are small compared to those in America and I feel like I look odd pouring myself as many glasses as I do during a meal!

I guess it's part of the culture of excess in the United States... everything does seem to have to be bigger in America. I'm going to talk more about the "culture of excess" in another blog post!

Oh another funny thing - I bought tweezers here that have pictures of French macaroons on them. The macaroons here are different than the American version and I'm excited to try them!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37158245/ns/travel-luxury/?pg=10#TRAVEL_100514_WhatNotToDoParis_Concierge

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Here's a typical sampling of what I eat daily in France:

Breakfast - Baguette with butter, jam, nutella, or honey, pain au lait (small rectangular bread), café au lait, les chouquettes (think of cream puffs without the cream, pictured below)

Lunch - Baguette with cheese, baguette with sliced ham, cheese and butter = classic French sandwich and lunch, various crudités.

Dinner - Lettuce with vinaigrette dressing, wine, baguette & cheese, some type of meat, vegetables (vegetables and meat are prepared with only a little spicing), and a speciality dish from different regions in France particularly Lyon because that's where my host mom was born.

Dessert - French desserts are reaaaalllllyyyy good, crème chocolat, tarte aux fruits, or simply fruit after dinner.

*My host family doesn't do courses, but a lot people who I've talked to their families do.