Think I'm gonna use my $5 coupon for IHOP tomorrow. I'm really jonesing for good breakfast food.

Egg salad with turkey sausage on Ritz Crackers with Vitamin Water

I hear pico has an IHOP coupon. Maybe you can go out for a decent breakfast together ...

today I had... wait for it now...
pain au chocolate* and coffee



( * = fancy name for a croissant stuffed with chocolate )
:o

Someone posted a video of croissant making here a while back.
I found it really interesting.

So don't worry, we know all about Pain au chocolat.
And drinking coffee out of bowls (or is that just a French thing?)

Do you not have plates of meat and cheese and hardboiled eggs for breakfast then? Or is that just a German thing?

coffee out of bowls?... never seen that anywhere.. except perhaps on "Friends"

plates of meat, cheese... thats much more German in my experience, and of course in Greece with signs warning the Germans not to make lunch sandwiches from the breakfast buffet

Trust me, the French drink coffee and chocolate out of bowls.
I thought it was pretty cool when I was there :)
But they make terrible tea*. Which I had to drink because they'd bought it specially for me.

I honestly don't see what the mystery is about making tea - the cheapest greasy spoon cafe can do it? Then again the cheapest greasy spoon usually makes fantastic soft yolk fried eggs, a skill I've never mastered.

* Generalistation of course. Maybe it's only people living in the shadow of the Puy de Dome.

we have a "british market" about 15miles away from us... mrs. G makes regular trips over for a bit of PG tips and the occasional Bishops Finger

How funny - we have French markets here, and in Leicester we had a Bavarian market.
I never thought that other countries might have our markets too!

I loved the French market - despite my snarky comment about the French preferring you to speak English rather than bad French, their faces lit up when I offered something as simple as bonjour, combien or merci. I really admire the French, and how protective they are about their language, and how proud of their country. I get the jokes about being Surrender Monkeys, but many other European nations were occupied, and they don't get tarred with that brush.

The Netherlands for example. I went to the Resistance Musuem when I was in Amsterdam and it made me cry. They fought like buggery, and I'm sure the French did too.

And their bread, wine and olives are wonderful. They even make some good cheese. Nothing compares to British cheese of course, but pretty good. (I lie, some of my favourite cheeses are foreign. Just not French).

Sorry, that was a complete derailment.
I'm glad Mrs G can still get proper tea.
I can't drink it myself these days :(
I have to have de-caff. I've got used to it, but it is unnerving if I run out and sneak one of Dad's teabags. I forget what a wallop full-caff can have.

ok.. time for more derailment?...
shortly after moving over here I asked a French friend..
"whats with you guys, it's a complete scrum at the market, no one ever queues!!"
and was told it was because of the shortages during the war and the deprivation "we" suffered ( he stressed we )

I had to laugh and look at him.. "deprivation? you not even 30yrs old...even your mother was born after the war.
( as with some of my comments here it was not appreciated )



p.s.... loved touring the Anne Frank house.. well.. love is not the proper word... shocking, awakening, enlightening.

gotta keep the expats happy
http://www.jims-british-market.com/

http://www.americanmarket.ch/
( the American market is full of stuff I wouldnt buy back in the states.. but here.. ohhh.. poptarts.. gotta have poptarts , )

Monster is an ex-pat Brit (living in America).
She posts on a specific expat Brit website.
I think it's made up of Brits in all sorts of places, not just America. If you ask I'm sure she'll let you know. Unless Mrs G already has that covered?

Continental Europeans can't queue.
Not like we can.
Read Bill Bryson on the suject.

When I was in Cuba I got used to elbowing my way to the front at the buffet and passing things back to my more reticent partner. People would turn and smile and speak to me in German or Italian - they didn't see the behaviour as rude. No point skulking at the back and grumbling :)

But I got told off once in Pisa for not queueing properly!
I was SO shocked.
We were hardly pushing in - three of us joined three seperate lines at the station, and when T got to the counter first we joined him. Sorry, but it doesn't take any longer to issue three tickets to Siena than it does one! Luckily, none of us understood any of the chap's tirade and I looked at him mournfully and said sorry in Italian and he shrugged it off. I had a low cut top on.

*laughing* low cut tops pay for many sins.. especially with Italians.

we have a bear of an Italian living in our village ( his sister passed away the other day... I referenced in another thread ) and he always gives mrs. G a huge bear hug when he see's her and then winks over at me.

Me at the wedding I was travelling to.
The trio of musicians paid more attention to me than the bride - although she is gorgeous (I chose a pic that flattered me more than her).

As I explained in my original post, I was actually startled at how the dress changed when I wore it with a WonderBra. In hindsight I would have packed a different bra. And not worn four inch mules to walk across cobbles and use a hole in the ground toilet in an Italian bar. No spills or accidents, just rather too much concentration needed.

I'm saving the coupon for a later date. This morning I had ricotta cheese mixed with raspberry jam on thin wasa crackers. And coffee.