Dreaming of France -- Healthy Food

Thank you for joining this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.
This week, because of some borderline medical test results (nothing serious), we have started getting serious about eating healthier.
If we already lived in France, we'd be eating healthier, so we might as well get a jump on it. But I expect it to be a bit more challenging here in the U.S.
In France, we'll visit the market a few times a week and buy whatever is fresh.

Do you think these oranges came from Spain?

These potatoes and peppers look firm and fresh.
We're trying to eat more whole foods, cutting down on carbs and sugars.
Salad seems to always be a part of a French meal, traditionally after the main course, although some restaurants have begun to serve them before the main course, more American style.

That's not to say that we will only eat fruits and vegetables. We'll definitely indulge in French specialties, such as these galettes served with hard cider.

Galettes are similar to crepes but they are made with buckwheat rather than white flour, and they are savory instead of sweet. These galettes might have been filled with cheese, ham, potatoes, eggs or a variety of other fillings. 

I hope I've convinced you to start thinking about more whole foods, as my family embarks on healthier meals. Tonight, we had garlic butter haddock filets, baked sweet potatoes and green beans. 

Thanks for playing along and please visit the blogs of others who join in too.

Dreaming of France -- Food!

Hope everyone in the States had a terrific Thanksgiving. My house has just cleared out with all three kids going back to college, although Spencer brought two friends home with him, so the house was even more crowded than usual.
Thanksgiving got me thinking about some of the delicious meals I've eaten in France, and they usually had nothing to do with turkey.
When Earl and I were wandering around Rue Mouffetarde, debating whether we should eat dinner, a restaurant employee lured us over. He promised us a free aperitif if we'd sit down outside. In addition to wanting our business, I think the idea is that the more people who sit down, the more people who feel comfortable coming there to eat.
So we sat down and had this lovely meal, starting with a salad with goat cheese.

Here's another meal on a different day of a galette, which is a savory crepe made with buckwheat, and filled with just about anything  you can imagine. Mine was probably ham and cheese.

And in France, I never forego dessert. Here's a lovely chocolate crepe for dessert. 

Just looking at these pictures is making me hungry. What delicious meals have you eaten in France?

Thanks for playing along. I'd love it if you'd leave a comment and visit each other's blogs.

Food, Glorious Food

(Do you think I overuse the word glorious? Really, it should be a fairly rare occurence.)
I should have written about food today because we had some of the best meals. The day was spent trying to track down gifts that are apparently non-existent. In France, we found all kinds of NBA jerseys, even a USA olympics jersey with the names of players on the back, but no French basketball jerseys. Come on? Not even a team France with Tony Parker's name on the back?
After giving up on le basket, we tried to find French Open gear. Here in France, they don't call it the French Open. They call it Roland Garros after the stadium where it is held. A man in the Nike (prounced NIKE to rhyme with bike) store told us about a tennis shop over near the Champs Elysee. Metro and buses later, we arrived in a tennis shop that did not include in Roland Garros gear. Discouraged, we began to look for a lunch place.

Down a side street, we found a restaurant de Normande. That meant we got to have galettes, which are like crepes but they have savory food in them. For the 13 E menu, we each had a meal galette, a dessert crepe and a cup of cider, which isn't like apple cider, but more like beer with a tingle. Earl's galette had tomatoes, ham and cheese. Mine had bacon, potatoes, cheese. Hmmm. His dessert crepe was apple and mine was, of course, chocolate.
More walking, more shopping, more sightseeing. We went up to Montmartre to enjoy the view. The steps leading to Sacre Coeur are filled with teenagers watching breakdancers at the bottom. Guys walk along with 12-packs of Heineken selling individual beers like they're at a ball park. All too surreal.

Spencer's wish from France was a French basketball jersey. Since we couldn't make that wish come true, we decided to eat his favorite French meal. Steak Frites. He begins to salivate just thinking of it.
My blogging friend Linda who lives in Paris in the winter and Provence in the summer told me about the best steak frites place in the city, so we made our way there around 8 p.m. It's on Georges V, near the Champs Elysee again. The restaurant only serves steak and fries. There is no ordering, only the question of how you want your meat done.
We had half a bottle of red wine, salad to start then steak and fries. The sauce is greenish and tastes like it has basil in it too me. But wait, once you've eaten your salad then the steak and fries, they bring a second order of steak and fries. We declined the dessert.
Got to go catch a train. Hope I can blog again tomorrow.
The moon last night was phenomenal. Is that better than glorious?