I’m addicted to food stores and always love to browse through the local providers in the countries I visit. France is rich in superb fresh vegetables and excellent prepared foods, as well as bakeries and patisseries that are brilliant to look at, with sweets and breads arranged like artwork. The barge cruise made it easy to indulge in my food shopping addiction.
In the little villages we stopped in, I found artisanal chocolate, with salted caramel, rose petals and hazelnuts, as well as candies that have been made by the local nuns for three hundred years, rabbit and cepes in puff pastry, chicken vol-au-vent, chicken terrine with a lemon jam gellee, and several kinds of mustard.
And happily I also discovered the delight of fromage blanc (white cheese) drizzled with a blackcurrant coulis.
In Moret, I found a butcher who had tied up his veal roasts so that they looked like flowers.
So the foodie in me was more than satisfied!
These are my favourite souvenirs – my family and friends always get food presents from the places I visit. Our friend who loaned us his guide books will get a bottle of moutarde au violette, along with a little mustard pot, and the man who cut our grass is going to receive some organic French chocolate and wine.
