You Are What You Eat (Living the French Paradox)

And so, my French Riviera trip continues…

Waking up at 9am didn’t sound quite appealing to me after a week of 6am starts. So, I slept through a purely French breakfast consisting of a large croissant, French baguette, butter, jam, and coffee. Luckily, Jessica snatched me some and I was able to commit carb-o-cide at such an early hour in the day.

I liked that. In fact, I was already feeling French.

This day was already better. My body had begun to release the stress and pain of the day and Jessica and I (after a lovely tourist train ride and lots of scenery), were focused on one thing and one thing only.

We were on a mission for pastry. A mission that we would find to be way to easy and WAY to rewarding.

I’m actually concerned about the amount of fun we had.

So, we began to walk and collect our bounty. We had this vision of purchasing a tablecloth, French picnic basket, and skipping hand in hand through the streets of Nice. However, we were unable to find the basket shop.

So we just skipped with no basket. And, strangely, I’m not ashamed.

Our first stop was LAC Chocolatier.

We kind of freaked out a little at the sight of macaroon trees and mini pastries in every color. It was at that moment that a macaroon Christmas tree sounded completely logical.

And sadly, still does.

I mean, Nice WAS the birth place for the macarron…so it’s almost like I would be respecting a tradition.

Although we were clearly overwhelmed at what to choose, we made the mature decision and decided to get one of everything that we couldn’t resist. This pastry raid included:

Desir: (To the left) The  French translation on the card read, “Biscuit moelleux aux, noisettes, praline croustillant, creme et mousse chocolat, au lait, feuille de chocolat lait croquant.

And of course, due to my years of study in the French language, meant this:

Really good praline type mini dessert thing.

Tarte Tatin Aux Pommes: (To the right)

A classic French apple tart dessert.

Seriously though, the French totally have it right.

Especially with macaroons.

Oh, Macaroons, little did I know that you would completely and utterly change my life.

These were the first macaroons I have ever consumed in my entire life, and let me just tell you.

I’ll never be the same.

Inside of these mini marvels of delight, I was surprised at the amount of filling mounded inside. The soft, yet slightly crunchy texture of the shell led way to the smooth texture of the inside. I died, went to heaven, came back to earth to eat another one, died again, went to heaven, came back to eat the third one…and realized something….heaven is on earth when macaroons are present.

The flavors of choice, you may ask? (From top to bottom)

• Coconut Creme (FAVORITE)
• Almond (FAVORITE)
• Hazelnut
• Banana Chocolate

It was clear, at this point, that this hunt for sugary goodness was going to be verry enjoyable.

But we were just at the beginning.

Then.

It happened.

We found bread at a bakery.

French bread, to be exact.

And QUICHE.

It was all overwhelming French.

And I liked it so much I wanted to cry.

To combat the carbgasm that we were experiencing multiple times throughout the day, we treated ourselves to a lovely salad. It came with cooked green beans, lettuce, chicken, and a lemon wedge as the dressing. Simple, yet brilliant.

My favorite part was the hard boiled egg that we bought on the side.

Oh, the French. They just think of everything.

Well, and of COURSE we bought more bread..and butter..and brie…and a knife.

Because what kind of bread eaters would we be if we didn’t have a knife?

Not very good ones.

And since we were already veterans on the carb playing field, we thought it was a necessary purchase.

And there were little pig pastries, and large round pastries, and flamed pastries, and mountain like pastries, and chocolate covered pastries.

And swirly pastries, and fruit pastries, and sugary pastries, and filled pastries, OH MY!

So, we had gathered a large heap of pastry supply and continued our walk until we found this quaint little park with shaded benches. We looked across the way and spotted two large cardboard boxes. So, we helped ourselves, plotted down our rears, and started our food photography session. Little did we know, we had so rudely invited ourselves into a homeless man’s house (at least that’s what I gathered from his French-sounding mumble).

Woops.

That was awkward.

So, we pretty much booked it out of there and found another park with no cardboard and subsequently, no temptation to steal it.

There, we sat, on a high of the simple French food that we were clearly eating WAY to much of and not caring. The garden was absolutely gorgeous and most importantly WE WERE IN FRANCE! (And not being confronted by a homeless man..which, in my book, is always a plus).

And then I dropped my French baguette.

Which totally ruined the mood.

It still makes me cringe.

 After I attempted to get over my loss and we were finished snacking on Parisian delights, we walked around for a bit more attempting to locate that basket shop.

We became so weary and tired, that we were forced to make yet another sweet stop.

More carbs…but wait.

These were not just any carbs.

These were candy disguised AS carbs, which I guess is still carbs.

And most likely equally as bad for you.

Which makes it all the more fun.

A complete breakfast, of pretzels, sausages, and other unidentifiable food items.

Again, carbs disguised as carbs.

I like it.

And candy disguised as macaroons.

These people are completely skewing my thinking of the world.

And yet again, I like it.

So, we clearly couldn’t take the cuteness anymore and had worked up quite an appetite since we had eaten 29 minutes ago.

So, I got some nougat because it looked like a healthy choice (I mean, loads of fruit packed inside).

And Jessica just didn’t get enough of those macaroons and purchased two more. Fig (Purple) and Passionfruit (Orange)

And after this, we thought that overindulging (which we had been indenial of doing already) was just unattractive, and we went back to our hotel to change for some MUCH needed snooze time (on a gorgeous beach)

But first I found this…

(Opera coffee hazelnut cake)

And drooled over these…

And thhenn…we got to this.

And then I fell asleep for a very long time.

And after that, we went back to our cute hotel Bigsby and decided to get ourselves a proper French dinner.

And so off we went to a restaurant that was recommended by a local Frenchman.

Little did I know that the restaurant was 95% fish items and I was left in confusion of what to order.

So…I acted rationally and got duck.

Nope.

Not a fan.

But, there is always dessert…and French dessert…well, I think it is now evident that it just doesn’t dissappoint.

I ordered the lemon souffle. It was crunchy on top and inside the eggy-pudding-like texture of the souffle was quite addicting. Jessica had the profiteroles (which in France are crunchy are are filled with gelato).

Seriously?

Gelato inside of a profiterole? Genius.

The company was absolutely phenomenal and the evening was beautiful.

And then I daydreamed about our absolutely French-like day.

And then realized something…

Number 1: Not studying in France was the best decision that I have ever made.

The food is TOO good.

And #2, I ate quite alot of pastry…so much so, that the only thing that would do it justice would be an indepth list.

Which I’m about to share with you.

1. Croissant
2. French Baguette
3. Multi-grain Baguette
4. Coconut Macaroon
5. Banana Chocolate Macaroon
6. Almond Macaroon
7. Hazelnut Praline Cake
8. Apple Tatin
9. Candied Fruit Nougat
10. Opera Coffee Cake
11. Lemon Souffle
12. Coffee and Chocolate Gelato Filled Profiteroles
13. Passionfriut Macaroon
14. Fig Macaroon