So, it’s a quiet rainy Sunday in Dinan (I haven’t yet finished my post about arriving in and exploring this wonderful town in Brittany), and I wanted to relate a few thoughts now that I am a bit past mid-journey on this trip to France. I loved my time in Provence, especially in Avignon and Arles (so much to see!) and in the beautiful hill towns of the Luberon. I also greatly enjoyed my time by the sea in Cassis and on the Giens peninsula but it was very busy there with too many people and too many cars. And, it was somewhat heartbreaking to look at that gorgeous blue sea and not swim in it! If I am lucky enough to return to Provence, I would visit in the early Fall once the kids are back in school, the grape vines and trees are turning gold and orange, and the intense heat of the summer is gone but the beautiful Mediterranean is still warm enough to swim in.
The people here in France have been incredibly kind, welcoming, and helpful, from my accommodation hosts, to bus drivers, to shop keepers, museum attendants, and people I have chatted with at bus stops, on trains, and on park benches. My friend G. (who is very much a people person) has asked me several times about my conversations with others. My longer conversations have been limited to easy, casual topics due to my level of spoken French but they have all left me feeling that I have connected well with the person or persons I spoke with. I am missing conversations with my friends and family back home, but I do also very much appreciate this time to be by myself and I do not mind long stretches of being alone and silent.
I have written with enthusiasm about all of the wonderful things that I have seen and experienced while here, but I do have a few disappointments to share. First, the level of litter and graffiti that I have seen (especially in some parts of Paris) is quite shocking coming from a very clean Vancouver. I really don’t know how people can stand it. Next, there seems to be very little recycling going on which surprised me and again makes me very appreciative of my home. It has been almost painful for me to put cardboard, plastic, glass and even organics into the regular garbage when I am so used to recycling it! Finally, the lack of wildlife and truly wild spaces has also been disappointing, but I guess is to be understood when this land of almost seventy million people, but only half the size of British Columbia and one eighteenth the size of Canada, has been settled, farmed, mined, quarried, traversed, fought over, and developed for thousands of years. Thank goodness for the birds I have seen, my two lizards, and yesterday at dusk I saw bats from my window which was very exciting. I’ll look for them again tonight!
Now about food as I seem obsessed with it since arriving in Dinan! Up to this point in my journey I have only had one restaurant meal and several purchased sandwiches. For budgetary reasons, and also because grocery shopping and cooking provide some downtime from my sightseeing, I have subsisted on these main staples: oranges, apples, bananas, peppers, carrots, salad greens, milk, yogurt, eggs, ham, baguettes, butter, jam, coffee, and simple pasta dishes made with tomato sauce, mushrooms, zuchinni, chicken once (meat is expensive here), and herbs de provence, especially rosemary plucked fresh and free from the hillsides. I have also bought cans of sardines in various sauces (basil and lemon, olive oil and lemon, sun dried tomatoes) when I was craving fish and they provided an easy, inexpensive, and surprisingly delicious source of protein and omega 3’s. Here is a very easy recipe for a delicious meal that I enjoyed more than once (photo top left): Boil up some carrots and potato pieces and add asparagus pieces in the last two minutes. Meanwhile, in a fry pan, melt a pat of butter with garlic and fresh cut rosemary and spoon it over the drained vegetables. Then, swirl the ham around in the residual hot butter, garlic, and rosemary in the pan for about a minute. Quick, simple, and very very delicious!)
But, since entering Dinan with its very many boulangeries, ice-cream shops, creperies, cafés, and restaurants (prices here are better than in Provence and Paris) I find myself reading every other menu board to see what’s on offer! Yesterday, I splurged on a lunch of Chinese food, of all things, (it was delicious), and I bought an amazing local specialty – a Kouign Amann aux Pommes. Not cheap at 3 euros, but omg, buttery, caramelized on the edges, flakey, buttery, a spiral of apple hidden in the centre, and did I say buttery?
And this afternoon, I visited the same shop to purchase another local specialty – a Far aux Pruneux. There is no line up at the shop in my photo, but every other time that I walked by this bakery, there was a big line up. The Far? Also delicious, but the Kouign is in another league!
On my outing this afternoon, I purposefully stocked up on healthy groceries to last for the rest of my stay here in Dinan so that I am not tempted to splurge on a restaurant meal. I know that I’ll soon be sampling another Bretagne regional specialty, crepes or a gallette, on one of my hiking days when I won’t be able to cook. I’m already looking forward to it!
Okay, I’m done obsessing and writing about food! The sun has come out so I will go for a late afternoon walk in lovely Dinan. Hello to everyone at home. 🙂
