France blog

After eons away I find myself back in France, in alsace to be precise. The heat wave in Oz did not prepare me for the intense cold, grey and rainy weather.

Gitanes

There are many bonuses, I have been wandering the Christmas markets sipping hot chocolate and eating cakes with such gusto that my new wool pants are a little tight around my middle, but to be honest my clothes are so bulky I am sure that I can get away with for a while at least.

I have found out why French women don’t get fat: cigarettes and coffee! Myfriend is the perfect example, her breakfast consists of a strong coffee or two, some cigarettes [2 or 3] and a minute piece of baguette then she will race off to brave the crazy traffic to go to work. At luchtime everything stops, offices close as well as shops and banks, then everyone will race back home for lunch to be back by 2pm, there is no time to linger or to have seconds, a couple more coffees and some cigarettes do the trick. The evening meal is a little snack, some more cigarettes, maybe a glass of wine or two. There you have it, French diet, now on top of that the French are a very excitable lot, they walk fast, gesticulate a lot and are likely to shout, all great calorie burners.

The most fun I had was at the Eco Musee here in Alsace, it is a reconstructed medieval village, complete with village tower, the forge, school, bakery etc. Everything you would have found in a Alsatian village, it was build entirely of old houses and barns and painstakingly reconstructed in Turkheim. Christmas here is a big deal, with all the houses displaying traditional Christmas decorations and traditional food to taste.

Christmas window