Latest Post

 Other Posts
   - This Month
   - Last Month

 Index of Recipes

 Archives
   - 2009
   - 2008
  Links
 About me
About 'My' France

Welcome to French Food Focus. The name describes the intent of this blog. I'll focus on food and because I live in rural France the stress will be upon French food. Not that I will limit myself to food only. There are numerous posts concerning life in France, comments on life in general and, certainly, opinions about anything that strikes my fancy.
I welcome your comments and promise to publish all of them good & bad so long as they're not offensive, pornographic or rude.   If you have some good recipes you'd like to share or if you want to rave about any great French restaurants this  is the place to do it. I hope you enjoy my ramblings about rural France! 
 

Comments to: yankinparisot@gmail.com
 

'MY' France

I've been meaning to get around to writing this page for some time, but strokes and whatnot kept getting in the way. Rather than let it linger empty and forlorn on the website I think I'll start the page and write a bit more as often as I have time and inspiration. Bear with me if you will.

So, 'my France' a bit presumptuous of me, but its meant in all humbleness to simply mean those things that make France France to me. Its strictly a personal view with no pretensions to grandeur and no assumption that I have great insight denied to others.

I unashamededly love France. I have done so since the first time I visited back in the early 1960's. I still remember my first visit driving up from Madrid and crossing the border at Hendye. As we drove (I was with a friend who was also in the Air Force)  I found the villages charming and the girls pretty. In fact my friend was a keen photographer and wanted pictures of everything which was OK, but I got tired of driving. When finally I forced him to drive he made me promise to take pictures. I did; of every pretty girl we passed. It seemed that most of them were on bicycles and most of them had pretty legs.

I remember another trip this time driving on my own, I picked up a hitchhiker, a guy about my age. We conversed, sort of, in my fractured French for nearly 50 miles before we realized that we were both Americans trying to be polite by speaking French. We had a good laugh, I dropped him off and never saw him again.

I remember yet another trip driving from England to through France when my little TR3 put a bolt through the radiator, steam everywhere. I was with  my fianc? who spoke better French than I did. We had almost no money. I finally found a garage that looked cheap. It turned out to be a great choice as the owner was a sports car fanatic and had a fully equipped shop in the back. He & his assistant worked most of the day to take out & repair the radiator, did a great job. When he presented his very modest bill  I had to tell him that I had no money & couldn't pay. A Gallic shrug was his answer! I left a car coat as security and returned once I was able to get funds.

On yet another occasion a friend and I finally got 4 days off from work. We were determined to see Paris, but we had very little money. In fact we had $35.00 between us. Never fear, we stayed in a left bank student hotel for 10 francs a night (remember these are old Francs). We saw most of the sights. We ate mostly from purchases from the street markets except being desperate for some meat after the first two days we went into a student restaurant and ordered the only meat dish we could afford. Turned out that it was horse meat! Not bad actually. We found a little folk music place called 'L 'Abbey' just behind the Abbey St Germaine where you didn't clap, but snapped your fingers in appreciation. Turned out that the singers, one black, one white, were Americans. Also turned out that they were homosexuals. My first ever knowing contact with that community; their seduction efforts didn't pay off, but we did get a couple of free glasses of wine out of the encounter. We had a wonderful time, magical! And we had $5.00 left over when we left.

I married my first wife in France. We were married by the Mayor of Chateauroux. In fact we were two hours late for our own wedding having confused 14:00 hours with 4:00PM. No matter the French coped. The Mayor presented me with our marriage contract in a beautiful little hardbound book. Unenforceable! I has all the rights and she had none. We left France not long after and I didn't return for over 6 years.

I learned quite a lot of my French in Chateauroux. I'd taken French in High School, but hadn't paid any more attention than was necessary to pass. After all; who needed to speak French when they lived in California? Using what I did remember I was able to build upon it by conversing with the local grocer's 8 year old daughter. She was taking English in school. We'd go around her parents store taking turns naming items, she in French, me in English then switching off while her proud parents beamed. It was great fun and I did learn a lot. Also, back to Spain.

My homecoming to the states was Kennedy's assination. We were literally on a plane to New York when the pilot announced the news. Great homecoming! Anyway for the next four years I started a career in the computer industry, got a degree in Electronics (my first was in English Lit.), taught part time and generally tried to raise my family. In 1967 the company I was working for wanted to set up an office in Europe and asked me to be the technical side of it. (I was the only 'managerial' type who have ever visited Europe!) I jumped at the chance and we were off to Belgium. Neither I not the sales guy had a clue as to how to operate in Europe, but we had some good advisors and learned quickly.

I remember my first business dinner in France. Posh restaurant, no menu in English (anyway I wanted to show off my French, such as it was), but I refused menu help. I got slightly confused between starters of Shrimp and marinated brains. (the words are somewhat similar in French) Needless to say I ordered the brains - and ate them! I wasn't about to admit my mistake. (actually, they have very little flavour of their own, the sauce provides most of the taste. Its the consistency that is difficult.) In any case this was only the first of many regular business trips to France. I worked out a routine for quick visits; a plane into Le Bourget in the early morning where my French colleagues would pick me up, a full day's business then they'd drop me at the Gare du Nord  where I could catch the fast train back to Brussels and have a very nice dinner in the dining car. It was a great life.

We moved to England where I first was Export Sales manager for a UK company then started a company with a friend. I was still visiting France on a regular basis, mainly Paris. This went on for several years with pleasurable visits, but nothing special. Eventually I sold my interest in the company and joined a Silicon Valley start up to set up their European operations. This was great fun and highly successful.

My favorite of all the Distributors I set up was the one in France. The owned, Jean-Claude, was quite a character and very rich. He would only take on products where he liked the products and the people; fortunately he liked me. Whenever I came over he'd grab me and say "lets go to my cafeteria for lunch." His 'cafeteria was a Michelin one starred restaurant. His table was always waiting & he had the same lunch every day. Guests got menus to order from. What lunches we had!!

The head salesman for your products was a character named Gerard Bertomier. A real nice guy, but a maniac behind the wheel of a car. He was so bad that even the other French wouldn't ride with him. I'll just give you two of my many  Gerard stories. #1, he had invited me out to dinner along with Mrs. Bertomier and we were looking for a parking place up in the Sacre Coeur area of Paris, no easy task. The car in front of us saw somebody pulling out so he signaled. To get into the spot he had to go past & back in. Gerard deliberately pulled right behind him so he couldn't back up.  Much gesculating & sign language ensued, but Gerard would not back up & started blowing his horn! This was too much & the other driver got out of his car as did Gerard. They were arguing furiously. I thought they would come to blows. At this point Madam Bertomier got out of the car & started hitting the other driver with her handbag. He gave up ^ we got the parking place!
Another time I was hopping over to Paris just for the day so I said to my wife; I'll buy bread, pate, cheeses, wine & so forth & we can have our neighbors over for a French evening. Gerard met me at the airport and I told him my plan; OK he says good idea. We only had one appointment with the French weather bureau, but it was an important one. I said why don't we do the shopping now? No, no we need lunch says Gerard. Then we had to discuss the meeting. Then we had the meeting which went well, but by now its 4:00 PM and I have a 5:15 flight and we're in central Paris and its Friday afternoon & the traffic is terrible. Gerard says; now we shop. And off we go at breakneck speed. I keep saying look there's a boulangerie or charcouterie, but no says Gerard we have to go to the special one. At one point I could look ahead to 1/4 mile of stalled traffic. Gerard just passed it all on the wrong side of the road! Finally the right place. Gerard double parked & I went in. Being Friday it was jammed with French lady shoppers buying for the weekend. I just pushed my way forward pretending not to understand the very rude thing being said about me. I got my stuff and ran over the the bread shop. Hopped back in the car. We did make the plane & I was able to buy duty free wine at the airport. I don't think my wife or our friends truly appreciated what I'd gone through to get our meal.