AS I SEE IT
BY MARIANNE HERON
Being asked for directions while holidaying in La Belle France was a surprise. At first, I took it as a compliment, maybe I looked like a Frenchwoman, with that chic, je ne sais quoi air. But non, what made me look like a local was the fact that I was carrying a baguette, that emblem of life in France.
It set me thinking about some of the enviable things that I am going to miss back at home and wondering why we can’t import some of them. We have lots of great things going for us in Ireland but there are some things about French lifestyle that make it a pleasure. Some can’t easily be copied, like the price of French property for instance, around a third or even a quarter of the inflated cost of homes in Ireland or the State support for childcare but I am talking about everyday things.
Take bread for instance. Why is their bread so deliciously different from the pallid stuff that we pass off as French bread? My favourite is not a baguette but a ‘tradition’, a chunky loaf with a wonderful caramelised brown crust made without preservatives from the four ingredients allowed by French law – flour, water, salt and yeast. It’s the flour – French flour from French grain that gives the bread it’s distinctive crunch, creamy internal texture. It’s softer flour than ours and is numbered, Type 55 to 65 for baguettes, and the higher the number the more wholemeal content.
There simply isn’t an Irish equivalent for La Place, that square which is the centre of social life in villages and towns, often graced with a central fountain or statue and ideal for outdoor café seating and markets. We didn’t plan for them in the past but given all those homes we are meant to be building, why not put some social soul, in the form of squares, in housing developments?
Given that Ireland is famous for its beef and dairy industry how come we don’t get to enjoy the melt-in- the-mouth veal available on French menus and in butchers? It’s complicated, apparently. Although the thousands of bull calves born here each year are useless for the dairy industry, they get exported mainly to the Netherlands and Belgium, the bulk of them to a supplier of calves for three-month-old white veal and six-month-old rose veal, while the market here hasn’t been developed.
Also, there is the issues of seasonality, calves are born during a peak six to eight weeks spring period in the dairy industry so there isn’t continuity of supply. Maybe there is an opportunity to create demand here and supply it, especially considering that herd numbers need to be reduced.
Still on food, never far from mind in France, Le Formule is a great practice in bistros and restaurants. Basically, it’s the special of the day for a two or three course meal at a price designed to tempt customers. One special I enjoyed at a canal-side bistro offered a main of delicious veal in a thyme scented sauce, with chips and salad followed by a choice of three deserts including crème caramel at €13.50. It’s the kind of deal that makes eating out an affordable pleasure and perhaps similar offerings (unlikely to be at similar prices alas) might lure more customers to our beleaguered restaurant trade where more than 200 restaurants have closed this year.
Weekly markets in France, held on a different day in each town, are popular social occasions, with farm-to- fork produce at great prices and combining retail therapy with bargain fashions and useful household items. You never know what you might find, like the onesie nightwear with sequinned eyes to ward off the evil eye and probably the husband as well.
The local Traiteur is another thing that I’ll miss. As the name suggests they offer treats with seriously good meat, pates, cheeses, ready-made dishes, salads. Like Alladin’s Cave for foodies.
One thing I won’t miss are French closing times, where everyone, from lock keepers to the clerks in railway offices (how to buy a ticket?), close for a three- hour lunch and shops close for unpredictable half and whole days.
But then the French have to have time to enjoy the above mentioned delights?
