La Nourriture Francaise

Although I have touched on french food a bit in some of my other posts, after today I figured it was time to devote an entire blog post solely to "la nourriture francaise." Let me start by saying what I ate today because honestly I can't believe it myself. Breakfast was pretty americanized because I woke up late and quickly ate some cereal and a yogurt before running to catch my bus to IES. The yogurt here is a little different from yogurt in the states. Its a little thinner and a lot of people eat plain yogurt with a little bit of sugar in it. At first that seemed a little disgusting to me but it's actually good. Come to think of it its not that different from me putting sprinkles in my yogurt when I was a little kid because I liked to see the rainbow colors in the vanilla yogurt. Anyway, what my host parents eat for breakfast is a little more interesting. They pour 2 different types of instant coffee in a cereal bowl and fill it with hot water. Then they take pieces of toasted baguette and spread them with real butter (no margarine here) and top it off with honey. Then they dip the bread in the bowl of coffee. The first time I saw them do this Im sure I looked like a weirdo because I was watching so intently. If I liked plain coffee I'm sure I would do the same because it seems like a pretty amazing breakfast to me.
Between my classes I ran down the street to this sandwich shop to grab lunch. I got a panini milano  which is a baguette with some kind of white cheese, ham, spinich, and sun dried tomatoes that is all toasted and melted together. It's pretty amazing. Today I decided to get dessert elsewhere but in the past we have gotten raspberry tarts, a nutella panini (which is a baguette filled with nutella and the grilled so it all melts), and this thing called a fondant au chocolat. The best was I can describe fondant au chocolat is by saying that it is basically like eating a really creamy cupcake made mostly out of dark chocolate frosting. It's delicious. I sat on the fountain in Place Royale and ate my panini and watched people walk around until I had to go back to class.
On my way back I passed a salon du the (a store that sells tea and desserts) and couldn't resist. I bought 2 little macaroons one coffee and one chocolate. Don't be fooled by the macaroons you can get in the states these are the real deal. After 2 more classes I was done for the day but surprisingly hungry. So instead of heading right home I went off in search of books and a pain au chocolat. Pain au chocolat is kind of like a rectangle shaped croissant  with chocolate chips in the middle. The best part, it costs less than a dollar anywhere you go. To top off the day I stopped at a little cafe to get a cafe au lait (half coffee half steamed milk, and a little bit of sugar) and read for about an hour.
After that I headed home and organized a few things for the rest of this week until dinner at 8:30. My host mom is an amazing cook. I don't quite know how she does it. I personally couldn't cook great meals every night of the week all the time but I am definitely happy that she has this talent. Im not really sure how to describe dinner but it consisted of potatoes and ham and veggies mixed together in kind of a stew. After that we had a salad with oil and vinegar and then we got to the cheese course. I love the cheese course. Today I had a big piece of camenbert with a piece of a baguette.

 Macaroons

 tarte au frambois

 cafe au lait

I would just like to state that I don't always eat like this, mostly because I spent about 10 euro (aka $13) on food today and that is a little ridiculous. However everyone here eats dessert after both lunch and dinner so I tend to do the same haha. Even with 2 desserts and so much bread and cheese I think I am somehow losing a little weight. Maybe it's all the walking or maybe it's the lack of dorm food. Either way I'm going to continue to eat all the amazing food I can get my hands on.