We are back in Villefranche for a three week stay. The weather has been perfect, and we are enjoying ourselves immensely. We fill our days studying french, going for walks, lamenting the state of the world (particularly Trump and the Republicans) and shopping for our dinners. We eat most dinners at home. Virtually any dinner requires a stop at the butcher, the baker, the green grocer and a seller of wine. The wine is the easiest since you can buy wine that this quite good very inexpensively almost anywhere.
We love to buy our wine at Chez Marie-Claire, our favorite boulangerie/pâtisserie. Most boulangeries/patisseries sell bread and pastries and maybe a few extras like pieces of pizza, pre-made sandwiches and chocolates. Marie-Claire does all of that plus eggs and wine. Unfortunately Marie-Claire is getting older, probably well into her 80s. She is open from 7:00 am until 12:30 pm and 4:30 pm to 7:00 pm most days. In the summer she takes one day a week off and in the winter she takes two days off. Normally that is not a problem because she coordinates with her arch rival, Patrice, who runs the other boulangerie/patisserie in the old town so that one of them is always open. Unfortunately, in the winter there is one day when there is no boulangerie/patisserie open in the old town. You can't really plan ahead for that problem because you need to eat the bread and pastries the day they are made or they are just not as good.
There is a boulangerie/patisserie just up the hill from the old town whose products are just fine. But, it is modern and once you get your purchase your contact with a real person ends. A machine tells you how much you owe, you put your money in one slot and your change comes out another slot. It is incredibly impersonal so we only go there in a dire emergency, like needing a fruit tart for dessert when the Marie-Claire and Patrice are both closed.
The real problem is that these small shops are disappearing all across France. As I said Marie-Claire is quite old with no obvious successor. Bernard, the green grocer, is also quite old with no hope for a successor. Pascal, the butcher, is not too old and from time to time his son helps out in the shop. So there is hope there. Patrice is not too old and wants to continue working but after many years of renting the same spot in the middle of the old town, her landlord is trying to throw her out and replace her with yet another real estate agency. There are already way more real estate agencies in and around the old town than any other type of business. We have joined with many locals in petitioning the mayor to intervene, but it is probably a lost cause.
On the bright side, there is a new focacceria in the old town. He sells great Italian cheeses and salami along with a few pre-made Italian dishes and sandwiches. He is young, and we try to frequent his store often in hopes that he succeeds. Any conversation with him is a combination of Italian, English and French. His English is worse than our french, and we speak no Italian.
The only issue with our method of provisioning for dinner is you really need to see what people have before deciding on your meal. Bernard is the least reliable in that regard. First, his hours are sometimes a little random and second, his inventory varies dramatically from day to day.
So here are some examples of our dinners at home so far this trip. At this point, these will just be repeated.
In this meal, you see steak cooked perfectly on the gas grill on our balcony accompanied by a sauté of mushrooms, onion, leaks and garlic, a baked potato with crème frâiche and of course and steamed artichoke.
We do vary our steak meals. This one is accompanied with haricots verts and roasted baby tomatoes.
We don't just have steak. On this day the butcher had some lamb chops so we got them. Also there were no haricots verts so we got some flat Italian beans and big tomatoes instead of baby ones.
We don't just have red meat either. Here we have a pork chop with flat Italian beans, red peppers and a sauté of carrots, mushrooms, onions, leaks and garlic.
We also have chicken. Here we have a boneless skinless chicken breast grilled to perfection on our gas grill. We put mustard on the top before cooking and then only cook from the other side. Apparently the green grocer was out of green vegetables this day.
Some times we have more simple fare, but what could be better than an omelette with créme frâiche, sautéd ham and a fresh baguette with blueberry jam.
Sometimes we even eat vegetarian. This simple pasta with tomato sauce and fresh burrata from the new focacceria with a sauté of zucchini, baby tomatoes and onions was even better than it looks.
You may have noticed the presence of a potato on the plate virtually every night. Potatoes are plentiful here and very good. We get one medium size baking potato for the two of us. We then cut it in half lengthwise. This approach permits us to maximize the amount crème frâiche per bite.
What I have not shown are the desserts. We have not taken pictures of the desserts. It would be too mean to show them to you. Most of the time we split a pastry from Marie-Claire that looks particularly good that day - a religieuse (here), an eclair, a fresh fruit tart, etc.
So we eat very well, but I have averaged over 11,000 steps and almost 28 flights of stairs a day since our arrival.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
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