Foooooooood

I had a delicious meal. Last night Clarice and I went to a little restaurant down the block from us. We decided to have a genuine French meal. We went with a three course special for 23 Euros, not too bad. First we started with escargot, the classic. We had to get escargot at some point! It was very garlicky. It as kind of like eating crabs. You have a tong that you hold the shell with, and you pick out the meat with a little fork. The meat tasted better with some bread. Then we had duck, a.k.a. Canard, with peach! It was so delicious. Very savory. Then for dessert we got apple tartes. They were green! Not what I was expecting, but French pastries have surprised me on many occasion. It was also tasty, but by that point I was a little on overload with all the rich food and I struggled to finish. I think Clarice and I will definitely return to this restaurant. It had a nice atmosphere, as we were able to sit outside. It was a beautiful evening, and it was wonderful to get outside of our virtually windowless apartment. Something we noticed about French service was it was much more relaxed. We didn’t feel rushed out at all. After we finished eating we just sat and talked for about ½ hour, and we felt perfectly welcome to do so. I felt like we could have sat there all night and talked and the restaurant wouldn’t have minded, and we probably could have. Much different from US restaurants, where you feel you should leave right after you’re done eating. Perhaps visiting Americans may mistake this laissez-faire eating as a sign of rudeness or poor service, but really it’s just a different attitude about eating. You’re supposed to relax and enjoy the food and the company, not rush through it. I enjoyed it. I was very stuffed!