Bonjour en France!

                                              Food.

                                         French food.

            I had the best pastery I have ever tasted in my LIFE yesterday! And here is what it looked like:

You may be thinking to yourself, "Don't get too excited, we have those same ham filled croissants in the States, I had one for breakfast too," BUT I ordered mine from a woman who smiled and said "Bonjour" when I walked in the bell-clad door and "Bon appetit et bonne année" as I walked out to the tiny cobblestone French street! And what could make a fresh French (Austrian by origin actually) pastery taste better than buying it from an actual French bakery on the corner of a French town from a very French woman??

                        I have the answer....not much else.

I contend it was the best I've ever eaten......and I have another thought to share with you. The difference between us American women and French women. When confronted with these tasty delicacies, we Americans say "Oh wow, that was so good, I think I have room for another" and we happily enjoy a 2nd in the car on the drive to work. The French women, however, say "Oh wow, that was so good." and that's it....period...they leave the shop, they WALK down the street to work and aren't haunted by thoughts of "hmm maybe I can slip down there on my break, or at lunch and get another..." no, they're onto their next thing, and have already burned off the first one they ate!!

Needless to say....I am hoping to gather some European habits while I'm here! ;)

Here are a couple other treats we tried, and by we, I am telling you that I DID NOT eat everything myself.

By the end of the day, we found a fresh food market, it was HUGE! This market was a lot different than the German markets I've been to so far; there was a jaw dropping amount of fresh seafood, meat, and poultry on top of the fruits, cheese, wine, and vegetables. Note to self: French food markets, do them.

I have a feeling that many of my posts in the future will have something to do with food...be prepared.

We did do a few other things on top of eating great food. We walked all over the town, saw the Moselle river, visited one of the largest cathedrals in all of Europe (one of the top three), took lots of pictures, met some women from Holland, and I even got to use a tiny bit of my Spanish (not with the Dutch ladies though ;) )!

Here's me in front of the Moselle, and in the background you can see the cathedral! A huge thank you to Sonia for the fun, and very warm scarf...I have worn it soo much this winter!! This part of the city reminded me a bit of Venice, Italy.

Cathedral St. Etienne

This picture gives you an idea of the magnitude of this cathedral.

The stained glass windows were spectacular! The windows in this cathedral are actually "the largest expanses of stained glass in the world, they were made by the master craftsmen Hermann de Munster in the fourteenth century, and Valentin Bousch in the sixteenth." (wikipedia)

We ate at this tiny two story restaurant in the town center, I had a traditional entre from the region which constisted of ham, sausage, salad, and potatoes. The dessert was my favorite. Our waitor was fantastic (guy in backgroud), he was so gracious. This group of Americans came storming into the tiny room with all kinds of crazy, and he told us all about the menu and food, the wine, and even gave us a free dessert...tiramisu, I now like tiramisu, it was divine.

Le merci la France pendant un jour magnifique!