London called

Bonjour

Last week, as Lee peddled off to work, I popped over to London for a few days. I know I rabbit on about how long the journey takes, but this one was made even longer by Eurostar cancelling their services the day before I was scheduled to return to France. (Not a strike this time – it was due to repairs required on the track). So I was able to get a train to Portsmouth, then ferry across to Caen, followed by 90 minute car trip back to Cherbourg. 15 hours door to door. London to Cherbourg = 146 miles.

All this travelling has taught me about the benefits of travelling light. Instead of my trusty suitcase I took a much smaller bag and it made such a difference when it came to lifting it on to overhead racks, dragging it up and down stairs and escalators and squeezing in to crowded trains.

One thing that was noticeable was all the news in the various media outlets was so depressing. Of course Brexit was always the headline story and that is never happy news, then this would be followed by violent attacks and murders, famous and very rich men outed for long term sexual harrassment, house fires with four children dying (followed by their parents being arrested on suspicion of manslaughter by gross negligence). Then there was a feature piece about young children being taught meditation because of escalating levels of anxiety and stress among young people. I wonder why. This was all in the space of a few days. The light hearted “fluff” piece to finish off the news was a story about some restaurants starting to serve squirrel on their menus. No thanks.

On a lighter note, I visited Ottolenghi! This probably means nothing to many of you. Yotam Ottolenghi is a famous chef, restaurant owner and writer. (Google will tell you much more). I was only there for a coffee and cake this time but it was so hard to decide what to have. Here is a picture of the goodies in the window.

I went with the hazelnut, ricotta and chocolate cake. A very wise choice.

And while on the topic of food, here is something that grabbed my attention from another French blog written by Australians.

Increasingly, as the population in rural France ages and declines, village bakeries are struggling. Yet French law demands that everyone have access to fresh bread. When a bakery closes, often when the baker retires and no one takes the business over, small villages are often left with no supplier of bread. The solution for many small local authorities is to arrange a partnership with a bakery in a nearby village and to install a baguette vending machine. The neighbouring bakery replenishes the stock a couple of times a day and the bread costs maybe 5 cents more than if you bought it in the shop.