11 jan

Why are there no bakeries anymore in Holland? Or in England? I am not talking about the US, if they used to have bakeries, why don’t they have bread nowadays?
France is a different story. When there are more than ten houses in a hamlet, there is a boulangerie. People walk away with an arm full of baguettes. Which is amazing because it gets old pretty fast, french bread. It becomes hard as a rock. Maybe they use these old pains to build up their garden wall?
Boulangerie’s are everywhere, but we stumbled on the best one of them here in Brantome. Last week we were waiting to get into Chassenat and stumbled through Brantome, the closest town to the house. A lovely town to with an abbey that stems from the time of Charlemagne (circa 800). There was a waiting line outside one of the about 45 boulangeries in Brantome, population 2159 according to Wikipedia. This is the place to be, says Julie, who still believes in democracy and the ability of people to make the best decision for themselves.
And she was right, just like democracy is almost always right, rather surprisingly.
In the store, 14 square yards (or metres) were three old women handing out pains and crossaints and pains chocolats with a speed that was impressive, but seemed really slow compared to the fast conversations they were having with the customers. Everybody seemed to be talking with everybody. It was chaotic but efficient.
Every single person seemed to be buying a fluffy cake, with sugar and almond flakes on it. I pointed at it and said ‘un, s’il vous plait’. C’est une galette, one of the three woman, the youngest, about 70, said, I think. It is still warm she warmed.
We had a piece in our campervan, still warm, and were sold. This is the best cake I ever had. Made with eggwhite, according to Julie, and including some lemon. Heavenly light and satisfying.
The best was yet to come.
At one point I thought I bit in a stone, which came quite unexpected after all the heavenly lightness as before. It was not a stone, but a little porcelain sculpture. After I had eaten all the pieces of cake o, it became clear we were looking at a frog in a mermaid pose, with sunglasses o her forehead and a delightful little purple bikini. It was not taller than a fingertip, but amazingly detailed.
It doesn’t take much to stir up the collector in me, definitely not when there is the best cake of France included. So now we are a week further and we have three little porcelain figures, both discovered while cutting the cake, so no broken teeth anymore.
Julie thinks they look childish, the figures, but then she wanted to have knights and princesses. She is rediscovering her inner middle ages, you know.
I don’t mind. I am kind of anxious to get a double one so I can join the Brantome porcelain figures exchange online. Sometimes it difficult to see the societal benefits of ones passions, but then, it is not really against today’s culture to be not too bothered by that.