Great crêpes on fire!

Aside from the chicken liver that Madame T served us one night—she said we should try it and then she'd tell us what we were eating, never a good sign—I don't believe I've eaten anything bad here in France. Whether with my host families, at cafés, or even the many tiny vendors around Aix, food here is delicious. I've also gotten to try many unique new recipes.

Sunday night, for example, Mme G made crêpes for desert and flambeed them in Grand Marnier. As you can see, the effect was striking. And coupled with a heavy dose of sugar, so was the taste.

At places like Crêpes à GoGo, you can have nearly any sugary concotion inside your crêpe: Nutella and bananas, chocolate and whipped cream, etc etc. You can also have crêpes salées, which are basically meals wrapped up in a crêpe. I had one with cheese and mushrooms, for example. Others squeeze eggs, ham, even ratatouille into the delicate lining of a crêpe.

My other big weakness is steak frites and their cousin, poulet frites. I discovered steak frites my second day in Aix, when Dan and I had to find some dinner after Mme T didn't offer to cook for us. The recipe is simple: take a long sub bun, fill with steak or chicken, add fries, and dollop on more mayonnaise and ketchup than your arteries can handle. Cheap, simple, and delicious, if not too good for your diet plans. Given how wont Americans are to add fries to any meal, it's a surprise steak frites are a French invention.

Speaking of diet plans, I need to find a scale. Before I left Michigan, a student who had spent a semester in Aix told me he had lost 10 pounds from walking so much more in France than in Ann Arbor. Another student claimed he had gained 10 pounds from eating too much cheese and chocolate.

So far, I think I've been losing weight: although I haven't stood on a scale to check, I now have to tighten my belt more than I used to, and some of my pants feel a little looser than they did in December. For me, walking is apparently outweighing the calorique nature of French cuisine. How long that will last remains to be seen...