Take Away .... Drugs

In sleepy surburbia here in the outskirts of Perpignan, the busiest establishment by far, is, The Pharmacy. They now have a pully ticket system like they do in large group situations where people can't manage to form an orderly queue like busy delis in French supermarkets, or The Prefecture ( cue psycho music). It really is that busy.

In Irish small towns and suburbs, you can be guaranteed a couple of pubs and a church. In France, it's a couple of pharmacies and a hairdressers ( who can't cut hair to save her life, but that's another story..)
Walking into the French Pharmacy is like walking into the set of Cheers ( you know , where everybody knows your na-a-ame). The atmosphere is relaxed, the regulars know each other and the barman (oops pharmacist) knows your order before you even get to the counter.. They will gossip and chat and exchange pleasantries and leave happy with their state paid drugs "A la semaine prochaine, bisous!" All very "sociable" indeed...
The latest craze for the pill popping happy French is 'La Pharmacie Drive In". Yes, you read it correctly folks, there are about 100 Drive in Pharmacies throughout France and the number is growing.
It functions just like a fast food outlet, you drive up to the window with your ordonnance ( prescription) or just explain your symptoms and hey presto, et voilà, you are served without having to go to the trouble of putting your achy achy big toe out of your vehicle...

The idea was first introduced to help young mamans or physically handicapped people to make their lives a bit easier but apparently is really taking off, particularly in large urban areas where parking is a problem or perhaps where people don't really want the nosey neighbours to know that they have flatulence problems or whatever their ailment may be..
I'm not sure it would take off here either in our little suburb, sure they would miss all the craic and weekly contact then!!
The French juxtaposition ; a nation with the best healthcare in the world peopled with hypochondriacs!!!
A ta santé!

Pet Advent Calender

We all know that the French love their animaux but this does really take the biscuit ( the cat biscuit, that is!!)

Advent Calender for your cat!!

Get Real Italy - Cheap and Very Cheerful

Dear Santa....

La famille Getrealfrance treated ourselves to a little minibreak in Sardinia last weekend - Highly recommend as a cheapie getaway from Girona. The flights were 80euros return for the 4 of us and accommodation was excellent value in a self catering apartment right on the beach.

We love Italieeeeee

The highlight of the holiday for us was the friendliness of the people, their warmth and how genuine they were, doting on our children and going out of their way to welcome us, and all this , at the end of a busy tourist season as well.

A metre of pizza

The lowlights were the crappy weather; we had uncharacteristic torrential rain for 3 days but luckily had one fine day and oh yeah,there was the small issue of  Mr Getrealfrance getting a dose of food poisoning as well !

Yummy 

We were also pleasantly surprised by the quality of the wine, particularly the white wine and bemoaned the fact that we could not bring some back on our flight. Sardinia is the ideal place for producing wine really, with it's limestone soils, hilly terrain and Mediterranean climate. It's most famous red grape is Cannanou, brother to Grenache which we know and love well here in the Roussillon region. It's supposed to be excellent for declogging the arteries as well as tasting damn good. It was the white that stole our hearts though, especially the Vermentino crisp whites from the North of the island. We wanted to do a wine tour  but the cellar at Sella & Mosca close to Alghero where we were staying was not open for tours.
Oh well, we'll just have to go back again soon!!! We certainly will be keeping our eye out for Sardinian whites in future...
Vive L'Italieeeeee

Sunset Alghero

La Galinette - Perpignan centre

After our "nuptials" last week, Mr Getrealfrance and myself treated ourselves to lunch in Perpignan's only Michelin Star restaurant, La Galinette.
It's a lovely intimate restaurant, probably no more than 40 covers, split into two rooms by a book-casey thing. There are, as you would expect for a starred restaurant, the white linen tablecloths, the chunky expensive glassware, the shiny cutlery ( always handy for checking your lipstick!!) and plenty of discreet waiting staff waltzing around silently.
The lunch special really is excellent value ( although there is no choice) and for 19euros, this is a great opportunity to try an establishment of this caliber.

Starters was a brandade de morue ( a purée of salted cod and potatoes) with raw crudities artfully hedgehogging the purée. It was nice and light, the brandade was't too salty as can often be the case and the crispy beetroot, carrots, cucumber and radishes complimented it nicely.

Mains was magret de canard with roast sliced potatoes. The duck had been sealed on high heat and then roasted in the oven, but not for long though, and it was quite rare which we didn't mind, but it you don't like rare ( read practically raw) duck, you should ask for it "bien cuit" and see how you get on..

Dessert was the star of the show , a deliciously light panacotta with stewed dried fruit and nuts : doesn't sound great but it really worked ... very seasonal and very very tasty.

As a treat we opted for a bottle of white ; Domaine Gardiés 2006 , a mélange of grenache gris and grenache blanc, as recommended by the very knowledgeable sommelier. It was truly divine.
If I had to be picky ( it is Michelin star after all), the waitress who served our table could not answer any of our questions about the meal and had no clue or interest in what we were eating. The head waitress was obviously having her fags out the back and there was a strong whiff of cigarette smoke from her.
But all in all, an excellent restaurant, I would highly recommend for a lunch time treat.
Bonne Appetit!!!

La Galinette
23 Rue Jean Payra 
66000 Perpignan
Tél : 04 68 35 00 90

The Church Giggles - Getting PACsed in France

9h30 was our appointment in the Courthouse in Perpignan last Friday morning to get our Pacte Civil de Solidarité or PACs as it's commonly known here in France.
The PACs status was introduced in 1999 in France, mainly to help same sex unions legimitise their partnerships ( Gay marriage is still illegal in France, see here). However, interestingly, only 6% of PACs since then have been same sex unions with two out of every three "marriages" now opting for the PACs route. Also, only 15% of PACs relationships are annulled whilst the divorce rate for traditional marriage in France is over 50%.
As we passed tattooed knuckled types shuffling around, scowling and sucking on their cigarettes on the steps of the court, any little hint of a romantic notion evaporated. When we were frisked down, my handbag emptied and made walk though an xray machine, we started having the church giggles.
"What are ye in here for?" the burly security man glared at us as if we were hardened crims, me in my best Sunday outfit 'n all
"Well, uh, we have an appointment at 09h30 to get PACsed" we giggled
Off we were sent "up to the first étage, take a left, then a second left, then another left and at the end of the corridor, sit yourselves down and someone will see to you" 
Righto, we were waiting for about 30 seconds when a stern looking just PACsed French couple filed out, studiously underdressed in their ironed jeans and pristine white matching converse sneakers.
Gulp, here we go, our turn, says I to Mr Getrealfrance, let's just hope we have all the paperwork, I silently prayed to good ole St Anthony as we marched in to the office.
Anyway, the commissioner of oaths turned out to be an unusually jolly French woman and put us totally at our ease telling us she loved her" "que de bonheur" job on Fridays which was Pacsé-ing people all day.
After a few quick minutes, we were out in the lashing rain, done and dusted. 
Et Voilà ; Mr and Mrs Getrealfrance!

You may now kiss your legal partner, giggle giggle giggle

Fat Frogs

Fat Frog

The French are getting fat. One out of every five kids in France is now classified as obese. They are still a long way behind their English and Irish counterparts who boast the highest rates of obesity in Europe, but the number of lardy arses are expanding at an alarming rate, doubling in the last 15 years.
The reason for this is their changing habits and their total emulation of American culture - eating in fast food chains has become a cheap and easy way to kill a few hours for French parents. There are 12 very busy McDonalds in the department where we live ( pop of 400,000), along with a handful of Quicks ( the French Mcdonalds) and a KFC that opened 2 years ago. The evening KFC opened, eager clients waited in queues for kilometres, blocking roads and roundabouts and required police intervention. Les Francais are hungry for it!
The sad thing is that it is mostly the kids that are getting chunky, as the parents are pretty careful about what passes their lips ( coffee, cigarettes, diet pills...) and are for the most part obsessed about their weight and yours as well, by the way!
But, the world doesn't really want to hear this do they? Books like "French Women Don't Get Fat" and "French Kids Eat Everything" are adorned with pictures of healthy thin French women skipping gaily and happily (guffaw) about their lives, eating fruit and vegetables in season and delighting in taking the stairs rather than the lift ( guffaw). They depict French Kids obediently eating their braised calves livers and haricots verts while docile at the table for hours on end. People want to buy into this and bestsellers fly off the shelves as the rest of the world tries to copy this cool and thin chicness.
This week is "Semaine du Gout" , the week of taste, here in France and so there had been a lot of talk about food education and habits in France. Amazing that a country's habits can change in such a short time frame .. let's hope that they get back on track. After all, French food and all that goes with it is one of the things we all love about France, n'est-ce pas?

Rainbow Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes to teach Dylan's class of 5 year olds about colours and the rainbow. If the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, this must be true to the Nth degree when it comes to cupcakes and children.
They were fidgety to make, but well worth it for the reaction from les enfants and les mamans too.. I seem to have gone way up in the estimation of all the french Mummies and teachers in the school, who  , as far as I can see, rarely bake and have never seen a cupcake in the flesh, so to speak.
There could be a business in this!!

Things I Love About France - Our beach

The beaches in Autumn are more or less empty here in the Deep South of France. The weather is still warm and very pleasant ( we were all in swimming yesterday) and everyone is relaxed and chilled out now that the crowds have migrated North once again.
It always amazes me that the tourist season is not longer here, something the local tourist boards seem to overlook.

The beach to ourselves

The Revolt of the Pigeons

I'm outta here!

Mr Getrealfrance was watching the news last night and came to bed with his big puzzled head on, what's a pigeon in French and why are they revolting?

This week, a massive twitter campaign has started to snowball with the hashtag #geonpi and it has caught the attention of the traditional media - but what the hell has this got to do with pigeons, I hear you ask?

Well, in France, they have this funny slang language, called verlan, where they inverse the words , ie meuf = femme, flic = keuf, fête = teuf ( have I lost you yet?) and pigeon becomes geonpi.

In French pigeon is slang for the scapegoat, the fallguy, the one who pulls the shortest straw and this is how France's entrepreneurs are feeling this week as Mr Le President rolls out his plans for budget 2013.

Why are Frances start up companies and entrepreneurs up in arms? Well, you see they feel that they are paying for the fonctionnaires ( civil servants), for the 60,000 new teachers that Hollande has promised and being punished for the capital sin of entrepreneurship ( a dirty word as far as socialists are concerned)

Why the revolt? Because the new regime plans to double the Capital Gains Tax on the risk taking, hard working pigeons from about 30% to 60%..

Finance minsiter did nothing to assuage the Pigeons fears on Friday when he said  “those who earn while sleeping, it is not right that capital income is taxed at a lower rate than income from work.”

But Mr Finance Minister, these are the guys that take the risks, create jobs and promote growth in a country.

Investors and entrepreneurs will be flocking out of the country if this new regime is imposed and who would blame them? Hollande also plans to attack the new auto entrepreneur scheme which will only see small businesses go straight back on to the Black Market, the only way that they can survive.

France will be left with a nation of under achievers, institutionalised social welfare recipients and fonctionnaires. 

God Save La France...and God Speed the Pigeons

Snow on the Canigou

Our annual pilgrimage to the Canigou was cut short this year as there was quite a heavy fall of snow the night before. We made it about half way up from 'base camp' ( Refuge des Cortalets) before turning around due to about a foot of snow and very bad visibility.
Sods law, the skies are blue, the sun is shining and the Canigou is winking down on us as I type. O well, there's always next year!

Spot of bother on the way up

Decision time... continue or descend..

Ok, let's build a snowman instead..

The bumpy ride down

Looks like it's Autumn