french way of life

Eating: the french eternal question

Even if Australia and France are both occidental country, many differences exist. Maybe, the most significant for Frenchies concerns probably the meals.It’s right that in France (each time it’s possible) we stop our job to take our lunch. And it’s the same for the school. When a parent don’t work, it’s common to get his child and to return at home to take the lunch together…

When I think about this, it must seem very strange to an Australian that "everything stops" during lunch time. It concerns: labor, government, schools, shops (except sometimes in large cities). It is usually closed from 12:00 to 2:00 pm. After this,
In France the schedule of meals are very accurate and normally it is not recommended to eat outside these hours. There is a big social pressure with Education, medical staff, magazines, … everybody recommend to avoid snacks between the 3 meals :

• breakfast,
• lunch,
• diner.

For children it is advisable to add a tea break.
So it’s very surprising for French people to discover the Australian way of eating particularly at school : no canteen (like in France, a kind of restaurant for pupils), a snack or a fruit at each recess time, a sandwich for the lunch.

Usually, our French meals look like this :

• Breakfast (6:00 => 8:00 am) : coffee, tea or chocolate milk, slices of bread, jam, butter, fruit juice
• Lunch (11:45 => 14:00 am) : starter (crudity like some vegetables and vinaigrette), main course (a piece of meat and vegetables and/or starchy, piece of cheese, fruit or yoghurt
• Dinner (7:00 => 9:30 pm) : soup, salted pie, dessert (fruit or yoghurt)

It's always difficult to change habits, but step by step we learn and we adopt the new rules food. Except on the weekend because it is an opportunity to take the time to cook meals that need to linger in the kitchen slightly more than 5 minutes. The most terrible (for me) is when I question my children to know what they would be happy to eat and they tell me together : "a sandwich mom !"

:-(
No comment...