On Sun, 17 Mar 2002, Jo Webb wrote:

> >I can only speak on what I observed in the city.... I didn't see a single
> >Frenchman with a croissant and their chocolate drink is very thick.  ugh...
> >Oliva-
>
> I was staying in Beaune, in Burgundy, which is only a small town, but had
> about 5 bakeries/patisseries, which the locals appeared to visit on a daily
> basis.

I lived in Paris for three months in the mid-1970s.  At that
time, people carrying a fresh baguette (long bread) home from
work were a common sight.  The French do have disain for what
they regard as the Italian practice of eating bread *and* potato
or some other starchy vegetable at the same meal.  Portion sizes
in restaurants were always small.

I visited Paris again last summer and didn't find that things had
changed *that* much.  Yes, there are more "McDo" around, but the
city is by no means as saturated with such places as any American
city is.  In restaurants and cafes, servings are still small, and
dinner is a *slow* meal, even in a modest restaurant.  There is
nothing comparable to the sort of chain restaurants that are
everywhere in the US: Bennigan's, Ruby Tuesday, TGIF, Chili's,
etc. -- where the servings are enormous and the pace is fast.

There are still a lot of patisseries, cheese shops, etc.

Todd Moody
[log in to unmask]