Back Again

I recently returned from a short trip to southern France, which was great. But unfortunately I and my traveling companion both returned with some kind of virus, which we probably got on the crowded plane, and I've been under the weather since then, not trusting my brain to write anything very worthwhile.

However, I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and I've started tackling the stacking of 3 cords of wood. Maybe that's helping to cure me.

France was great for someone on a low-carb diet, as the French aren't as fat-phobic as most Americans. My first meal, in a small town along the coast, was the only thing they were serving at that hour (restaurants serve only from noon to 2 p.m., which we didn't know): a large assortment of delicious cold cuts, pates, and a green salad. I was in heaven.

Also, meals didn't come with huge mounds of mashed potatoes or rice, and corn. Of course all the meals come with bread, but I only tasted that. Some was delicious and some was mediocre, not as good as the stuff I used to make using Julia Child's bread recipe and King Arthur flour. A popular "dessert" in France is cheese, and I was able to substitute that for the sweet dessert that came along with full-course meals. Breakfast at the B&B included yogurt and "fruits rouges" (berries), cheese, and sausage along with bread and homemade jam, which I tasted.

But the woman couldn't grasp the concept of a LC diet and assumed I was gluten intolerant. When she finally grasped that I was diabetic, she then assumed I could eat other starches, just not sugar. Oh well. I survived.

I was stuffing myself with fatty cheeses along with other LC food, and when I got home I discovered I'd lost 2 pounds.

I think I need to get a grant to return to France to study this phenomenon.