Back to our weekly learning, although this one has been building for the (almost) three months we have been here.
Coffee
A bit of context here...
Jacquie and Tony live in northern inner-city Melbourne, with everything that comes with that.
We shop locally, we walk to our local shops - the local organic grocer and Italian supermarket.
We have, on occasion, had Quinoa in our meals - and not been offended or outraged.
Tony has a beard.
In summary, we exhibit typical northern inner city Melbourne characteristics, including...
we obsess a bit about our coffee.
We buy our freshly roasted beans from the local roaster (at the end of our street, about a 5 min walk). We, of course, have our own coffee machine
It is slim, it is shiny, it has dials with a needle that goes around, it has knobs that turn one way, then turn the other...
It is marvelous.
Then we came to France..... where the coffee is, at best, ordinary!
Those images of the cafe lifestyle, with Parisiennes sitting at tables facing the street and with their cafe au lait, croissants and delicate jam pots ...., these photos were all taken before anyone actually has taken a first sip!
About 50% of the cafes here serve pod coffee. Pod coffee!! (For those who have pod machines at work or, worse still at home, sorry but Pod coffee is not coffee).
It's not..
It's just .......... not.
So we had to resort to securing our own coffee machine, albeit the cheapest one we could find
and set out every three weeks for our 75 km cycling round trip to the nearest coffee roaster to stock up on marginally reasonable beans.
Such is the effort involved in being able to almost enjoy coffee.
We went over the border to Italy recently, and were reminded what really good coffee tastes like.
Our home coffee was tasing alright before we went.
Then when we got back it didn't taste so good
A week later it was tasting OK again.
So, in summary, France does many things really well. Coffee is not one of them.
Now, therapy over...
Update!
We are back into the rhythm of working in the morning, cycling in the afternoon. Some stunning longer rides on the weekend with accompanying glory photos...
A climb to Col du Ferrier
a lovely ride via St Cezaire sur Siagne
more details at https://www.relive.cc/view/vmqX3pxQEo6
A cheeky mid-week local loop
and a lovely weekend ride through La Bastide (the town's name, not a ride descriptor)
which involved passing along side government-land owned and restricted for military use only, with a full, abandoned town. Wonder what training happens there...?
Then the rise suitably concluded
More of this one at https://www.relive.cc/view/vevY3YJ7XJ6
We feel like we have passed the inflection point where our late transition from winter to summer has overtaken Melbourne's transition from summer to winter - and we have three months of upside to come!
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