Day 6: Deux croissants au jambon et fromage, s'il vous plaît.

We're watching a downloaded episode of "No Reservations" with Anthony Bourdain, in which our pal Tony is traveling through southern France and making us drool from our seats.  I swear I never cared much for wine or cheese before we moved to Italy, and visiting France didn't help matters in that respect.  Visiting France also brought about a renewed love of bread that I hadn't experienced since childhood.

We're spending a week driving through France over my Spring Break.  The bulk of our journey will be taking us through the southern portion of the country, thus, our visit with Tony tonight.  We are two people who experience the food of a place as wholly connected to its culture.  We like to eat, and watching shows like this are great for gathering tips before you visit a place, like where to stumble to find the authentic taste of a region, and the like.  Now food is not the only thing we research before traveling, but come on, wouldn't you like to know where to find the best croissants in Paris?  The most rustic pizza in Sicily?  The best mussels in Brussels?  We would.  So we watch and we take notes.

We're still figuring out the order of things, but we plan to hit Annecy, a supposedly painfully beautiful town across the lake from Geneva, Switzerland, and Verdon Gorge a few hours south, a canyon I've heard referred to as the Grand Canyon of Europe.  I've also heard that comparison is ridiculous, but either way, I'm excited to go.  I'm trying to add Apt to our trek and now Tony's got us looking to add another.  Since it's a TV show we have only his pronunciation of the town and neither of us speak French, so we're still trying to figure out where he is.  With only 8 days, we may have to set aside the Alsace Wine Road between Strasbourg and Mulhouse for another time - there's just too much beautiful France to see.  I promise I'm not complaining.

Sometimes I think I cold live in France based on the bread and pastries alone.  This trip, I plan to explore the cheese more deeply to further develop my appreciated and understanding of the French.  Doesn't that sound convincing?  It feels like it's going to be less of a hustle and bustle kind of trip, and more of a rent a boat and have a picnic on the lake over wine and cheese kind of thing.  We shall see, but one thing's for sure - there's no way I'll be blogging that week.  I will be disconnected and drunk on sunshine, my friends.