In Which Rayla Eats Some Mysterious Rice

Today I ate rice in France. French rice. And let me tell you, it takes mysteriously like bread. In fact, I was realizing that the similarities between rice and bread are actually pretty startling. For example, they are both white and grain type things, and initially invented so that poor people wouldn’t starve (don’t have enough money for meat? Just eat rice/bread, you’ll be fine, you’re just a peasant from China/France!) Of course today, rice has nothing to do with being rich or poor. Most people just eat it because it's delicious! Especially if it's this French rice. This stuff is good/weirdly good, let me tell you.

Rice in France is apparently not that common, because this is the first time my host family has served it for dinner. I found it to taste like bread. The rice tasted of delicious bread. I think my host family must think so to, because they put butter in their rice. Yum. I find this to be very cool.

Food in France is really amazing though. I don’t think I will ever be able to eat American food again. The other day, my host family and I went to a [French] McDonalds. It’s better than the American ones (how odd!) but I found myself feeling a bit sick afterward. I used to be able to eat that good just fine! My stomach has turned soft by the deliciousness of French food! My stomach is too good for American foods, apparently, or so it thinks. My stomach is a French snob. Great. (JK...I love American foods? Oh well...I'll let you know in May. Haha.)

French bread is God’s gift to Earth (and I don’t mean that in the strictly biblical sense). Eating bread in France is kind of amazing. It’s fifty million times better than any bread we have in the US. Any attempted recreations of this amazing bread in the US is strictly a pathetic fail; US “French Bread” will never compare to actual baguettes purchased daily and fresh from the local boulangerie. In France, the crust is just so good. And the inside is so soft. And it’s just amazing. In fact… (dramatic noises)… “Le surface du pain est merveilleuse d’abord de cette impression quasi panoramique qu’elle donne…”

We had to memorize this really long, overly-descriptive passage about how amazing bread is. For literature. We had to memorize it and recite it. Yeah. It’s like an inside joke now at SYA.

ANYWAY… Speaking of French food, I would like to joyfully report that Rayla & Co. have officially adopted a “favorite café” and “favorite crêperie”! This is breaking news. We hope to visit both as often as possible so that the people who work there start recognizing us. It’s going to be great.

Our favorite café is just past the post office at République, on the side where not as many people go. It’s called Le Café Candiot (we were rather disappointed when we looked up ‘candiot’ in our French-English dictionary, all sly-like under the table totally subtle, and we found out that it doesn’t mean anything!), and it’s officially the cutest café ever. The walls are all painted yellow and orange and there are cool things on the wall and there are tall tables and short tables. And it has tables outside. And they have simply marvelous hot chocolate. They bring the chocolately syrup goodness to you in the cup, with the warm milk separate. You pour in the milk yourself and stir it and everything, and (if you’re really French) you add sugar too. It’s simply marvelous. They also have amazing, soft chocolate cake and other desserts, milkshakes that look amazing but we haven’t tried yet, tons of flavors of tea that they bring to you by the pot, little glass bottles of Nestea Pêche, 70 flavors of Diablos, and apparently really good coffee. The last time I went in there with Maggie, Katie and Kelly, the waiter who is always there recognized us and gave us a special table even though it was really crowded. It was awesome.

Our favorite crêperie is called La Crêperie La Thosté, and it’s near Sainte-Anne, right by the bus stop for Champs Jaquet. It’s near the older center of town, and the buildings near it are ridiculously cute and old looking. When we walk there, we take the street approaching the cute buildings, and we’ve had many a discussion about whether those buildings are indeed the picture they used excessively all over the brochure for SYA. “Look! Rennes is cute! All the buildings are comme ça!” Well, in reality, all the buildings are not like that, but our favorite crêperie and the restaurants next to it definitely are. The crêpes at this awesome place are simply to die for. The crêpe is nice and soft, but just a little bit flaky and sugary on the edges which make it perfect. Just the right amount of Nutella, no skimping on the Nutella to save money, people! They have galettes too, and they’re really awesome. I love galettes with ham and cheese. They make my life. The crêperie is our Saturday lunch hang out, and I love it.

A few of the other places of note:

The crêperie that’s never open is right by our school and, in fact, is actually open sometimes! We wanted to try the place for a really long time but were convinced that it was NEVER open! After much suspense, failed efforts (and finally caving and looking at the sign on the window) we discovered that the crêperie actually was open occasionally! But only 2 hours for lunch! It opens at 11:45 and closes at 2. We like this crêperie quite a bit too, and obviously it’s very convenient as a lunch option when the café at St. Vincennes is too crowded to handle.

Speaking of the café at St. Vincennes, I should probably tell you about this amazing place! Oh, how silly we were to settle for the normal cafeteria upstairs for the first few weeks! Some ingenious SYAers discovered this semi-hidden mini-café underneath the school, which actually is a part of their cafeteria offerings, and therefore on our lunch card. (Sweet! Free food!) The thing that makes it awesome is that they have the best sandwiches in the world (on baguettes), Nestea, hot chocolate, and some other stuff like paninis, pizza, etc. Not to mention the beignets. They have beignets, and it makes me happy. The very strange thing about this café place is that it’s sometimes a little interesting at lunch time. Have you heard the stereotype that French people don’t wait in lines? Well, let me tell you, IT’S TRUE. If there are too many French lycée students down in the café before SYA gets there (mostly, Thursday) it’s simply a mob-scene of people cramming in to get food and elbowing you out of the way to swipe their lunch card before you. It’s kind of funny. Usually we opt for the crêperie that’s never open on Thursdays, just to save ourselves the stress. (Though we did fight the crowd a few times. I passed it off as a cultural experience, but really, it was just kind of fun. Plus, the food’s good.)

Our second favorite or other favorite café is another place at Sainte-Anne. It’s called the Café Marina, even though their mugs say Café Kimbo (a strange phenomenon that has occurred at many many cafés, their cups don’t match!) We accidentally stumbled upon this place one day and found out that they have really good hot chocolate and inside they have a TV with music videos which is quite entertaining. We like going there when we’re in Sainte-Anne, but we all like Candiot better and it’s worth the hike (cough! BUS RIDE! One stop on the 19!) to République for our amazing Chocolat Candiot and squishy choco cake. (No, I’m not going to gain 50 pounds while I’m over here! Cough!)

Somewhere that is definitely NOT of note: the poser café at République. Beware the adorable-looking French-looking café with the velvet upholstered chairs and logo’d ashtrays. It may look like an awesome little café, it is really NOT an amazing café, and NOT French. It seems Americanized. Tourist trap! They don’t give you saucers with your hot chocolate! And they give you your drinks and the check at the same time! And they don’t give you the check in a little tray! So no, don’t go to this stupid café. It’s not really French. It just LOOKS French. I think they only make money because people unwittingly stumble in right off the bus or metro. Oh well look, dear, an adorable little café that appears to be quite quaint and charming. Let’s spend money there and enjoy a nice French experience! NOT. The poser café is kind of an inside joke of ours too. We love to mock it.

You know what I realized the other day? French people eat so much bread and crêpes and stuff, this whole country would be an epic fail at a carb diet. Wow. Not that they need it. They are all beautiful.