Pictures of the Day – Fruit in Mougins
We absolutely fell in love with the local boulangerie in Mougins. We began our days by walking down our little hill and getting a baguette, croissant, or pastry for breakfast. The quality was AMAZING, and the staff were wonderful. Above is breakfast one day, amazing croissant, amazing fruit, amazing French butter and locally produced jam. The tea is British, I brought my tea bags from home, which I buy from the local Indian shops and are imported from England. The ashtray is useless, but I left it in the picture because it seemed very French to me.
Due to COVID, there was often a line in front of the store. Meaning, don’t crowd the place. They did have the plastic barriers we have all become used to, because very few people wear masks, and they wanted to keep their staff safe. But they were limiting customers to 2 at a time, which I appreciated.
We are terrible people, and did not try any of these amazing desserts. Also, when we took the train from Nice to Paris, we STUPIDLY did not buy the amazing sandwiches they sold here on their amazing baguettes, and instead purchased sandwiches in the train dining car, which were pathetic and just what one would expect from a train dining car. It only occurred to me that this might be an option when one of our seat mates pulled out her sandwich and ate it. I don’t remember that it looked especially good or not, just that it suddenly occurred to me that we could have had an amazing sandwich instead of a completely mediocre sandwich. Generally I try to not regret mediocre meals, just let them go, but this one, I regret.
One thing I do not regret, though perhaps I should, is the fruit that we purchased in Mougins. There was a grocery store nearby, that was wonderful for dog treats to bring home for Mulder, for wine at a reasonable price, even good for little trays of cheese. But their fruit was lacking. The option that was readily available was a little store near the boulangerie. So we bought some fruit. Carey tried to speak reason to me, but I was not having it. If you see the receipt above, you will see that we spent about $48 for a basket of raspberries, a basket of blackberries, a basket of blueberries, a basket of strawberries, and an apple. I regret nothing. Vacation money is not the same as money at home, and truly, the fruit at the grocery store was not vacation food. Really, it was not even home food, just that at home, I would have known where else to go, to get something of good quality for less money.
When we asked the lovely concierge/office manager at the time share if she ever shopped at this place, she said, “once.” So perfect an answer, right?
9 Comments
nance
I agree about Vacation Money. You are on vacation, and comparing your spending whilst away to what you’d spend at home is tedious and hinders the mood. One expects to be a little extravagant now and then on vacation, else one should perhaps not have gone at all.
Your breakfast looks perfect and one that I could relax over–sipping and nibbling and planning the day. I only eat breakfast on vacation, and that one would tempt me every morning.
J
Nance, I’m with you, I generally am not the kind of person who eats in the morning. But we did a LOT of walking on our vacation, and I found I was hungrier than I am at home where I sit in front of a desk all day, so it was good to have a little something in the morning. I will confess that I got a little tired of bread for breakfast every day, I was ready for some eggs or something. We tried making eggs at home one day, but our pan was not non-stick and it was a real mess. Another day we went out and got breakfast at a place nearby in Vincennes, but not much luck there. The French don’t really do breakfast like we do in the US, so we didn’t have a lot of options. Now, however, having been home for over a month, I’m dreaming of these croissants again. There is a bakery downtown that claims to have French pastries/bread/etc., and if it were closer, I would stop and get something, give it a try…oh, now I’m thinking about how Maya wants me to drive her to work today (it’s raining! YAY!) and that would put me in that general area…perhaps I will try a croissant today!
Thank you for understanding about vacation money. It is an attitude that Ted taught me years ago, and it has served me well.
Ally Bean
Your breakfast looks delicious, picture perfect. I’m sure I’d not have thought ahead to buy a sandwich for your train trip, yet now that you mention it, it makes good sense.
J
Ally, exactly. It makes good sense to have something of better quality for less money…but sadly, it didn’t occur to either of us, even staring at those beautiful sandwiches the very same morning. Sigh.
San
Wow, the breakfast looks delicious and I agree: vacation money is different from regular money (although I feel like with inflation and all, we could almost pay $48 for what you bought there. Ha.
P.S. Very thrilled to see you join the NaBloPoMo list and thanks for stopping by my blog 🙂
J
San, welcome! I’m glad you’re hosting a group for NaBloPoMo, I’m enjoying trying to get back into blogging a bit, not just the writing, but also reaching out and ‘meeting’ some new folks.
Regarding inflation, yeah. It’s crazy how expensive everything is right now. Some of that is fuel prices driving the cost of everything else up, but a lot of it is price gouging. And what are we supposed to do about it? We can’t go on strike from eating.
Meike
I landed here through NaBloPoMO and your blog posts really make me want to plan a vacation right now! And those boulangerie pictures… sigh,
J
Welcome! Yes, this was an amazing vacation, 2 1/2 weeks in France with my favorite cousin. And the food was amazing. We walked 8 – 11 miles a day, and I didn’t lose any weight. At least I didn’t gain any!
Tobia | craftaliciousme
It all looks very delicious. I would have tried my way through all the little cakes for sure.