I was a university student when I lived in France. Everyone was on the meal plan because the food was so good. It was cafeteria style dining and you could get all you wanted. The 'best' dining hall was quite a distance from where I lived so I tended to bike there once or twice a day. If I was hungry when I got home there was also a small cafe in the lobby of my residence. The cafe had mostly fast food type choices like burgers and fries. It was next door to the TV room where they got 3 channels and 2 of them would usually be showing the same program. The only radio station that wasn't classical music was Radio Free Luxembourg!
I was blown away when I went for my first meal and saw huge pitchers of red and white wine on the table. I was young and very impressed by this. It was a big deal to me to be treated like a grownup! They had the best pates I had ever tasted. And the yogurts were better than anything we have in the states. And just the varieties of meats and cheeses astounded me. The breads, butter, and jams were the best I ever had. It took me no time at all to figure out I had to taste everything and before long they would start making my plate when I walked in! It was quality food with real flavor. Everything was real, not processed to death. Desserts were most often fruit and cheese but they did have pastries a couple times a week. Don't even get me started on the sauces. Scallops florentine in a gouda alfredo! And tuna in olive oil. Fresh dates!
Every few weeks in the Spring/Summer, they would have a Mechoui. A goat BBQ. They would marinate whole goats and cover them with spices then roast them on spits over open fires. OMG that was wonderful. They would carve the meat and usually serve it over a saffron rice kind of pilaf. The goat BBQ was a regional specialty and not all that common throughout the rest of the country.
I loved their breakfasts but I usually missed it because I wanted the sleep more. It was always fresh bread, butter, and jam. Sometimes they had real cream cheese too. The meats were unusual. They almost always had sausages and baked beans. And salmon or smoked Plaice. I found the beanie weeny for breakfast thing was quite common all over the place. And of course they had cafe au lait and hot chocolate. Sometimes the cream was so thick you had to spoon it out of the pitcher because it was too thick to pour.
We ate communally at long banquet tables that seated about 20 people. Most took about an hour for lunch and did socialize with their table-mates. We would talk about anything and everything. Usually in more than one language. There were many students from other countries.
I had a bike, a rail pass, and for a while, a 2 horsepower car I inherited from another graduating American student. The car was partly made of cardboard and you had to be careful in the rain. There was another whole world of food in town and I sampled a lot of it. But I was a poor student and ate at the dining hall most of the time. It was free! You could pretty much say I ate Europe!
One thing we do better...pizza. I tried pizza all over the place because it was a cheap meal. American pizza is better.
Being a typical American, the food was a revelation to me. The French educated my palate and my brain. One of the things I took home with me was an appreciation for good food. I would love to go back and see if it's still the same! I hope it hasn't changed!
