Sunday Lunch

Sunday is very much a family day in France and it is spent eating a great deal.  between ll:00am and 5:00pm, most Parisian restaurants offer Brunch which can consist of fruit juices, fruit, various eggs, bread, smoked salmon, croissants and other French delicacies. All of this is accompanied in the early hours with great amounts of coffee and in the later hours various alcoholic beverages. If the weather is fine, as it was today, people sit out on the terraces for hours and hours eating, talking, drinking coffee, reading the newspapers or as all cafes seem to have free WiFi, working or playing on their computers, tablets or phones.

Another family favourite is Sunday lunch which usually starts at 1:30 or even 2:00pm and again continues for many hours. We were fortunate enough to be invited to such a lunch by friends.  It was held at the film studio run by their three children.  It proved an extremely interesting afternoon.  It was a wonderfully simple French meal although we still have not yet gotten used to having the cheese course before the dessert.

It is easy to see why the French enjoy such gatherings.  A good meal, good wine, good conversation with good friends.  What could possibly prove a nicer way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  Of course, with all of this eating on Sunday, the question we are left to face is, "what about dinner?"  Hmm.  Possibly a full dinner quite late but for us the lengthy lunch more than sufficed.