AUGUST 2000 - REFLECTIONS ON FRUIT IN FRANCE

This newsletter contains some reflections about Fruit in France, as we have spent the last 30 days (with 10 still to go) walking 400 kilometers from Nice to Geneva via the French Alps - known as the Grand Traverse of the Alps.

Well what can we say about French fruit? We have had some interesting experiences to share. Tucked away in a little remote village in the alps of Provence we were staying at a little hotel which served for dessert a tart garnished with a slice of Carambola - in our wonderful french we asked to speak to the chef to find out where it had come from. "Asia" he said - "It is an Asian fruit" - Yes but where did you get it? - it turns out that it had come to France via Israel, and needless to say the slice was tasteless, as we had been told by other Europeans who had done our fruit tasting - just used for decoration.

Every village still has a baker, a butcher and a fruit shop. In the fruit displays the price also has to show where the fruit comes from -local or which country. so we have seen New Zealand apples for sale in french villages and kiwi fruit, and bananas from Cameroun, but nothing from Australia.

In one large supermarket town there was a sign over the fruit and vege stand which said that any fruit which had been imported had been sprayed with a long list of chemicals - listed there - enough to put you off eating them.

There have been lots of vegetable gardens and orchards as we have walked through the little villages, generally being tended by older men and women, but so many that it will be something that we will remember fondly.

The first course of any french meal always seems to be a salad of fresh greens etc, except in the alps where we have been getting soup. In the alps we have been served virtually no fruit or vegetables at the refuges where we have been staying - lots of potatoes and cheese - and discovering where the fondue actually originated.

One of our great experiences has been walking in the fir forests which have an understory wild raspberries and strawberries and blueberries and being able to eat and browse as we walk. In australia there is so little in the bush that you can eat. There are so many wild blueberries that we have seen some people with buckets picking them.