Breakfast in bed

I have to say that I think that breakfasts in bed are highly overrated. Well, this is coming from a person who has never had a real proper breakfast in bed - you know, with a nice cuppa, some jam, butter and toast, a rose in a vase, all brought to you on a lovely tray by a special someone. The only breakfast I've ever had in bed was in hospital so I don't really delight at the idea at all!

But the best breakfast I've ever had in my life so far took place last Sunday, just before Davor and I left Bretagne for Paris. Just for me, Davor did a large U-y (that's u-turn to people not from Oz :) and took us to Nantes. Nantes is a lovely city (not that we saw much of it) but the reason he took me there was because of a brasserie called La Cigale. Many might be thinking that doing a 100 or so kilometre u-y is nuts but once you've seen La Cigale, you'll know that it is not such a nutty idea after all. Because as Jean-Louis Trintagnant put it, Brasserie La Cigale is "perhaps the most beautiful brasserie in the world". I would correct him and say IT IS the most beautiful brasserie in the world!

The brasserie was named after the fable "The Ant and the Grasshopper", as La Cigale means grasshopper in English. If you don't know the story, it goes like this:

In a field one summer's day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart's content. An Ant walked by, grunting as he carried a plump kernel of corn.

"Where are you off to with that heavy thing?" asked the Grasshopper.

Without stopping, the Ant replied, "To our ant hill. This is the third kernel I've delivered today."

"Why not come and sing with me," said the Grasshopper, "instead of working so hard?"

"I am helping to store food for the winter," said the Ant, "and think you should do the same."

"Why bother about winter?" said the Grasshopper; "we have plenty of food right now."

But the Ant went on its way and continued its work.

The weather soon turned cold. All the food lying in the field was covered with a thick white blanket of snow that even the grasshopper could not dig through. Soon the Grasshopper found itself dying of hunger.

He staggered to the ants' hill and saw them handing out corn from the stores they had collected in the summer.
Then the Grasshopper knew:

It is best to prepare for the days of necessity.

Neat story, a bit of a sign of the times, don't ya think...? The French say it was written by La Fontaine but it was originally written by Aesop...that's the French for ya...in any case, if there was ever a palace of pleasure for us lazy two-legged grasshoppers, La Cigale is it.

It was built on April 1st, 1895 in Art Nouveau style by the Nantes architect-ceramist Emile Libaudiere (you can tell the guy was a ceramist because the walls are full of a myriad of tiles, each one different and more colourful than the rest). The brasserie quickly became a haunt to the bourgeois of Nantes, who liked to rub shoulders with the pretty actresses and dancers of the nearby theatre, and was also a favourite brasserie of the French surrealists, notably Andre Breton. It was classed a National Monument in 1964 and was featured as the backdrop in a number of films. However, it fell into oblivion until 1982 when it was completely renovated and is now on every tourist map for visitors to Nantes. My pictures don't do it justice so watch out for Davor's ones when he uploads them on his site (http://www.cromagnon.blogerhr/). Here are a couple just to give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

Many will say when they read this that the breakfast we had was nothing special - copious, but not special - a croissant, a pain au chocolat, a brioche, some toast, 3 types of jams (including a creme de caramel au beurre sale and some organic apple jam), a glass of OJ and a chocolat chaud. But oooh, the chocolat chaud was made with Valrhona chocolate (my absolute favourite...I can still taste it now!) and the creme de caramel was to DIE FOR. It was all just magnifique. And eating breakfast in those kinds of surroundings was just surreal.

If you feel like trying some creme de caramel au beurre sale, it's dead easy to make, you just need a bit of patience (important when it comes to making caramel) and time. But believe me, it's time well spent. And when the house starts smelling of the most delicious caramel, let me know if you can stop at eating just one jar at a time...one lady commented to this recipe, "je ne veux pas savoir combien de calories il y a pour une cuillère" or I don't wanna know how many calories are in one spoon. I totally agree with her - I'd rather not know!!!

For one 250 ml jar:

240g sugar

80 ml water

100g salted or demi-salted butter

150 ml milk

Over a low heat, melt the sugar with the water. Add the butter once the sugar has melted. Boil until it turns a light brown/caramel colour. Take of the heat and add the cold milk. Stir the mixture until it becomes smooth. Bring to the boil again and cook for another 10 or so minutes until it becomes a honey consistency. Put into a jar and let cool.

If you want a creme de caramel au beurre sale au chocolat (or in other words, A TOTAL SUGAR BOMB!), add 100g of chocolate to the caramel after having added the milk.

Bon appetit and, like I've already said, enjoy a little something everyday,

The Knitting Songbird

PS Thanks again for brekkie Davor :)