THE BEST PART OF WAKING UP...

"... a good French breakfast is the key to beginning the day with a bit of joie de vivre... a simple and pleasant breakfast lifts you right into the day's activities with a gentle boost that's like a pat on the back as you go out the door...as a rooster crows from across the fields, I prepare a fragrant, crunchy baguette with butter from the local dairyman. I slather the baguette in jam made from last month's crop of strawberries. Some days, I prefer to try some honey, fresh from the comb and purchased last Saturday from my local farmer's market, or le marche'. In fact, when eating this breakfast, each bite seems more delectable and more enjoyable to me because I know that everything was grown or made locally... Breakfast is about the fragrance of coffee and toast. When I was young, I could smell my maman making breakfast in the kitchen when I woke up. It was the best fragrance in the world because even just the smell of the toast always made me think of the satisfying crunch of the bread. I couldn't wait to get downstairs to eat!" ~ Joie De Vivre, by Robert Arbor

Did you know the French drink their cafe' au lait out of bowls, not cups? These are the coffee bowls from the Le Gamin cafes which Robert Arbor opened in New York City. 

I'm sure I've mentioned many times how much I love the book Joie de Vivre, by Robert Arbor. In fact, it was one of those twelve life-changing books that I discussed, then sent off to one lucky reader, as part of my "Year of Reading Dangerously Give-Away" a few years back. The very first chapter in it -- the one that reached out and grabbed me, and wouldn't let go -- was all about breakfast in France.  Twenty three whole pages just about the importance of one simple little meal, usually consisting of nothing more than coffee and bread.

Did you catch that bit about breakfast being all about the fragrance of coffee and toast? For years my hubby has been on a cold-cereal-every-day jag. Then suddenly, who knows why, he decided he didn't like it anymore. So he started making toast everyday. Every time he does, I think of what Robert Arbor had to say about it, because the smell drives me absolutely bonkers, and causes me to salivate every single time. Who knew? Now, don't get me wrong. I love my simple morning rituals. But, I have to admit, tea and steel cut oats are somewhat lacking when it comes to fragrance. If only I could get my hubby to take up coffee drinking as well...and convince him to start getting up before me, so that I might experience waking up to those aromas for myself. Yeah, um, not gonna happen.