The French Anti-Diet

What follows are the Top Ten reasons southern France will undoubtedly make you fat (albeit, blissfully so) despite the fact that you're walking an average of 15 miles and 7 hours a day.

10.) The Patisserie with its crusty baguettes and sinfully sweet pain aux raisin.
9.) Cream. It's in EVERYTHING. Skim milk? What are you, a communist?
8.) Daily olive breaks. Black olives. Green olives stuffed with tuna. Purple olives soaked in onions. Picholine. Manzanilla. Niciose. Oh my!
7.) Cheese. Cheese plates. Cheese salads. Cheese tortes. Cheese thighs.
6.) The Artisanal Chocolatiers with their delicately crafted salted caramels, lavender chocolates and gooey pistachio and raspberry jam macaroons. A subcategory is Chocolat Noir, which we buy in bars from the Epicerie and pop like amphetamines on the trail when energy is lagging.
5.) Vin Rouge and lots of it. Often water (what someone who has hiked and sweated all day needs most to survive) is not served during dinner, but even in the humblest of pilgrim lodgings, red wine is a constant tabletop star.
4.) Insatiable hunger. The only way I can describe how ungodly hungry you become hiking all these endless miles is to compare myself to a snake greedily swallowing a pig whole. In this metaphor I am both the snake AND the pig.
3.) Speaking of the curly tailed beastie, Jambon is next on the list. I have tried to avoid pork, but it somehow finds its way in nearly everything we are served. Often hidden under layers of cheese, egg, dough or lettuce. What is the fascination? Didn't "Babe" get released over here?
2.) Double dinners. Unable to wait until 8pm for the official dinnertime, mom and I find ourselves sneaking in an additional 4/5pm meal, often hoarding food in our room for these early, first-round dinners like survivors of the Great Depression. This extra meal is not only essential to our health and well being, but also ebbs the tide of crankiness that could lead to one of us maiming the other.

And the number one reason your hiking pants refuse to get any looser...

1.) French breakfast. Forcing white bread into a food group all its own.

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Now some fun Toulouse pics.





I love that even though it's in English, they've given it an entirely different movie title. I guess 'hangover' simply doesn't translate. But I'll tell you what translates in every country - Bradley Cooper.


The candy shop lures me in with its bright colors and cellophane.


Mom questions this picture - as did everyone watching me take it - but I love it. I call it "Nature's Graffiti."


Our namesake. The city of Metz is the Capitol of the Lorraine region in northern France and, as Americans, makes us slightly more popular with the concierge when we say "reservation under Metz."



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Location:Rue Antoine Deville,Toulouse,France