Coffee

Apart from Hannah who is desperately missing her friends (“Mummy, I want some friends who can walk” – apparently our 6 month old visitors don’t count), we had our first pang of home-sickness this week. Despite what some people may be thinking, it wasn't me craving an in-depth discussion on the ability of social media and Web 2.0 to influence and shape the superannuation industry. It was Em who desperately craved banana bread and a coffee in our local café in Erskineville. And to be honest, I think she would have traded the banana bread for a pain-au-chocolate. What I suspect she was craving was the café experience, and by experience I mean:

1. A nice café
2. A friendly chat
3. A snack with her coffee
4. A decent coffee. With milk.

I've previously explained that the French have been extremely friendly and welcoming, so the lack of friendly chat is entirely our fault – we just don’t speak the language. And while they and we (especially Em) are generally happy to attempt a bit of communication, it’s both hard work, and reasonably un-fulfilling.

From what we've found, the French don’t appear to do “nice” cafes. There is no atmosphere or decor. They tend to resemble a rather dingy bar, where most of the patrons have headed home after a long night, but a couple still hang around. And maybe we’re just being pretentious, but occasionally you want to feel welcomed, and cosy; rather than like an interloper who’s place will be hosed down seconds after they walk out the door.

The French boloungerie /patisserie is a bit of an institution. We have 2 in our tiny village - in took a dedicated stretch of croissant sampling to decide which would become “ours”. And the breads and pastries are wonderful. But they don’t serve coffee. And more bizarrely, the “cafes” don’t appear to serve any cakes . Some have a biscuit tin, but that’s about it. In my Australian mind, it’s a perfect match, and an obvious gap in the market – but again, perhaps I’m a philistine.

But surely a decent coffee is possible. I have this romantic notion that the Europeans (especially the French and the Italians) do a good coffee. My hopes now lie with the Italians. I don’t know if everyone has short blacks because the cafes only have UHT (long life) milk, or if the cafes only have UHT milk because everyone orders short blacks. But the end result is that a café-au-lait is terrible. Short blacks have a role (after dinner they’re quite good), but it’s not for the morning coffee. You can’t linger over a coffee that is 2 sips big. Even if it’s great coffee (which occasionally, but rarely happens), it’s still unsatisfying. The French seem to drink a lot of coffee, and I think the reason is that they want the experience to last more than 2 minutes. And of course a baby-cino is unacceptable with UHT milk, which means that the café experience is much harder anyway.

More photos by clicking on the image below (nothing to do with coffee, but of our recent visit to the French Alps!)

Coffee