I have just finished reading Provence 1970 , a wonderful memoir of a special time at the nexus of French and American food cultures, and there was a description of MFK Fisher that stuck out to me:
The café au lait was over-milky and oversweet, an innocent sensuality that made her want to get back into bed and read awhile longer.
I remember, several years back, I was shocked to find out that the French never drank café au lait outside of home or, really, outside of breakfast.
Paraphrasing a description I once read, you only have café au lait with the people who slept or woke up in the same place as you. I felt a little silly having been ordering it for years at cafés!
But there is really nothing like waking up with a large mug or bowl of sweet milky coffee and taking your time.
All a roundabout way of saying – enjoy your snow day if you are snowed under the “Arctic freeze” today and if you’re lucky enough to be somewhere sunny and warm, make sure to linger in the sunshine.
Happy New Year, Ksenia. This is a lovely post, and it is true that the French don’t drink café au lait much outside of home (and usually from a bowl). I am not much of a café-au-lait-au-lit person, I prefer the “noisette” (big debate going between me and my friend about whether it is LE noisette or LA noisette), which can be ordered without shame at a café 🙂
Stay warm! It is almost springtime here in Northern France!
Happy New Year, Daria! I love drinking it out of a bowl myself 🙂
Noisette(s) seems to be the local coffee drink of choice, for sure. Let me know if the article debate gets resolved haha
I think it will be a long winter here in the US but I’m off to Paris next week and, hopefully, milder weather! xx
Lovely cup!
Aw thanks!
It sounds so good, café au lait. Creamy, warm, soothing, milky – but then there’s the barely evident taste of coffee, and I just can’t do it… I love the smell of coffee, freshly ground, or someone who just had a big cup of fresh coffee, I just want to snuggle. But if I taste it, yuck! and I mean just the slightest hint of it. Sigh! Many have tried to convert me, but there seems to be no way to success. I have my tea though, and I still read similar books and enjoy them just as much.
Happy new year to you and see if you can find a way to embrace the cold season. We actually hope to see some snow soon. Winter so far has been unusually warm…
Huh, how interesting, Anne! I think the smell of great coffee is even more compelling than the taste, but I do love a cup 🙂
How do you feel about chai lattes? Sounds like that may be the perfect milky drink compromise!
beautiful shot!
Thank you, Jasline!
I have my one bowl of cafe au lait as I read my emails in th e morning…nice writing, lovely picture and I’m a huge fan of MFK Fisher. I remember swapping a very expensive professional mandolin for a dog eared copy of a collection of her writing including “How to Cook a Wolf””. Thanks for visiting and following my blog.
Thank you, Roger! I love the transportive writing of MFK Fisher as well.