Friday 8 February 2013

9 interesting facts about France and French

I came across these interesting facts on another site so forgive me for borrowing them, I am sure I am not breaking any copy right laws as they were taken from a book.



  • The Languedoc-Rousillon city of Nîmes is the birthplace of jeans. The distinctive fabric was imported to California by Levi Strauss in order to make tough work trousers for gold diggers. Denim is short for “de Nîmes”
  • The Statue of Liberty was made in France, and given to the United States as a gift. The statue’s face is thought to be modelled on that of Isabella Eugenie Boyer, the Parisian wife of sewing machine manufacturer Isaac Singer.
  • When Dom Perignon and his Benedictine monk colleagues first stumbled upon champagne, they regarded the bubbles as a serious defect, and were trying to work out ways to eliminate them until they actually had a sip.
  • The bikini was invented in 1946 by two French designers working independently of each other. Jacques Heim was first, calling his two-piece bathing suit l’Atome. However, rival Louis Reard trumped him by hiring a skywriter to advertise his Bikini over the Riviera, and his name stuck.
  • The stripes of the French flag are equal width, except on the version used by the Navy, where the red stripe is biggest.
  • George’s Perec’s 1969 novel, La Disparition, does not contain the letter E.
  • Cinderella didn’t have glass slippers until Parisian Charles Perrault made his own version of an old Chinese tale. It's often thought this was a mistranslation in the English version, but Perrault specifically refers to glass, not squirrel fur. The confusion is from the similarities of ‘verre’ and ‘vair’.
  • Under laws that no-one has ever got round to removing from the statute book, it is illegal to call a pig Napoleon.
  • If you laid out the cables used in the lifts of the Eiffel Tower end to end, they would stretch for 16 kilometres.

Well I bet you didn't know that and will be a better person for it 

                                          ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Last nights dinner was gert lush. 

(I'm from the West Country)

All day John had been saying "what we having for tea" his favourite saying, I had put it to the very back of my mind for long enough as whatever we were going to have was still in the freezer - I love to cook but sometimes I get a day where I just can't be bothered, we are lucky enough to have an English Fish and Chip shop nearby and I thought about it but as the Doc said I have to lose weight I thought "No better not"
So Plan B 
The first thing I came across in the freezer were two chicken breasts (my favourite meat) so got it out with the intention of doing a Kiev type thing but with Garlic & herb soft cheese, coated in breadcrumbs and oven baked - delicious as I was collecting the ingredients together John came into the kitchen (He likes to cook with me ) Great! he exclaims, we are having curry! well who am I to disappoint a man when he looks so happy, so curry it was.. some time ago we had come across some Thai green curry sauce in Noz and had stockpiled it (you have to buy it when you see it otherwise it will be gone never to be repeated again)  
here we go then, Chop onions and gently fry, add Mushrooms,Assorted peppers and chicken
Fry onions
Add mushrooms
Add Chicken
Add peppers
      
Add Thai Sauce and some coconut milk

Simmer until sauce has slightly reduced and serve on a bed of rice, et voila Thai Green Curry & Rice



We also added some home made chutney given to us for Christmas by our good friends Sue and John, thank you guys it was delicious and I need the recipe.