Well, I can tell you that two of those three things are apparently not just stereotypes (I've only seen gendarmes who are wearing berets, but perhaps once it gets colder, more of them will be making an appearance...)
Of course, France is famous for its wine - a class of wine here is typically cheaper in a cafe than a bottle of water (see picture number two). You can easily walk through the streets or sit in a courtyard, bottle in hand or laying around, and no one will really give you a second look. Let's just say, I've retired the Nalgene w/ curly straw for the time being :)
And thus we arrive at the root of my dilemma (ish) in France. The baguette.
When I first left for Aix-en-Provence this summer, I thought about what I knew about the French and some of the perceptions we have of them. I also thought about what French probably believe we think about them (if that makes convoluted sense...). One of the main things I thought was that Americans often arrive in France and go crazy in Boulangeries, thinking that French are obsessed with baguettes which gives tourists the go-ahead to eat pastries whenever they can manage. After six weeks, I thought I had a pretty good idea of the truth - I even thought about writing a blog on my observations. But alas, I ran out of time, so my post on American's obsession with croissants, pain au chocolat and of course, the baguette, fell by the wayside.
Last Friday though, I had a wonderful epiphany while running home from the park near my apartment. Within a one block radius from my building, there are probably 7 or 8 boulangeries. SEVEN OR EIGHT. That's a lot of pain [Clarification: pain = bread, not pain as in "Ow, that hurts" - I will probably use it repeatedly in this post] for a relatively small area. As I was running at around 6:30 - 7 pm, most everyone was returning home from work. It was at this moment that I realized the French baguette is really, truly, a French way of life. I would estimate about a third of the people I saw were holding baguettes. There was a line out the door at both boulangeries leading to my street. The smell of warm, crispy bread was lofting through the air. It was really quite the sight.
This situation also led to my discovery of a related phenomenon, which I have decided to call "the baguette bite". Every single person (and I was actually trying to find an example against this statement) who had a baguette, had a bite sized piece missing from the end of his or her baguette. Whether he or she tore it off with his or her hand or actually bit it, each person had nibbled. Talk about a cultural habit :)
To return to the topic of my title - bread, and thus gluten, is engrained in the society here. And why would they change it ? French gastronomy was recently listed on the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list by UNESCO (Read more HERE); that's how engrained the food is here. A Gluten-free diet just isn't really understood here; it just doesn't work to be honest. If I tried, I wouldn't eat breakfast, lunch or half of dinner (brioche toast, followed by sandwich, on a baguette of course, and then bread with dinner). There would be no croissants for me, no crepes, madeleines, galettes, gaufres, croque messieurs, quiche or rouleux saucisson. As much as I would love to lose a bit of that college drinking weight, I would prefer not to waste away. It's been tough, and as much as I love being able to eat my favorite food group again, I somewhat miss the way being gluten-free made me feel (more energy, less cravings, less headaches). It's a tradeoff, but I've decided it is a cultural change. With such a famous and intangibly delicious cuisine, living in France just wouldn't be the same without eating like a French person.
Bisous xx
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