As we are a bit over half way through our journey along the Canal I  thought it was timely to update you on croissants. We have eaten quite a few of these now for breakfast on the boat.Tony Watt has also knocked up a couple of breakfasts of croque-madames. Althego normally goes ashore around 8 am and hunts

Croissant

the local bread shop and brings them back to the boat fresh from the oven (along with a couple of baguettes for lunch). On another occasion we went ashore in Trebes and had them in a cafe. The french seem to eat them as they come with a coffee or juice of some description. Allthego likes them with honey. We have also had them with a runny blackberry jelly. very nice indeed!

Croissants have an interesting history. They did not originate in France but in Austria. Apparently, to celebrate a victory against marauding Turks back in the 1700s sometime bakers in a town invented the croissant. It was very much in the shape of a cross though (hence the name croissant) unlike the french version which is more like a crescent shape. Anyway the croissant came to France when Marie Antoinette arrived to marry the French King, one of those Louis. The good french changed the shape in adopting it and made it look a bit more fancy. It’s a bit like what they did to the humble English potato chip creating a french fry.  I hope this information is helpful for my readers next trivia night.

Despite this we will continue to eat them along the way!