Lazy Sunday

For the first time forever I had Sunday off (normally I’ll be opening our busy waterfront café). I’d forgotten how carefree this day once was so many years ago before life got in the way.

In a previous blog I’d mentioned how disappointing I had found French coffee to be following my last visit. Had I imagined it to be so much better all those years ago, maybe it was the company at the time, youth and a pretty girl that had distorted by taste buds and memory?  

This morning, alone with my thoughts, a mug of Cuban, Altura Lavado filter coffee and a couple of fresh croissants I was reminded of that slower life that can still be found in places like Dinard in northern France.

Let me take you to a balcony on one of the many apartments overlooking that old seaside resort. Set out before you like some idyllic film backdrop are the proud old buildings that tell of a time when only the truly wealthy could afford to travel abroad. Then there’s the vast and eternal blue sky, with in the foreground the white sand of the Dinard beach. You can feel the chill of the fresh morning air perfumed with the salty aroma of the sea. Somewhere a bell tolls from an ancient church, and of course there is always the screech of the talkative seagulls. Dinard though has yet to awaken.

Turning back through the French windows and pushing aside the billowing curtains she sits there, Christophe’s Aline. We shower and go in search of a Boulangerie on the streets below. The pavements are wet from an overnight wash and the smell of the sea is now infused with the contents of the Boulangerie.

Back at the apartment the still warm and flaking croissants sit alongside two large “boules” of steaming black filter coffee. The deep smooth taste of the coffee, the crumbling buttery croissants and the soft skin of eternal youth intoxicate on that eternal balcony.

That’s the France of my dreams and this superb Cuban coffee on a lazy Sunday morning transported me there as only great coffee can. I wonder, whatever happened to Aline?

If  you would like to try our Cuban Altura Levado coffee you can find some by using this link.

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