So here we are in France at a nice little boulangerie/patiserrie! Okay, okay, after the last two posts from our home town we thought we should try and give the impression that we have become a little more outward looking. Well we have actually but only as far as Edinburgh!  The Edinburgh International Festival was in full swing! Absolutely thousands of people all over the place. Just trying to walk down the Royal Mile becomes a tactical nightmare dodging the performers, leaflet distributors and tourists.

There were also clues that the Fringe Festival was alive and well. We met ‘Sven from Sweden‘ who had a sizeable crowd enthralled with his antics. The climax of Sven’s performance was to surmount an unsteady pile of IKEA furniture with an IKEA microwave on top, remove a plate of IKEA Swedish meatballs from the microwave, then spin the plate of meatballs on his head while juggling with three IKEA toilet roll holders complete with toilet rolls. You simply do not get cultural insights like this every day. Sweden seems like a fun place!

Contending with the milling hordes soon take its toll however so it wasn’t long before we were in need of some refreshment. Having done Sweden, the next in line was France in the form of La Barantine. Amazingly it was almost empty when we went in and we could have chosen from virtually any seat. It did not last however, a few minutes later it was very busy indeed. Just like everywhere else! You had to place your order at the counter. Rather oddly for this city where almost all counter staff are from eastern europe, in La Barantine they actually seemed to be from France … promising!

They had scones but only blueberry and raspberry … not so promising! When they arrived at our table they looked ‘interesting’, served on a rustic piece of slate with actual Scottish butter. It seems you have to come to a French café to get Scottish produce … good for them! We wondered if we would manage the Union coffee, however, without gagging. As it happened it was all very good. The scone was not as heavy as it looked. It was very moist but light at the same time and had obviously been freshly prepared. We swithered long and hard about whether these were topscones but in the end we felt they were just a tad ‘odd’ for such a prestigious award … pity!

The Union

After convincing ourselves that the “Union Hand Roasted Coffee” referred to the EU rather than the UK, it was fine as well. The name actually refers to a union between the roasters and their Guatemalan farmers … so that’s good. Even though Edinburgh is completely bonkers in August it is also great fun and a great advertisement for Scotland. In spite of the multitude of people of all sorts of nationalities we don’t think there has even been the slightest hint of trouble in the entire month. We were just wondering what the chances were of meeting some Scottish folk when suddenly three emerged from the crowd. They were imposters from Italy … vive le EU!EH1 2JP    tel: 0131 226 4927       La Barantine