Do you know what Frenchies enjoy to sample at 4 o'clock on the afternoon?
End of the day : We all need to relax. We appreciate a hot drink, a little bite to eat and if possible someone to talk.
But in fact : the french way of tea time is very different. It is sanctified by certain civilizing traditions.
French people call it le gôuter (“to taste”) or “les quatre heures,” literally “the four o’clock.” Taken any time between 4 and 6 p.m., In the past it was reinforcement for the dairy farmers before the evening milking. A light dinner is served later in the evening.
Le gôuter is based on tea, hot chocolate, or café au lait. A hot drink taken at ease is simultaneously capable of picking you when you’re down and relaxing you when you’re stressed.
Next is some form of bread, with accompaniment. One of the best gôuter foods is saucisson, hard salami. Then there are the hundreds of amazing French cheeses. Tartines (bread-and-butter or open faced sandwiches), maybe some jam, preferably homemade. A standard favorite is tartine et chocolate, a few squares from a plain tablet of semi-sweet. Yogurt and other scrumptious dairy products like tartines or maybe some homegrown rubbery yellow-pink apples, or compôte, with homemade applesauce.
But le gôuter is not just about the food, but also about the experience. Rather than the dining room it begins in the kitchen.
For french people it is a social event, in the dying light of the late afternoon. They find a cozy informality and familiarity.The process of finding what’s to be eaten, in cupboard, fridge, or sideboard is part of the pleasure. The foraging, the setting out, the finding of more, the assembly of tartines, the spreading, the cutting, the steeping and the stirring, all lend themselves to engaging children in the enjoyment of that process.
The point is to take it slow and savor the time, tastes and togetherness.
That's the french touch, l'art de vivre....
