One More Croissant for the Road: Felicity Cloake

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A battered van appears behind her, the customary cigarette dangling from its driver's-side window… as he passes, she casually reaches down for some water, smiling broadly in the manner of someone having almost too much fun.

Our recent holiday in the Lake District proved that I can cycle several days in a row, albeit not the distances Cloake covers.

Quite entertaining, although it did get a bit repetitive (struggle up some hills, nearly arrive late for a restaurant reservation, eat food, describe another endless croissant, meet friends, drink too much, shove in a recipe to take up a bit of space). Yet such is the rush before I go that I don’t quite make time to check if all my gear will fit in my new bright yellow panniers … I have a sneaking suspicion that once I’ve included important morale-boosting items like Marmite and sloe gin, there might not be an awful lot of room for luxuries like spare inner tubes and plasters.

Her aim was to sample the best versions of her 21 favourite French foods, while keeping to a fairly tight schedule. I'll be rating my croissants according to Felicity's scale and while quite a few of the recipes interested me, not even the highest rating can persuade me to try offal, in any of its forms! New discoveries were as thrilling as the classics were comforting – I thought I was au fait with French food, when I had barely scratched the surface.So, while it’s not a cycling memoir per se, if you WERE planning to cycle around France and eat good food, you’d want this as you only guide book, it’s actually super informative about a lot of things you need to consider – I know this as I have a friend who DID cycle from England all the way through France and Spain. The rider crouched on top in a rictus of pain has slowed to a gravity-defying crawl when, from somewhere nearby, the whine of a nasal engine breaks through her ragged breathing. Thanks for the clafoutis recipe, I'm going to make it this week after getting cherries at the market tomorrow. I also learned more about the Chaplain of the United States Senate (and apparently, House of Representatives). There is no doubt this book will make you hungry as you read it and even I was surprised at how much I didn't know about the food of France.

I like to use Norman cider and drink the rest with it, but you can use a dry white wine if you prefer. Unfortunately the Audible version I downloaded was disappointing- it sounded as if the reader was a last-minute replacement having no relationship with the text and reading at double speed to get the job done.But what floored me was Felicity and her friends going out for lunches and/or dinners and having drinks and riding their bikes after! So poorly constructed, that by the time you’ve finished the paragraph, you’ve forgotten how and why it started.