Does the saying ‘You are what you eat’ also apply when you travel? If this is true, then it’s a worrying thought. Because, when you travel, you sometimes have to eat whatever is available, even if you wouldn’t normally touch it at home.
Not that the food is necessarily bad, it’s just not what you’re used to. A traveller to the UK knows only too well that day after day of full English, Scottish or Irish breakfasts will slowly turn them into an entirely different person, a softer, fuller version of the one who left home. But somehow it’s impossible to say ‘no’ each morning to more of the same.
Some independent travellers get around the problem by planning ahead. An elderly cycle tourist I once met in France knew exactly what he would be eating for the next 21 days. He knew because he’d brought it all with him. Attached to his bike was a long mono-wheeled trailer stuffed with rice and tins of sardines. Every meal, he said cheerfully, was going to be exactly the same.
Everyone has their own idea of a perfect travelling diet. And they are all different. Another cycle tourist I met, this time in Winchester, had just returned from an extended and extremely low-budget holiday in France. She had been sleeping outdoors and was sunburned, weather-beaten and slightly wild-eyed. Her first meal on British soil was a very large and very greasy fish supper. She was in heaven, and this heaven came with clouds made out of superheated vinegar. Licking her fingers as she struggled through the last of the chips, she said, ‘I’ve just spent four weeks in France living on nothing but baguettes and vin ordinaire. This is my first decent meal in weeks.’
Neither of these regimens would appeal to Catherine Pringle. In Peloton of Two, she enjoys as much as she can of good wine and good food. The justification? She’s struggling around France on a bicycle, day after day of it, in the heat of summer. When she’s not on the bicycle she wants to enjoy herself as much as she can. Who can argue with that?
Please leave a comment and let me know the strangest thing you’ve subsisted on during a journey. And what you craved the most when you returned home. Have you ever gone the full sardines and rice route? Or are you a baguette and vin ordinaire person? And did you celebrate your return from holiday with a fish supper?