There are NO rules in her tartineland and in her world absolutely anything can be spread on it (even when it is not spreadable): de la confiture qui dégouline (some drippy jam), de la vache kiri (the laughing cow cheese spread), une tranche ou deux de saucisson avec du sucre en morceau (a slice or two of saucisson with a cube of sugar), du fromage et de la moutarde (cheese and mustard)… Sometime she even spreads all of this onto ONE ALMIGHTY tartine which she then dips in a pint of coffee poured into one of those traditional breakfast bowls. Saying this, you can make the most amazing tartines out of one slice and if you do not know what a tartine is I invite you to contact my sister as she is by far the most able tartineur I know on the planet.
I don't really enjoy it as it is hard to cut and eating one slice can fill you up until the next morning and we all know how much I love eating other kinds of food. I shouldn’t disparage the gros pain really, knowing how it brings my sister a tremendous amount of pleasure. These big fellows are roughly the size of three flûtes (I am talking about the bread of course and not my parents). Saying this, when they have du monde (people) over for dinner, they will lash out and purchase a couple of gros pains. Twice as big as a baguette (250g) but way smaller than a gros pain (800g). Take my parents for example: they always buy the same size bread: la flûte. I truly think that French people stick to the same size of bread for life, probably because of what their own ancestors used to purchase at the boulangerie. Of course I am talking about ZE French Bread or more commonly called in my country le pain.
Oh sorry! Did I mislead you? Are you reading this blog hoping I was going to talk about something else? You funny thing. I don’t often go for the big one as it can be too filling. Personally I am the woman of two sizes: the long one and the long thin one.