Hello!
As regular readers of this blog will well know, I am a huge ice cream enthusiast. One thing I tried to do in every town or city I visited on my year abroad was to sample the local ice cream offering.
From France to Spain to Monaco to Italy, I enjoyed cones, tubs and sundaes, whether relaxing, exploring or on the go. Here I will share with you my thoughts on ice creams galore, from the flavour to the texture to the toppings.
I hope you enjoy it!
We'll start our tour in France.
Perpignan
Although I lived in Perpignan for the longest period of time, I didn't actually eat that much ice cream - partly because crème catalane is the main dessert in the city and partly because Picard, my local frozen food shop, did great sorbets which I tended to choose when I fancied something cold.
However, based on how well Perpignan does sweet treats generally, and how hot it is there, I'm sure ice cream is both plentiful and delicious.
The photo above was taken in the beautiful Old Town on the day of the amazing Sanch Procession. I don't know whether I actually ever bought ice cream from that shop, but it looks pretty good!
Collioure
In gorgeous seaside town Collioure, on the other hand, I enjoyed at least three ice creams. I had one every time I went there: in autumn, just to visit, in winter for the Christmas Market and in spring with my mother for my 21st birthday.
I think my frequent consumption of Collioure ice cream may be linked to the fact that I felt like a tourist there and eating ice cream is one of the ultimate touristy things to do, whereas in Perpignan, where I worked, I felt more like a resident.
Collioure has a wide range of ice cream flavours but the crowning glory is the huge amount of whipped cream they squirt on top.
Le Grau-du-Roi
A very different town, le Grau-du-Rois, sits between salt-lakes in the raw and mysterious Camargue and hides many small but functional ice cream shops in its labyrinth of narrow paved streets.
For me the Camargue is one of the most incredible and underrated places in the world, so why not enjoy it with an ice cream?
Antibes
While undertaking my French language course in Antibes I made the most of the local ice cream which has a definite Italian influence.
The big tourist scene means that on the one hand there is a lot of choice with many competing shops and cafés, but on the other there can be noisy people near you and much poorer service - I found one waiter borderline rude.
However, overall Antibes is one of the best places for food I have ever visited and I can't wait to return some day.
Juan-les-Pins
Juan-les-Pins is the residential neighbourhood where I stayed while attending school in Antibes. I found it quite cosy; however it was annoyingly hard to access the beach with various very posh restaurants seeming to own every chunk of it.
I allowed myself one meal at a posh seafront restaurant, enjoying a Reine pizza (ham and mushroom) and the above sundae, which was gloriously chocolatey and delicious.
Monaco
My trip to Monaco felt chaotic from start to finish: the tour bus I had intended to take never showed up, leaving me to wander the place at random. However, I did enjoy soaking in the vibes from the pre-Grand Prix party that was going at full swing.
My ice cream experience felt chaotic, too. I saw a nice-looking ice cream place close to the party and anticipated that it would soon be pounced on by overexcited people, so I shot in and out picking fairly random flavours (normally I put a lot of thought into my flavours!)
From the picture I appear to have chosen chocolate and toffee, with cream and a little wafery thing. I think it was nice - it looks it - but with so much going on that day it wasn't that memorable. In fact, I'd forgotten until seeing the photos that I bought an ice cream in Monaco!
Ventimiglia
Annoyingly I don't have any photos of my Ventimiglia ice cream as my camera was stolen. However, stereotypical as it is to say Italian ice cream is the best, in this case it really was.
That banana and stracciacella cone was mind-blowing. The banana was so genuinely banana-y, not like the artificial banana taste you often get. It was luscious.
Girona
I ate at least two ice creams in the two days I spent in Girona with my mother! I was pleased to see crème catalane ice cream (or crema catalana as it was there) and I felt sorry for the Smurfs that were apparently the source of the blue flavour!
The pictured ice cream place was small and very posh. The ice cream, however, was totally worth the expense.
Barcelona
La Rambla in Barcelona is bursting with stalls selling sweet treats. It can be hit and miss: I had a rather disappointing and artificial-tasting crèpe from one of them. However, the ice cream above was lovely (those poor Smurfs, though, do they get no respite?).
Salamanca
Ice cream in the day...
...ice cream at night. There's never a bad time for ice cream in Salamanca, especially during a heatwave.
My whole Spanish summer felt a bit surreal, what with the bizarre series of weather phenomena we had to endure, the fact that due to the heat we could only really function at night, and the way Salamanca seemed like a model city - so clean, so shiny, so frozen in time.
At least we could eat ice cream! That was a reassuring constant.
As with Barcelona - as with any big tourist city, I guess - the ice cream was hit and miss; however, I did find one really excellent shop on the Rua Mayor. They had a limited range of flavours but you got good quality and a lot of ice cream for your money.
There was also the famous Van Dyck distict - or perhaps infamous is a better word. Everyone in Salamanca has heard of it and its culinary kudos but no-one seems to know where it actually is.
I found it eventually and tried some ice cream, which you can see above: again, a limited choice of flavours but very tasty.
Ávila
I found our Ávila excursion rather regimented. After a day of being relentlessly marched from place to place by our guides, we were finally given some free time. What did I do? Get an ice cream, of course - and then chill!
The sun was setting and it was nice to just be able to appreciate the ancient city without all the rushing around.
Segovia
I can't talk about Spain and ice cream without mentioning Smöoy, the frozen yogurt giant whose very pink shops seem to pop up wherever you look.
Whether their yogurty desserts count as ice cream, I don't know, but those I had were certainly sweet and refreshing. You also have plenty of control over what you get: you pick the flavour of yogurt, sauce and toppings from a really huge variety.
There I am in the photo above, relaxing with my Smöoy next to the aqueduct in Segovia during a much better organised excursion than the Ávila one.
Zamora
There was more Smöoy in Zamora, on another very pleasant trip. Peanut butter and granola, as pictured, is my favourite Smöoy, and it made the perfect little treat for exploring a very nice town.
***
I think the message of this post is that firstly, I love ice cream, and secondly, you can tell a lot about a place by the quality, variety and value of its ice cream. And thirdly, I love ice cream.
I hope you have found this post informative and that you have many great ice creamy or generally food-y adventures.
Thanks for reading,
Liz x
