Wednesday, October 29, 2014

French Reminders

Add to Google Reader or HomepageThere are a lot of things that remind me of France while we are in the States. I read several French or French-theme blogs and I see notes on FaceBook or in my e-mail from French friends. Ellen and I go to the meetings (réunions) of the Lansing area Alliance Française. Even the mundane activities of the day make me think of France:

·         I was buying beets to make a beet and pistachio salad and seeing the raw beets with greens attached made me long for the vacuum packed peeled beets that I can buy at grocery stores in France.
·         When I buy gasoline here, the price is per gallon but it makes me think of the price of fuel in France where the signs advertise the price per liter or roughly per quart. Prices vary, but a liter of gasoline is about €1.40 or about $7.00 per gallon. (Given the disparities in the price of fuel, it is no surprise that the French and other Europeans buy smaller, fuel-efficient cars.)
·         I have read all of the novels about “Bruno, Chief of Police” by Martin Walker about a village chief of police in Southwest France.
·         Shopping for spices and missing the spice and herb vendors at the market with their bags of spices and herbs (and the aromas!)
·         The summer film The Hundred Food Journey.
·         Buying eggs makes me wonder: why do we keep eggs in the refrigerator in the States? (In France, eggs and milk are not stored in coolers in the grocery stores. They are found on regular, un-refrigerated shelves.)

It has been a good summer and despite some “powdery mildew” on my zucchinis and my squash, we had a bountiful harvest from my garden and enjoyed fresh vegetables during August and September and our French friends know how much I like gardening and often ask about my potager (vegetable garden).

Now, we are sort of in preparing-to-return-to-France mode as Ellen has purchased our tickets for the trip. We leave Lansing on the 9th of December and will arrive at our apartment on the 10th.  Having tickets makes every day a reason to think of France and to wonder if there are items available here that we want to take because we have not found them in France. (In May, we do the reverse and think about the items available in France that we want to bring back to the states.)

Quel chanceux (I am a lucky/fortunate  person.)