There are a lot of things that
remind me of
·
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.)
