Life in France

So I have been here for two weeks, and it is funny how settled in I feel. I now can navigate the subway systems without looking at every sign, know most of the streets around where I live, and have discovered where to buy groceries. So I thought today would be a good day to talk about life in France in general, and how it differs from live in America.

The food would be a good place to start. There are supermarkets here, but they are nothing compared to ours. In general, most people go to stores individually for their needs, stopping in one store for bread, another for their cuts of meat, another for cheese, another for dessert and so on. It can get a little frustrating sometimes, because I just want one stop shopping. There are some huge stores that have it all (there is a Monoprix and an INNO in particular, but both are far from me, at least when you consider carrying all of your groceries through the metro.)

When I walk into my local G20 or Franprix, here are the things that strike me as being different. To begin with, the meat selection is really absymal. One ground beef patty is three euros, and in general, the selection of salmon outnumbers the red meat selection. This puzzles me immensely. And as far as I know, there is no roast beef in France. It is never offered on sandwiches and I've never seen it in a supermarket. Weird.

France, in general, I find is not a culture of convenience. I have yet to find ziploc bags in a supermarket, and there is not a huge selection of tupperwear. The focus is on eating your food in one sitting and not saving it. The baguettes go bad in a day or so, and most French people buy enough cheese for one meal or maybe two. This adds up to lots of grocery shopping, especially for me considering we have no freezer in our apartment!

Now some of the plus aspects of their food system. For one thing, when I do get to the Monoprix it is amazing! The one closest to me looks like a nightclub on the outside, and on the inside, the aisles are small and winding, like you're walking through a cave. It is quite an experience. It is really incomparable to anything in the US. You can also make your own meal there, there is lots of prepared foods.

For any wine lovers out there, France would be your dream. I read somewhere that people in France spend 15% of their yearly income on wine. In supermarkets, the cheapest bottle of red wine is around 1.50 euros. The soda, water, juice, and milk is much more expensive. Even in a cafe I went to, a drink of Coke (the larger size, about 50 cl, which isn't even that much, maybe a cup in the US and one refill) was 8 euros, while a medium glass of wine was 3 euros. No wonder no one is fat here, it's because the sugary soft drinks are so expensive! Really, I've seen one fat person the whole time I've been here, and it was a tourist on a Segway by the Louvre.

The dessert selection in French supermarkets is also amazing. Cookies, cakes, for aisles, most of which I've never seen before. They also sell tiramisu, chocolate mousee, chocolate tarts, etc. in the cold food selection. I think the French have something for yogurt too, because the wall of yogurt in my supermarket is larger than the wall of meat, cheese, or eggs.

For lunch, what you would eat as "fast food" would usually consist of a sandwich, a galette, or a crepe. Let me explain these further. The concept of Subway where there are about a billion different ways to make your sandwich, and a lot of different choices, and "please, without this or that" is an American concept. If you get a sandwich here you might get the choice of "tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil" or something like "poulet crudites." Either way it comes on a 12 inch baguette, this concept apparently not being very different from our footlong sandwiches. That's about where the similarities stop. A poulet crudites sandwich, which is what I usually get, comes with chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, some sort of mayonnaise, maybe a few other vegetables. I can't imagine what they'd do if I told them to leave off something. You just sort of take what they give you. This is true among a lot of the other countries I visited, but it is more true in France.

A crepe is a wonderful invention of the French, and I think it would take off in America. It consists of a large, about 12 diameter pancake, very thin, layered with all sorts of fillings. I usually get the crepe sucree, which is sweet. You can get jam, nutella (which is quite wonderful, and recently discovered by me here. But you can get it in your local Publix, it is a chocolate hazelnut spread. My friend Sean says it is like eating frosting, which is basically true), nutella, banana, and coconut, nutella, and Grand Marnier (the idea of a liquor on your dessert in the middle of the day being funny to me), or a bunch of other stuff on it that I haven't translated yet. They are really cheap on the street, and they'll make them in front of you so they are nice and hot.

There are also galettes, which I haven't tried yet, but they are basically the non sweet equivalent of the crepe. They have eggs, cheese, ham, onions, chicken, etc. on them.

In general, Paris is the calmest big city I've been in, anywhere in the world. Things move slower. It takes longer to get your food at restaurants, shops close for 2 hour lunch breaks in the middle of the day, and people are not in a hurry to knock you down on the street to get past you. Eating food is an experience to savor and not to rush. In a lot of aspects, it reminds me of New Orleans. New Orleans is the best American city I can compare it to, in that people are polite and friendly, food is important, the pace is slower, alcohol is important and flows freely and that people are very diverse. And of course that people speak French in New Orleans doesn't hurt the comparison.

Well, I realize now that I said I would talk about life in France and I've droned on for paragraphs about food. But I think food is really indicative of the culture in any place and tells you a lot about what is important in that culture. Plus, you know how much I appreciate food. All my friends here and I talk and dream about food. So I hope this wasn't a boring entry for you guys.

I really appreciate all of the nice emails and comments I've been getting from everyone (I am particulary thinking of ones I've gotten recently that I haven't responded to, including, but not limited to, emails and comments from Darden, Leah, Courtney and Gran). Thanks for the comments, and keep them coming!

Love to all,
Emily