I had a thought this morning as I ate my petit déjeuner, squealing with delight over my simple little slice of GF toast with French butter and Bonne Maman
French Butter -Could it, in fact, be the answer to world peace? There I sat, savoring every bite of my fried eggs and toast with creamy, salty butter and strawberry jam, giddy with love and excitement and ready to hug the next person I saw walking down the street. I mean, if everyone felt this way, wouldn’t the world just be a happier place?
Okay, so maybe my ideas for world peace are a little far-fetched, but I can’t help but hope that everyone gets to taste French butter, or French dairy in general for that matter, at some point in their lifetime. I do believe it would make the world a happier place.
I thought I’d share a bit about my love affair with not just the butter here, but France in general. A lot of you asked what the heck I’m actually doing in Paris. So, here we go…
I’m living her for about 4 and a half months and am taking a full load of courses through an honor’s program with my university. I’m taking classes about Modern French Culture (I could rattle off the events of French history from 1890 to now…that will come in really handy in my future, I’m sure), Food, Gender and Globalization, Public Relations and Advertising in France, and Photography.
I speak terrible French. It’s more like a blend of French and English. We’ll call it Frenglish. Yah, Frenglish. I understand almost all of what I hear (so long as the person is parles-ing doucement! See…there I go with that Frenglish) but actually speaking is a different matter. I think it’s a confidence thing. Luckily my roommate speaks French wonderfully so we practice together all the time. We also have what we call Café Français once a week where several people from the program get together to have coffee, cookies and conversation. No English allowed, of course.
I actually took French for four years in high school. And now I wish I had been a much more attentive student! I forgot so much, but I’m trying not to beat myself up about it. It’s been four years since I’ve used it!
My vocabulary has increased dramatically since I’ve been here and I learn new words everyday. Some really important ones like “En Français, sil vous plaît. Je pratique.” That comes in handy when they spot my crappy French accent. Vous êtes américain? Gotta love that. I’ve also learned some less important words. But I’m gonna keep it clean. You know, for the kids.
I’d love to travel around Europe while I’m here, but it’s very expensive and my schedule is very tight with school. I’ve sort of come to terms with the fact that this trip is going to be all things France, and that down the line I will return to explore all the places I want to go like Ireland, Italy, Spain and Greece.
We are traveling a lot around France though. We took a trip to northern France to visit Normandy and other towns around there, and will be spending a week in the south of France in April Nice and Provence are on the agenda. Oh la la!
My time here has already opened up my world and taught me so much…especially on the food front. There’s no such thing as PAM here, and Coffee-Mate would be an insult to French dairy products. Yep, I’m finally used to drinking my coffee with a blend of lait entier and crème liquide. That’s all. Just cream and coffee. Imagine that! Wink
There’s also such an emphasis on fresh, local and seasonal produce here like I’ve never seen. It’s like it just comes naturally. I love the local markets and watching all of the people interact – there’s always something to watch and learn there.
Oh and one more thing – Did you know that stevia is actually illegal here?
I know! I was rather shocked when I found out too! It’s a controlled substance and is illegal to use here, mostly because there isn’t extensive data into the health pros and cons since it’s a relatively new mainstream product. Don’t worry though. It’s apparently going to be legal very soon since Coca-Cola just decided to start using stevia in some of it’s products as well.
I’ll be doing many more posts about France in the future and the differences in daily life (mostly food related, of course) between here and back home, so stay tuned. We have several foodie adventures planned in the near future including a lecture visit to Le Cordon Bleu and a food-themed walk to all the best epiceries and must see food stops in Paris. In the meantime you can check out my Paris page for some of my favorite posts and memories so far.
