You try to save in every way you can with all the hype everywhere about this "terrible" recession we are in! I go around and pretend it has affected my life a little by cutting back on magazines. Thanks to Mom, I cut back on magazine buying but she did not! (Days ago before France, the latest Cosmo, Glamour, People, Life & Style (the list could go on and on) were to be found scattered all throughout the house.) It is a hard thing to grasp as people seem to have gone on with life the same as always in Shreveport. There were still tons of people buying their low fat, no water, no whip iced drinks from Starbucks, "Oh make that a venti!" and it was a rare occasion you could walk into a restaurant at lunch without a long wait. Of course, the argument people have to eat applies here but where else can one typically save the most money than eating?? It's all I ever do anyhow. Food is one of the best parts of life.
I have learned something about the French since I have been here but of course it came out of a news article I read off Yahoo! news from the US. It just so happened to coincide with my trip. French people sleep and eat more than any other wealthy country in the world. They sleep an average of 9 hours a night and spend an average of 2 hours eating. What they did not disclose is if that two hours is strictly putting food to mouth or enjoying conversation while eating. I have had Turkish meals that in one sitting last longer than two hours so I am very curious to know what puts the French at the top of this list. Also, how do the French stay so thin as everyone claims with all this eating? Every plate of food I have seen around here is enough to feed four people with each having leftovers for lunch the next day. Think Monjunis lasagna times one and a half plus penne pasta and another food filling another slot on the plate, each as big a portion as the lasagna...for ONE woman sitting by herself.
Anyway, back to cutting back. I have eaten at 4 restaurants since Saturday. Here, it seems the average price of a coke is 3.50-4.50 euros roughly the equivalent of 4.65 to 6 US dollars for a single coke in a bottle. On the plus side, the bottles do look slightly larger than the cans which is what we paid for in Turkey for about the same price. So you have two choices here, pay the inordinately excessive price for a coke with perhaps a second round as you continue to eat your very large portion OR pay 6 euros for 4 glasses of wine to be split between two people! So far the wine is winning out! The most expensive wine I have seen thus far was at the Moroccan restaurant we ate at Monday night and that was only 14.50 euros for an entire bottle of wine!
Suffice to say, I am very lucky as I do like wine and buying it here in France to drink with dinner or cheese will definitely cut back on our grocery bills. All in all, France is good. My limited french regarding foods is causing a bit of anxiety when it comes to where to eat dinner.. I prefer to only eat dinner at restaurants I can recognize more than one word in a food description. This is my goal for the day though, learn more french food names and apply to dinner tonight. So off I go to learn more French.
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