Frants and Fraves (3)
“tomorrows landfill”
I have come to the conclusion that Americans take for granted the plethora of goods available to them to purchase. In the states if you desire a particular item there seems to be countless options on size, color, construction, quantity, quality, and price. Even online, take Amazon for example, type in a particular item and you get hundreds if not thousands of listings for the same and very similar items. Not so en France. Type a product into Amazon.fr and you will be lucky if you get three options (perhaps I exaggerate some). Granted we reside in Carcassonne, not a huge city, but by comparison not small. Shopping for goods is a struggle. If you go shopping at a housewares store, the shelves are stocked with low priced, uber modern (I use that term loosely), poorly constructed, and for the most part undersized products (itty bitty, low slung sofas and chairs that look like they belong in the kids playroom)… Or as our dear friend in Healdsburg Jack Monroe has often been known to say… “tomorrows landfill!” Low price and cheap construction seem to be norm and apparently desired in product selection.
I have learned very quickly that if you want to buy something that will last, start by looking at the bottom shelf where the higher priced models are located. Then study them to find out why they are higher priced. We purchased an immersion blender a few days ago. We had six choices. Five of them were in the 20-25 euro range and one, the one on the bottom shelf was 80 euros. I wanted to know what the difference was, so we stood there carefully puzzling out a translation of the information. The five models that were inexpensive were light as a feather (meaning if you turned one on, make sure you have a good hold on it because it would probably fly out of your hand whirling tomato sauce, or some such everywhere), made of flimsy plastic parts, and their motors only provided 300-400 watts of power. The top priced model (in this particular shop) had heft, seemed to be made for the longer haul, and supplied 1000watts of power. So we pulled from the bottom shelf and made a purchase. (that good ole “don’t throw good money after bad” concept) It is true that this system of cheaper, lesser quality goods exists in the States (cough, Wallmart, cough), but the difference is you have a lot of choice and a lot of options. I have yet to see a home goods/furniture store that carries anything but Ikea inspired living – aka – tomorrows landfill!
The lack of choice and options seems to spread across the boards from home-goods and bedding, to clothing and even food. The best food shopping in France are the incredible bakeries, patisseries, cheese shops and the open air markets for vegetables and fruit. The Bakeries with baguettes, and more baguettes, and a handful of other styles of loaves, and a few items of sweet - croissants with chocolate, cookies, and tarts. The Patisseries with incredible and delicate works of art in the form of small bites of dessert heaven, and occasionally larger baked treats for the eye. The cheese shops that have copious amount of… you guessed it, Cheese! And nothing really beats the open air vegetable markets which are held multiple days of the week all year round. We all have this romantic vision of sipping French wine while eating French cheese on a fresh baguette, followed by a healthy dose of beautiful Macarons all the while staring at the Eiffel Tower! Sounds lovely! But not for every meal, every day. One cannot live on bread, cheese, cake, and an occasional carrot alone! (my husband might disagree with me! LOL) One must eventually venture out to the supermarket for everything else.
(Pre-end of post - post script… I left the Boucheries out of the list as I personally do not have the stomach to go into one – yet!)
As it is in the states, I am sure some people in France eat really healthy and clean, but the other side of that coin seems to be even more extreme. I have watched what the French are buying when we go to the Supermarché, it would be enough to put a Northern Californian into a Coma! Prepackaged, prejarred, premade, preprocessed, pre everything food items, and huge quantities of sodas and junk food. The French are really into recycling which is fantastic! but the amount of plastic wrapped and containered food is appalling!
As I have navigated through the process of cooking and eating in France I find the options in the markets to be somewhat limiting, and I seem to have settled into a pattern of cooking the same five dishes over and over. Of course I have had to narrow the field due to my own food issues (food of the sea and general funk), and the lack of a decent cooking space with good tools, but nonetheless the selection of food items is much smaller, and limiting. I am not sure I shall ever be able to bake again as it will be starting from scratch with ingredients being so different. Do not be surprised by the requests I will make when you come to visit. Please load your suitcase with baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar (light and dark), molasses, full size baking sheets… the list goes on, don’t even get me started on stocks! Vegetable, chicken, beef, veal… ready to use in cartons or frozen, I will even take canned! Unless you make your own, stock in France comes in those lovely little cubed packages inside of another package, and taste like… Salt!
A final shopping story for today and a new thought!
Please don't think that we dislike where we are, we actually love it (as much as we can during a pandemic - we have yet to dine at or from a restaurant). Our rental house is a Gite. A holiday rental that is usually rented for a few days at a time by people visiting La Cité. Consequently, the supplies in the house are… yep you guessed it… tomorrows landfill! We have continuously added items to the house to dress it up a bit and make it feel more like a home. One of those additions is decent wine glasses. I decided that I could not drink another glass of wine out of a short water tumbler with the name “Ikea” emblazoned on the bottom… (but that’s so romantic! – NOT). I had been keeping my eyes open for wine glasses since we moved in. Something akin to what we have had for years and were so famous for at 227, a large, tall stemmed, rounded, sumptuous, red wine glass that would nestle so nicely in the palm of your hand. Every where we looked we seem to come upon the same glass. different brand names and price points, but the same glass. Shortish, and small, with a shape that was like a tulip that had been squashed on the bottom. Nothing that grabbed the eye, nothing with a graceful shape, nothing large! Then it dawned on me that goods in France all had those same sort of characteristics, clunky, plain, uber modern, and smallish. With wine glasses on order from Austria it became clear that the Château will need a Gay shoppe! (thank you Cousin!) A shop full of wonderful over the top, elegant, detailed and handmade, BIG items for the home. You want a lamp? or a coffee table? well, get ready to move the Ikea out as this lamp and coffee table you are buying are going to take up the entire room!
Post Script… I wrote this as a response to a comment and I thought it was so true that I am adding here as an after thought!…
A really good point about goods and shopping in France... There seem to be two countries here... The country of France, and the country of Paris!!! LOL...