Gathering Dinner in Meslay Du Maine

I love going to the grocery store in France.  Walking down the aisles is pure pleasure, so I always allow time to give things a good look. 

 A few days ago, I stumbled on Speculoos.  It tastes like ground up cookies in the form of peanut butter (upon further research, I’ve found it gets sold at Trader Joes…NOT GOOD!).  It’s been three days since I picked up this jar, and it’s more than half gone.  Apparently there are over 500 calories per 100 grams.  Gotta keep the energy up for working outside!

 The applesauce is unbelievable.  Most of it has no sugar, and it comes in flavors like vanilla and apricot (don’t get that, but I’m into it).  Even so, it’s fantastic. 

Now check out this pudding aisle.  That’s right, an entire refrigerator section devoted to nothing but pudding.  The other side, nothing but yogurt.  Seems excessive, no?  I mean seriously, how much pudding could one person eat?  Judging by the popularity of the aisle, the French love it. 

 If pudding isn’t your thing, why don’t you take a walk down one of the two long cheese aisles? 

 You like mustard?  There’s an ENTIRE aisle devoted to it. 

If you’re feeling like keeping it healthy, head to the veggie section.   In search of corn on the cob one afternoon, I noticed there was absolutely none to be had.  No frozen corn, no fresh corn, and certainly no canned corn.  I asked a friend here, what gives?  She explained to me that the French certainly would not eat something like corn. “It is for the animals you see, and the people of France are not animals.”  You know, she has a point…if it’s used to fatten up cows, maybe we shouldn’t be chowing down on it so often? 

Just down the street from the grocery store sits a gorgeous butcher and bakery.  The croissants are always beautiful, and the tartes are a feast for the eyes.  

The butcher has some interesting creatures inside, but if you like things a bit fresher just take a walk outside.  There is almost always a fruit and veggie market going on somewhere near (oftentimes out of a truck), but faint of heart beware. 

Those bunnies, they aren’t being sold as pets.  Neither are the chickens, ducks, geese, or little goats either.  

After the bunny I had been petting got snatched up by a particularly gruff woman buying him for dinner, I may have even gotten a bit weepy.  “There’s no crying at the market!” Alex informed me, so I sucked it up and decided to people watch instead of bunny watch.  After seeing a kid lick his lips and point to a handsome duck, I decided I had had enough (and decided not to eat meat for what ended up being two weeks). 

While it’s sad to snuggle bunnies about to be sold for dinner, it’s not all bad to have that sort of connection with the food you eat.  A large part of society has lost that connection, as well as true understanding of where the food eaten on a daily basis comes from.  In small town France however, young children look up at their parents and lick their lips as they choose a duck, rabbit, or even a goat for dinner.  And maybe that’s not the worst thing.