BACK TO FRANCE

Well, I can't call it home yet, so it's just back to France instead. Being in Cleveland again was weird. Felt like a guest in my own hometown and kept thinking I should have my own house or apartment there to crash in at the end of the day. I can report that France hasn't changed a bit in the month we were gone. Still looks the same, albeit with scorched earth due to drought, still smells the same (don't ask), still tastes the same.

Hmmm, the all-famous French cuisine. Still struggling with that after a year. No decent Mexican food, no decent sushi, and bread and meat wherever you turn. Back in the US I was always told, "Bread will make you fat." Here I'm told, "Bread will make you thinner." I don't believe either statement and don't care much about bread unless it comes at either end of a sandwich, so people often look at me with disbelief bordering on horror when I constantly turn down bread during meals. The other popular food here in my little corner of NW France is meat--beef and pork mainly. As with bread, I really don't care about meat unless it comes between two pieces of bread, preferably in the form of a burger. The biggest public event of the year in my village of 7000 is the annual Meat Festival--quickly approaching the first weekend in September. Yes, the entire town stops normal life to examine meat--dead and alive. It's truly a vegetarian's nightmare, and while I'm not a vegetarian I am slowly becoming more and more inclined to be one. If I have to see one more truckload of little pink pigs pass me by on their final voyage I think it will be decisive.

Anyway, we're preparing for the upcoming scholarly year and summer is windng down quickly. We've finally found me an affordable automatic car in France so starting next week I'll join the millions of drivers on the highways and byways with the second highest accident rate in Europe. But I figure, if I can drive in Cleveland winters, I can drive just about anywhere. Mobility will be liberating. I can't wait. First trip will be a few days in Brittany the end of next week. Hope the beach will still be warm and sunny.