French Grocery Stores

I'm becoming good at improvising meals with whatever ingredients are around.  Going to the grocery store is sometimes frustrating here, because I'll have an idea for something I'd like to make, but when I go around gathering the ingredients in my basket, I often discover that only 2/3 of what I need can be found.  The grocery stores here are truly tiny.  In fact, they more closely resemble gas station convenience stores, except there's a produce section and most of the food on the shelves isn't junk.

Ground beef is a little bit hard to come by, and if there does happen to be a package or two on the shelf, it usually contains only enough meat to make two hamburger patties, and it costs almost 6 euros ($8).  Cow is my favorite animal to eat, so this makes me sad, but the good news is that salami, chicken, and ham are all pretty cheap.  What I've come to discover is that the more popular something is in America (beef, peanut butter, M&Ms, or soda), the more it's likely to cost here.

Edith told me something interesting last night when we were discussing popular perfumes.  She said that most French people she knows thinks of America as the place where new fashions come from.  She was surprised when I told her that a name of perfume that is already three years old in France is just now becoming popular in the U.S.  I, in turn, was surprised that France, of all countries, would look to America for fashion guidance.  Haven't we all heard that Paris is on the cutting edge of designer clothing, elegant fragrances, and daring new foods?

I guess we all think the fashions of other lands are more fresh and exciting than our own.  Tomorrow Edith and I are going to head to Marseille to look at clothes and stuff.  She promised we'd go to a perfume store so I could smell all the latest stuff.