AUGUST IN PARIS - DEB'S THOUGHTS

*Amazingly, the leaves have started to brown and to fall. At least those from plane trees (sycamores in the US.) These trees are ubiquitous here because their bark sheds often, making them pollution resistant. I don't know whether they always start to lose leaves so early, or whether it's a factor of this year's drought. I do know it makes me feel that time is passing much too quickly.

*Several friends have commented that we must be getting really good at speaking French, and must be sounding like natives by now. Sadly, the truth is much more depressing. We get along and can get all our necessary transactions achieved, and even get into conversations, but are no closer to being able to keep up with the rapid-fire everyday French spoken here. Can only catch a few words of conversations overheard on busses for example, unless they are in the slow-motion vocabulary of people talking to tiny children, and even then the slang is incomprehensible. So embarrassing that every 3 year old surpasses us in vocabulary and verb tenses. Our vocabulary has certainly increased, at least for reading, but verb tenses in the melee of conversation remain elusive. Our consistently pleasant mongers (wine, meat, fruit, cheese, etc.) continue to try to engage us in conversation and discuss methods of preparation, recipes, etc. I admire their tenacity in the face of our consistent confusion.
  

* I try to increase my vocabulary by endeavoring to figure out the meanings of advertisements in the Metro and on the streets. Great for learning a bit of slang, and also usually amusing since European ads in general tend to be witty. My current favorite poster is for the huge climate change convention here. It is a play on a famous historical painting that shows an allegory of "Liberty leading the people", a busty, semi-clothed beauty leading the peasants over the barricades of the Revolution in Paris. The new version shows a megaphone-wielding Panda bear in the same pose as Lady Liberty, leading  modern people over the barricades to confront climate change. Regardless of your opinion on climate change, a witty, compelling image.

* There must be something in the air because we've witnesses several episodes of small child rebellion in the last couple of days. One was a pre-school aged boy who was actively disobeying his frazzled grandmother and running off ahead of her, down the street and repeatedly refusing to cooperate, a rebellion that can have dangerous consequences near the hazardous street crossing.. Another outbreak was from a tiny, just barely competent walker, pointedly declining her mother's hand, and clinging instead to her only slightly larger sister's hand. When pressed again to hold mom's hand, she stuck out a tiny lower lip and stamped a miniature foot, and stated firmly "Merci, non, Maman!" This morning we saw a small girl in an embroidered pinafore do a improvised dance of rage when exhorted to get into her pram. We only mention these because they are so unusual. French children tend to be so well behaved, we're not completely convinced they are real.

* With August come many closings - the fermatures estivals, summer closings. But our working class neighborhood can't afford the month long closings of more upscale areas. Some of our vendors aren't closing at all, like our butcher who is using the slow customer month to make hundreds of dried sausages to have ready for fall. Others like our cheese shop will only close for ten days (yes, we are panicking at the thought and did stock up more than usual today.) I thought it was interesting that she is selling her cheese stock down to the bare shelves. I'd have thought the cheeses wouldn't have suffered from 10 days, but obviously I haven't gotten the drift of fresh food here yet.

* For the first time this year, we found Warren's favorite plums, the tiny yellow Mirabelles in the fruit market today. About the size of a nickel, or the biggest ones, a quarter, these delicious little plums are only in season for a short time. People buy them by the kilo. We bought fresh ones and Warren bought a tart, as well. We'll be sampling Mirabelle tarts from every shop we see for a while. Each baker does them differently.

*Some small market surprises:

* How consistently good the watermelons are here. Who knew the French even did watermelons? These are like candy. No wonder the French eat so many fruit salads for dessert. They really do taste like dessert...

*Preparations of stew, soups, canned meats in beautiful glass jars. Our butcher, for example, has some lentil soups gazpachos and various local specialties in his shop as does our cheese monger. I was noticing them in the Grande Epicerie, the high-end grocery store we visited a week or so ago. I started reading their labels and was quite amazed. The "Chicken in Three Mustard Sauce" contained the following: farm-raised chicken, 3 specific mustards, cream, onion, salt and pepper. That's it. No preservatives, artificial colors, artificial flavors, nothing. By comparison, a nearby can of a well-known American soup had 11 ingredients beyond chicken, veg and spices. Many of them I can only pronounce because of my degree in Chemistry. In fairness, the American soup was markedly less expensive than the French product. Mustard costs more than corn syrup.

(to be continued)