Weird Things About France

1. They don't drink milk here (as a drink), which is too bad because they have a lot desserts that would probably taste even better when paired with something dairy. In my experiences here and in Bordeaux, people pretty much solely drink water (when they're not drinking wine). Which is weird, because milk is really healthy too! They pretty much only drink in cereal (though you can always order an expensive glass of warm milk at a cafe).

2. They don't use the phrase "in two weeks". Instead, French people use the completely illogical "quinze jours" (fifteen days). As in "Sorry, I can't go on a macaron-eating binge with you today because I'm going to the South of France for one of my unnecessarily long vacations that it's totally normal to take multiple times a year not including summer, but let's do it in quinze jours". Not fourteen days, which is what people mean, and not two weeks, which is the easiest way to pinpoint the day in question on one's mental calendar, but quinze jours, which they don't even mean. Some things, I will never understand.

3. In French schools, kids take 2-hour lunch breaks, eat lunch on real plates with plats, entrees and desserts, and use real silverware. They also eat really delicious sounding food, and Anne told me that no one brings packed lunches to school -- if you don't eat in the cafeteria, then you go home for lunch. And they eat all of this while drinking only water!!! I seem to remember part of my elementary school experience was eating bad food on styrofoam disposable trays, while being told that dairy was important, and therefore drinking a lot of chocolate milk. French people are weird.

Also, I wish I could say that this photo was posed (but I can't). I really was walking down the street in Clamart this morning with a coffee-flavored macaron in each hand. No regrets.