Supermarche

After a total of twelve hours of sleep, I awoke today at 1 pm, four and a half hours too late for our B&B's complimentary mussilex.  AH did manage to scrounge up a little pre-packaged pastry and a clementine for me.  The gesture was appreciated but the food was insufficient.  Thus, we set out into Orsay to forage.

As I may have mentioned yesterday, Orsay is a hilly town.  This is great for two reasons: 1) you can always tell if you're going in the right direction (down towards the river or up towards downtown) and 2) going to buy groceries suddenly counts as exercise.  However, the unseasonably warm weather (about 50 degrees and humid) does turn the interior of my wool coat into my own personal sauna.  Thus, ripe and panting, AH and I arrive at our destination: Marche Franprix.

I feel only a twinge of guilt as I breeze through the produce section and march resolutely toward one of my primary incentives for coming to this country: the cheese section.  Camembert for 2 E! Whole wedges of brie for 1E!  Fromage de Chevre!  I am in heaven.  In a state of anticipated ecstasy, I reach for the brie. Just as my fingers are about to close around it, AH reminds me that a whole wedge of brie will not help us to our goal of trimming down.  I grumble, but accept the truth of his words.  I settle for a tiny wheel of fromage de chevre.

My primary objective acheived, AH and I wander the store deciding what else we might need in the week ahead.  Having only a microwave and a tiny fridge shared with the other guests at the B&B, our options are somewhat limited.  I pick up a few canned jars of pasta with sauce and microwavable macaroni au gratin, some olives, and some toast.  I suggest a bottle of wine, but AH reminds me that we have nothing to drink it out of.  I try to ignore the judgment in his eyes when I suggest we just drink it out of the bottle.

AH wanders off, and I slip back over to the cheese section.  Convincing myself that I deserve a bigger hunk of cheese, I put back my modest fromage de chevre and debate the merits of camembert v. brie.  But AH's gentle reminder, plus our limited time at the B&B (I have no desire to move leftover cheese to our next location) convince me to walk away.

AH and I reunite and continue to brainstorm how we will overcome our lack of any proper way to prepare food.  Mostly we decide to fall back on college methods of cooking.  As there are packets of microwavable rice, I suggest beans and rice with salsa.  Turns out they do have one little measly can of salsa, and we seize the opportunity, thoroughly pleased with ourselves.  Once we pick up a can of chocolate cookies, I am finished and ready to enjoy the spoils of our conquest.  AH wants to continue to wander.  "The Look" is given.  We check out and proceed back to our abode.

F my life.  I forgot the damn cheese.