My Shopping Cart In France

Herewith, a sampling of my supermarket purchases and eating habits in France, as they evolved during my stay, with commentary. (Purchases made variously in Carrefour, Casino, Monoprix, and Cocci Market supermarkets.)

September

Tapenade
Chocolate bar
Mini Caprice (cheese)
Skim Milk (Lait Ecreme)
Nonfat Yogurt (Yaourt Nature)
Roquefort (cheese)
Spinach
Bananas
Beer
Egglant Caviar (caviar aubergine)
Wasa crackers
Hummus
Granny Smith Apples
Carrots

My first month in France, I spent a week camping in Corsica with Priscilla and then spent four days in Paris and Belgium with my friend Joanne. I was just getting used to reading labels in French supermarkets, and was busy also buying items I needed for my apartment, like a pillow, towels, sheets and a comforter.

My food purchases in September reflected my effort to find the foods that I needed in my diet, as well as an effort to try new things I found in the supermarkets here. The small jars of tapenade and caviar aubergine represented my forays into French foods. Skim milk, plain nonfat yogurt, hummus and Granny Smith apples were staples of my refrigerator in the States. I spent quite a bit of time looking for crackers that first month, specifically something like the Stoned Wheat Thins that were another staple of my kitchen cabinet in Arlington. Nothing exists like this in France! I ended up defaulting to Wasa Fiber crackers, which I would never have bought in the States, but now buy regularly.

October

Jameson Whiskey
Bordeaux Red wine
Cote du Rhone red wine
Tabouli
Mustard
Chocolate bars
Butter cookies (Petit Tendre)
Tomatoes
Granny Smith Apples
Carrots
Special Muesli cereal
Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice
Yaourt Nature
Café Moulu (decaffeinated coffee)
Comte (cheese)
Dried Apricots (abricots entiers)
Jacobs Cream Crackers (from England)
Lemon Curd
Camembert President (cheese)
Orange Marmelade
Pecorino Romano (cheese)
Coucous
Pate de Foie (goose liver pate)
Tahini (purée de sesame blanc)
Moutarde bio à ancienne (organic mustard)

It wasn’t until October that I really settled down in my apartment and in Nice. After travelling to Corsica and Paris in September, and then spending the first week of October in NYC and Amherst, I returned to Nice, not to leave on any extended travel until November. My food purchases that month represented me starting to fill up my larder (jellies and jams), and establishing some food habits that I would continue through the year ahead. I began experimenting with various wines and cheeses. I also finally found some British crackers to satisfy my hunger. I found the supermarket version of foie gras (but bought the expensive versions for gifts), and found some wonderful mustards to enjoy with it. Priscilla brought me to an organic market (products known as "bio" or "biologique" here in France), where I found tahini, which would be used to make my own hummus in the months ahead. Priscilla also introduced me to the granola (muesli) that I would eat regularly for my breakfasts (with plain nonfat yogurt). And, of course, Lindt chocolate bars would be a regular purchase as well.

December

Tomato soup
Nonfat Yogurt
Mouchoirs (facial tissues)
Pretzels
Speculoos (ginger cookies)
Mousse Canard (duck pate)
Cream Crackers
Dried Apricots

December was a short month in Nice, with travel to Paris for several days and then to the States for the holidays. But you can see there was a bit of colder weather in Nice; I only buy soups when the temperature drops! Buying tissues was also a nod to the weather change. I had had Speculoos cookies at my friend’s home in Paris, so found them in the supermarket here – an excellent cookie! I tried duck pate, and found it good, and continued my love affair with plain, nonfat yogurt (which Priscilla thinks is a travesty, given that the French have an enormous selection of different flavors and versions of yogurt-type milk products.

January

Cassoulet (goose)
Chick peas (pois chiche)
V8 juice (4 x 20 cl cans)
Wasa crackers
Chocolate
Apple juice boxes (6 x 20 cl)
Camembert President
Special Muesli
Crème Taillefine (nonfat vanilla pudding cups x 4)
Yaourt Nature
Tomme noire pyrenées (cheese)
Bananas
Granny Smith Apples (pomme granny)

January was definitely colder, and I was drawn to buy a tin of goose meat cassoulet in the Carrefour where I shop. I didn’t actually prepare it until my parents came to visit in February, but it was excellent. I also was getting more familiar with my supermarket, and finding things that I hadn’t seen before, including V8 juice cans, and apple juice boxes, items that I liked because of their small size and transportability. (I rented a car and did a road trip to Switzerland and Germany in the middle of the month, and needed portable snacks!) I spent a little more time in the dairy aisle, and found a nonfat vanilla pudding, another favorite snack. And I continued to eat granny smith apples and experiment with cheeses.

March (in the US – brought back to France)

Ak-mak Crackers
Almonds (1/2 salt)
Turkish Apricots
Clif Bars (for Priscilla)
Chocolate bars 72% Belgian (mini – pack of three bars)

Trader Joes is my favorite specialty supermarket in the States. Every time I travelled back to the US, I made sure to shop at TJs, to bring back some items that I really wanted to have with me in France. This list from March is representative. Almonds have been a staple in my diet for almost a decade as a mid-day and travelling snack; and apricots serve a similar role. France doesn’t really have a good equivalent of Clif bars, and given that Priscilla was low on her supply, I brought back a bunch for her to have for her hikes. And TJs usually has a pretty good supply of dark chocolate…

March

Nutella pot 400g (glass jar of the chocolate spread)
Gouda (cheese)
Tomato Red Grappe
Clementines
Dried Figs (figue seche)
Dried Apricots
Pomme granny
Barres cereal canneberry (cranberry cereal bars)
Vanilla pudding cups
Wasa crackers
Toilet paper
Cantal Entre Deux (cheese)
Chocolate bars (70%, 85%, Menthe)
Cote de Luberon (red wine from the Luberon Valley which I visited in February)
Gnocchi 380 g
Epinard (spinach)
Tomates

After being in the US the first week in March, I returned to Nice, again, to settle down for an extended period of not travelling (although I couldn’t sit still for too long, and made excursions to Copenhagen and Paris in March and April, respectively). I continued my experimentation with cheeses and wines, but stuck to my yogurt and granola mornings. During my visit to my friend Becky’s home in DC in March, she had told me how much her kids liked Nutella. I knew about it, but hadn’t really eaten it before. I bought some here, and became hooked. (Also added to the drinking glass collection in my apartment, as the container was designed to be reused.)

I had experimented with granola bars here in France; they call them barres céréal. They were nothing like the Nature Valley Granola bars that were also a habit of mine in the States. These were very sweet, sticky, and made with rice more than oats, it seemed. But in March I saw some Cranberry bars, and gave them a try. They were still sweet and sticky, but they were good. I still brought back NV granola bars every time I was in the States, but I had found an acceptable corollary here.

My diet basically focuses on nonfat milk products, high fat cheese (for protein), non-yeast cereal products (granola, crackers), fruits and vegetables, and other grains like couscous. I have stopped buying pasta and bread for my kitchen – a habit I had started five years ago, and was not really prepared to change when I moved to France. That being said, I love bread, and in Nice, there are six boulangeries (bread shops) in a four block radius of my apartment. I eat bread regularly in France, (and bought croissants and baguettes for my guests!) I just don’t buy it to have in my kitchen. The fact that I don’t buy pasta is a habit that many find strange for me as a vegetarian eater, but I think this has kept my weight down! Gnocchi is my indulgence, and here in France, my favorite meal has been gnocchi with pesto sauce, augmented with black Niçoise olives, fresh tomatoes, and shredded Pecorino Romano cheese. Yum.

April

Skim milk
Stella Artois (cans of beer)
Tomme Blanche (cheese)
Speculoos cookies
Bergerac (red wine)
Burgogne Aligote (white wine from Burgundy)
Café Moulu dark (coffee)
Clementines
Pomme granny
Carrottes

The other staple in my kitchen is decaffeinated coffee. I tried several different types of coffee, but now buy the L’Or Maison du Café 100% Arabica coffee for my Italian coffee steamer. When I was visiting my friend Don in Tuscany over Thanksgiving, he recommended this coffee to me. Don drinks coffee all day, and had tried several different coffees in Italy, but it was at our Thanksgiving dinner at his friends’ home in Saertano that he was struck by the “good” cup of coffee. He called the host (an American) the next day to find out what brand it was – L’Or Maison du Café. I’ve been drinking it (or its caffeinated version, Intense, depending on my guests’ preference) ever since.

Starting in December, and through March and April, clementines were in season. And the specialty here in Nice is the Corsican Clementine, of which I was already familiar, because of the jar of Corsican Clementine jam that had been in my refrigerator when I moved into my apartment. The fresh clementines, tiny and easy to peel, were delicious, and a joy to eat – and they could be found everywhere during the season.

With the coming of the spring weather, I started buying more white wines, and found the white burgundy, which had been suggested to me, a lovely accompaniment to my lunch of foie gras and mustard and clementines. After a visit in May to Provence and a local vineyard, I became hooked on Provençal rosé wine, and continued to drink it through my travels to St. Tropez in June and Angoulême in July.

I haven’t really changed my eating habits here in France, but I have certainly enjoyed expanding my horizons gastronomically. Champagne and foie gras before dinner, and a platter of cheese after the main course, are my favorite traditions in France; my favorite sandwich is a baguette filled with camembert, sundried tomatoes soaked in olive oil, and pesto spread. My favorite dessert is anything chocolate, but the chocolate moelleux is amazing (soft chocolate center in the middle of a chocolate cake). I’m a fan of French wines generally, but the rosés of Provence are a highlight.

But they wouldn’t have been nearly as enjoyable if I hadn’t been eating and sharing these meals with people I know and liked – in France.