Out and about in France, in a small village, not at all on the beaten track, we came across...a roadside pizza-vending machine. We were curious. After all, this wasn't the usual fine, fresh French food that we had grown to love.
Article in France Today magazine. Would you have stopped to give it a go?
I don’t remember the exact moment that my husband and I decided that we should leave Australia with our three young children and try out France for a year, but I have no difficulty recalling our arrival in France with only one and a half of us speaking French (myself and our six-year-old son) and a burning enthusiasm for our new adventure. We had no family or work to go to, no friends to call on and no knowledge of the place that we had chosen to live (Giez, 22 km from Annecy in the Haute Savoie) and it is an indisputable truth that it was tough, in a gentle sort of way. After all, for each new discovery and surmounted challenge, we not only felt more settled, we also felt proud of what we had achieved, and that is always a good thing.
Alongside the difficult (finding accommodation, buying a car, understanding the school stationery list, driving on the right side of the road (but the wrong for us), doing research without an Internet connection), came the delightful. Our flat, bayside Melbournian suburb had been replaced by mountains; real mountains, not Australian-sized ones, in the middle of which was a lake and a town with canals, old stones, disorder, colourful markets, strange opening hours and different light and smells.
Shopping was no longer a thing to tick of the weekly to-do list. Buying food from the market, queueing at Carrefours or enjoying a stroll around a vide-grenier (village garage sale) became excursions and mostly the children enjoyed them as much as my husband and me.
Years into our French living (one turned out to not be enough), there is no doubt that the supermarket has lost its novelty, but we still look forward to our market and vide-grenier outings. To know what it is on and where, we take a look at vide-grenier.org. Sometimes, our findings are not altogether expected, as was the case recently.
Read more of this article here: https://www.francetoday.com/culture/shopping-boutiques/a-pizza-vending-machine-in-the-countryside/
Congratulations on publishing in France Today, Catherine! I love the pizza vending machiine. If I recall, you once featured that cutting board with a scrumptious layout of cheese in a prior post. Really like reading about the special meats and cheeses of the mountains. I imagine everything tastes better in the clean air, and after a hike or a vigorous run through a vide-grenier.
ReplyDeleteEllen A. (aka Kiwi)
You are right, Ellen. It has featured previously! The fresh air, meeting new people, the thrill of a quirky find, a new destination... for all these reasons we still love our vide-greniers. As for the vending machine, it was definitely worth a try.
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