Born in the U.S.A.

Someone stop the clock at 78 days. We finally broke down and went All-American this weekend (although entirely unintentionally... clearly a result of subconsious homesickness!). Saturday was rainy and not worth much for any sightseeing so we grabbed our ever-growing to-do list and headed to the southern side of the city of Nimes, to the "Ville Active" which apparently is French for "American-style Big Box Store Sprawl."

We hit the French equivalent of Best Buy, the Leroy Merlin (which is literally Home Depot in green), and, of course, the hypermarche for some electronics, clothes, and... oh yeah... groceries.

The highlight of the grocery shopping was that we finally found that one cheese that we've been craving the most. Here in the land of brie and camembert and local goat cheese that is legendary, we openly cheered when we found a block of cheddar. Sure it was orange cheddar from the UK and not proper Vermont Cheddar but no matter. The look on the woman's face when Amy ordered the cheese and kept telling her, "plus grande (bigger), plus. No, plus s'il vous plait" was priceless. I don't think she'd ever seen anyone buy so much cheddar before.

(Mmmm... the big block of cheddar)

Keeping with the American theme, we succumbed to an ad blitz that apparently was directed specifically at me (how'd they know I was going to be in Nimes that day?) that involved no less than four billboards along my drive through town and a prime location in the Hypermarche promotions aisle for that famous old Kentucky Bourbon, Four Roses (yeah, I'd never heard of it either but that didn't stop me). Manhattans never tasted so good.

And to keep things rolling, we kicked it up a notch this morning with pancakes and maple syrup (okay the syrup is imported from Canada but close enough right?).

However, the piece de resistance of the weekend, the one thing without which we could not have truly called it an All-American weekend was Saturday, in the midst of the rainy shopping.

Hungry, wet, with two kids who were even hungrier and getting increasingly cranky, in the middle of a commercialized nightmare with nary a proper cafe or even creperie in sight, we decided it was time to break down and get lunch at Micky D's.

Okay, okay, I know. Go ahead, condemn away.

Done?

Now consider this: the kids devoured their happy meals. Amy enjoyed the "M" which was the prize winner of the day -- a very serviceable burger on an unbelievable fresh roll. As for me? Well, could I really not go into a McDonalds in France and not order a Royale with cheese? http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xtqno_pulp-fiction-royal-with-cheese_shortfilms

And yes, I got the beer too. Everbody was happy.

Don't worry, we'll go back to sustaining ourselves on olives, fresh baguettes, local wine, and a nice brie this week.