France is Fabulous, but . . .

Don't get me wrong, the more I visit France, the more I love France. I could easily live there . . . especially if I spoke French!

And while there are LOTS of things I love about Francia- my favorites being the incredible pastries and also traffic circles/roundabouts- there is one problem I notices. Insofar as good things, where else is there such a concentration of incredible baking- quiches, tarts, pain au chocolate, even just a "plain 'ole baguette", etc. Boulangeries are about as plentiful in Paris as churches and liquor stores in the hood.

And let's not forget my traffic circles-- they're just fun. If we were not always running just a few minutes behind, I would definitely drive completely around a circle every now and then because it is such a novelty to me. Yes, there are traffic circles here in the UK, but they are not nearly as . . . plentiful as they are in France. Of course, they slow you down a bit, but many times you do not have to actually stop. I can only imagine how much France saves on traffic lights!

There are many other good things about France, but there is also ONE major problem. It is such a problem that I must insert it here right in the middle of the feel-good section.

Everyone knows that there is lots of wine in France, and lots of wine consumed in France. It is not in a US (let's see how much I can drink in one sitting), or a UK (I am obliged to drink as much as I can in one sitting) type way. In France they drink a glass of wine kind of like Mexicans eat jalapenyos-- o.k., so maybe they don't usually have wine with breakfast.

My back-of-the-envelope calculations and Sherlock Holmes-like deductive skillz tell me that our beloved WINE is the root cause of what is perhaps France's greatest shortcoming- lack of sufficiently sized glasses for cocktails. The only one I really care about, thanks to my mom, is Gin & Tonic. None of the three places we stayed had even one glass that didn't amount to a shot glass after throwing in a few ice cubes and a slice of lime. As a matter of fact, at the gite we rented outside of Angers, we had to PURCHASE six glasses for the four of us! And even those were pushing it on size. Of course, there were approximately 20 wine classes and about as many champagne flutes (for a place that can sleep 8 adults), but not one adequately sized cocktail glass. There were coffee cups that would probably have been of proper volume, but I don't think I could drink a G&T from a cup that belongs on a saucer.