Reacclimating ourselves to the USA

As we reacclimate ourselves to the American culture and get back into the groove of things we are struck with many things that have changed since returning to this continent after a few short years. Downtown Cleveland, we were pleasantly surprised, has changes so much, I can't stop telling people what I've seen. They just shake their heads politely and say...yeh we know! Ha ha!

One of several Cleveland Arcades

Some businesses are gone, new ones have taken up different locations in the suburbs and people have changed and so have we. We continue to seek the French foods we so came to love, and continue to enjoy the US fare we missed.

It might have been the first or second weekend for us back in the US, that we set out to find an authentic French baguette. The West Side Market, Cleveland's oldest continuously operated market for the last 102 years was a good possibility to find this elusively, delicious, bread.

West Side Market - Cleveland, OH

The 100+ vendors at the West Side Market offer the usual fresh foods typical of a market, but it is also an excellent place to find artisan pastas, unusual teas, and those, difficult to find foods, from Europe.

European cheeses - West Side Market, Cleveland, OH

Belgium chocolate- West Side Market, Cleveland, OH

In France, not elusive at all, is finding good bread. A growing trend to get your bread after hours or in far flung locations, is to stop by these road side vending machines. We came upon one of these machines during a biking excursion. Drop a euro into the slot and out comes a baguette. You might think...maybe not so good, but really, it wasn't too bad. And if it was bad, the French wouldn't eat it.

So back at our West Side Market visit, and after stopping at four or five bakery stands and tasting the baguette on the spot, both George and I looked at each other and would say - Uhhh, not quite, not airy enough, etc, etc. You would have thought we were the bread police with our comments, or just plain old bread snobs. But we finally found a baker who was close to authentic as we could expect. And then, duh, several weeks later I found a similar bread in the local supermarket that was equally close to authentic - It was at Heinen's if anyone is wondering. The search for good bread is over.

We have received all of our belongings from the suitcases, the air, and the sea. Despite our skepticism about our movers in France who we questioned when they wanted to pack glass against/beside glass, who, on the first day of packing, took a nap during their lunch break, and who stood on top of our furniture when they were placing our things in the sea container, we only experienced very minor damages. Everything can be fixed or replaced except for a very sentimental hat box owned by my great aunt that was found underneath our weight lifting weights. We were utterly amazed that more serious damage did not occur. And our house is becoming a home again.

Ménage à Trois for sale in the US

While in the grocery store the other day I spied an advertisement for a brand of wine, Ménage à Trois, that we had known before leaving for France, but this brand is extra funny to us now, for this reason.

As one of our many precious, departing from France gifts, we received a bottle of French Kiss. It is a mystery to us where Roland, our friend, got this wine, we never saw it before in our travels. So now in our wine inventory we have French Kiss and we could also have Ménage à Trois. So the next time you are invited to our house for some wine, don't be surprised if we ask you if you would like some French Kiss before enjoying some Ménage à Trois. (Of course in that order, you wouldn't want to drink a red before a white, what-were-you-thinking).

And just one final note about French Kiss. It is a "tender" French Kiss, it even says it on the label.

Santé!