It's Too Small

More fun with French appliances

Last time, Theresa wrote about our - by which I mean her - trials with the French washing machine. This time, allow me to examine a more important appliance: the refrigerator.

Now I’ll admit I’ve been somewhat pampered over the years. Our  double-wide beast back home can handle a full-scale assault on BJ’s, and still have room for the almond milk. Add the chest freezer we bought during the pandemic after watching contestants starve themselves on “Alone,” and we could easily store enough to stuff ourselves a month without resupplying.

And that doesn’t even count the 72-bottle beer fridge in my bar.

The coolers in the first couple apartments we rented on this trek were a challenge. Compact, smallish. Call them Frigidaire Lite. They accommodate enough food for maybe 3 days. Plenty big enough for tourists, I suppose

Then we arrived in Strasbourg.

Now, we knew going into this home-hunting expedition that the French Fridge could be tres petit. Lilliputian, even. Not sure why –  probably something to do with Napoleon. 

No sweat, we’d tell ourselves. What do we need a big-ass fridge for? We’re moving to France because we want to downsize! Just think: We’ll be shopping at the outdoor market every morning, picking up just enough fresh produce and poultry for tonight’s dinner, walking home in our berets with a stalk of celery sticking out of the bag, just like you see in the movies. Why, the only things we’ll need to keep cold is a bottle of Champagne and a tin of caviar!

But the Strasbourg fridge - let’s just say we’ll be cutting the celery in half and uncorking bottles the size of those shampoo containers they let you carry onto airliners.

Our dinky Strasbourg fridge

We just returned from a quick trip to the Monoprix, a chainstore that’s basically Kohl’s if there’s an Acme in the basement. We bought exactly enough food for two lunches and a breakfast, and when it came time to unpack the bags, I had to ask whether I actually needed to refrigerate the yogurt. (You do, Theresa said.)

Which means, I suppose, we’ll be drinking warm beer tonight. 

OK, I exaggerate. But the truth is this is something I’m going to have to get used to. French kitchens are typically much smaller than American kitchens. Their appliances are smaller (we used one dishwasher that was about the size of a microwave), and they don’t devote nearly as much space to storage or meal prep, or even sinks. 

Part of this is, indeed, the nature of food shopping. There’s no room to park a Ford Expedition, so you bring home only what you can carry in one of those net filt bags. 

Also, the French eat about 20 percent less food than Americans. 

What’s it mean for us? 

Well, one thing we’ve learned is the French do not refrigerate eggs. So, good news - cold beer tonight!