So my daughter and I were talking about the egg phenomenon (more on that later) and I said " How hard is that? Why don't we vaccinate chickens" and her immediate response was " what if the chickens get autism?" (In a nod to RFK Jr) which set us off on a tangent, thinking about what would an autistic chicken do. In another French-egg-incident, she and I went to France in 2017. We stayed in an apartment in Paris and cooked many of our meals. I bought eggs, stored them on the counter and when I opened the carton there was a dead chick that had broken out of its egg. I have no idea how common or unusual that is, but it was startling to say the lesst.
That is a hoot, but it shouldn't be happening. It takes 21 days for a fertilized egg to grow into a chick. So either the chick found in your egg dozen was hatched by a hen for a good part of those 21 days before being picked and packaged, or that egg carton suffered high heat conditions before it got to you.
The modern French may not be big on top sheets, but their grandmothers and great-grandmothers were, and as a result, for not much money you can pick up the most beautiful vintage top sheets in cotton, linen or hemp—embroidered or plain, coarse or fine, handwoven on narrow domestic looms or industrially produced, and ready worn-in if you’re really lucky (it takes a good ten years to wear in a linen or hemp sheet)—and use them to your heart’s content. (Can you tell I love old French sheets?) That being said, the linen and hemp ones are heavy and I wouldn’t want to have to wash and dry a lot of them, except in summer with access to outdoor drying spaces, or a really good laundry service.
Nodding my head to just about all of these. I too have difficulty stuffing the duvet back into the cover, (& having my husband do it would yield disastrous results). Also, our itty bitty washer isn’t really up to the task of cleaning that giant piece of fabric. Ikea, Europe’s only home of affordable bed linens, doesn’t carry top sheets, but we splurged for one at Zara Home & keep the duvet cover on longer.
That dishwasher salt is a lifesaver! (& now I know what that funny little funnel stored under the sink is for!). The 1st time our machine ran out I was oblivious to the error code & was convinced the machine was broken because the dishes/glasses came out so gunky. Fortunately I found an English version of the operator’s manual online…where I got a thorough lesson in limescale buildup.
I am with you on the stable, heavy-soled shoes in France and elsewhere in Europe. The orthopedic surgeon who repaired both of my Achilles tendons supports this too.
I had no idea about the hard water, so thank you for sharing that.
Now we use alll of the dishwasher bits. The salts, the extra rinse, all of it. One day, I will figure out the button to press to make it stop telling me I need more salts in the machine when I just added them. We live with the error code. Nice to know where at least one problem is coming from.
I put a photo of the box in the post. It’s special salt, more like rock salt than table salt. There’s a salt well in the dishwasher and we just fill it.
I still use a top sheet. Tho I do have the "burrito method" mastered, so it's not a big deal to change the duvet cover.
I love the composting here. I composted in Colorado, the company I worked at composted items from the café, so I would bring my compost bag to dump it when I went to the office.
I don't drink coffee, I wish I did - it's so cheap, but on the other hand, I would love to stop for a tea everyday, but I find it very expensive here - 3.5 - 5 euros! So rarely do I go out for a tea and people watch. It's not that I can't afford it, but in my typical American mind set, I need to get the "bang for the buck"
I'm with you on the eggs -thanks for explaining why you don't store them in the fridge.
Luckily our home came with a whole house water softener - so no special treatment for the dishwasher
I carry a umbrella, it's not super windy where I'm at in Normandie. I do need a longer raincoat tho, the one I have only goes down to my hips. I came home the other day with a dry torso and sopping wet jeans.
My favorite raincoat comes down below my knees. (The brand: Flotte.) I also bought really cheap rain pants to go over my leggings when I do my power walks. (They are really hot, though.)
We used to use a bag inside the compost bucket which made it all less messy, but they told us we weren't allowed to use it, even though it was degradable.
You can get compostable food waste caddy bags to help prevent your kitchen caddy and outdoor composting bin from getting too messy. Don’t use a paper towel to scrape the food waste into the bin, just use a piece of cutlery that you’re going to wash anyway. Here in London we also have very hard water and need to refill our dishwashers with salt pretty frequently (the amount in dishwasher tabs isn’t remotely enough) and use the maximum quantity of dishwasher rinsing agent, as well as putting the machines through limescale removing cleaning cycles with special gunk every few weeks. Washing machines also need regular descaling or the pipes get clogged up and you get horrible little crumbs and smears of limescale on your clean clothes, and we get better cleaning results from our laundry detergents if we chuck in a spoonful of sodium bicarbonate with every wash - I expect that also applies in Rennes. The Brita filters that remove limescale from drinking water are amazing.
I also clean the clothes washer and use an anti-calcaire product. About the caddy bags? Are these bags that decompose so you tie them up like any trash bag and drop them in the receptacle? If so, we tried them and were told we aren’t allowed to use them. ( we live in a big apartment building so we have a common receptacle that is regularly picked up.)
No biodegradable bags - it's the same in my town of Bayeux. At my old job, they said it was ok to use the bio bag because they subscribed to an industrial compost service.
I really enjoy your descriptions of French life and how cultures differ& how there are some crossovers .
I grew up with “ airing out” aka “ burping” . Every day , even in the winter, my mom would open the bedroom windows for a bit each day. On sheet changing day , the bedspreads, quilts & pillows were hung halfway out the window to freshen & air out. I’ don’t have that daily disciplined but do make a weekly effort to “ air out/ burb” our house .
The other partial similarity has to do with composting . While there still is no citywide program for composting there are reputable private companies ( Bennett for one) that are making inroads but it’s still at a price .
I have to say that I am disappointed to learn that cafe coffee isn’t that good . It seems like my romantic notion of France is sipping coffee at an outdoor table.
Im so trying this salt in the dishwasher. Great idea!
I try to burp our place but living across the street from the canal we get all sorts of bugs in here if I don’t put the screens up. I do miss having screens. Each year I buy new ones from Amazon. I need properly fitted ones but I worry on my front doors my dog will run right through it. Ugh.
Yay- I'm prepping- I've got the shoes mostly off, the coffee for sure, ditto on eggs, some house burping, and the compost down; the french will think it silly but I love our countertop composter that grinds and dries it overnight- voila-no more smells/flies/worms...
We haven't decided yet if we'd try to bring it - we're moving to France one suitcase at a time... over time, but I miss it when we're there. will send a photo- it wasn't a super expensive one; we waited until the prices came down (but still about $300).
I do all of these things now too except I still place my eggs in the fridge, mainly because I have multiple cats and they would inevitably get into mischief if I allowed them to remain on the kitchen island.
Been in France for 3+ years, salt in the dishwasher absolutely! Duvet no top sheet absolutely not! I hate changing/wrestling the duvet cover and I like having the top sheet as a heat/cool option.
My husband loves "burping" -- I didn't know that term in that context -- the bathroom when it's below freezing, and since I follow him by about an hour, I have occasionally had to put most bathroom activities off until the evening.
And yes! The umbrella dilemma! I asked for a "nice high-quality umbrella" for Christmas and got a made-in-France jewel, but my husband quickly pointed out that even it would not survive the wind that often accompanies the rain in Rodez. I haven't used it yet; I tend to just stay home if it's umbrella-destroying weather.
In the US I had a really cool one that folded the opposite way (kind of inside out) that kept you dry when pulling it into the car. But it wouldn’t stand up to the wind here. Maybe one of those bubble ones would work.
So my daughter and I were talking about the egg phenomenon (more on that later) and I said " How hard is that? Why don't we vaccinate chickens" and her immediate response was " what if the chickens get autism?" (In a nod to RFK Jr) which set us off on a tangent, thinking about what would an autistic chicken do. In another French-egg-incident, she and I went to France in 2017. We stayed in an apartment in Paris and cooked many of our meals. I bought eggs, stored them on the counter and when I opened the carton there was a dead chick that had broken out of its egg. I have no idea how common or unusual that is, but it was startling to say the lesst.
Oh wow with the chick. I have encountered chicken poop. I was the eggs carefully before cracking them. The vaccine joke is a riot!!
but was it autistic?! OMG
That is a hoot, but it shouldn't be happening. It takes 21 days for a fertilized egg to grow into a chick. So either the chick found in your egg dozen was hatched by a hen for a good part of those 21 days before being picked and packaged, or that egg carton suffered high heat conditions before it got to you.
The modern French may not be big on top sheets, but their grandmothers and great-grandmothers were, and as a result, for not much money you can pick up the most beautiful vintage top sheets in cotton, linen or hemp—embroidered or plain, coarse or fine, handwoven on narrow domestic looms or industrially produced, and ready worn-in if you’re really lucky (it takes a good ten years to wear in a linen or hemp sheet)—and use them to your heart’s content. (Can you tell I love old French sheets?) That being said, the linen and hemp ones are heavy and I wouldn’t want to have to wash and dry a lot of them, except in summer with access to outdoor drying spaces, or a really good laundry service.
I also take my shoes off because of the dog poop. And, yes, husbands are really good for putting duvet covers on! - Good piece, merci!
Ah, yes. The poop!! Dog and of other origins.
Nodding my head to just about all of these. I too have difficulty stuffing the duvet back into the cover, (& having my husband do it would yield disastrous results). Also, our itty bitty washer isn’t really up to the task of cleaning that giant piece of fabric. Ikea, Europe’s only home of affordable bed linens, doesn’t carry top sheets, but we splurged for one at Zara Home & keep the duvet cover on longer.
That dishwasher salt is a lifesaver! (& now I know what that funny little funnel stored under the sink is for!). The 1st time our machine ran out I was oblivious to the error code & was convinced the machine was broken because the dishes/glasses came out so gunky. Fortunately I found an English version of the operator’s manual online…where I got a thorough lesson in limescale buildup.
I stumbled upon the salt thing, too.
Appreciate the funnel tip!
I am with you on the stable, heavy-soled shoes in France and elsewhere in Europe. The orthopedic surgeon who repaired both of my Achilles tendons supports this too.
I had no idea about the hard water, so thank you for sharing that.
It took me months to figure out about the salt in the dishwasher. Phew!
Wrecked more than one expensive coffee automatic till I was told that's what Britia is for, i always thought they were a gimmick !
Now we use alll of the dishwasher bits. The salts, the extra rinse, all of it. One day, I will figure out the button to press to make it stop telling me I need more salts in the machine when I just added them. We live with the error code. Nice to know where at least one problem is coming from.
None of our error codes ever shut off!
What kind of salt and how much per load? Merci!
I put a photo of the box in the post. It’s special salt, more like rock salt than table salt. There’s a salt well in the dishwasher and we just fill it.
😊
Great comparisons!
So interesting!
All great points.
I still use a top sheet. Tho I do have the "burrito method" mastered, so it's not a big deal to change the duvet cover.
I love the composting here. I composted in Colorado, the company I worked at composted items from the café, so I would bring my compost bag to dump it when I went to the office.
I don't drink coffee, I wish I did - it's so cheap, but on the other hand, I would love to stop for a tea everyday, but I find it very expensive here - 3.5 - 5 euros! So rarely do I go out for a tea and people watch. It's not that I can't afford it, but in my typical American mind set, I need to get the "bang for the buck"
I'm with you on the eggs -thanks for explaining why you don't store them in the fridge.
Luckily our home came with a whole house water softener - so no special treatment for the dishwasher
I carry a umbrella, it's not super windy where I'm at in Normandie. I do need a longer raincoat tho, the one I have only goes down to my hips. I came home the other day with a dry torso and sopping wet jeans.
My favorite raincoat comes down below my knees. (The brand: Flotte.) I also bought really cheap rain pants to go over my leggings when I do my power walks. (They are really hot, though.)
We used to use a bag inside the compost bucket which made it all less messy, but they told us we weren't allowed to use it, even though it was degradable.
You can get compostable food waste caddy bags to help prevent your kitchen caddy and outdoor composting bin from getting too messy. Don’t use a paper towel to scrape the food waste into the bin, just use a piece of cutlery that you’re going to wash anyway. Here in London we also have very hard water and need to refill our dishwashers with salt pretty frequently (the amount in dishwasher tabs isn’t remotely enough) and use the maximum quantity of dishwasher rinsing agent, as well as putting the machines through limescale removing cleaning cycles with special gunk every few weeks. Washing machines also need regular descaling or the pipes get clogged up and you get horrible little crumbs and smears of limescale on your clean clothes, and we get better cleaning results from our laundry detergents if we chuck in a spoonful of sodium bicarbonate with every wash - I expect that also applies in Rennes. The Brita filters that remove limescale from drinking water are amazing.
I also clean the clothes washer and use an anti-calcaire product. About the caddy bags? Are these bags that decompose so you tie them up like any trash bag and drop them in the receptacle? If so, we tried them and were told we aren’t allowed to use them. ( we live in a big apartment building so we have a common receptacle that is regularly picked up.)
Not being allowed to use compostable (biodegradable) caddy bags is baffling and illogical - is it worth double-checking on that?
They were really firm about it.
No biodegradable bags - it's the same in my town of Bayeux. At my old job, they said it was ok to use the bio bag because they subscribed to an industrial compost service.
Back to sheets of old newspaper it is, then!
Coucou! I thought you (or Monsieur, rather,) would enjoy seeing this ;-)
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1AfxY8cJFa/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Running to find it!
I really enjoy your descriptions of French life and how cultures differ& how there are some crossovers .
I grew up with “ airing out” aka “ burping” . Every day , even in the winter, my mom would open the bedroom windows for a bit each day. On sheet changing day , the bedspreads, quilts & pillows were hung halfway out the window to freshen & air out. I’ don’t have that daily disciplined but do make a weekly effort to “ air out/ burb” our house .
The other partial similarity has to do with composting . While there still is no citywide program for composting there are reputable private companies ( Bennett for one) that are making inroads but it’s still at a price .
I have to say that I am disappointed to learn that cafe coffee isn’t that good . It seems like my romantic notion of France is sipping coffee at an outdoor table.
Appreciate all your stories. Please don’t stop .
The company that picks up the compost from our apartment building comes on a bike!!
Im so trying this salt in the dishwasher. Great idea!
I try to burp our place but living across the street from the canal we get all sorts of bugs in here if I don’t put the screens up. I do miss having screens. Each year I buy new ones from Amazon. I need properly fitted ones but I worry on my front doors my dog will run right through it. Ugh.
Not sure if it’s our climate (Brittany) or the height (we are on 6th fl) but we get no bugs.
Yay- I'm prepping- I've got the shoes mostly off, the coffee for sure, ditto on eggs, some house burping, and the compost down; the french will think it silly but I love our countertop composter that grinds and dries it overnight- voila-no more smells/flies/worms...
I need to know more about this composter!
We haven't decided yet if we'd try to bring it - we're moving to France one suitcase at a time... over time, but I miss it when we're there. will send a photo- it wasn't a super expensive one; we waited until the prices came down (but still about $300).
Got the photo. It looks too big for my kitchen.
c'est la vie en France...
I do all of these things now too except I still place my eggs in the fridge, mainly because I have multiple cats and they would inevitably get into mischief if I allowed them to remain on the kitchen island.
Been in France for 3+ years, salt in the dishwasher absolutely! Duvet no top sheet absolutely not! I hate changing/wrestling the duvet cover and I like having the top sheet as a heat/cool option.
Ah yes, airing out the place. We do that too along with no top sheet.
My husband loves "burping" -- I didn't know that term in that context -- the bathroom when it's below freezing, and since I follow him by about an hour, I have occasionally had to put most bathroom activities off until the evening.
And yes! The umbrella dilemma! I asked for a "nice high-quality umbrella" for Christmas and got a made-in-France jewel, but my husband quickly pointed out that even it would not survive the wind that often accompanies the rain in Rodez. I haven't used it yet; I tend to just stay home if it's umbrella-destroying weather.
In the US I had a really cool one that folded the opposite way (kind of inside out) that kept you dry when pulling it into the car. But it wouldn’t stand up to the wind here. Maybe one of those bubble ones would work.
That's an idea. I don't see them around here too much.