Le bon, le mauvais, et le laid

Voila the first of, I'm sure, many posts where I list all of the fanastic/bizarre/ridiculous things I am discovering about Paris. Enjoy.

• Yogurt. Full fat yogurt is very rich and almost disgusting. I learned this accidentally after I bought some lemon yogurt during my first grocery trip with Kerstin. I don't think it even exists in your average Safeway. I was afraid when I got here that the terms "low fat" or "non fat" didn't exist. They sort of do, in so many words. Dannon has a line of products called "Taillefine," which loosely translated means something like "nice size." Voila the low-fat products. They make yogurt with flavors like ruby red grapefruit and passion fruit. I'm sold. They also make some packaged baked goods (but I'm pretty sure they're just like Snack Wells, i.e. gross and full of sugar) and some yummy fizzy soda that I also bought.
  
• There is a lot of bread and cheese in France. Two things of which I eat very little of at home, unless it's string cheese or whole wheat toast with my turkey burgers. Luckily I'm too broke to even be tempted to eat at restaurants or even crepes and paninis.
• Which brings me to something else. The French panini. I discovered it the last night Kerstin was here, when we went back to the nice crepe man. She got a cheese and mushroom crepe, but I wanted some protein. A French panini is essentially a stuffed baguette -- a foot long loaf of bread with a slit, filled with stuff, then toasted in the panini press. I had the bolognese and cheese. It's fucking awesome. All for 3,50. It really doesn't get better.
• Coffee. It is very hard to find a travel coffee mug. I found one at the Bodum store but it was expensive. Perhaps I'll have to buy one at -- gasp -- Starbucks. I understand that French people make time in their morning to have their tiny cup of coffee and a warm croissant while they read the paper. Me, I like to make the coffee while I'm getting ready and drink it in transit. So I must find a travel coffee mug.
• There is also no coffee creamer. Sad day for me, because I love Coffee Mate. I wait for the winter so I can get my Pumpkin Spice or Peppermint Mocha creamer. So now, instead, I use a dash of whole milk and a spoonful of Nesquik powder. It gets the job done, but chocolate will probably be tiring after a while.
  
• The mini croissant. All the deliciousness, half the price and half the guilt. For 0,45, I will probably make a habit of it.
• Everything is smaller here. Apartments, cars, stores, even toilet paper. I kid you not, the toilet paper is noticeably shorter, as are the paper towels. Unfortunately, so are the frozen chicken breasts, and that is sad.
  
• Ice cream. The ice cream is awesome. I'm addicted to the low fat variety back home, so I was afraid that eating ice cream here would add to the significant amount of arterial blockage I'll have from all the fucking cheese and butter. But no. The ice cream is essentially low fat on its own. And the packing is great. You get a little plastic tub (I have been cleaning mine out and using them for store. It's great tupperware) and the ice cream has a cool design on top like it was piped in with a pastry bag, and little chocolate chips sprinkled on top. It it totally ridiculous, but it delights me.
• Gyms. This part is killing me. The gyms here suck. I understand that indoor exercise is a new concept to the French. What I don't understand is why these shitty little gyms cost so much money. I mean Club Quartier Latin This ties into what I already said about things being small, except these gyms are deceptive. They make these fancy websites with great pictures of the facility that cleverly mask their size. LAME.
• BIG flies. I leave one of my windows open when I'm home to ventilate the place, and these gigantic flies buzz on in. At first it freaked me out and I wanted to keep my windows shut, but the flies are great exercise for Puck. My studio is very small and he is used to big hallways for sprinting. But when the flies come in, he goes nuts trying to catch them. So far he has trapped and eaten two of them. So now the flies are welcome.

I should really make lists of everything I see that strikes me, cuz it happens constantly.