Into French supermarkets...

Used as we are to live among ‘multinational’ couples - couples in which he and she have different nationalities, we tend to forget that we ourselves are a ‘multinational’ couple. And used as we are to multinational couples that are much more ‘exotic’ than an Italo-French couple, we tend to forget that despite all the similarities, Italians and French have also some profound differences.

Our recent vacation, where we spent two weeks in France, helped me to recall that…

We had rented a chalet in the La Vanoise National Park, on the French side of the Alps - just a few kilometers after the Italian border, but definitively in French territory, and we had to go to do some grocery-shopping for the week.

We went to Intermarché, a rather common chain of French supermarkets, quite the same of an Italian supermarket, but… French!

Well, I have not seen Mathilde so enthusiastic since our trip to Orlando. She was literally bubbling with joy, running from one corridor of the other loudly praising the variety of products, the multitude of choices, the myriad of brands…

Variety of products, multitude of choices... as far as I am concerned, I was - on the contrary - rather disappointed...