July 8, 2011

Ella, Melinda & I just returned from a late Friday afternoon excursion to Leclerc. Nothing out of the ordinary to report about this; in fact, today has been about as ordinary of a day as it gets. Well, ordinary for a chilly, rainy day in July. As we waited for the tram to come home, Melinda commented that we seem to have gotten our summer in the spring and right now are getting spring in the summer. We hope this turns around again soon. I have seen that it’s supposed to start warming up again on Sunday.

Anyway, as you may be aware, Leclerc is a large grocery store. Several aisles are devoted to the sale of alcohol-related products. Of course the wine selection is huge (this is France, you know). The beer selection is small (this is France, you know). But of interest is the wide variety of hard liquor available. For Washingtonians like ourselves, it takes a little getting used to, seeing hard liquor in grocery stores, although it sounds like that might change if this story in today’s Seattle Times is true.

I always crack a smile when I see the collection of “flasks” for sale, as seen in today’s photo. These are glass bottles backed with a pieces of cardboard and enclosed in strong plastic wrap. And it’s not just cheap stuff you’ll see being marketed this way. I couldn’t resist and today bought a flask of calvados, an apple brandy from Normandy, something to have as a digestif.

From the nostalgia file, a year ago today I served coq au vin (in a can) for lunch…
Day 8 (8 July 2010) – Coq au Vin