Villefranche-sur-mer v.2

Dear Friends,

As New Years' Day comes to a close here in France, I have been thinking about how things are different when we are here.

First, since we grocery shop everyday, we tend to buy only what we need and use everything we buy. For example, today virtually all the stores were closed, but we discovered on our walk that one of the boulangeries was in fact open.  So we had to stop in to buy some dessert for a dinner that would be made from things we had purchased on our first day of provisioning.  Tonight for dinner we used the leftover sauce with leek, onions and potatoes along with some carrots and a frozen chicken breast to make a wonderful one pan meal.

We added a simple lettuce salad with Jane's balsamic vinaigrette dressing and a bottle of wine for a perfect meal.

Of course we had to finish with the wonderful desserts we had purchased at the boulangerie.

Fortunately the stores will be open tomorrow so we can provision again, although we saved the leftover sauce that now has in it potatoes, green beans, carrots, leeks and onions although not much of any one of them.  We will have a great soup for lunch tomorrow.  

Since we walk everywhere to shop and buy primarily local products, our carbon footprint (ignoring the airplane flight to get here) is really quite small and since we throw out very little we can feel very smug about how we are treating the planet.

The other thing that I have been thinking about while we are here is the need to be inclusive of all people.  Even in this small town, there are a wide variety of people with different ethnic backgrounds, but there is a sense of harmony. 

Last night we went to dinner at a restaurant that was organized by our landlady.  In addition to us, there was another American couple from St. Louis who visit Villefranche several times a year, a Canadian couple that also visit several times a year, a couple consisting of a woman born in Amsterdam and her husband who was born in Australia who now live in Turkey but have just bought a place in Villefranche, a French woman who lives in Villefranche, and our landlady and her husband both of whom are American but met in and now live in Villefranche. Amazingly enough all of us shared relatively close political views.  In a way we were all the same - white, financially well off, educated and politically liberal; but our life experiences were very different.  

We all simply accepted each other and had a wonderful evening.  Wouldn't the world be a better place if we always accepted new people and were inclusive.  My New Years' Resolution is to be more inclusive in how I live my life.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal