No. 33: Last Minute Finds
It’s not always easy to find the missing ingredients from your homeland in France. Sometimes it can take weeks or months to track something down when you’re desperate for a piece of home. But tonight was an exception to the rule. Cet automne, j’ai du pain sur la planche with so many different and exciting things, that I didn’t even remember until last night that today America is celebrating Halloween.
Most Frenchies don’t observe Halloween. It’s not part of their history. Toussaint, tomorrow, is their holiday, and a pretty serious one at that. So when ma fille cadette came home from rehearsal for her Sondheim showcase tonight, and announced, “No one even acknowledged that today was Halloween,” I felt a little pang of regret. Even though Button is halfway to 18, I know she misses the fun and high spirits of dressing up, trick-or-treating, and being a teen in America.
So because I’m a good maman, while she was showering and changing, I ran out with Taz, and thought I’d take a chance on finding some Halloween candy for her to share with the cast ce soir. Et, voilà au marché d’à côté, on the highest shelf, sat one lone box of miniature-sized American candy! Quelle chance! That never happens in Paris.
A burly Russian tourist stood on his tiptoes and knocked it from the shelf and into my grateful hands.
Alors, happy Halloween à tous!
Vocabulaire
à tous: to all
au marché d’à côté: at the market next door
ce soir: this evening
Cet automne j’ai du pain sur la planche: This autumn, my plate is full, literally “the bread is on the board”
ma fille cadette: my younger daughter
marché d’à côté: market next door
Quelle chance! What luck!
Toussaint: All Saints’ Day
365+ Things I Love About France 