Books, Arts & Manners: To Market, to Market

MY OLD first-year French textbook was of the kind that attempts to give the students a feel for the texture of everyday French life while teaching them the language. We read about Robert Martin, an American exchange student, and his Parisian friends Marie and Jacques Dalembert; many of the incidents were fairly yawn-making, though we did find titillating the one in which Jacques tells a reluctant Robert that with choucroute garnie one simply has to drink beer.

But there was one real culture shock for us Angelenos, who had grown up with nothing but supermarkets: the scene in which Mme Dalembert was laid up with the flu and Marie had to go shopping for her. Or rather—for this was no one-stop shopping—she had to “make the rounds” (faire les courses): the greengrocer, the fishmonger, the sausage man; the butcher, the baker, and, practically, the candlestick maker (the authors actually sent poor Marie to the ironmonger’s, so as to teach us the immensely useful word quincaillier). And someone had to make all or some of these rounds every day, because Mme Dalembert refused even to buy a fridge. Marie thought it incredibly primitive, and we agreed.

About the Author

Linda Bridges

Ms. Bridges is the former editor-at-large of National Review.

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MY OLD first-year French textbook was of the kind that attempts to give the students a feel for the texture of everyday French life while teaching them the language. We read about Robert Martin, an American exchange student, and his Parisian friends Marie and Jacques Dalembert; many of the incidents were fairly yawn-making, though we did find titillating the one in which Jacques tells a reluctant Robert that with choucroute garnie one simply has to drink beer.

But there was one real culture shock for us Angelenos, who had grown up with nothing but supermarkets: the scene in which Mme Dalembert was laid up with the flu and Marie had to go shopping for her. Or rather—for this was no one-stop shopping—she had to “make the rounds” (faire les courses): the greengrocer, the fishmonger, the sausage man; the butcher, the baker, and, practically, the candlestick maker (the authors actually sent poor Marie to the ironmonger’s, so as to teach us the immensely useful word quincaillier). And someone had to make all or some of these rounds every day, because Mme Dalembert refused even to buy a fridge. Marie thought it incredibly primitive, and we agreed.