Would you like your douche with Dop or Gras?

Bonjour, Ya'll!
Thanks for reading my little column and all your great feedback.  A reader wanted to know which kinds of things from "back home" we are missing?  While it's true we do miss Whataburger, shaved ice and personal bathroom space, we are really excited about some of the new wonderful products we have found here in Paris!

We begin with toothpaste....

You're probably wondering "How good can something called Vademecum be inside my mouth?"  Maybe they just need an endorsement like this one:

"Mother never told me about how Vademecum could make my smile so SEXY!"  It tastes even better than Sanogyl, too!!"

Hmm, not quite right, is it?  Maybe with a more European spokesmodel,  it would seem more exciting...How about Roger Federer?  He's gorgeous, has great teeth and I would buy anything he sells!

Too bad Roger is not showing his great teeth here, but who cares?  Superhot!!!  Wait a minute, what was this post about?

Next, to the lotion section:  I somehow lost my favorite lotion along the way as we traveled from Houston to Fort Collins, Colorado, to Tampa, Florida, then back to Fort Collins, then to Houston, then finally here to Paris...okay, that probably explains how I lost it...so I went out looking for some new lotion.  Here's what I saw:

DOP? Dop of what?  Is that like a dollop of Daisy sour cream?

Hmmm, not sure I wanted to rub any Dop or Gras on my body...Nivea is available (which is good) and has a name I recognize.  Problem for me is that lotion, body wash, deodorant and shampoo all are packaged in the same size/type bottles, so it's really hard to figure out which one is which.  And, "douche" is the French word for shower, by the way.  So do you want your douche with Dop or Gras?

Next, food & drink:  Faithful readers may remember my earlier post about French math:  Any food + Chocolate = Breakfast.  Look at this chocolate milk--yes, it does say "Candy Up"!!  Makes me happy I retired from teaching--wouldn't want a whole class full of kids who were "Candied Up"!!

Comes in vanilla or berry, too!

This was something that caught my eye:  Rince Cochon  Maybe that is French for "Pork Beer"?

After looking this up (used my Google Chrome translate!), I found out this is actually Belgian beer!  Not sure I want to purchase a beer with a pig on the label drinking beer, I mean how many pigs drink beer?  Notice the label on bottom--"sucre rouge"-- red sugar.  I don't always drink pork beer, but when I do, it's filled with red sugar!!!

and speaking of sugar....
The only sugar brand I have seen so far--maybe they have the monopoly on the market here--is "Daddy".  You want some sugar?  Try Daddy!  To me, this name brings a negative image to mind that I don't really want when I'm trying to fix up my coffee in the morning.

French Breakfast Foods

The cookie aisle?  NOPE!  Breakfast aisle!!

More chocolate breakfast items, mmm!

And, if you want a variety of chocolate cereals, we have it here!!

Last but not least, miscellaneous products:  Soupline?  I think this might be fabric softener, but for French illiterates (like me) you might be confused and try to cook with it.  or bathe your baby in it.  Which are 2 totally unrelated things but appear to go together on this label.  Baby soup, anyone?

Le Chat (translates as "The Cat"), is a company that offers all types of products including personal care items, laundry care, and cleaning products, etc.  What can I say?  I'm just not a "cat" person anyway, but when I clean, Le Chat doesn't strike a chord with me--I start thinking of cat LITTER and that's just kinda gross.  I mean, I'm a dog person.

Skip!  Skip to my Lou!  Or skip to the washing machine--I know I do that all the time--just skip, skip, skip around because I get so excited about laundry.  Or, hit those stains with some Gama! You got Gama?  Or is it one of those homespun products:

"Use Gama to get clothes as clean as your own Gama!"

 Interesting Aside:  my dryer has a reservoir that you must empty after every load--no kidding!  I take it out from the bottom and pour out all the water after each load of clothes I dry.  

Just 1:  I think this toliet paper is advertising that you only use 1 square per visit??   Heck, if that's true, this 6-pack may last me the rest of the year!  

So, as you can see, there are many cool products here for us to discover.  So when you come to visit, don't worry about bringing any of the familiar products we may be missing from the US, except maybe some extra toliet paper for yourself.

*DISCLAIMER:

When we visited Paris in April to look for a place to live, I forgot my mascara.  I started looking for "Boots", the fabulous British drugstore chain, thinking France might have Boots, too, or at least something similar.  (Actually, Boots is coming to the US in all the Target stores, you lucky dogs!)  Boots has everything you need and quite a few other things you may not need but just HAVE to have--it's awesome and pretty cheap, too.  Here in France there is no Boots.  Drug stores are expensive--mascara is like 10 Euros & higher, which is about 13 US dollars.  (Yikes!!)  So, I put LOTS of drugstore-type stuff in our air shipment--so therefore have not tried any of the wonderful products described here today.