Today, we had our orientation and a tour of Avignon. At lunch, we went to a restaurant outside the wall called le Bercail. To get there, we had to take a little boat across the Rhône and had a great view of the Pont d'Avignon. I happened to sit at a table with two of the French teachers and Isabelle, an assistant from the Institut. We had a very pleasant conversation. I learned about French superstitions, and learned the words for landscaper (paysagiste) and weeds (les mauvaises herbes). Just for you, mom!
Anyway, at one point, we started talking about organic food. I began to describe the book I'm reading, In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan. I made an attempt at an eloquent description of Americans' attachment to nutrition over food, but I got stuck trying to come up with an adequate description of "processed foods." I said something like, "euh... vous savez, c'est quand la nourriture est pleine de... de... préservatifs, c'est ça." Unfortunately for me, "preservatives" is a false cognate. Instead of saying that the foods is full of preservatives, I said that "uh... you know, it's when the food is full of condoms! That's it." I got a bit of a funny look from Isabelle. She said... euh... tu veux dire les conservateurs, je quoi. And I realized my mistake as my friend Derek had a good laugh at my mistake. Isabelle went on to say "yes, so you don't want to carry 'conservateurs' in your purse and 'preservatifs' in your food. That might give boys the wrong idea..." Won't be making that mistake again :-P In other news, there are condom "distributeurs" in the street on the outside of pharmacies, in the wide open. I guess it's good that they want people to be protected! Gotta love the French.
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