Saveur du Canada

At la Défense, there is a huge mall, le Quatre Temps. It is open Sundays, a rarity here. (By the way, la Défense is a high-rise area on the outskirts of Paris: http://courses.umass.edu/latour/2010/ladefence/JillianHaswell%20La%20Defense.html .) At the mall, there is a "hypermarché", Auchan. A hypermarché is like a supermarché, only bigger. We went there, both because we really needed to get school supplies on a Sunday, and nothing else was open (Saturdays were busy with school and music lessons so it wasn't possible to go then), and because we were able to find obscure items there, such as a lab coat for Silke for her science class. I'm sure that there must be other places in Paris that sell lab coats, but darned if I know where they are. The food section of the hypermarché is vast. I now know where I can go to get unusual Asian or South American ingredients, provided that I am willing to trek all the way out there (actually it's not so long to get there, thanks to the fast and frequent RER A train.) Particular kinds of Asian or South American are not the only varieties of ethnic food that they have however: for the first time ever, anywhere, I saw a "Canadian" food section. Here is a photo. Not entirely sharp, and a bit distorted because I had to use the panorama feature on my iPhone, but you get the idea. (You can double-click on it to get a larger version.) Let's see. . . maple syrup - well of course. . . pancake mix, cheesecake mix, brownie mix, popcorn, peanut butter, Hersey's chocolate sauce, marshmallows, immense jars of Tabasco sauce (I've never seen one that big in Canada!), beef jerky, Reese's peanut butter cups, instant porridge. Oh dear, I'm afraid that the French don't think that Canadians eat very good food!