Blowtorches and Juice Boxes

Juice box redefined.

So two things about this picture, I'm wet and that is a box of apple juice.

There are things in France that I didn't anticipate. The first, obviously is the rain. The 'Before You Go' novel that I read before leaving on this excursion stated that the weather is 'much like the northern Midwest ' Which I knew was false because the direct sentence after it was 'although it hardly snows.' Midwest and hardly snows don't belong in the same paragraph. So I was expecting something a little more dry. I missed the sentence stating that it rains like Seattle with winds like Chicago.  So I'm in a constant state of wet mouillé.

Next there is the apple juice. Coming from a land that creates apples, (yes the University of Minnesota did create the Honey Crisp apple, just so you know,) I have consumed quite a few apple products in my days on this planet. And my one problem with apple juices boxes is that they are so darn small. Just when I am fully enjoying that rich apple flavor, the box is empty. But not here in France. Their juice boxes like that above are enormous. And wonderful. Although it doesn't taste completely the same, it has the soft undertones of home. 

What isn't close to home is the way they work road construction. All day today there were these terrible noises coming from outside while I was trying to understand French. It gave me a raging headache. Rather coincidentally, we were learning about aches and pains.  At lunch, I walked out side to go to the store. And there in the middle of the street were two construction workers. One was holding a shovel, scraping away at the paint on the road, the other blasting the paint with a blowtorch. A fiery, loud, full take of gas, blowtorch. I can't speak for any other state, but in Minnesota, when we are repainting the roads, we simply paint over it. We don't melt it away with lethal weapons. But hey! The French do!

Only here can you see a construction worker with a blowtorch as your thinking about buying another juice box in the swirly winds and rains of January.

Yes this is a shopping cart.