FRENCH WORD-A-DAY

un rayon (ray-oh) noun, masculine
1. a ray, beam
2. radius
3. spoke
4. shelf; department, counter

Also:
un rayon d'espoir = a ray of hope
un rayon de lune = a moonbeam
un rayon de soleil = a ray of sunshine
aux premiers rayons de soleil = at sunrise
un rayon d'action = a field of action
le rayon visuel = the line of vision
les rayons gamma = gamma rays
le rayon frais = the fresh food department
le rayon d'enfants = the children's department

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Citation du Jour

L'amour fait songer, vivre et croire Il a pour réchauffer le cœur. Un rayon de plus que la gloire, et ce rayon, c'est le bonheur.

Love makes one think, live and believe. To warm the heart it has one ray more than glory, and this ray is happiness.--Victor Hugo

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A Day in a French Life...

Loading the grocery bags into le chariot,* I think about how attached I've become to our village's supermarket. The store has undergone two agrandissements* since we moved here, each time to the villagers' collective chagrin, but is still quaint enough to feel at ease while navigating the narrow isles.

Though we don't have grocery baggers in France we now have a system at our supermarket whereby the cashier can load items directly into the bags after swiping them across the product scanner. La caissière* can also weigh les fruits et légumes* for us. Not long ago, we had to wait in line at an electronic scale, stare at a panel of 50 or so produce depictions (looking for the picture of the banana or leek or pomme* in question) push the corresponding button to retrieve the adhesive price ticket, stick that on the see-through bag and worry about if it we did right selecting "pomme* reinette" when maybe it was a "pomme rouge"* after all?

Our supermarket has well-stocked rayons,* and even a "produits étranger"* section where I can select peanut butter (beurre de cacahouètes in French), cranberry juice, tortillas and recently, Campbell's mushroom soup. But I don't buy those things anymore.

You know what they say, "On veut toujours ce qu'on n'a pas chez nous" (We always want what we don't have). Though I can now have a few staples from my American childhood, it isn't a glass of cranberry juice or a PB & J sandwich that will enhance this French life.

Realizing the truth in this, I whip past the jars of peanut butter and veer back to the cheese counter. I am in France, doing like a Frenchwoman. Fitting in, smoothing down the often self-constructed barriers, becoming a part of the ebb and flow of French life. Slipping forward at times, sans beurre de cacahouettes* to smooth the ride.

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*References: le chariot (m) = grocery cart; un agrandissement (m) = an expansion; la caissière (le cassier) = cashier; le fruit (m) = fruit ; un légume (m) = a vegetable; une pomme (f) an apple; rouge = red; produit étranger (m) = foreign product; le beurre de cacahouètes (m) = peanut butter Note: in Canada it is beurre d'arachide