La Vache Qui Rit

Yep. She's laughing at me on this specific day, in particular! La Vache Qui Rit....The Laughing Cow has the inside joke.

There are times when my French just goes blank. And of course as you can guess at the most critical of times when one needs it the most.

In 2010, we were in Paris shopping for the week's meals at the local Monoprix. Trying to be careful with calories I searched for NON-fat items. For the life of me, I couldn't remember the word "non-fat".

"Pardon madam, je cherche du lait sans uh, uh, uh...comment dit on???....uhh"

Then I motion with my hands as they circulate my body and make out to be a huge round person. The young woman smiles and directs me to the milk....but I keep asking "SANS" which means "without". She finally figures out what I'm trying to say and pulls out what I think is a Fat Free bottle of milk. Interestingly enough their milk is not refridgerated. So then I'm twice as leary.

Later I buy "du frommage" (some cheese) The Laughing Cow....so I can carry my small pre-wrapped portions as I travel. There I also searched for the word "non-fat" but to no avail. It didn't matter - the cheese was too good to skimp on this one anyway.

It wasn't until 5 months later that I was home reading an article about Mardi Gras in my kitchen. Yes, there it was in bold letters: ' MARDI GRAS'. Absent mindedly, I ran through the days of the week lundi, mardi, mercredi, jeudi, vendredi....then then wait a minute!! Let's back up to Mardi Gras. Mardi means Tuesday....and Gras...well there it was...FAT TUESDAY! BIG FAT TUESDAY!!! GRAS was the word I had been searching for and the term was "Sans gras"!

To make it even more comical, I opened my refridgerator door and there she was....the old container of LA VACHE QUI RIT....and yes she was laughing directly at me!

Happy Mardi Gras Y'all!