You just put your kids and wife (or husband) on a plane to France for the summer, but the tuition at the Lycée Français doesn’t leave you enough money for your own vacations. Or you just finished this contract and the client loooovvvves the project but (there’s always a BUT when a client tells you that he looooovvves the project) still asks you to stay a couple more weeks to add a finishing touch. Or you traveled all the way from Europe to spend a month with the American girl (or boy) that you met at a party and you totally fell for him (her) just to realize when you arrive in the states, that she (he) is married with 3 kids. So, it’s 4 weeks vacation in L.A. (or New York, Houston, Seattle, I’ll let you fill in the blank). In other words, you’re stuck here with nothing to do and you're missing your French stuff.

French cheese, driving super slow on a super packed southern freeway, listening to French radio playing some Jean-Jacques Goldman songs (yeah, Goldman’s songs are always on the radio in France), the cheese, being stuck in the metro with hundred of very sweaty Parisians (it’s a very hot summer in Paris), having a Panaché on a terrace, the cheese, watching tons of super bad French movies in theatres with super cold AC, having your Parisian auntie take you to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa because you’ve lived in the US for 20 years so you have to see the Mona Lisa, not wanting to tell your dear aunt that you spent 30 years in Paris before leaving for the US and that Mona Lisa kind of recognizes you now when you go to see her, the cheese… Yes, you do miss all those things. 

But, rest assured, besides the sweaty Parisians and the Mona Lisa, you can find a lot of French stuff this summer in America.

The food, it’s not a problem. Agreed, it’s pretty difficult to find an Aligot in the streets of Seattle in the middle of the summer. Then again, Aligot being some very thick mashed potato filled up with tons of melted cheese, who wants to eat that in 96° heat? Yeah, I know, me too… But besides that, French food is everywhere in the States. This season on Rendez-Vous d’Amérique, we met Dominique Crenn, a chef from Brittany based now in San Francisco. She has 3 stars at the Michelin but you can only eat her food in California.

We have La Durée macaroons or Dominique Ansel’s cronuts in everything big city in the US, and there are even classes to learn how to make a good bouillabaisse in New York, as you can see in this week’s episode. And you can find good French cheese almost everywhere now. True, it may cost you a mortgage, but for good French cheese, totally worth it…

So you can easily take care of your French culinary cravings. For more cultural talk, come back to check our next blog, I’ll have more for you.

To learn more about summers in France, delicious French cheeses, where to find French stuff in America, and other events that affect Franco American culture, read our blog, and tune in to the latest episode of Rendez-vous d’Amérique on TV5MONDE USA. Click here for more information.

Exploring a diversity of culture entwined with California's sun-kissed beaches, New York's insatiable energy, Louisiana's peaceful bayous, and beyond - Rendez-vous d'Amérique invites you on a journey to discover Francophone culture in America. Your host on this cultural experience is Didier Allouch - reporter, cinephile, and a familiar face at movie premieres. Click here to learn how you can subscribe to TV5MONDE USA and never miss an episode!