Pretty vs. Practical

Everything here is pretty. Pretty is important. People dress so nicely. If I buy something in a small store, it is wrapped so beautifully. Last Saturday night we had dinner at the home of our French friends and the food was very simple but the table was pretty. I could go on and on about how pretty everything is and what importance is placed on “pretty”.

Yesterday, my American friend and I tagged along on a shopping trip with our very pregnant French friend. She drove us to an unfamiliar (to us) shopping area just outside of town. We stopped at a few places, a baby store, and a phone store before we ended up at the large grocery store that was an anchor store at a mall. While at the grocery store, my American friend was hungry for ice-cream so we very carefully selected a box of chocolatey, fudgy, ice-cream bars with the intention of eating them after we left the store.

After checking out, as we walked through the mall, she announced that it was time to enjoy the wonderful ice-cream treats that she had just purchased. Our French friend was astonished to think that we would want to eat them in the mall. She argued, “We can’t eat those in here.” And I wondered... “why not??” ... “Is there some French rule that you can’t eat in the mall?” ...But I said nothing.

“We can’t eat here, it’s not pretty in here.” she said. ...hmm... I thought.... Pretty?????

So we loaded the groceries into the car, then she drove us to a very PRETTY place where we parked the car, sat in a local square overlooking the hills and ate our delicious, gooey, but half-melted ice cream bars.