How to live like a French person

Always conserve.  Everything.  Always buy top quality so that it lasts forever.  Always wear lipstick and perfume.  Always walk everywhere, and take Metro when you can't.  Always turn the lights off, drive small cars if you have to drive, keep the heat turned down and the windows open when appropriate.   Pick up your delivered packages from the optics store.  Seriously, we had Amazon ship something and it was delivered to a shop in a nearby mall.  The eyeglass store. Always have very small dogs that you can take into the neighborhood cafe, onto the subway and into most shops.  Always have cash on you, many small shops and restaurants do not take credit cards. The further away from tourist sites, the more likely this is to be the case.  Always greet the shop owners with a hearty "Bonjour"! and a smile:) Do not own a microwave or a clothes dryer, they are energy hogs.

So on that note, how to heat things up quickly?  As it turns out, the induction stove top is as fast as a microwave, or nearly so.  It takes me 1.5 minutes from cold water fill to stove top bubbling for my morning tea.  Ditto for reheating leftovers.  There is a small oven on the counter-top in our apartment, but many people don't have ovens.

We are getting used to the time zone, finally:)  Keeping fresh fruit out, and trying new ones we had not seen before, we stumbled upon the "custard apple".  As it turns out, it's a Mark Twain favorite and one of ours now, too. Mark Twain called the Cherimoya "the most delicious fruit known to men". The Cherimoya is a green hued, pear sized fruit with the skin of a dinosaur and a luscious, white, custard like interior that you can spoon out.  Large, black seeds are easy to discard as you plunge into the creamy, vanilla-like goodness.  Look for a slightly soft one, similar to a pear in ripeness.  Get you one of these asap.  They are divine.