pass the crepe, please

After a week in France, I feel like I'm on another planet. Better said, I feel probably as close to a North African immigrant as possible for a gringa like me. Everythings seems so, well, civilized. Clean, sanitized, polite, organized, formal. The apartment is in a 15th-century building (found that out when large groups of young children, pads in hands, convened under my window looking up and sketching the façade), the food is amazing (except for the fact that I have to keep my pork-radar on permanent alert...it's everywhere), and life is good. That said, I do miss Algeria...really I do. Will be happy to get back there this summer, but in the meantime will enjoy eating lots of crepes, traveling around, saying a lot of "bonjour madame's" and walking freely around for hours without anyone once looking at me oddly. Oh, and there's amazing merguez and couscous here, so I won't feel that lonesome for el Djazair!