Firstly, I apologize for my weeklong blog absence. I have been quite busy with homework (grammar quizzes and French essays), sleeping (5 hours per night means daytime naps), and, most importantly, eating.

I am dedicating this post to the food in France, whose government subsidizes wine and cheese because it deems them necessary for its people.

Cheese is everywhere. It’s cheap and there are endless varieties at the supermarket. But it would be remiss to neglect another of their scrumptious staples: bread. In fact, France has taken these two seemingly simple ingredients to create a baffling number of different dishes.

There are quiches and cheese tarts, cheese crepes and cheese bread (pain au fromage). Cheese sandwiches like the croque-monsieur, which has cheese inside the sandwich and on top, line counters at the boulangerie. Thin-crust pizzas and Paninis with melted cheese are go-to dinner dishes when one is not in the mood for kabab, with which there is even cheese-stuffed Indian naan. And, of course, there is always gourmet cheese atop a warm piece of baguette.

And I have not even begun to describe the various types of each of these dishes. To explain the different kinds of cheeses and breads alone would take more time than I can bear while sitting in my small sauna of a dorm room.

Leave it to France to show the world just how versatile cheese and bread can be. C’est incroyable!