Apples and More Apples

So I was living chez les Detruits in Vichy.  Each morning they would
give me a roll and jams with apples.  For lunch I would be served apple
bread, apples and a delicious homemade vegetable soup.  There was
very little meat, even at dinnertime.  The family would eat dinner with
me but not lunch.  We at apple pies for dessert, more apple bread, apple
jelly, apple soufflés, apple tarts, apple sauce, apple cake, and just about
anything made with apples.  Walking the four miles to school everyday
and eating mostly apples was giving me a very girlish figure.  I was losing
weight.  I couldn't figure this out.  I knew it was from eating apples all the
time, but why?

Well, three months passed and the apples kept coming.  I left Vichy for
Grenoble where I skied every weekend in the Alps.  I did not eat apples.
In the Spring I went back to Vichy where I solved the mystery.  This
"struggling" working class family in France actually had two homes and
yes, an apple orchard.  The Detruits seemed like they were in dire straights
the whole time I was a boarder, demanding rent early, feeding me apples,
and boarding four nursing students in the attic.  But the truth is they were
really doing quite well.  They worked hard for the francs.  And I can't
blame them for serving their home grown apples.  But it just seemed a
bit strange that they would be so fearful of every centime.  And though
they did not want me to take more than one shower a day, I think the fact
that my French was very "rough" at the time created a cultural discord.
I am so grateful for my family experience in Vichy, because my friend
Tom Benjamin stayed with Madame Bonnefoy who prepared Cordon
Bleu caliber meals twice a day.  He only walk a few blocks to school.
And he did not have the profound cultural experience that I had, plus
he gained a lot of weight.