…there’s this cookie in France. More of a cake-like thing, really. About the size of a Madeleine scallop, and made from a similar but less glorious yellow sponge cake, shaped like a bear. Where the paws are, there are dollops of chocolate. It’s called “Lulu l’ourson” – Lulu the bear. It’s nothing extraordinary – it’s for kids, and designed to appeal to them, and I guess it does, because Sasha the other day pleaded until we bought a box. It had been a stressful week, the week of la Rentrée (return to school), and I had been popping back and forth to Paris, missing a lot of it, leaving Mama to deal, so we caved to the targeted sugar high.
What we didn’t realize was what a future he has in advertising – a veritable Don Draper of the pre-school. Does he refer to them as “Lulu l’ourson”? No, he does not. He has his own name for them, and I ask you, whereas you may take a pass when someone offers you a ‘Lulu’, wouldn’t you be tempted by a…wait for it… “Tasty Chocolate Butter Bear”?
I mean, holy crap, that’s a Willie Wonka wet dream. I’m over 50, without a particular sweet tooth, and even I want a Tasty Chocolate Butter Bear.
And come to think of it, a TCBB might even inspire a few Proustian Madeleine memories…
French advertising can be interesting. By turns absolutely earnest and self-deprecating, but always, always enthusiastic.
In the UK, there’s a brand of biscuits – McVite’s – which are ubiquitous over there, and when I was a young and backpacking gypsy I pretty much survived on them. The flagship variety is the poorly named “Wholemeal Digestive”, but it’s really quite delicious, sort of a dense graham-crackery thing. When I returned to the states after traveling, I sought them out at specialty stores, paid a lot more for them, and indulged only rarely. Now, in France, they’re readily available, and almost cheaper than in the UK, so I gorge myself regularly. I noticed this bit of cultural illumination on the package the other day, sort of indicative of the relationship between Great Britain and France:
“It’s English, but it’s good!”
I particularly like the implied, “No, seriously…”
They carry it to a delightful extreme in a commerical:
English version here.
And then there’s the purely (purely) French products…
Couple of things here (this is a readily available Roquefort): the words in red are “cave saveur”, which basically translates as “cave flavor”. In the cheese world this is a good thing. But what caught my eye was the “150g de plaisir!”, or “150 grams of Pleasure!” Which, ya know, may or may not have been my nickname in college…
Chasing Snails (And Other Movable Feasts) 