Vive le Coke Zero!

Paris_CokeZero, originally uploaded by david_stirling.

I've noticed a few changes in France since I was an exchange student twenty years ago. America's love of abundance has caught on. For example, when I was here before, there were three television stations, plus one pay station called Canal+. Now I can watch upwards of sixty stations in at least six languages--and my rentor only has the basic package. More important, however, France has Coke Zero.

I have a hard time communicating how much I love Coke Zero. It's like someone handed you a plate of the best chocolate cake you ever tasted, and said you could eat as much as you want and not gain any weight. Awesome.

When I was an exchange student, Coke came in little six-ounce glass bottles that cost like a buck fifty each. I would save up my Francs until I could afford a Coke, then scurry off to a dark corner so I could enjoy every delicious drop in silence.
Now the supermarket around the corner has six-packs of 1.5L bottles of Coke Zero for the bargain price of 7€95. That's like four times cheaper than water. I've been humping wheelbarrows full of the stuff back up the hill to my apartment. The downside of this is that I haven't spent as much time sampling wine as I thought I would, so I remain pretty ignorant as to what's what in grapes and regions etc. The upside is that I haven't been forced to learn to like coffee--I've been able to keep my morning Coke Zero habit unchanged.