When Bill and I first got together nearly 30 years ago, we moved almost every 18 months. No, not because the rent was due but because job changes within the same company for me required it. With all of that packing and unpacking we came to an agreement that if we had not used something within the last year then it was not going with us to the new location. I think that we’ll be invoking that rule and a companion one as well, especially once we’re in place.

That new rule, called “Double or nothing” means that anything we buy in France to replace something that we’ve left behind here must do more than one thing. For example, we have two popcorn poppers, an air one and the oil kind. They each do just one thing: pop corn. The ice cream maker you could argue also does frozen yoghurt, sorbet, and sherbet but they’re all just variations on a theme. The juicer juices. The tortilla press makes tortillas. The apple peeler peels apples. You get the picture.

Bill has already begun his online search of the stores in Carcassonne to see what sort of combination products they offer. He just showed me what the French call a “robot” for the kitchen which at first appears to be a food processor. But wait! You can get attachments that turn it into a blender, a juicer, a peeler, an ice crusher, a mixer, a whipper, on and on. I don’t think that it makes tortillas but I bet you could whip up a tasty margarita in it to drink while you’re making them yourself.

There are two Johnny one notes that apparently are still going with us: the cherry pitter and the garlic press (it can actually be used for ginger, too). Bill says it took him too long to find the perfect one of each of those to leave them behind. At least they are both small enough to fit in our luggage.