Years ago there was an advertising campaign about walking a mile for a particular product except that today for us it was a mile and a half each way. Ah, what we do for free delivery! To do that, as you might expect, it would have to do with either food or drink. From the photo of the box it looks as if it could be both.

Generally speaking, fruits and vegetables are pretty inexpensive here, especially if you buy what’s in season. On most days when we go to the open-air market, it’s not at all unusual to come home with our backpacks full of tomatoes or beans or oranges or whatever else might have been available for 1 euro for 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds). My favorite buys are the giant heads of cauliflower or broccoli that take two hands to hold for 1 euro each.

On the other hand, meat is rather pricey. In Atlanta we were buying chickens for 99 cents a pound whereas here you’d have to double that  but we think it’s a much tastier bird without water added. Europeans have long been experts at slicing meats into paper-thin portions that concentrate the taste without overwhelming you by the amount. We noticed that the phrase “less is more” was truly represented in restaurant salads,for example, that gave us a variety of flavors but didn’t leave us feeling as if we had just eaten Thanksgiving dinner.

To replicate that at home, we ordered a slicer and it was delivered today…to our supermarket. We could have paid extra to have had it sent here to the house but we needed the walk and it was 24 degrees C  (75 F) and sunny, so why not? In the photo you can see Bill retrieving the box from the dispenser outside the supermarket where you can either punch in your code or flash the barcode from your phone and magically a door pops open to reveal your package.

I did get a chuckle when I saw the packaging on the outside of the box. They show you the slicer, a variety of just-sliced meats artfully arranged on a plate, and a glass of French wine with the bottle standing beside it. Yes indeed, I’d walk a mile.