Metro--but not the Subway

Living with the Wise family, I'm getting a whole new insight into French life and culture that I never had before. I love following Mrs. Wise around like a shadow and just watching how she does things. (Which is funny, because her youngest, at 7-almost-8, does the same thing to me.) They live out in the countryside, in a small village of 287 people (according to Wikipedia), where there isn't even a boulangerie (bakery)! I didn't know that was possible in France. But...Mrs. Wise makes all the bread for the family, so she doesn't need a bakery.

Sometimes, however, she does need, well, stuff. And since she doesn't want to go to town every few days, she goes to Metro. Which is not an underground subway system, but sort of like a Cosco/Sam's Club. WHO KNEW? I'd seen Metro stores ever since I first moved to France, but I had no idea that buy-in-bulk was something that French people would ever go for!

Seriously, it looked just like Sam's Club. Without the falling prices...
Now this tripped me out. You can buy already separated egg whites/egg yolks! In a big huge tub! I'm not sure how I feel about that.
I'm still getting used to the fact that I can get Philly Cream Cheese in France, and now...I can get it in bulk! I made lemon cake with lemon cream cheese icing this week for the Wises, but the kids (who practically live off of cheese!) were not too keen on the cream cheese icing. I don't understand. What's not to love in cream cheese icing? Cream cheese, butter, and loads of powdered sugar. Well...it's good I put the big Philly back on the shelf.
This um, tube of meat was so heavy the kids had to help me hold it while I took the picture.
This was an 8 pound can of beets. Who eats 8 pounds of beets?! Not me. I like beets and all, but 8 pounds?!
This bottle was labeled, "American Sauce." I'm SOOO curious. What exactly is American Sauce? Is it the secret sauce on a Big Mac? Is it BBQ sauce and mayo together? What? And check out the name of the company who makes it--California! It must be American!
That can of olive oil came up to my knee!
And to end...Nutella! Look how huge those cans are! The boys begged and begged Mama Wise to buy them the giant Nutella, but she wouldn't. (Considering we eat crepes at least once a week, and almost all 9 of us put Nutella on our crepes, it wouldn't have been a bad idea. But...Speculoos has won over the Wise kids, so maybe she should buy one jar that size of Nutella and one of Speculoos.)

She did buy a HUGE box of chocolate chips, so I have a good stash for cookies to bake with. :) In the end, I think I understood that Metro is actually for restauranteurs to buy food in bulk for their restaurants, but since Mama Wise is feeding a small army three times a day, she managed to get a membership card. I don't think I'll be signing up any time soon, though. I'll just tag along with her.

Let me know, yall, if you need a giant tub of egg yolks.