McDonald’s a la Française

“An American that doesn’t like McDonalds? WHAT?”

When I was little (say 9 or 10) my mom showed me a movie called Super Size Me. I’m sure most of you know this movie, but if you don’t it’s pretty much about a guy (Morgan Spurlock) eating nothing but McDonald’s for every meal for 30 days as an experiment. He get’s really fat and develops many health problems including; heart problems, lack of energy, depression, depreciating muscle mass, lack of sex drive and much else. After watching this at such a young age (thanks mom), it caused me to think of a man gaining loads of weight and throwing up in the parking lot every time I saw or even thought of McDonald’s. It also caused me to completely stop eating there. I didn’t eat anything from Mickey D’s for 8 years. That is, until I got to France.

Granted, I still held off for a while. Whenever my friends invited me to go to “Macdo” (that’s how they call it here) after class, I would say no thanks and go home to eat by myself. Everyone kept talking about craving McDonald’s when we were out drinking at a bar or when we were bored in class but I didn’t get it at all. All I could think was about was Super Size Me!

But then one night, when I was studying with a friend he said he was hungry and was craving “Macdo”. I told him that I’d go with him but I wasn’t going to get anything because I don’t like McDonalds… Surprised he asked, “You don’t like McDonald’s? Have you ever tried french McDonald’s?” When I told him I hadn’t, he said that was not okay and insisted on buying me a “Macdo Vrap” (which is how they say wrap). When he said that I thought to myself, “Am I really going to do this? Ugh I don’t want to do this…. It’s McDonald’s. Ehhh.” But then I realized that I was still me and I wasn’t about to say no to free food (c’mon people).

When we got there I saw the menu and I was in awe. There were 10 different types of salads to choose from; three different types of wraps, burgers on panini bread, mozzarella nuggets, fish sandwiches, chicken sandwiches and baby tomatoes instead of french fries? What was this new world that I was in? The idea that McDonald’s had healthy food was mind boggling. Also I’m not sure if this is the case in the states because I haven’t been there for 8 years but every french “Macdo” has these giant touch screens that you order off of. You don’t even have to talk to people anymore. You can just order as much fatty food as you want and not be judged by the person taking your order. Crazy stuff.

So after ordering on a giant touch screen, I sat down and I ate the “Vrap”. I’m not gonna lie it was pretty damn good. Easy to say I was pleasantly surprised. I still don’t think I’ll be eating at McDonald’s everyday because I still have a sort of PTSD from that movie. And also because it’s a bit more expensive due to the better quality. But at least I have it as an option when I’m hungover or “j’ai la flemme” (I don’t feel like) cooking.