My little French friends were, I was astonished to find, allowed to have a cigarette on Sunday, were given watered vin ordinaire at the dinner table..
So for my first few weeks in France, I ... absorbed little life-lessons from observations that, for instance, the family friend Monsieur Dupont brought his mistress to some meals and his wife to others, his extended brood of children apparently indifferent to the switch.
I was largely unimpressed by the food.
The butter tasted strangely “cheesy” to my undeveloped palate.
The milk — a staple, no, a mandatory ritual in ’60s American kiddie life — was undrinkable here.
Lunch seemed always to consist of sandwich au jambon or croque-monsieur.

Времена и нравы. Бурден пишет о своем пребывании в Шербурге в середине 60х. Рекомендации по питанию в школьных столовых в США появились уже в 40х, а во Франции только в 70х. Молоко перекочевало в умы именно через федеральные программы.