sounds like something i would envy you except i don't speak french. but...i speak music.
as far as the potato(e)s go, i remember reading smatterings of the history of their introduction to the world outside of the andes area of south america. the diet around europe was greatly improved which had a measurable affect on the economic output of the populations. the diet also became safer because potatos were less susceptable to toxic blights that small grains like rye are. the place where they were the slowest to be accepted was france. there was a cultural resistance that cost them dearly. some credit the european grain failures of the 1780's and the lack of potatos for the revolution in france.
they say change comes from the bottom up and if there was an effort on the part of the ruling class to promote potatos in france, that would shed a little different light on my opinion of them.
"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."
(Alexis De Tocqueville)
