Drinking Beer in Paris

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Three sizes of Heineken beer in Paris

When we were shopping at the local supermarket in Paris today, I decided to pick up some beer. They had three sizes as shown above. The normal six pack size you find in your American supermarket is in the center and the single large size bottle is on the right. What really intrigued me was the teeny tiny bottle shown on the left. They label in metric here, so the big bottle is 650 ml (about 22 fluid ounces or 3 cups), the middle bottle is 330 ml (about 11 fluid ounces or 1 1/2 cups) and tiny bottle on the left is 150 ml, about 5 fluid ounces or about half a cup.

I bought an 8-pack of the little ones just to see how much beer was in them. I poured it into a glass and it came about a quarter of the way up. Three sips and my bottle of beer was gone. I wonder what self respecting beer drinker buys these things? Do people point and snicker when you go to the checkout? Can you imagine swaggering up to the bar for a bottle of beer and ending up with a bottle the size of your finger? I could go on but you get the picture. They really didn’t have much of a selection of beer while they had a huge and reasonably priced wine section. I suspect Parisians really don’t drink much beer, the local bar doesn’t have any and when we have been out for dinner or drinks most people are drinking espresso or wine.

Anyway, after tasting the beer I was hungry, so I ordered a pizza and drank the big one! Bon appetit from Paris.