Les Premiers Jours

Aside from the food there is quite a bit to tell about my time with my famille d'accueil. I arrived the 30th, and slept until about 11:30am on the 31st. Oops. That day la mère took me to Beaune, another town about 20 minutes away from Gevrey-Chambertin. By the way, these towns and Dijon are in Bourgogne, or Burgundy, and are quite famous for their wine. I saw a ton of vineyards. Anyways, in Beaune there is the Hospice de Beaune, or Hopital de Dieu. Basically from the 14th century to about 1985, religious women lived there, and it housed sick people that they cared for and fed. They owned/own vineyards and the wine they produce is famous and they use the proceeds to run the place. It is now a museum, but they still make wine, and if I heard correctly, it pays the salaries of the people who work there. It is a very old place with some beautiful artwork inside. I took about 25 photos, but they are on a different memory card and I'm not sure how I can get them on a computer.

Afterwards la mère had to go go grocery shopping, so we stopped at a Super U. To everyone at Stop & Shop, sorry but if they opened a Super U next door, I'd be there. They have us beat. It's kind of like Walmart, in that they sell clothes and electronics and stuff, but it's not all shitty, and the food section is as big as Stop & Shop. At the front of the store they have little stores like an optician, flower store, laundry place, and a tabac (like a convenience store). Obviously the cheese shop is huge, and in produce they have scales in the produce section where you weigh your stuff and put a price tag on it. Everything else is pretty much the same...except the names. I find the French versions hilarious. he kicker is the front end. No plastic bags; you can buy a reusable one, bring your own, or put it all back in the cart. And the cashiers get to sit on nice little swivel chairs with cushions. Ce n'est pas juste.

That night Tina, Pierre and I went to Dijon and walked around a bit. I took some nice photos which are on facebook, je pense, maybe not though. Throughout the centre ville, there are little metal triangles with cartoon-like chouettes (owls) on them in the street. These lead to a big metal square with a larger chouette on it that's numbered. The highest I saw was 15, but I only saw three of them. I think each one is next to a chouette on a building, like on the corner in the stone. I guess in Dijon you are supposed to pet or rub the chouette and make a wish. I took pics of the owls too.

The next day, the 1st, I went back to Dijon with la mere et le père. We walked around some more, I took more photos. I know these ones are on facebook. It was a nice day in town. At dinner that night le père informed me that since tomorrow was Sunday we were going to church. So just when I had pretty much gotten over being nervous, I got to start again. I'm atheist, I don't go to church. They pray before meals and that's fine, but church? Let's go over why I began to internally freak out: 1) I'm atheist, 2) I have no good memories of church: service was boring and the kids in Sunday school excluded me, and I went to a Catholic mass once that scared the shit out of me, 3) lots of people I don't know (let's remember my slight social issues), 4) it's in French, 5) lots of people doing ritual type things; my only rituals are sleeping, eating, and telling myself I look good before I leave the house, and 6) they sing. I don't sing in public, and I don't know the songs even if I wanted to. At least they're not Catholic like 80% of France (no offense to any Catholics), but I might've cried that night if they were. As it was I woke up with a hive on my left cheek bone, right next to my eye. Lovely. But of course I went. It actually wasn't that bad. We stood for a while, they sang and I didn't. It wasn't in an actual church, more of a community center room, so that helped the nervousness. It was pretty laid back: some women dressed up, many people wore jeans and a nice shirt (which is casual dress here), kids played in the back and people whispered occasionally throughout. I had hoped after the singing it would be over. Nope. Some church news, prayers, then a pastor came up and gave a sermon. I thought it was long. I tried to pay attention at first, to see if I could understand, but I was sleepy. So instead I forced myself to think about things in order to stay awake. I thought after that it would be over. Not quite. Then it was like social time. More nervousness. Thankfully Tina warned me that people might 'faire de bisous' to me. They did, quite a bit. I did actually talk to a few people. La mere found two guys who also English, so for a little while I spoke French and English with a Frenchman who spoke English pretty well, and a Brazilian who didn't. He said asked like 'ask ed', it was amusing. At first they thought I was Polish. Haha. Finally we left. When we got back we had lunch, then Tina and I left for Orleans. We stopped in Dijon so she could say goodbye to Pierre. We parked illegally, so she said if the police came to yell for her. I could've gone with her, but she said once that they plan on getting engaged, so I figured I'd let them alone for a goodbye. Besides, I have a music quiz and solitaire on my ipod. So after about 15 minutes the police drive by and pull up behind me. I considered yelling but she was inside. I decided I would pretend that I didn't know French. However they didn't come over to me, and after 4 or 5 minutes Tina and Pierre came out. I guess they nabbed someone else on the street. But for a few minutes I was pretty scared.

Then onto Orleans. It was over 3 hours on the road.

Mais pour ca, un autre post!

Les Repas

A little while after Tina and I got to her house, le père came home and we ate dinner. Oh boy, the fun begins. First off, I'd like to say that I've tried more new foods in the past three days than i have in probably six months. First was salad. Their salad is lettuce and tomatoes, with a dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt. I like lettuce, not tomatoes, and I found out that it takes effort not to grimace at the taste of the vinaigrette. I did it. They eat a little different than I'm used to. For one, salad goes on the main plate, all of it, and only salad at first. I put it on one side of my plate because I thought I'd be putting more food on there. Nope! So I ate the salad, actually everything I put on my plate, but managed to not take seconds. So for dinner we had rice; they eat a lot of rice in Madagascar, with some orange and yellow strips of something with some kind of spice. Haha, sorry for the great description. I know it was Malagasy and you mix it with the rice. Adam in MG, if you read this, and idea what this is? We also had canard. I was a little hesitant at first, but it smelled really good. And it was delicious, chicken may have a rival in my stomach. Every time I finished, la mere offered more. I'm not used to eating a lot at once, but I managed a little more. They also clean their plates. This means eating everything (except the bones of the canard) and also using the food to wipe up the sauce on the plate. They also cut the meat from the bone, they don't eat with their hands much. So to all of you (mainly dad) who said, 'just pick it up and eat it', I was practicing French etiquette. After dinner is dessert. They have something every night. The first night I had raspberry yogurt, even though I was already full. This prompted me to explain that I'm lactose intolerant. I had also had to explain that I can't eat bananas and raw apples. I hope they don't think all Americans are like me. After dessert they eat fruit. Le mere explained once that in Madagascar they eat fruit after dinner, So that was my first meal in France, not bad. Oh and for those who haven't eaten grapes with seeds, stick to seedless.

At breakfast I made my first mistake. They offered me hot chocolate, I said yes. In America if someone puts milk and chocolate powder in front of you, most would assume that you put the milk in a glass, then the chocolate, then mix and heat. oops! I started to pour the milk in my glass (which are very small by the way), and they informed me I was supposed to use the bowl to my right. I've found that internal humor is very good for this sort of situation. So they put the milk and powder in the bowl, then in the microwave. They took it out, I stirred. Now I was asking myself: do I drink it from the bowl, or do I pour it in the glass? Eventually Tina noticed I wasn't drinking it, and they asked if I preferred a mug. The rest of breakfast was toast, they had butter, quetsche (quite good jam type thing), and rillets de canard. I still don't know what it is, but at that point I didn't feel like trying canard on my toast.

Lunch was more salad, more rice, more canard. I tried flan with caramel for dessert. Dinner was crepes (so good!) There was chocolate, brown sugar, honey, and a different jam thing which I think was apricot and was pretty good. I had two jam crepes and two chocolate crepes. Breakfast was more hot chocolate, toast and croissants (which I love). Lunch we had rice and thinly sliced, herb flavored meat, served cold, and salad bien sur. Plus dessert (more flan) and fruit. Dinner we had sardines. Yes, I ate them. Well, first salad, then the sardines with lettuce and pasta. It actually tastes like tuna. Definitely doesn't look like it, but it tastes like it. Dessert was creme de dessert, I had chocolate. It's essentially pudding, but a little thinner. They also don't lick the top, they scoop it off with a spoon. Breakfast was the same. Then for lunch we had salad, but this time it was lettuce and believe beets. I definitely prefer beets to the vinaigrette and tomatoes, but they kind of taste like dirt. Then a melange of pasta, rice, herb baked potatoes, and little pieces of canard (cold) and the thinly sliced meat. Followed by creme de dessert. Dinner was at Tina's studio apartment in Orleans, just the two us. It was a little frozen pizza (we ate with our hands since her parents weren't there).

That so far has been my food experiences. I managed to clean my plate every meal, and only refused the rillets de canard, and seconds or fruit when I was way too full. The first night they asked me if Americans don't eat that much. I had to explain that most eat more than more than I do, too much in fact, and that I do in fact eat quite a bit less than most people.