8 Course Meal

This past weekend, I attended my first fancy French party. After spending the morning getting all prettied up with the Wise girls, the festivities began around 12. Here's the adult table set-up.

(Note: The French drink alcohol. I do not. So just in case anyone wonders, each time alcohol is pictured during this party, I partook of the juice option.)

Course #1: Aperitif. There was a Chablis white wine and fresh homemade apple juice, and a whole assortment of hors d'oeuvres. On the far left, foie gras on toast. This was my first time to have foie gras. While it wasn't as spectacular as everyone has built it up to be...it wasn't terrible either. The two platters in front of the flowers had a small piece of beef and a tomato wrapped in lettuce. The platter in front of the wine had my favorite--small little cups with purees in them: salmon, herbed cream cheese, or carrot and cucumber. I couldn't get enough of those little cups!
Course #2: Terrines. I don't really know what exactly a terrine or pâté is, and I don't really want to know. I just eat what's put before me. There were two this time around: rabbit (delicious!), and the one pictured below, salmon.
Course #3: Wild forest mushrooms. As a mushroom lover, I was in absolute heaven. This was some good eating, right here.
Course #4: Roast (Charolais) Beef and Potatoes. It was so good I almost forgot to take a picture...which is why there isn't very much on my plate.
Course #5: Salad. Eating the salad at the end of the meal helps begin the digestion process. And "salad" is the word for a salad, but also the word for lettuce...because in many cases, a salad is only lettuce and a mustard sauce. This one had fresh parsely.
Course #6: Cheese. Here in the Franche-Comté region of France, there's no need for a grand assortment of cheeses during this course...the two most famous ones from this region will suffice, since they are so good. They also happen to be my two favorite kinds! The taller one is Comté, named for the region, and the other is Morbier, which has a line of blue right through its middle. This particular Morbier was excellent.
Course #7: Dessert. Oh.my.word. On the dessert table, there were: the chocolate and rasperry mouse birthday cake, homemade from fresh raspberries macarons, homemade chocoate and lemon tarts, a spice cake, a Charlotte with creme anglais cake, brownies, snickerdoodles, and Reece's peanut butter bars. (The last three made by yours truly.) The birthday cake and the homemade macarons were out of this world. I have yet to try the Charlotte...maybe tonight. Also, there was a fresh raspberries Chantilly (whipped cream) that was divine with the brownies.
There was Champagne and apple juice to help wash down all those desserts.
Course #8: Coffee.
And if you can believe it...the Wise's had guests come over for dinner that night, and we ate a 5 course meal, starting at about 8 pm. I had to skip dessert though...I just couldn't eat any more. All in all, it was a very fun day, and just like what I had always imagined a French full-course meal/party to be like. Sunshine, laughter, discussion, pétanque, and plenty of good food. It's a good thing I enjoyed it, because the Wise's and I will be going to another one next Sunday for Easter...at a castle!

Metro--but not the Subway

Living with the Wise family, I'm getting a whole new insight into French life and culture that I never had before. I love following Mrs. Wise around like a shadow and just watching how she does things. (Which is funny, because her youngest, at 7-almost-8, does the same thing to me.) They live out in the countryside, in a small village of 287 people (according to Wikipedia), where there isn't even a boulangerie (bakery)! I didn't know that was possible in France. But...Mrs. Wise makes all the bread for the family, so she doesn't need a bakery.

Sometimes, however, she does need, well, stuff. And since she doesn't want to go to town every few days, she goes to Metro. Which is not an underground subway system, but sort of like a Cosco/Sam's Club. WHO KNEW? I'd seen Metro stores ever since I first moved to France, but I had no idea that buy-in-bulk was something that French people would ever go for!

Seriously, it looked just like Sam's Club. Without the falling prices...
Now this tripped me out. You can buy already separated egg whites/egg yolks! In a big huge tub! I'm not sure how I feel about that.
I'm still getting used to the fact that I can get Philly Cream Cheese in France, and now...I can get it in bulk! I made lemon cake with lemon cream cheese icing this week for the Wises, but the kids (who practically live off of cheese!) were not too keen on the cream cheese icing. I don't understand. What's not to love in cream cheese icing? Cream cheese, butter, and loads of powdered sugar. Well...it's good I put the big Philly back on the shelf.
This um, tube of meat was so heavy the kids had to help me hold it while I took the picture.
This was an 8 pound can of beets. Who eats 8 pounds of beets?! Not me. I like beets and all, but 8 pounds?!
This bottle was labeled, "American Sauce." I'm SOOO curious. What exactly is American Sauce? Is it the secret sauce on a Big Mac? Is it BBQ sauce and mayo together? What? And check out the name of the company who makes it--California! It must be American!
That can of olive oil came up to my knee!
And to end...Nutella! Look how huge those cans are! The boys begged and begged Mama Wise to buy them the giant Nutella, but she wouldn't. (Considering we eat crepes at least once a week, and almost all 9 of us put Nutella on our crepes, it wouldn't have been a bad idea. But...Speculoos has won over the Wise kids, so maybe she should buy one jar that size of Nutella and one of Speculoos.)

She did buy a HUGE box of chocolate chips, so I have a good stash for cookies to bake with. :) In the end, I think I understood that Metro is actually for restauranteurs to buy food in bulk for their restaurants, but since Mama Wise is feeding a small army three times a day, she managed to get a membership card. I don't think I'll be signing up any time soon, though. I'll just tag along with her.

Let me know, yall, if you need a giant tub of egg yolks.

The 2-car Pile-Up

At the request of Courtney, here is a full-description blog post about the two-car pile up I caused yesterday.

I needed to buy some bus tickets, so even though I was fully focused on packing (sarcasm coming from the eternal packing procrastinator), I grabbed my ipod and my purse and ran out the door in my jeans, Auburn National Champ t-shirt, hair in a ponytail and zero make-up.

Ipod was out of battery, so I put it back in my purse and walked into town marveling at the weird sounds I was hearing from not having my ears filled with Mumford & Sons. I think those sounds might be called "birds chirping," but one never can tell.

Once I'd purchased my tickets, I headed back home. Why does the seemingly unimportant details of no ipod and what I was wearing matter? Because I didn't have my ipod on, I cannot be accused of not having paid attention. Since I was dressed like a bum, I mean a fully focused packer, I cannot be accused of my power outfit having brought attention to myself. I cannot be accused. I am without fault.

Most streets in Besançon are pretty narrow, and the few cars/busses that venture through the downtown area go pretty slow because they could take out several pedestrians who believe they rule the road. There are one or two roads, however, that are not curved, and don't have many intersections, and so the drivers shoot down them like they are race-car drivers who get extra points if they get up over 30 miles per hour. I don't drive in Bes, but I'd bet that the speed limit in the downtown area is 15 miles per hour. 30 just seems wild.

So I was walking down one of these speedways and needed to cross the street. Instead of following the "pedestrians rule the road" mentality to cross wherever I wanted, I went to the crosswalk. There are two kinds of crosswalks in France: ones with the green man/red man light, where cars have the right of way, and then a non-lit kind where the pedestrian sort of has the right of way.

I say "sort of" because there are always exceptions to everything in France. And so while most drivers stop when they see a pedestrian waiting to cross...but not all stop. And I've seen enough pedestrians hit by cars in my lifetime (3 in a 6-week period in Portugal!) to know to wait until I know they will stop before stepping into that crosswalk.

So I was standing on the sidewalk next to the crosswalk waiting to cross the street. I did not have on my ipod. I was not on my cell phone. I did not look cute. I was minding my own business. I cannot be accused of being at fault for what happened next.

A very nice driver slowed down and stopped and waved for me to cross.

As I lifted my foot to step into the crosswalk...CRUNCH. A delivery truck rammed into the nice driver, pushing his car in my direction. I sort of wish that I could have a still-shot photo of my face at that moment...I think I made about 14 expressions in all of 3 seconds.

Fear for my life.

Shock.

Total embarrassment.

Remorse.

Confusion.

Awkward.

Guilt.

I made eye contact with the nice driver and he gave me this reassuring look that said, "Really? You were obeying the law by waiting to cross, and I was obeying the law by stopping, and this is what happens? Ridiculous." He got out to look at his bumper, and the delivery truck driver got out, and the million cars all behind them put their cars in park...because on a one-way street where were they going to go?

What did I do?

I scurried across the street with my head hung low trying not to cry and got away from there as fast as I could. Now, I know that I did nothing wrong, and that there was no way that I could get in trouble for just standing on a sidewalk.

But you know the flight or fight reflex that comes when you feel afraid? I'm typically a flighter. I run away if I can. Not always, but it is my first instinct. Before you go wondering what in the world I felt afraid of, and why I felt the immediate need to get out of there as fast as I could, let me explain.

There is a "fear of looking like the village idiot foreigner" that most of us who have lived overseas know about very well. I did not, in any way, want to have to speak French in that moment and reveal that I was a foreigner. My luck these days would cause me to be at blame for that accident because I ended up saying something wrong in French to the parties involved. I already was near tears from the event, and having to speak French would have made them flow very quickly, and well...I did not want to learn how a Frenchman would react to a crying American woman dressed like a bum, I mean a fully focused packer. I already felt so completely stupid and mortified...I just didn't want to feel more embarrassed by speaking French.

So I ran away. They didn't holler for me to come back, so I figure it was okay that I ran away. I'm not proud of it. It wasn't my finest moment. And that's the end of the story. I caused a 2-car pile-up and backed up traffic simply by standing on a sidewalk.

Now the eternal packing procrastinator should quit blogging and get back to packing...

Moving...sort of

I haven't been going to language school in March (or now in April). The school didn't have enough students to form a class for my level, and my strongest need is just to talk as much French as possible...which just wasn't happening in the classroom. So last month I went to the Wise Family's house 3 days a week, and met with a tutor during the week, and just logged alot of hours of speaking French.

I took the exam that will reveal what official level I am at about 10 days ago. Many of you have asked how I did...well. During the oral exam, the man administering it realized 2/3 of the way through that he'd forgotten to record me, so I had to start all over. That flustered me, and I did not speak so well the second time around. And worse...I forgot to speak in the past tense almost altogether, which is an indicator of level. So I think the results will be a little skewed and not accurate to my true level. I did alright on the rest of the exam, so maybe it'll all balance out. I'll find out in a few weeks.

I can't move south until we know the results of the exam. So...I'm just sort of hanging out waiting. The hotel is really expensive, and it didn't seem to make sense to keep paying for it when I keep going out to the Wise family's house. They've invited me to move in fully with them. I love being out there, but I don't know that I can handle being there indefinitely.

6 homeschooled kids, 4 adults, a 300 year old farmhouse, 2 cats, 1 massif pit bull, and 24/7 in French? I love them and I love life at their house, but this introverted English speaker needs some quiet down time just a little bit.

So I will be going out there for 5 days a week, and returning to Bes 2 days a week to meet with my tutor, my teammates, my friends, and get some time in town.

(I went from Paris (11 million), to Marseille (1.5 million), to Besançon (220,000), to a tiny farm out in the country (287 people). What's next? Becoming a hermit? Will I move into a cabin and become the UniBlogger?)

Moving out there does mean packing up everything again...and trying to sort what I will need for spring, what I will need in Marseille in the summer, what I need for my trip to US, and what else can wait to be unpacked until July/August (when I should be able to finally unpack. Hopefully. Fingers crossed). I don't know when I will be headed south...it could be the first week of May, it could be July. I'll let you know when I know.

One thing about the Wise Family...they are pretty private people and don't like their family being exposed on the internet, so I can't show pictures of them or tell stories about them. That might mean not many blog posts for my time there. And the whole point of me being there is to have French language immersion, so blogging in English is beyond the point... I'll do what I can...