gourmand(e)

chocolate ginger cookies for micka

The other day some family friends came over for dinner and we had a feast. I've spent a few evenings with them already...their names are Marie-Noelle and Alain. Marie-Noelle's birthday is Christmas, which is why she's called Marie-Noelle. It was Alain's birthday, which is why we were having a feast. They look like movie stars. Marie-Noelle is 64, but she doesn't look a day older than 50. She has perfect skin. I don't think she has ever been in the sun. They both wear these hip, big glasses that sometimes match their outfits. It was a funny evening. We had dinner for four hours.

Another feast I had was yesterday. Well yesterday I had two feasts. One was with Dominique, who is my responsable I think, that is to say, she is the English teacher in charge of me. I think. Stephanie, the other English assistant at Bellevue, had to show me where her house was. She was confused about that fact that I didn't already know where it was. Dominique didn't invite you over at the beginning when you first got here? No.....awkward. It was a nice lunch though. Kind of odd, I guess. I thought it was going to be an assistants lunch, but it was just me, Steph, Dominique, her husband, and her mother. And a biology teacher. Her mother  has all metal teeth.

Anyway the other feast was a raclette at Brent/Samira/Domi's house with a bunch of masters students. It was pretty great.

this is a raclette. copyright bnm

copywrite bnm

I really talk about food a lot don't I. Well its one of the most tangible things I can share with you. You can imagine melty raclette cheese on top of potatoes, but it might be harder for you to imagine me riding my bike to school (work? what do I call it now?) or attempting to have a philosophical conversation in French. The attitude towards food here is completely different than in the States. No one in France would ever eat something because it's good for you. They eat things because they find them delicious. And they pay attention to how much they eat or how often they eat things that are definitely not good for you, but they don't think to themselves, tonight I'm going to eat quinoa because its fibrous and protein-rich and I'm going to put craisins in it for antioxidents or something, and also I'm going to eat an entire head of kale for vitamin A. They are more interested in eating in a way that is equilibre, that is to say, well-balanced. I'm not really convinced that they do eat equilibre when they think they do, but I guess it works for them. I could go on about how maybe the French attitude toward food is against my general philosophy, but then I wouldn't really have an excuse to eat cheese every day. In the States I would never eat cheese every day. Sometimes I think about Julia Child and her love affair with butter, which was totally merited. It doesn't matter what you tell yourself, butter is delicious. So I guess what I'm saying is, I'm conflicted. At home I only cook with butter once in a blue moon, but here it's like a staple. La base quoi. If you run out of butter, it's a catastrophe.


Today I was giving an English lesson to Francois after dinner, and by English lesson I mean we were chatting about music mostly. Anyway he was very distracted, dans la lune, as we say, staring into the fire and just smiling and smiling to himself. Corinne and I think he's in love.