Currently Listening Nothing Left to Lose By Mat Kearney see related

If you want to hear about my time in France, check out this site...

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This past weekend was spent with my “host family” here in France.  I am very lucky to have landlords who care whether I live or die and who would like to introduce me to the French language, customs, and people.  So far, I love all of it!

On Saturday night I went to what they call a “cocktail” which was actually more like 4 hours of eating.  My kind of night J  We drove out into the countryside and passed farmers working in the twilight along the way.  It’s the harvest season (duh) and a lot of farmers are working around the clock.  Jean Noel, who owns a farm, pointed out the different crops in the fields we passed, as he is friends with all of the proprietors.

The house we went to was one of only two original buildings remaining in the town- the rest were demolished during the debarquement (DDay fighting).  The tiny town we were in changed hands between the Germans and the British 18 times in a course of a couple weeks!

When we arrived, I met the whole family, including a grandfather who was 11 at the time of the Allied Invasion and he has very happy memories of the Americans.  He said he really doesn’t remember much about the war but the American soldiers entering his town and picking him up so he could ride on their shoulders.  He was also allowed to drive an American Jeep- yes at 11 yrs of age.  I told him that he should have someone in the family record all of his memories.  I would love to do it if he wants to sometime!  He would be a great person to interview because not only did he experience WWII up close and personal, he was also in the Algerian War, which was a nasty ordeal for France (giving up one of their colonies and all).

Now I will commence to describe the menu for the evening….  Much champagne with finger foods.  Terrine of beef with layers of carrot and some other green veggie with cornichons.  Oven baked pork with apple topping.  Tartiflette de corgettes- zucchini layered with almost a quiche substance and baked in an earthenware dish.   Croziflette- Pasta a la savoyarde little square pastas cooked in a dish with reblochon cheese and lardons (fat little bits of ham)- this was like royal macaroni and cheese!  Salad with Dijon Balsamic dressing (homemade of course).  A cheese plate of camembert (from Normandy), several types of chevre, cantal, and reblochon.  We drank Bordeaux Grand Cru Classé from Pauillac- one of the places we visited on our Bordeaux tour (these are some of the best wines in the world) and Bourgogne (Burgundy). 

Dessert consisted of a table covered in cakes.  Everyone sang happy birthday to me- in English, and I had little candles in the shape of 2 and 4 to blow out.  I had a chocolate cake (not the type you would find in the US, it’s more dense and rich, almost like a brownie) covered in crème anglaise.  They also had chocolate ice cream log, tiramisu, and apple crumble.

Ok, so I think you get the point that I REALLY enjoyed this evening of eating.  We also watched the unfortunate match between France and England.  This made me a little bit sad but then I’d just take a bite of my chocolate cake.

I will include my report on Sunday in the next post as I think everyone wants to stop reading now.

Allez les Bleus!

Tonight I watched a most exciting rugby match.  The quarter finals for the Rugby World Cup were on and France has come a long way!  They were playing New Zealand’s All Blacks and the whole country was rooting for les Bleus, but kind of knowing that they would loose.  I was invited to watch the game with the family who owns my studio and the husband said “it will take a miracle for the French to win; the All Blacks are the best team right now.”  Well… the Coqs Gaulois performed that miracle tonight and beat the #1 ranked team 20-18! 

Now their next big opponent is the English team- who won during the last world cup.  I think I’ll have to paint my face and learn the Marseillaise before the next game!

Currently Listening The Reminder By Feist see related

This morning, I was able to do one of my favorite activities in Caen.  I went to the Friday market!  It takes place on the street right in front of my apartment, and tumbles down into Place St Sauveur.

I loved going to markets in Nice and Provence.  The colors from the purple garlic and lavender, bright red tomatoes, yellow sunflowers, green and black olives, and multicolored soaps from Marseille turned the whole market into a sunny artist’s palette.

The Caen Friday morning market is drastically different, which proves the freshness of everything sold here.  Since I am living in a drastically different region, the produce should be quite different!  The markets here specialize in pork products, tripe (a la mode de Caen, ick!), potatoes, crème, butter, cheese, apples, pears, hard cider, fresh seafood, and sausages (some made from donkey meat).

I love both types of markets.  Today there were two young men playing a guitar and flute in the middle of the bustling customers.  Their music was straight out of the movie Chocolat.  It made me smile while I strolled through the stalls.

Today I bought plenty of fruits and vegetables as well as some bright red gladiolas.  They are sitting in front of me as I type, in a vase which is too small, so they are reaching out all over the table.  One of them poked me in the face while I was trying to eat lunch, but how can you turn down a whole bunch of big happy gladiolas for only 5 euro?  My yellow roses from last week’s market have been transferred to a bud vase (a cereal bowl).

I have been trying all types of new food in Normandy.  Today, I bought a portion of a homemade teurgoule, which is like a very think rice pudding with caramel in it!  Since Normandy is known for its cows, and in turn butter, you can find caramels which come from a town called Isigny-sur-mer, which are out of this world!  I have a packet of them right now which I bought in Honfleur.  I’m sure this teurgoule will be delish too!

Each Friday, I buy my lunch from a woman who has a stall with Cuisine Asiatique.  She makes the BEST homemade pork samosas.  While paying for my take-away lunch, I heard clucking and turned around to see live chickens!  There were 8 crates behind me filled with roosters and hens of varying colors.  I don’t know if they were being sold to raise for eggs and mating, or to have some truly fresh chicken for dinner! 

Behind the living poultry, was the seafood section of the market.  These stalls must be grouped together because of the smell!  As I walked past, a lot of little creepy crawlies were still squirming on the tables.  The most interesting things I saw were Coquilles St Jacques (a type of shellfish), which I have seen on many restaurant menus, but never the original crustacean, still in its shell.  People would shuck them for you when you ordered them.  They have gorgeous shells- what you think of when you draw a general shell (a fan shape.  Interesting note- the coquille St Jacques was the symbol for pilgrims during the middle ages.  They would wear them on a string around their neck to ensure safe passage and freebies from innkeepers, etc.  If you see one of these carved into an old building in France and Spain, you know that it was one of the pilgrimage routes).  Also, they have crabs in the English Channel (the nearest water, 10 minutes by car), but they look nothing like Maryland blue crabs!  They are big fat monsters!  So big that just their grubby claws are sold on their own, cut open and bursting with meat. 

So if any of you are wondering what I’m doing next Friday morning, you can rest assured I am at the market, smiling.