La Semaine du Goût et Taille (The Week of Taste and Size)

The French truly love food and makes some most excellent cuisine. In fact they take one week of the year and dedicate it to taste and trying new tastes. This week is aptly named the week of taste, la semaine du gout (la suhmen do goo). It’s a real thing with instructions and suggestions as seen on this website (which is all in French and not translation option—good luck!): www.legout.com . At school the kids have different things for lunch in the cafeteria, including some fancy cheeses (i.e. expensive!). At our house, I forgot about the semaine de gout and so we didn’t do anything fancy for it. L

Generally, one would think that if you adore the taste of food you are probably of a more rotund body variety. Well, I went shopping some this weekend (because I don’t actually have very warm clothes!!) and found a funny difference about sizes (taille- pronounced ty). In the first place all of the sizes are different then at home so I had to try on many clothes to discover what size I am. This store, for shirts, had the simple S, M, L but with a twist of course. On the label they had the sizes for several different countries in the EU. Why? Because France and Ireland say that what all other countries call a small, they call a medium. A quiet national pressure to tell you to stay thinner? “You may be a small in other countries, but here in France, you’re a medium… oh you were a medium, well I guess you’re a large now (disdainful look)…”

So it’s counter intuitive that a nation of people who treasure their food and love to have meals with multiple courses stay very thin. However, I have learned from the semaine du gout that they love a simple taste, taking only a small portion to relish the flavor. Currently, I am fighting the habit that I picked up at Tech to eat as much and as quickly as possible, because it makes me very much an outsider (I am the first one to finish my plate usually and I just sit and watch everyone else finishes… awk ward).

But more about shopping and sizes. While I was shopping, the lovely store assistants would ask me if they could help me find things in other colors and sizes. This was always an interesting predicament for me because 1) it’s difficult to translate when they speak quickly in a noisy store 2) I didn’t actually know what size I needed. Sometimes I would tell them that I simply didn’t understand and they would rephrase (with smaller words) to help me. But also, I didn’t actually know what size I wanted. Imagine this scenario: you work in a store and you ask a lady if she would like another size and she says “I don’t know” and walks away. True Story. I really do enjoy creating funny situations because I’m a foreigner.

In other news, there is yet another strike in Paris (the fourth I’ve experienced). This one, however, is much more annoying. The other strikes have been for one day and then done which is manageable. But this one is “un grève illimité”—an unlimited strike— it will end when the people want it to end. I want it to end now, but I’m pretty sure I have no say in the matter. So it began on Tuesday and has messed up the trains going to and from Paris all week and weekend. It reduces the number of trains which creates massive crowds in each train. It hasn’t affected the subway, thank GOD, which are already crowded without a strike. An interesting side effect of this strike is that yesterday Paris ran out of gas. Almost without warning, no gas stations have any more gas. They tell me this doesn’t happened frequently, the last time being about 5-10 years ago. So this week, as the strike continues and more people run on empty, I will use my car sparingly.

Speaking of this coming week! I have some very exciting events. Monday, one of my old roommates from Scotland is meeting me for lunch. Then on Thursday, my dad and step-mom arrive to visit me and the city for a week! We plan to have them over ot the house in Chaumes for dinner on Friday and Alain is planning some frog legs for dinner. Nothing says welcome to France like Frog legs!

That’s all I have for you today! Have a good week!

Nutella Banane Crêpe

Nuit Blache was quite a night. Drinking muscat (very sweet wine) while listening to reggae music outside of a cathedral under the stars *sigh* fabulous. After all the festivities (5-ish am) we decided to head home. Then I arrived home around 7 am. I watched the sun rise over the fields on my way back from the train station.

Sunday was the day that Alain’s business partners came over for lunch. Alain (the dad of my family) runs a business and was recently featured on a news program called Capital. This, of course, brought in a lot of business, so this lunch was more or less a celebration. It was also delicious. We ate for about three hours. We had multiple courses including rognon (bull testicles) and two desserts: homemade chocolate mousse and cakes (with melty, molten chocolate in the center). I could have DIED because it was so good!

The week was uneventful as I thought this weekend might have been as well. All of my friends were out of town of busy. Friday night I quilted a little while watching Monster Inc. in French (oh the glamorous life of an au pair). Saturday started out being just as boring but then turned into an adventure.

In the afternoon, I went to Jardin du Luxembourg to read and enjoy the beautiful weather. There were TONS of people there. Then I decided to ride a velib around Montmartre—velibs are bikes that you can rent and ride around the city. Well, with all of the people around I couldn’t find an available bike. So I settled for a walk around Sacre Coeur. On my way I was seduced by a little crêpe stand to get a nutella banana crêpe. I’ve been here for 6 weeks and this was my first nutella-banana crêpe. Ridiculous, I know. And it was, of course, outrageously scrumptious. I was a very happy lady when I finished the last gooey drop of nutella but I was feeling a little unhealthy. My solution was to walk up the stairs to Sacre Coeur instead of taking the funicular.

I couldn’t understand why the place was so darn crowed. Yes, there was beautiful weather and it was Saturday, but there were more people than a normal October Saturday nightmight have. At the summit, I found some sort of festival for French food and wine. While I wandered around, I overheard some English and before I knew it I had made some new friends. We all shared some wine and talked. As I had no peer contact for a week and had expected to be alone for the whole weekend, I was ecstatic to meet these people.

We were hanging out near the southwest corner of when we heard a bang. Now, there have been warnings to travelers in Europe of terrorist attacks. For a split second I thought “here I am in a mob of people at Sacre Coeur and there is an attack… oh no” but it turns out it was the start of a very brilliant fireworks show. And unfortunately, I have no pictures because I didn't bring my camera. Sorry.

All in all Saturday was a lovely evening. Today has been lovely, too. My family has been and will be out of the house all day doing scouts (boy and girl scouts are one single organization here)!! I watched Rasta Rockett (the French title of Cool Runnings) while I made lunch. The day is bright and cool so I’m contemplating a run later. Good bye dear friends! Have a good week!!