Friday, January 20, 2012

In which I donate blood, and the French trump us at food once again

Hello everyone! Sorry I've been a little quiet lately... I managed to leave my camera battery charger in the hotel in Paris, and while my battery lasted through Brooke's visit, it died shortly afterwards. I'm in the process of tracking down a new charger, but it's funny how the lack of photos has meant a lack of writing inspiration. In the past it was always the other way around...

It's also possible that I just haven't had anything exciting to mention. I've settled back into the routine here in Besançon and things are going smoothly, all except for the weather, which continues to be rotten.

But getting to the subject as mentioned in the title, today after school I donated blood!! I had planned to do it once last fall with some people on the team, but it turned out the blood drive had already happened a week earlier (I didn't read the post on the team forum carefully enough). So today was the first time I donated blood outside of the U.S. At home I've done it maybe a dozen times, and I think I donated successfully twice at Wake Forest (at least once the wait was too long and another time my iron count was too low).

This blood drive was held in the Grand Kursaal, a large theatre in Place Granvelle. I had never been in there before and was pleasantly surprised by how beautiful it was. If there are normally seats in the center (I wasn't sure if it was a theatre in the round or not because there was a stage at one end), they were cleared to make way for approximately 30 beds for the donators. There were probably 50 donators there when I arrived: 30 donating blood, 10 waiting to speak with the doctors for the pre-examination, and another 10 speaking with the doctors or filling out the forms. There were possibly more too, because the room designated for the post-donation meal (yes, meal, not snack) seated about 20-30 people as well. The procedure was identical to the one I've followed in the U.S.: fill out a preliminary form, wait to speak with a doctor, speak with a doctor who takes your blood pressure and confirms that you haven't traveled anywhere on their list of unallowed places, take your baggy of test tubes and pouch over to one of the beds, where your blood is taken by a nurse. My nurse's name was Lucie and she was very friendly.

I guess I was a little surprised by how identical the whole process was to donating blood in the U.S. They even used the same orange pricker-thingys to test if my blood had enough iron in it to be safe to donate (although the nurse did this after the doctor had given me the okay, and usually at home that test is done during the initial interview with the doctor). Anyway, I had the same sensation as usual... completely fine during the first 3/4 of the blood donation and then surpressed panic at the end. The same thing happens to me on plane flights... I'm totally calm for the first 75% of the voyage and then with one-quarter of the time to go my mind starts racing and it's all I can do to keep myself under control. Luckily this hasn't yet resulted in a real breakdown, so I can only hope it will continue as such. I successfully completed my donation and was directed to the collation (light meal) being served in the adjoining room.

Let me first say that I have always found Hoxworth Blood Center's juice and Oreo's totally sufficient. They even have Girl Scout Cookies during the season. But the Établissement Français du Sang volunteers took the post-donation snack to a whole new level. First of all, there were place settings and menus on each of the 6-7 tables for four set up next to a bar, where about 6-8 volunteers were energetically taking orders and serving the donators. I had two options: froid (cold) which was turkey with vegetables and rice or chaud (hot) which was five different flavors of quiche. I chose the latter option, specifically a generous slice of salmon and green pepper quiche. All of this was served with your choice of water, fruit juice, coffee, tea, and, yes you guessed it, wine. Of course there was bread and soft cheese on the table, clementines and yogurt and fruit compotes for after your main course and the slice of gateau served for dessert. Talk about classy! One of the volunteers actually got upset when I tried to take my dishes up to the bar before leaving; "Nous en occupe!" he said ("That's our job!")

Overall it was a very positive experience. Even the brief wait for my meeting with the doctor was enjoyable, because I got to read more of Les Misérables, which I started on Wednesday and have so far read nearly 100 pages! Only 813 more to go, in part one. But I really love Hugo's writing style and I can see myself enjoying every minute of this story.

Other breaking news: for those of you not on Facebook, I officially signed up for my first marathon earlier this week. It's going to be April 15th in a city called Annecy which is south-east of here. Check out Google Images for some pretty stunning pictures of the lake around which the city is situated. I'm also excited that Grace Pardo, a friend and fellow Wake '11 graduate, signed up for the half-marathon on the same day, so we're going to cheer each other on! I have a big training run planned for this Saturday, and I'm hoping the rain lets up long enough for me to get it in. I hope all of you are doing well, whereever this blog entry finds you!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Soldes? Sold!

The holiday season has passed, la saison des soldes (the sale season) has begun! Les soldes are a big deal in France because businesses are regulated differently here. Is it actually illegal to sell merchandise at a loss during any period except the official soldes, which happen for five weeks, twice per year: beginning the second Wednesday of the new year and again on the third Wednesday in June. Companies are allowed to have promotions throughout the year, but those mini-sales can never involve selling a product for a net loss.

There are actually two types of soldes: the two, five-week periods called the soldes fixes and then the soldes libres or soldes flottants ("free" or "floating sales"), which are two weeks of sales that a company or store can designate on their own, within certain restrictions such as the sale can't be immediately before or after one of the soldes fixes periods. The items during the soldes also must show the original price displayed on the price tag, along with the reduced price, to prevent companies from hiking up the prices just before the sales and then artificially lowering them.

I found it really startling that there are laws here prohibiting a company from selling products at a loss. Perhaps we have similar laws in America, but I'm not aware of them. It seems like a very obvious difference in perspective towards commerce and the rights of free enterprise / the government's intervention on behalf of the public good. 

Apparently in the last few years Internet sales and "private sales," accessible to only those patrons with a rewards card or part of a loyalty program, have made the soldes less intense than they used to be. I expected the centre-ville to be packed with shoppers on Wednesday and this weekend, but there didn't seem to be a lot more people than usual. I did do a little soldes shopping myself at a store called Promod and got two dresses and a shirt for just under 30 euro, which quite a bargain considering each of the dresses were 35 euro+ originally. There are also several round of reductions, so it's possible the prices will be even better this coming week, but of course there is the risk that only the XSs and XXLs will be left. That's your memo on French culture for the day!

Les Galettes du Roi

So Friday, January 6th was Epiphany, the Christian holiday which in the Western Christian tradition celebrates the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus and thus the revelation of God as Son to the Gentiles (apparently in the Eastern Christian tradition they celebrate his baptism in the Jordan River on this day).

In any event, it is celebrated in France with the eating of galettes des rois or "kings' cakes." These kings' cakes in no way resemble the ones you can sometimes purchase at bakeries in the U.S. around Mardi Gras. They look more like giant turnovers, honestly. But they're very delicious. Inside each galette is a fève, a small ceramic or plastic figurine. The person who receives the slice of galette with the fève inside is the king or queen for the day. This picture below is a galette comtoise that my friend Justine made for the crêpe/galette party she hosted on Thursday. It was delicious!


Each region of France has its own spin on the galette des rois, the Franche-Comté version is sort of like flan on the inside (see picture below).


The other type of galette des rois I have tried is the galette traditionnelle, which has a frangipane filling (almond-flavored). Colin's mom made a galette traditionnelle on Thursday and Colin graciously shared some with me (although he was probably tempted to not to tell me about it, he doesn't really like sweets but apparently galette traditionnelle is one of his absolute favorites). I have to say I prefer the galette traditionnelle to the franc-comtoise, because I find the latter a little dry. The picture below is of a slice of galette traditionnelle:


In the south, particularly Provence, they make a doughnut-shaped brioche galette which is decorated with candied fruits. Even though technically the galettes are eaten on Ephiphany, it's more like a two-week season of galettes. They're still being sold in boulangeries and I wouldn't be surprised if someone brought one into school this week. Below is a picture of one of the galettes from the south:


Brooke and I bought a galette franc-comtois right before she returned to Vienna and she got the fève! And I received the slice with the fève in the galette franc-comtois that Justine made. I've also seen chocolate-pear filled galettes and chocolate-apple filled galettes advertised at a bakery chain called La Brioche Dorée, so it's possible that there are many other types of galettes I have yet to try. I'm definitely going to ask for Colin's mom's recipe, it would be a fun treat to make when I come home!