There has been lots of construction going on in Besançon relating to the tramway project, and yesterday evening I was shocked to discover that all but a handful of the 85 gorgeous old platanes (sycamore trees) that line the Battant-neighborhood side of the Doubs (not the centre-ville side) had been cut down. I was on my way to a doctor's appointment to get a medical certificate signed for Ultimate and another one for the marathon and I was totally caught off guard by the giant uprooted trunks strewn pell-mell across the quai. The tramway could end up being a really good thing for Besançon (making it easier for people to circulate around the city, better integrating the people who live in Planoise, limiting the car traffic, etc), but I still felt depressed seeing all of those felled trees. Or, at least, made me reflect a bit on the relationship of progress and what we sacrifice in order to achieve that progress. I noticed too that the faces of everyone I saw in the vicinity reflected the same shock that I felt. Apparently the fact that they were going to tear down the trees was announced quite a while ago, but it came as a surprise to me. They didn't appear to have made much progress in removing the debris when I walked by again around noon today (to get another form signed by the doctor). They've planned to replace the trees once the construction is over, but of course it's going to take a long time for them to grow back to the same splendor of the previous ones.
Check out this link to a local news report.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
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!
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!
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!
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!
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Christmas in Paris! The Dayton Family in France
*Note: As I started to compose this entry Blogger informed me that I have reached my limit for pictures on my blog. I was unaware that such a limit existed, so I have been posting pictures somewhat wantonly. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do for future entries, but I was able to get the pictures I wanted into this entry. If you want to see more, check out the link to a photo album on Snapfish (or check Facebook, for those of you social networking types).
*A second note: I've included the addresses of all of the restaurants in a little index at the bottom, in case you find yourself in Paris anytime soon and want to try these places.
Well I am pleased to inform you that my family's arrival, sojourn, and departure were all relatively calm and without international incident. I know more than a few of you were concerned that my Dad and the French might not get along (or, really the concern was regarding what might happen AFTER they didn't get along), but everything went just fine. I'm going to do this entry journal-style for better ease of reading.
Thursday, December 22
After taking an early-morning train from the new train station outside of Besançon, I met mom, dad, Mimi C., Trey, and Holly at the Hotel des Tuileries. They were all understandably zonked from the time change, but most of us rallied to get some lunch on Île St. Louis, one of the two islands in the middle of the Seine which, in the Middle Ages, constituted the entire city of Paris. The other island, Île de la Cité, usually gets all of the attention because that's where Notre-Dame de Paris is located. We had lunch at a place called Café Med, a recommendation from my "Let's Go: France" guide. I have used this guide series before, when I studied abroad in Dijon and I would recommend it for college-age types who are traveling in Europe because I have only ever had positive experiences with the hotels, restaurants, and bars they recommend. My only complaint is that they don't offer a lot of historical information on the sights, which I've come to expect from a decent guidebook. Back to lunch -- it was delicious, the first of many delicious meals we would enjoy during the week.
Following lunch we did a little exploring of Notre-Dame, which looked to be a completely different color than the one I remembered from 2009. I think they must have done some massive cleaning and restoration, because I remember it being a dirty, sooty gray, and this time it was a bright, clean tannish-yellow. Even though I've seen lots of French cathedrals, I was still awed (again) by Notre-Dame de Paris. The stained glass is just magnificent -- the rose windows are simply enormous! This would actually be the first of three times I visited Notre-Dame over the next two weeks.
Also, side note: I specified "Notre-Dame de Paris" because it's hardly the only Notre-Dame in France. It's certainly the most famous, but most of the cathedrals are also called Notre-Dame. Why? For those of you who have never taken French before, Notre-Dame translates to "Our Lady." This should give you an idea of how common the name Notre-Dame is, based on how many Catholic churches carry the name "Our Lady."
By this time part of the group was ready for their afternoon nap, so we dropped Mimi C. and Trey off at the hotel and Holly, Mom, and I headed to do some more exploring. We went to St. Eustache, a Romanesque church near Les Halles. Construction on the original Gothic structure began in 1532, but because of a lack of funding it wasn't completed until more than 100 years later, and it opened in 1637. Another fun fact: between 1613-1623, St. Eustache was the parish of St. Vincent de Paul, the man who inspired the charitable organization many years later.
Next we headed back toward our hotel in the first arrondissement (district) and went to the Musée de l'Orangerie, a museum located in what used to be the greenhouse when the Louvre was a royal palace. In the early 20th century it was converted into a museum designed specifically for Monet's giant water lilly paintings. The permanent collection includes lots of impressionist art (many many Renoirs) and this time they had a special exhibit on Spanish painters during that same era.
For dinner we went to a place called Robert & Louise, which brought out the carnivore-oriented entrees on big cutting boards! We ate in the cave (basement) and I thought the restaurant had both a great atmosphere and delicious food.
Friday, December 23
We started off the day right with breakfast at Angelina, who makes the best hot chocolate in the entire world. I have absolutely no hesitation in making such a sweeping statement... And everytime I introduce someone else to the heavenly, bittersweet beverage of the gods, their reaction is the same. You simply have to go. My family first discovered Angelina on accident in 2006 when we took a two-week trip to France with Mimi M. What a wonderful accident! When you do go though, make sure you go relatively early in the day. When we were there for breakfast it wasn't crowded at all, but by noon the line stretches the length of the block. And unfortunately the service was quite poor when I went with Brooke on the 31st. I think that had a lot to do with how many tourists were swarming Paris, but still, for the kind of prices they charge for hot chocolate (7.5 euros, it's a big pot, but still), the service should be friendly.
Next we went to the Musée Rodin, which is located in what was Rodin's house. They have all of the originals of his famous statues (The Thinker, The Kiss, The Gates of Hell), and a lot of other really neat ones. I particularly liked one of two hands called La Cathedrale-- the finger tips are touching to make a shape resembling the vault of a cathedral. Holly wrote her sophomore paper on Rodin's The Thinker, so she was particularly interested in seeing the museum. For lunch we went to a little cafe called Saveurs et Coincidences (recommended by my guidebook, I would pass along the recommendation, my stuffed roasted chicken might have been the best meal of the trip, including all of the foie gras I ate). Then Mom, Trey, Holly, and I went on a guided tour of the Opéra Garnier, which might be my favorite Paris monument. It's just so beautiful! With a quick stop for macarons at Angelina on the way back (not the best I've ever tasted, I would recommend La Durée instead). We had planned to eat dinner at a place called La Puce des Batignolles, recommended by Katie Bowman, but the timing didn't end up working out because we were going to a spectacle (show) at 8pm. So we ended up going to Café Wepler at Place Clichy instead.
Afterwards, Slava's Snowshow. I hesitated to put the show's title in bold in case you might take that for an automatic endorsement, which I would not give. It wasn't horrible, it just wan't what I expected. When I went to Paris with the Dijon program we saw a well-known show called Cirque Plume, which is sort of like a Cirque du Soleil-light. Based on the description I thought Snowshow was going to be in that vein. It wasn't. Or it was, just without all of the cool acrobatics and stunts. Only the strange clowns. As Trey described it, it was very physical humor -- there weren't any words in the whole thing. The most impressive part was the blizzard; they blew what must have been millions of tiny slips of paper out into the audience using some kind of industrial-sized fan, and it really felt like a snowstorm. At the end of the show giant brightly-colored balloons fell from the ceiling (think inflatable beach balls, but ten or twenty times larger) and they just bounced around in the audience. I don't know how they got them back, because we left after they had been bouncing for five or ten minutes.
Saturday, December 24
We started off with the Musée D'Orsay, a museum of mostly 19th and 20th century art located in what used to be the Orsay train station. During WWII the building was used as a hospital. Usually people make a beeline for the Impressionist art on the fifth floor, but I didn't end up making it that far, I got distracted by the wing of art by the Nabis (a group of post-Impressionist avant-garde painters during the 1890s). I had definitely heard of the Nabis before, but I don't know if I'd ever seen any of their works and I found them very interesting, particularly a few by Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, and Paul Serusier. There was also a temporary exhibit on art and design in England during the time of Oscar Wilde, and that was cool too. I think French/European history and art from the mid-19th century through WWI is probably my favorite period -- so many things were changing then and people were
Next was lunch at a place called Chartiers, which was strongly recommended by my guidebook. It was solid, but probably not the best place we've eaten. My favorite part was the baba au rhum that I had for dessert: a mini rum-cake about the size of a cupcake, with lots of whipped cream and extra rum. Yum! Then, we ladies decided to brave the Christmas Eve crowds and check out the big department stores: Galeries Lafayette and Au Printemps. Trey parted ways with us to go check out his favorite composer Maurice Ravel's grave at the Cimetière Levallois-Perret on the northeastern limit of the city. Dad went back for a nap. The stores were beautifully decorated for Christmas, and the crowds weren't even as bad as I had expected (so less than utter mayhem). Mom, Holly, and I each got a pair of shoes and we got to go up on the observation deck of Au Printemps right as the sun was setting. It was breathtaking! No one had ever told me about this observation deck (apparently Galeries Lafayette has one too) and I'm so glad we stumbled across it. I think it's the best view of Paris I've found yet... and the setting sun made it even better!
For dinner that night we ate at Le Restaurant du Rond Point, a restaurant in a theatre recommended to me by Katie Bowman. It was there that I had my favorite dessert of the trip: a pistachio macaron glacé (a macaron with ice cream in the middle). I didn't photograph a lot of food while in Paris with my family, but with this one I couldn't resist. After dinner we went to a candlelit Christmas Eve service at the American Church in Paris, a big church on the Quai d'Orsay. I'm so glad that we did, it was a really lovely service and it made the whole experience feel a lot more like Christmas. When we sang the carols we often did one of the many verses in French, which I thought was a nice touch.
Sunday, December 25
Christmas Day!! Normally at home we would open our stockings while all piled on top of Mom and Dad's bed, and open presents downstairs before breakfast, but since we didn't have stockings or lots of presents to open (my family exchanged theirs before they left Cincinnati), we went down for breakfast as usual. That part was a bit strange, but really after that it wasn't quite so different from Christmas at home: we opened presents (mostly me -- I got lots of cold-weather accessories and insisted on trying them all on at the same time), went for a walk, played cards, at a huge meal, and watched the Christmas classics: How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Muppet Christmas Carol, and A Charlie Brown Christmas. Of course, the walk was through the Jardin des Tuileries and down the length of the Champs-Elysees, the card game took place in the breakfast room cave of the hotel, and the big meal was brunch at the Ritz (thanks Dad!), so it wasn't quite the same. But we were all together, which is of course what matters.
Monday, December 26
We took a morning train to Besancon (and I discovered train travel is much more complicated with 6 people and one giant suitcase per person than it is when it's just me and my backpack) and arrived a little after one. After a light lunch, I showed my family around the centre-ville and we picked up some bread for the 5pm aperitif with Steph and Charly. I had already bought all of the cheeses I wanted my family to try, and it turned out we had enough to feed an army. It was great to have my family meet my roommates, and between French and English we managed to have a full conversation. We were already full from the cheese, sausage, pistachios, and 2 bottles of wine (mine plus a pinot gris Charly contributed), but not long after it was time for our 8pm dinner reservation at La Table des Halles. I'm not sure how useful my Besancon restaurant recommendations will be, based on the slim likelihood of you my dear blog reader visiting my humble new hometown anytime soon. But if I was indeed concentrating on these recommendations, this would be one I would make wholeheartedly. All of the restaurants where we ate were recommended by Myriam, a teacher at Ecole Bourgogne who showed me her favorites via a little tour around the centre-ville a week or two before I left to meet my family in Paris. We were pretty tired after dinner and all went to bed.
Tuesday, December 27
A late breakfast, then time to do some shopping for presents for people at home (I think I may have gotten a hat, too -- buying clothes intended to keep me warm practically falls in the necessity category, rather than the frivolity category). Then at noon we met Colin for lunch at Chez Ludo. I will freely admit that I was a bit nervous about this lunch -- my dad has carefully cultivated his ability to intimidate my boyfriends/interests/anyone I know, and I as a member of the formermost category, I was concerned for Colin. Of course the whole thing was just fine; we had a good lunch and despite the language barriers were able to chat comfortably. Plus Colin is still alive, and I consider that a plus!
After lunch Mom, Trey, Holly and I went to the Musee du Temps (Museum of Time). Unfortunately we didn't get to go up in the tower because the fire alarm went off just as we were heading up. I've never had that happen in a museum before! But we consoled ourselves with macarons from Christophe Fleury (my favorite macarons in Besançon), and felt much better afterward. I think that afternoon we did a bit more browsing and some more exploring of the city. Besancon isn't so big, but it was bigger than my family expected. They said based on my description it sounded like a village, when in face it's a real city. I certainly didn't mean to give off the wrong impression! Besançon is definitely a city, it just feels more like a town compared to cities like Lyon or Paris. For dinner that night we ate at La Charette and Trey and I both tried tête de veau, which is .... brain. Yup, calf's brains. I had never dared try this traditional French dish before, and Trey was game to try it with me. It wasn't bad, but I don't think I would eat it again. It was served in a little ceramic pot with a broth of vegetables, a meat stew. The meat itself was very fatty and the texture was a bit strange for me. But we tried it!
After dinner Trey, Holly and I headed to the Brass (short for brasserie, or bar/pub) to meet up with some people from the Ultimate team who I had invited to join us for drinks. The team came out in full force, and we had a raucous time as usual. I think Trey and Holly now have a better appreciation for how exhausting it can be to socialize in another language. You're probably thinking: come on, how tough can it be to drink a beer with some friends? But when there you're part of a group of 10-12 people having multiple conversations in a bar already fairly noisy with the conversations of others and the music, following what's going on actually takes a bit of effort. I'm so glad they got to meet everyone from the team though!
Wednesday, December 28
Wednesday morning we went to the Musée de l'art et l'archéologie. My family particularly appreciated the ancient Egyptian artifacts, including three incredibly well-preserved mummies. I had seen them before, but for some reason I think more of the cool Roman mosaics than the Egyptian section. After a light lunch at a pizzeria/brasserie near the hotel, we met up with the Coudel family for dessert at Baud (the fancy-schmancy patisserie right by Pont Battant that everyone insisted we try... my tarte citron - lemon tart - was indeed to die for). I think my family was grateful to converse freely in English again and they had a great time getting to know Susan, Emmanuel, and their son Mark, who came along too. But eventually we had to break off the conversation so that my family could catch their train back to Paris. They spent the night at an airport hotel in order to be close for their flight the next morning. Despite the multiple steps required to get back (their train left from the new train station which is a 15-minute drive from the one I live right by, Gare Viotte, they took a train back to the center of Paris and then had to get to the airport), everything went smoothly. They made it safely back to Cincinnati the next day.
So overall a great trip. It was really wonderful to see them and to share part of my experience with them. 7 days felt way too short; during college I always had at least a month for winter break. I hope they had as much fun as I did -- I know I was really sad to see them leave!
To see more pictures from my family's visit (136, in fact), click here. FYI these are the same pictures that appear in my Facebook album.
Index of restaurant recommendations in Paris (in the order they appear in the blog):
Café Med: (1ere) 77 Rue St Louis en l'ile, metro stop: Pont Marie
Robert & Louise: (3e) 64 Rue Vieille du Temple, metro stop: Rambuteau
Angelina: (1ere) 226 Rue de Rivoli, metro stop: Tuileries
Saveurs et Coincidences: (9eme) 6 Rue Trévise, metro stop: Grands Boulevards
La Durée Bonaparte: (5eme) 21 Rue Bonaparte, metro stop: Saint-Germain-des-Pres
Café Wepler: (9eme) 14 place de Clichy, metro stop: Place de Clichy
Le Restaurant du Rond Point: (8eme) 2 Avenue Franklin Delano Roosevelt, metro stop: FDR or Champs-Elysees Clemenceau
*A second note: I've included the addresses of all of the restaurants in a little index at the bottom, in case you find yourself in Paris anytime soon and want to try these places.
Well I am pleased to inform you that my family's arrival, sojourn, and departure were all relatively calm and without international incident. I know more than a few of you were concerned that my Dad and the French might not get along (or, really the concern was regarding what might happen AFTER they didn't get along), but everything went just fine. I'm going to do this entry journal-style for better ease of reading.
Thursday, December 22
Following lunch we did a little exploring of Notre-Dame, which looked to be a completely different color than the one I remembered from 2009. I think they must have done some massive cleaning and restoration, because I remember it being a dirty, sooty gray, and this time it was a bright, clean tannish-yellow. Even though I've seen lots of French cathedrals, I was still awed (again) by Notre-Dame de Paris. The stained glass is just magnificent -- the rose windows are simply enormous! This would actually be the first of three times I visited Notre-Dame over the next two weeks.
Also, side note: I specified "Notre-Dame de Paris" because it's hardly the only Notre-Dame in France. It's certainly the most famous, but most of the cathedrals are also called Notre-Dame. Why? For those of you who have never taken French before, Notre-Dame translates to "Our Lady." This should give you an idea of how common the name Notre-Dame is, based on how many Catholic churches carry the name "Our Lady."
By this time part of the group was ready for their afternoon nap, so we dropped Mimi C. and Trey off at the hotel and Holly, Mom, and I headed to do some more exploring. We went to St. Eustache, a Romanesque church near Les Halles. Construction on the original Gothic structure began in 1532, but because of a lack of funding it wasn't completed until more than 100 years later, and it opened in 1637. Another fun fact: between 1613-1623, St. Eustache was the parish of St. Vincent de Paul, the man who inspired the charitable organization many years later.
Next we headed back toward our hotel in the first arrondissement (district) and went to the Musée de l'Orangerie, a museum located in what used to be the greenhouse when the Louvre was a royal palace. In the early 20th century it was converted into a museum designed specifically for Monet's giant water lilly paintings. The permanent collection includes lots of impressionist art (many many Renoirs) and this time they had a special exhibit on Spanish painters during that same era.
For dinner we went to a place called Robert & Louise, which brought out the carnivore-oriented entrees on big cutting boards! We ate in the cave (basement) and I thought the restaurant had both a great atmosphere and delicious food.
Friday, December 23
We started off the day right with breakfast at Angelina, who makes the best hot chocolate in the entire world. I have absolutely no hesitation in making such a sweeping statement... And everytime I introduce someone else to the heavenly, bittersweet beverage of the gods, their reaction is the same. You simply have to go. My family first discovered Angelina on accident in 2006 when we took a two-week trip to France with Mimi M. What a wonderful accident! When you do go though, make sure you go relatively early in the day. When we were there for breakfast it wasn't crowded at all, but by noon the line stretches the length of the block. And unfortunately the service was quite poor when I went with Brooke on the 31st. I think that had a lot to do with how many tourists were swarming Paris, but still, for the kind of prices they charge for hot chocolate (7.5 euros, it's a big pot, but still), the service should be friendly.
Next we went to the Musée Rodin, which is located in what was Rodin's house. They have all of the originals of his famous statues (The Thinker, The Kiss, The Gates of Hell), and a lot of other really neat ones. I particularly liked one of two hands called La Cathedrale-- the finger tips are touching to make a shape resembling the vault of a cathedral. Holly wrote her sophomore paper on Rodin's The Thinker, so she was particularly interested in seeing the museum. For lunch we went to a little cafe called Saveurs et Coincidences (recommended by my guidebook, I would pass along the recommendation, my stuffed roasted chicken might have been the best meal of the trip, including all of the foie gras I ate). Then Mom, Trey, Holly, and I went on a guided tour of the Opéra Garnier, which might be my favorite Paris monument. It's just so beautiful! With a quick stop for macarons at Angelina on the way back (not the best I've ever tasted, I would recommend La Durée instead). We had planned to eat dinner at a place called La Puce des Batignolles, recommended by Katie Bowman, but the timing didn't end up working out because we were going to a spectacle (show) at 8pm. So we ended up going to Café Wepler at Place Clichy instead.
Afterwards, Slava's Snowshow. I hesitated to put the show's title in bold in case you might take that for an automatic endorsement, which I would not give. It wasn't horrible, it just wan't what I expected. When I went to Paris with the Dijon program we saw a well-known show called Cirque Plume, which is sort of like a Cirque du Soleil-light. Based on the description I thought Snowshow was going to be in that vein. It wasn't. Or it was, just without all of the cool acrobatics and stunts. Only the strange clowns. As Trey described it, it was very physical humor -- there weren't any words in the whole thing. The most impressive part was the blizzard; they blew what must have been millions of tiny slips of paper out into the audience using some kind of industrial-sized fan, and it really felt like a snowstorm. At the end of the show giant brightly-colored balloons fell from the ceiling (think inflatable beach balls, but ten or twenty times larger) and they just bounced around in the audience. I don't know how they got them back, because we left after they had been bouncing for five or ten minutes.
Saturday, December 24
We started off with the Musée D'Orsay, a museum of mostly 19th and 20th century art located in what used to be the Orsay train station. During WWII the building was used as a hospital. Usually people make a beeline for the Impressionist art on the fifth floor, but I didn't end up making it that far, I got distracted by the wing of art by the Nabis (a group of post-Impressionist avant-garde painters during the 1890s). I had definitely heard of the Nabis before, but I don't know if I'd ever seen any of their works and I found them very interesting, particularly a few by Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, and Paul Serusier. There was also a temporary exhibit on art and design in England during the time of Oscar Wilde, and that was cool too. I think French/European history and art from the mid-19th century through WWI is probably my favorite period -- so many things were changing then and people were
Next was lunch at a place called Chartiers, which was strongly recommended by my guidebook. It was solid, but probably not the best place we've eaten. My favorite part was the baba au rhum that I had for dessert: a mini rum-cake about the size of a cupcake, with lots of whipped cream and extra rum. Yum! Then, we ladies decided to brave the Christmas Eve crowds and check out the big department stores: Galeries Lafayette and Au Printemps. Trey parted ways with us to go check out his favorite composer Maurice Ravel's grave at the Cimetière Levallois-Perret on the northeastern limit of the city. Dad went back for a nap. The stores were beautifully decorated for Christmas, and the crowds weren't even as bad as I had expected (so less than utter mayhem). Mom, Holly, and I each got a pair of shoes and we got to go up on the observation deck of Au Printemps right as the sun was setting. It was breathtaking! No one had ever told me about this observation deck (apparently Galeries Lafayette has one too) and I'm so glad we stumbled across it. I think it's the best view of Paris I've found yet... and the setting sun made it even better!
For dinner that night we ate at Le Restaurant du Rond Point, a restaurant in a theatre recommended to me by Katie Bowman. It was there that I had my favorite dessert of the trip: a pistachio macaron glacé (a macaron with ice cream in the middle). I didn't photograph a lot of food while in Paris with my family, but with this one I couldn't resist. After dinner we went to a candlelit Christmas Eve service at the American Church in Paris, a big church on the Quai d'Orsay. I'm so glad that we did, it was a really lovely service and it made the whole experience feel a lot more like Christmas. When we sang the carols we often did one of the many verses in French, which I thought was a nice touch. Sunday, December 25
Christmas Day!! Normally at home we would open our stockings while all piled on top of Mom and Dad's bed, and open presents downstairs before breakfast, but since we didn't have stockings or lots of presents to open (my family exchanged theirs before they left Cincinnati), we went down for breakfast as usual. That part was a bit strange, but really after that it wasn't quite so different from Christmas at home: we opened presents (mostly me -- I got lots of cold-weather accessories and insisted on trying them all on at the same time), went for a walk, played cards, at a huge meal, and watched the Christmas classics: How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Muppet Christmas Carol, and A Charlie Brown Christmas. Of course, the walk was through the Jardin des Tuileries and down the length of the Champs-Elysees, the card game took place in the breakfast room cave of the hotel, and the big meal was brunch at the Ritz (thanks Dad!), so it wasn't quite the same. But we were all together, which is of course what matters.
Monday, December 26
We took a morning train to Besancon (and I discovered train travel is much more complicated with 6 people and one giant suitcase per person than it is when it's just me and my backpack) and arrived a little after one. After a light lunch, I showed my family around the centre-ville and we picked up some bread for the 5pm aperitif with Steph and Charly. I had already bought all of the cheeses I wanted my family to try, and it turned out we had enough to feed an army. It was great to have my family meet my roommates, and between French and English we managed to have a full conversation. We were already full from the cheese, sausage, pistachios, and 2 bottles of wine (mine plus a pinot gris Charly contributed), but not long after it was time for our 8pm dinner reservation at La Table des Halles. I'm not sure how useful my Besancon restaurant recommendations will be, based on the slim likelihood of you my dear blog reader visiting my humble new hometown anytime soon. But if I was indeed concentrating on these recommendations, this would be one I would make wholeheartedly. All of the restaurants where we ate were recommended by Myriam, a teacher at Ecole Bourgogne who showed me her favorites via a little tour around the centre-ville a week or two before I left to meet my family in Paris. We were pretty tired after dinner and all went to bed.Tuesday, December 27
A late breakfast, then time to do some shopping for presents for people at home (I think I may have gotten a hat, too -- buying clothes intended to keep me warm practically falls in the necessity category, rather than the frivolity category). Then at noon we met Colin for lunch at Chez Ludo. I will freely admit that I was a bit nervous about this lunch -- my dad has carefully cultivated his ability to intimidate my boyfriends/interests/anyone I know, and I as a member of the formermost category, I was concerned for Colin. Of course the whole thing was just fine; we had a good lunch and despite the language barriers were able to chat comfortably. Plus Colin is still alive, and I consider that a plus!
After dinner Trey, Holly and I headed to the Brass (short for brasserie, or bar/pub) to meet up with some people from the Ultimate team who I had invited to join us for drinks. The team came out in full force, and we had a raucous time as usual. I think Trey and Holly now have a better appreciation for how exhausting it can be to socialize in another language. You're probably thinking: come on, how tough can it be to drink a beer with some friends? But when there you're part of a group of 10-12 people having multiple conversations in a bar already fairly noisy with the conversations of others and the music, following what's going on actually takes a bit of effort. I'm so glad they got to meet everyone from the team though!
Wednesday, December 28
Wednesday morning we went to the Musée de l'art et l'archéologie. My family particularly appreciated the ancient Egyptian artifacts, including three incredibly well-preserved mummies. I had seen them before, but for some reason I think more of the cool Roman mosaics than the Egyptian section. After a light lunch at a pizzeria/brasserie near the hotel, we met up with the Coudel family for dessert at Baud (the fancy-schmancy patisserie right by Pont Battant that everyone insisted we try... my tarte citron - lemon tart - was indeed to die for). I think my family was grateful to converse freely in English again and they had a great time getting to know Susan, Emmanuel, and their son Mark, who came along too. But eventually we had to break off the conversation so that my family could catch their train back to Paris. They spent the night at an airport hotel in order to be close for their flight the next morning. Despite the multiple steps required to get back (their train left from the new train station which is a 15-minute drive from the one I live right by, Gare Viotte, they took a train back to the center of Paris and then had to get to the airport), everything went smoothly. They made it safely back to Cincinnati the next day.So overall a great trip. It was really wonderful to see them and to share part of my experience with them. 7 days felt way too short; during college I always had at least a month for winter break. I hope they had as much fun as I did -- I know I was really sad to see them leave!
To see more pictures from my family's visit (136, in fact), click here. FYI these are the same pictures that appear in my Facebook album.
Index of restaurant recommendations in Paris (in the order they appear in the blog):
Café Med: (1ere) 77 Rue St Louis en l'ile, metro stop: Pont Marie
Robert & Louise: (3e) 64 Rue Vieille du Temple, metro stop: Rambuteau
Angelina: (1ere) 226 Rue de Rivoli, metro stop: Tuileries
Saveurs et Coincidences: (9eme) 6 Rue Trévise, metro stop: Grands Boulevards
La Durée Bonaparte: (5eme) 21 Rue Bonaparte, metro stop: Saint-Germain-des-Pres
Café Wepler: (9eme) 14 place de Clichy, metro stop: Place de Clichy
Le Restaurant du Rond Point: (8eme) 2 Avenue Franklin Delano Roosevelt, metro stop: FDR or Champs-Elysees Clemenceau
Saturday, January 7, 2012
I'm Still Alive!
Bonne année tout le monde (Happy New Year everyone)! I just wanted to check in and assure you that I am indeed alive -- I haven't drowned in the flood waters of the river Doubs, although the river level is a full meter above the "warning level" thanks to the onslaught of rain over the past few weeks. I'm starting to think it will never stop! I haven't had time to update you all on my Christmas and New Year's exploits because I have been hosting Brooke basically since I got back to Besançon. We've been having a good time, although I was wretchedly sick all of Thursday with a horrible stomachache that lasted about 24 hours (flu? food poisoning?). I also feel sort of badly because Besançon is much less fun in the cold and yucky weather. That, and lots of things have been closed for the holidays/winter (like the Citadelle, which we tried to visit this afternoon). But we've been making the best of it. Tonight we both went to Ultimate practice and had a great time!
I'm sorry this post is so brief, I'll do my best to put up entries as soon as possible on my family's visit, New Years in Paris, and Brooke's visit here to Besançon. I hope you all are well!
Check out these pictures Brooke took yesterday of the Doubs:
I'm sorry this post is so brief, I'll do my best to put up entries as soon as possible on my family's visit, New Years in Paris, and Brooke's visit here to Besançon. I hope you all are well!
Check out these pictures Brooke took yesterday of the Doubs:
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Joyeux Noël !
Joyeux Noël everyone! In case you didn't know, my family (including my grandmother, Mimi C), just left Cincinnati on their flight to Paris! They arrive tomorrow morning and I will be joining them there around 11am. I can't wait to see them! It's quite surreal that they're going to be here in France, and that we'll be celebrating Christmas somewhere other than Cincinnati. But it's going to be great! Besancon has been bustling these last couple of days as people get ready for Christmas. We got some snow over the weekend, which made it feel a little more wintry. Unfortunately the snow melted pretty quickly and has turned into rain again, not nearly as festive.
I thought I would share some French Christmas traditions with you, since many of them are quite different from ours.
Papillotes
The lack of candy canes is quite startling. Last night the Ultimate team had a Christmas party and being the good God-fearing, chocolate-loving American that I am, I planned to bring brownies with peppermint frosting. Not only could I not find the candy canes to crush for decoration, I couldn't even find peppermint extract to make the icing! And I looked in multiple stores! It worked out just fine because my mom's brownie recipe is so rich that the frosting would have been too much, but I was a little bummed that they could have been more seasonally-appropriate. So what's the holiday candy? Papillotes! The name actually refers to the form: "en papillote" is a cooking preparation term meaning "in parchment" and can refer to any kind of food baked in a folded pouch. But in this case the folded pouch is foil and the food is chocolate, usually with some kind of filling like nuts or praline.
Bûche de Noël
Chocolate cake not enough for you? Try an entire log of cake, chocolate frosting, and chocolate ganache. I love this tradition, and not just because of my gustation-related attraction. It comes from the time when the winter solsitice was the major seasonal celebration and each family would decorate a log that would then be added to the huge communal bonfire. Now we just use central heating, and if you're me, complain about how short the days are. And we bake cakes in the shape of logs ('bûche' means log), rather than decorating a real log. Wood to cake: that definitely counts as evolution.
*Note: I found this picture on Google Images, it was the best, although none of them are nearly as good as the bûches I've seen in patisseries around here. If I get a chance I'll take some pictures in Paris.
Le Réveillon
So here the big celebration often occurs on Christmas Eve. This comes from the Alsacian tradition where, at least beginning around 1200, December 24th was dedicated to celebrating Adam and Eve -- the creation of man -- via religious plays and a huge feast. Then, Christmas Day, was slightly more austere and dedicated to celebrating the birth and arrival of Jesus. So the carryover is that many French families have their big Christmas celebration on the eve of Christmas, called "le réveillon." The same term is used for big dinners held on New Years Eve, or special dinners offered at restaurants on the same night.
New Years cards
So instead of sending Christmas cards (or Hanakkah cards, for my Jewish families are more likely to send a New Years card, which might read "Meilleurs voeux," meaning "best wishes." I would say in the stores where I have seen holiday cards for sale, the ratio of News Years cards to Christmas cards for sale is probably 10-1. But to my knowledge Steph and Charly haven't received any of either, and from what I hear sending holiday cards of any kind isn't quite as common here as it is at home.
Marché de Noël
This one constitutes a pretty big difference in my opinion. THE Marché de Noel, or Christmas market, is in Strasbourg, which is now about a 2-hour train ride away, thanks to the new TGV line. They have the gall to call the city "The Capital of Christmas," a moniker I find both pompous and a little disheartening. Is Christmas so commercialized that there's a city claiming to be the official Magic Kingdom of yuletide cheer? Apparently. I love Strasbourg, but I think once was enough for their Marché de Noël. When we visited Alsace as part of the Wake program in Dijon, I much preferred the Christmas market in Kaysersburg. Many French cities and towns have their own Marché de Noël; in the smaller towns and villages, the Christmas market lasts one weekend, or a long weekend. But Besançon is big enough that they've had a few little markets set up since the beginning of December. The main one is in Place de la Republique, in front of the Musée de l'art et l'archéologie. It's also where they set up the giant Ferris wheel. Apparently this is the second year they've had the grande roue, and they brought it back because last year it was such a success. It's quite kitschy, but I like it anyway. And I may or may not have convinced Colin to go on it on Sunday when we explored the Marché de Noël.
Going to the Marché de Noël, at least in Besançon, is sort of like going to St. Gertrude's Festival (for you Cincinnatians), but without the warm summer weather. There's always less to see and do than you think, and really it's just an excuse to eat the unhealthy but delicious food they sell there. In our case, hot wine and morbiflette. Hot wine may sound funny, but it's really yummy and completely ubiquitous in western Europe beginning in, say, mid-October. Usually it's made with red wine and cinnamon-type seasonings, but I've seen hot white wine too. Morbiflette is the Franche-Comtois version of tartiflette, a Savoyard/Swiss dish involving potatoes au gratin with an incredible amount of cheese, in this case, using morbier, a local type of cheese.
I really can't tell you how much the Franc-Comtois love their cheese and potatoes (and don't forget the lardons). And, while sometimes it's starts to look an awful lot like the last iteration of cheese and potatoes, the cheese is darn good, that so far, I'm still eager to try more. Check back in with me in February.
*Note: I found both of these pictures on Google Images, but they look just like what I had at the Marché de Noël on Sunday -- it was being sold out of a giant skillet like the one above, and the food itself looked like the picture below.
Fêtes
So this one isn't uniquely French... I think Christmas parties happen just about everywhere people celebrate Christmas. But I needed a heading for the pictures from the UC Vesontio / Friz'Bistonin Christmas party which took place last night. It was so much fun -- I feel really lucky to have found such a great group of friends.
I thought I would share some French Christmas traditions with you, since many of them are quite different from ours.
Papillotes
The lack of candy canes is quite startling. Last night the Ultimate team had a Christmas party and being the good God-fearing, chocolate-loving American that I am, I planned to bring brownies with peppermint frosting. Not only could I not find the candy canes to crush for decoration, I couldn't even find peppermint extract to make the icing! And I looked in multiple stores! It worked out just fine because my mom's brownie recipe is so rich that the frosting would have been too much, but I was a little bummed that they could have been more seasonally-appropriate. So what's the holiday candy? Papillotes! The name actually refers to the form: "en papillote" is a cooking preparation term meaning "in parchment" and can refer to any kind of food baked in a folded pouch. But in this case the folded pouch is foil and the food is chocolate, usually with some kind of filling like nuts or praline. Bûche de Noël
Chocolate cake not enough for you? Try an entire log of cake, chocolate frosting, and chocolate ganache. I love this tradition, and not just because of my gustation-related attraction. It comes from the time when the winter solsitice was the major seasonal celebration and each family would decorate a log that would then be added to the huge communal bonfire. Now we just use central heating, and if you're me, complain about how short the days are. And we bake cakes in the shape of logs ('bûche' means log), rather than decorating a real log. Wood to cake: that definitely counts as evolution.*Note: I found this picture on Google Images, it was the best, although none of them are nearly as good as the bûches I've seen in patisseries around here. If I get a chance I'll take some pictures in Paris.
Le Réveillon
So here the big celebration often occurs on Christmas Eve. This comes from the Alsacian tradition where, at least beginning around 1200, December 24th was dedicated to celebrating Adam and Eve -- the creation of man -- via religious plays and a huge feast. Then, Christmas Day, was slightly more austere and dedicated to celebrating the birth and arrival of Jesus. So the carryover is that many French families have their big Christmas celebration on the eve of Christmas, called "le réveillon." The same term is used for big dinners held on New Years Eve, or special dinners offered at restaurants on the same night.
New Years cardsSo instead of sending Christmas cards (or Hanakkah cards, for my Jewish families are more likely to send a New Years card, which might read "Meilleurs voeux," meaning "best wishes." I would say in the stores where I have seen holiday cards for sale, the ratio of News Years cards to Christmas cards for sale is probably 10-1. But to my knowledge Steph and Charly haven't received any of either, and from what I hear sending holiday cards of any kind isn't quite as common here as it is at home.
Marché de Noël
This one constitutes a pretty big difference in my opinion. THE Marché de Noel, or Christmas market, is in Strasbourg, which is now about a 2-hour train ride away, thanks to the new TGV line. They have the gall to call the city "The Capital of Christmas," a moniker I find both pompous and a little disheartening. Is Christmas so commercialized that there's a city claiming to be the official Magic Kingdom of yuletide cheer? Apparently. I love Strasbourg, but I think once was enough for their Marché de Noël. When we visited Alsace as part of the Wake program in Dijon, I much preferred the Christmas market in Kaysersburg. Many French cities and towns have their own Marché de Noël; in the smaller towns and villages, the Christmas market lasts one weekend, or a long weekend. But Besançon is big enough that they've had a few little markets set up since the beginning of December. The main one is in Place de la Republique, in front of the Musée de l'art et l'archéologie. It's also where they set up the giant Ferris wheel. Apparently this is the second year they've had the grande roue, and they brought it back because last year it was such a success. It's quite kitschy, but I like it anyway. And I may or may not have convinced Colin to go on it on Sunday when we explored the Marché de Noël.
Going to the Marché de Noël, at least in Besançon, is sort of like going to St. Gertrude's Festival (for you Cincinnatians), but without the warm summer weather. There's always less to see and do than you think, and really it's just an excuse to eat the unhealthy but delicious food they sell there. In our case, hot wine and morbiflette. Hot wine may sound funny, but it's really yummy and completely ubiquitous in western Europe beginning in, say, mid-October. Usually it's made with red wine and cinnamon-type seasonings, but I've seen hot white wine too. Morbiflette is the Franche-Comtois version of tartiflette, a Savoyard/Swiss dish involving potatoes au gratin with an incredible amount of cheese, in this case, using morbier, a local type of cheese.
I really can't tell you how much the Franc-Comtois love their cheese and potatoes (and don't forget the lardons). And, while sometimes it's starts to look an awful lot like the last iteration of cheese and potatoes, the cheese is darn good, that so far, I'm still eager to try more. Check back in with me in February. *Note: I found both of these pictures on Google Images, but they look just like what I had at the Marché de Noël on Sunday -- it was being sold out of a giant skillet like the one above, and the food itself looked like the picture below.
Fêtes
So this one isn't uniquely French... I think Christmas parties happen just about everywhere people celebrate Christmas. But I needed a heading for the pictures from the UC Vesontio / Friz'Bistonin Christmas party which took place last night. It was so much fun -- I feel really lucky to have found such a great group of friends.
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