Dinner, French style

Last night we had dinner with a local French family. I went with Kaushik, another Indian student that is in our program, and our Carlson professor. Phillipe & Monique were wonderful hosts. They lived out in a suburb of Lyon. Was nice to get out of the city for an evening. They lived on a hill and had a really big back yard. We started out the evening by sitting in their garden area, enjoying some olive tapenade and locally made apertif's (I think this translates to a before-dinner drink?). We chose to try some Vin Peche, which was a wine that Monique had made from peach leaves. She said in the fall, the sun shines on the fruit and the peach leaves actually start to smell like peaches and will take on the fruit's flavor, so you can make wine from them. Was pretty strong tasting stuff, but also very good.

After that, we headed into the dining room to have dinner. Since it has been so hot, Monique prepared a summer meal, which means all of the courses are something that is served cold. We started off with cantoloupe wrapped in Pancetta which was very good - not something I'd think to put together, but the sweetness of the cantaloupe and the saltiness of the pancetta made a great combination. Next came the main course, which was the most interesting course of the meal. I don't know what they call it in French, but it was basically a gelatin dish with chicken and tomatoes. Kind of like our jello molds with fruit in them that you might see in the midwest, but with chicken and tomatos instead! The gelatin that held everything together tasted like chicken, so that was a little different. It was pretty good, though. I recently read the book 'Julie & Julia' which is about an American girl who decides to take a year and make every recipe in Julia Child's, 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking'. In the book, she talks about the various recipes she made; there was an entire section of Julia Child's book decated to the making of these various gelatins so it must be something that the French are quite fond of! I can't say I'd order it in a restaurant but it was definitely interesting to try.

After the main course, we had a cheese course. They served us various types of cheeses, some of which we had tried at our cheese party earlier this week. My favorite was one that was very soft and creamy. It was on the sweeter side so is considered a dessert cheese. They served the cheese to us with a nice crusty bread.


Lastly we had some nice strawberrries and a selection of sweets. One of the sweets they served sort of reminded me of krumkaka - I am probably buchering the spelling on that, but it's a dessert that is rolled so hopefully those out there reading this know what I am talking about!

All in all, the evening was a lot of fun. Monique & Phillipe actually spent 13 months in Wisconsin so were very familiar with the Midwest. Phillipe was a research scientest so came over to work in the lab at Madison during that time. They both spoke wonderful English and let me practice some of my French!

Getting home from this house visit was a little bit interesting. Phillipe dropped us off at a Metro station that Kaushik and I could both take back to our accomodations. Unfortunately I have been using up all of my coins since I was getting quite a collection, so I did not have 1.6 Euro in coins, and neither did Kaushik. Unfortunately, our credit cards do not work in automated machines, like ticket portals, since we do not have this chip in our credit cards. All I had on me was a 50 Euro note, so Kaushik and I headed over to McDonalds... they seem to be pretty good about taking large bills & giving change - I purchased a 1 Euro ice cream cone and they didn't give seem to care that I was paying with a 50 Euro note. If I tried to do that in a small little Patisserie, that would not fly, so I was really happy that they were so accomodating. With small change in hand, Kaushik and I headed back to the Metro. I didn't pay close enough attention, and had us get on the wrong line... so after going one stop, Kaushik figured out that we were going the wrong way, so we switched lines and got back on the correct line. See, this is the typical thing that would happen to me in my travels - I am frequently getting on the wrong trains, taking the wrong roads, etc. So this experience was more in line with how my travels usually go! After I got off the Metro I got a little turned around since it was dark (it was 11:30) and I wasn't completely familiar with the area, so it took some turning in circles to figure out how to get back to the hotel. I was very happy when I did get back to my hotel though!!!

Despite getting a little lost & making the journey home longer than it needed to be, the evening was alot of fun. Our hosts couldn't have been sweeter. I brought along some Maple Syrup and Wild Rice from MN. I had been told that the French love Maple Syrup, but that it is difficult to find here; Monique & Phillipe were very excited abou the syrup and said that the grandchildren would probably fight over it! (they have 4 grandchildren). They also were excited to try the Wild Rice.

Now I am off to class. Today (Thursday) will be a pretty uneventful day; I have class and then am hoping to write a paper while doing laundry. Tomorrow we head to Geneva to tour the World Trade Organization, and then Adrianne and I are off to Annecy for the weekend. I am not bringing my computer with me for the weekend, so this will likely be my last post until I return from Annecy on Sunday. Have a great weekend everyone, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my brother, Kevin! Wish I was there to help celebrate at the cabin!

Au Revoir for now!