Since the guys didn't have Thanksgiving Day off, we (Matthew and I, and two other American families) decided to celebrate Thanksgiving on Sunday instead. For some reason, I volunteered to be in charge of the turkey. If we had been in the US, this would have been no problem. I would have gone to Bi-Lo, used my turkey points, and picked up my free turkey. Matthew would have headed to Wal-Mart and bought gallons and gallons of peanut oil, and the biggest dilemma of the turkey cooking process would have been what to inject the bird with before deep frying it to a golden, juicy, crispy 10-15 lbs of yummy-ness.
But, alas, we are not in the US. So our turkey adventures started several weeks ago. Matthew and I (yes, I made Matthew go with me for this little French speaking errand) went to the local Chamalieres butcher to order our turkey. We had been told by French friends that it is tradition for the French to eat turkeys at Christmas, so the idea of ordering a whole bird wouldn't be unusual, we were just about a month too early. Matthew explained to the butcher that we were Americans and there was a holiday we wanted to celebrate, and eating a turkey was tradition. The butcher told us he would have to call his poultry guy, and we needed to call back and confirm. Pas de problème! Whew! That was easy.
Matthew called back the following week (still giving the butcher about a 10-day's notice). Again, he was told that it was no problem, in fact the only problem might be finding a bird small enough for our request. So, Friday morning arrives, and confidently, I head to the butcher to pick up the turkey. I am met with blank stares like they have no idea what I am talking about. I do finally pick out a phrase that I took to mean that they were saying Matthew never called to confirm. Well, my French is definitely not at a level that I can try to argue with them the fact that Matthew had indeed called to confirm. He asked me if tomorrow (Saturday) would be too late. "Non, ça marche. Merci beaucoup!" Saturday morning, Matthew and I (yes, I took Matthew with me, just in case...) went back to the butcher. Even though it was Saturday and the place was packed, as soon as we walked in they all recognized us (those crazy Americans that want a turkey in November!), waved us to the front and produced a turkey wrapped up and in a plastic bag. The lady at the register says, "cinquante.....euros...". Cinquante-something? Surely I heard wrong. (for those of you whose, if it's possible, french is worse than mine, cinquante is fifty!) Nope, I didn't hear wrong, the turkey was 56 euros! Let's do a little math. If we convert the euros to dollars, that would be about $84. The turkey was about 5 kilos, which converts to 11 lbs. So, this bird was $7.63/lb! I know I saw a commercial where Wal-Mart was selling turkeys for $0.38/lb! Now, not only did we spend our life savings on a turkey, but the pressure was really on. I had never cooked $84 worth of meat!
Sunday arrives, and it is time to cook the bird. After a small meltdown, Matthew helped me pull myself back together. We decided to cook the turkey in the crock pot (after a lot of research online). In order to fit the bird, we first had to dismember the turkey into big chunks. Into the crock-pot went onions, carrots, celery, lemon wedges, and garlic. The meat was slathered with a butter herb mixture, and one cup of white wine was poured over the top. Lid on. Heat on high. 5 hours later, Voila! We pulled the pieces out onto a baking sheet in order to reheat the meat and crisp up the skin once we got to the Pages' apartment.
We had a great night with American friends and LOTS of American food (broccoli casserole, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, rice, gravy, turkey, sweet potato casserole, Jiffy cornbread- thanks Mom!, and sweet tea). We also had "ham", but you can read Jen's blog for her Thanksgiving meat adventure (and to see pictures from the night). We also had pumpkin pie and apple cake for dessert. It is definitely hard to be so far from family during the holidays, and Matthew and I really looking forward to being home for Christmas! Hopefully there will be a free fried turkey in our near future!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Weekend Trip to the Languedoc Region
Matthew was able to take a few days off from work, so we headed south to the Languedoc region of France. The Languedoc is a great area of France, home to the oldest working canal in the world (Canal du Midi), the tallest aqueduct ever built by the Romans (Pont du Gard), the most famous naturally carbonated water (Perrier), and the list of superlatives go on and on...
Matthew and I headed to a city called Beziers. Beziers is not, shall we say, a "tourist hot-spot". In fact, as Matthew told people at work where we were going, he got the same reaction as, well, Clermont gets! Nevertheless, we were excited to head to the Mediterranean for some warmer weather, some relaxation, and some wine tastings! On our way down, we attempted to find a vineyard that a colleague of Matthew's introduced us to last year- Domaine La Tour Penedesses. Thank goodness for our GPS! We finally found it, tasted some great wine, and continued to Beziers.
Beziers was the birthplace of Pierre-Paul Riquet, the architect of the Canal du Midi. Friday, I planned a bike ride for us along the canal. The "trail" was 15 km...one way. We rented our bikes and set off on our little biking adventure. Let me just mention now that I have not ridden a bike in at least 6 years! We started off on a paved trail along the canal, wound our way through a little village, turned off onto a dirt road that took us through fields and vineyards, and we ended up in a little beach town. We had lunch at a restaurant that looked over the harbor, and then started the 15 km back... I was quite sore by the time we returned to Beziers! After well earned relaxation time, we headed out to dinner. We found this little restaurant called Le Patio. It was one of the most beautiful restaurants I have ever been in. Because it was the "low" season, we were one of only 3 tables in the entire restaurant. We had an amazing meal, with local wine- bien sûr!
Although Beziers does seem to be one of the poorer cities we have visited, I was really impressed with their efforts to increase tourism. Everything (menus, city guides, signs, etc) was offered in at least French, English, and Spanish. The Office of Tourism also provided maps that outlined different self-guided walking tours through the city. You could choose different walks based on your interests. There was a Romanesque and Gothic tour, a Garden tour, a 19th Century tour, a canal tour, and a 'Beziers over the centuries' tour. The walking guide also included pictures of various landmarks along with a little paragraph of history or information. We chose the 'Beziers Over the Centuries' walk. We started in the "Plateau des Poetes" pubic garden, built in 1870. It is a beautiful park complete with sculptures and a bird sanctuary. Next we headed down the Allees Paul Riquet, to the theatre, built in 1844. The tour took us down little winding roads past Gothic chapels, past the Town Hall, and through a covered market that dates from 1889. Our walk also took us to the Madeleine Church (XI-XIVth century). This church was the scene of the most bloodthirsty episode of the Albigeois Crusade, as the Catholic church tried to rid the world of Cathars. When one of the commanders of the crusade was asked how to tell the Catholics from the Cathers, the commander supposedly replied, "Neca eos omnes. Deus suos agnoscet"- "Kill them all, God will know His own". The people of Beziers were exterminated and the city was left in ashes. Ok, so there is your history lesson for the day!
Saturday afternoon (after the infamous mussel lunch...) we drove to a little village called Florensac. The winegrowers of Florensac have joined together to form a wine co-op. They have also built a huge building that is the home of the co-op, called Vinipolis. In the main room there are about 6 tasting stations set up with computers that walk you through the wine tasting process. The computers also provide information about the different wines available. Then it was back to Beziers for dinner. We took the recommendation of the hotel owner and went to a tiny French restaurant called Les Antiquaires. The restaurant could only seat 24 people (I counted). Even though it was the low season, we didn't have a reservation and luckily got the very last table that was not reserved. The food was perfectly French, and perfectly wonderful.
Sunday, on our way out of town, we stopped to see some of the more impressive sights on the Canal du Midi. The first was the Fonseranes Canal Locks, which date from the XVIIth century. This series of seven locks allow boats to navigate a 21-meter change in level! Next, we walked along the canal to the Pont-Canal. At this point in Beziers, the Canal du Midi intersects the River Orb. In 1857 a bridge was built over the River Orb to allow boats on the canal to cross the river. That's right, it is a bridge for boats! It was hard to take a picture from beside the bridge, so I found this aerial photo of the locks and the bridge to give you a better idea:
Les 9 Ecluses des Fonseranes (The 9 Fonseranes Canal Locks):
Le Pont-Canal:
Matthew and I headed to a city called Beziers. Beziers is not, shall we say, a "tourist hot-spot". In fact, as Matthew told people at work where we were going, he got the same reaction as, well, Clermont gets! Nevertheless, we were excited to head to the Mediterranean for some warmer weather, some relaxation, and some wine tastings! On our way down, we attempted to find a vineyard that a colleague of Matthew's introduced us to last year- Domaine La Tour Penedesses. Thank goodness for our GPS! We finally found it, tasted some great wine, and continued to Beziers.
Beziers was the birthplace of Pierre-Paul Riquet, the architect of the Canal du Midi. Friday, I planned a bike ride for us along the canal. The "trail" was 15 km...one way. We rented our bikes and set off on our little biking adventure. Let me just mention now that I have not ridden a bike in at least 6 years! We started off on a paved trail along the canal, wound our way through a little village, turned off onto a dirt road that took us through fields and vineyards, and we ended up in a little beach town. We had lunch at a restaurant that looked over the harbor, and then started the 15 km back... I was quite sore by the time we returned to Beziers! After well earned relaxation time, we headed out to dinner. We found this little restaurant called Le Patio. It was one of the most beautiful restaurants I have ever been in. Because it was the "low" season, we were one of only 3 tables in the entire restaurant. We had an amazing meal, with local wine- bien sûr!
Although Beziers does seem to be one of the poorer cities we have visited, I was really impressed with their efforts to increase tourism. Everything (menus, city guides, signs, etc) was offered in at least French, English, and Spanish. The Office of Tourism also provided maps that outlined different self-guided walking tours through the city. You could choose different walks based on your interests. There was a Romanesque and Gothic tour, a Garden tour, a 19th Century tour, a canal tour, and a 'Beziers over the centuries' tour. The walking guide also included pictures of various landmarks along with a little paragraph of history or information. We chose the 'Beziers Over the Centuries' walk. We started in the "Plateau des Poetes" pubic garden, built in 1870. It is a beautiful park complete with sculptures and a bird sanctuary. Next we headed down the Allees Paul Riquet, to the theatre, built in 1844. The tour took us down little winding roads past Gothic chapels, past the Town Hall, and through a covered market that dates from 1889. Our walk also took us to the Madeleine Church (XI-XIVth century). This church was the scene of the most bloodthirsty episode of the Albigeois Crusade, as the Catholic church tried to rid the world of Cathars. When one of the commanders of the crusade was asked how to tell the Catholics from the Cathers, the commander supposedly replied, "Neca eos omnes. Deus suos agnoscet"- "Kill them all, God will know His own". The people of Beziers were exterminated and the city was left in ashes. Ok, so there is your history lesson for the day!
Saturday afternoon (after the infamous mussel lunch...) we drove to a little village called Florensac. The winegrowers of Florensac have joined together to form a wine co-op. They have also built a huge building that is the home of the co-op, called Vinipolis. In the main room there are about 6 tasting stations set up with computers that walk you through the wine tasting process. The computers also provide information about the different wines available. Then it was back to Beziers for dinner. We took the recommendation of the hotel owner and went to a tiny French restaurant called Les Antiquaires. The restaurant could only seat 24 people (I counted). Even though it was the low season, we didn't have a reservation and luckily got the very last table that was not reserved. The food was perfectly French, and perfectly wonderful.
Sunday, on our way out of town, we stopped to see some of the more impressive sights on the Canal du Midi. The first was the Fonseranes Canal Locks, which date from the XVIIth century. This series of seven locks allow boats to navigate a 21-meter change in level! Next, we walked along the canal to the Pont-Canal. At this point in Beziers, the Canal du Midi intersects the River Orb. In 1857 a bridge was built over the River Orb to allow boats on the canal to cross the river. That's right, it is a bridge for boats! It was hard to take a picture from beside the bridge, so I found this aerial photo of the locks and the bridge to give you a better idea:
Les 9 Ecluses des Fonseranes (The 9 Fonseranes Canal Locks):
Le Pont-Canal:
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
I Heart the French Health Care System
Two weekends ago Matthew and I had a weekend get away (I will be blogging about that soon, hopefully!). On our drive home Sunday, I started to feel very achy all over. By the time we got home, I started thinking I was coming down with the flu. I had the fever, the all over body aches, the chills followed by sweating...but I did not have any of the cold symptoms. By Wednesday, most of my symptoms had subsided, but I was having severe pain in my stomach. Matthew came home from work early and called the doctor. There is an amazing service here called SOS Medecin. You can call this service and a doctor will come to your house! Within the hour, a doctor was in our living room (No waiting rooms with who knows what kind of germs. I spent my time waiting for the doctor in my pajamas, on my couch, watching TV!). After some very painful stomach mashing, he determined that I had either an intestinal infection or appendicitis. He told us I needed to go have blood drawn to determine if it was an infection. After explaining where to go, he told us "never mind", and that he would have the nurse come to us! We paid him his 32 euros (that's it! 32 euros to have a doctor come to your house!!!). An hour later, a nurse shows up to draw some blood. She only charged 7 euros! That night, the doctor called to say the blood work showed it was an infection, and set up an ultrasound for the next day to make sure the infection wasn't in any of the major organs. Unfortunately, I actually had to get dressed and leave the apartment for the ultrasound (can you tell how spoiled I am getting?). After all was said and done, the verdict was salmonella poisoning. Probably from some mussels I ate while we were on our weekend get away.
As the US tries to adopt a new health care system, I must say that I am loving living in France!
As the US tries to adopt a new health care system, I must say that I am loving living in France!
Friday, November 6, 2009
C'est Taboo?
Yesterday I went to an afternoon "chit-chat". A chit-chat is a group of women (or I guess it could be a group of men...) that get together and have discussions on any number of topics. These "meetings" are a popular way to practice a foreign language. There is a chit-chat group through the IWC, and I have been to several of their meetings. This particular one was organized by Robin and her new upstairs neighbor, Valerie. Valerie is French and has several French friends who want to practice their English. As anyone who has ever heard me speak French can verify, I personally need all the practice in French that I can get! There were about 15 women that met at Valerie's apartment. We had several countries represented (France, US, Canada, India, and New Zealand). In addition, many of these women have spent time living in other countries (Nigeria, Thailand, China, England, etc). The discussion today was about what topics are taboo in different countries. We talked about everything from money, to politics, to sexuality, to religion, to sex. These chit-chat groups always make me laugh because we are supposed to speak in the language that we are trying to learn. However, when you are trying to debate something, that is so hard! And, it doesn't matter what the topic is, when you put that many women in a room together, not everyone is going to agree (case in point: several couldn't even agree about what the definition of "taboo" is. That was finally settled after Valerie pulled out a very French dictionary, and by French dictionary I mean that it had a picture of a topless woman on the front, something you would never find on the front of an American dictionary! That would be taboo! But I digress...). It never fails that everyone reverts back to their native language, starts speaking very fast, and before you know it you have 5 different conversations going on at one time because the French can't keep up with the conversation in English that is going 90 miles/hour, and the English speakers can't keep up with the conversation in French that is going (at what seems to me) 200 miles/hour!
There are always a lot of laughs too. Like today, we were talking about weight and anorexia, and of course the topic of Americans' weight and food portions at restaurants was brought up. Valerie (whose English is very good, by the way) was trying to tell a story about her husband's business trip to the US recently. She was saying that he went to a restaurant, and that he had a bitch...
Excuse me?!? A what, Valerie?
She thought she said "meat", and couldn't understand why all of the English speakers were laughing, but we all heard the same thing.... Anyway, she was trying to make the point that his piece of meat was huge, and the plates were much bigger than you will find in a French restaurant.
It was a fun afternoon of chatting. Although, I am always so afraid to speak in French, these group meetings usually are more beneficial for my comprehension practice, not speaking practice. Which is just silly, because these French women are just as self-conscious about their English as I am about my French. One of these days (probably about a week before we move back to the US), I will get over the embarrassment and just start speaking!
There are always a lot of laughs too. Like today, we were talking about weight and anorexia, and of course the topic of Americans' weight and food portions at restaurants was brought up. Valerie (whose English is very good, by the way) was trying to tell a story about her husband's business trip to the US recently. She was saying that he went to a restaurant, and that he had a bitch...
Excuse me?!? A what, Valerie?
She thought she said "meat", and couldn't understand why all of the English speakers were laughing, but we all heard the same thing.... Anyway, she was trying to make the point that his piece of meat was huge, and the plates were much bigger than you will find in a French restaurant.
It was a fun afternoon of chatting. Although, I am always so afraid to speak in French, these group meetings usually are more beneficial for my comprehension practice, not speaking practice. Which is just silly, because these French women are just as self-conscious about their English as I am about my French. One of these days (probably about a week before we move back to the US), I will get over the embarrassment and just start speaking!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Halloween in France
We have been told that Halloween has become more popular here in France the last few years. Trick-or-Treating still isn't that popular, but the costumes are! Jen and Bene decided to host a Halloween party this year at Bene's house in Aubiere. Bene convinced a few of her French neighbors to hand out candy to the kids, as our group made our way to downtown Aubiere for a costume contest and night of Halloween activities put on by the city.
Trick-or-Treating in Aubiere
After the festivities, we made our way back up to Bene's house for some good old-fashioned Halloween games like 'bobbing for apples'. Matthew and I dressed up as Fred and Wilma Flintstone. It was really sad that most of the kids didn't know who we were supposed to be, and the few that did know, it was only because of The Flintstone vitamins!
Fred and Wilma Flintstone
Cop and Robber, Clarrette and Preston
Bertrand and Claire at their first American Halloween Party.
They created their outfits in just a few hours
(and yes, that is Claire's real hair under all that paint!)
Trick-or-Treating in Aubiere
After the festivities, we made our way back up to Bene's house for some good old-fashioned Halloween games like 'bobbing for apples'. Matthew and I dressed up as Fred and Wilma Flintstone. It was really sad that most of the kids didn't know who we were supposed to be, and the few that did know, it was only because of The Flintstone vitamins!
Fred and Wilma Flintstone
Cop and Robber, Clarrette and Preston
Bertrand and Claire at their first American Halloween Party.They created their outfits in just a few hours
(and yes, that is Claire's real hair under all that paint!)
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