In France there exists a certain student organization called "CROUS" (Centre Régional des Oeuvres Universitaires et Scolaires) that exists in every region/city with a university, and is essentially there to help students with housing, food, bursaries, international students, cultural events, etc. And in every region, every year, puts on an event called the "Faim d'Echanges" (or, loosely translated, the "Hungry Exchange"), which gives international students the opportunity to dine with a local French family. This wonderful opportunity presented itself to me when I lived in Toulouse but unfortunately the program is very popular, and as such there is always much more of a demand from students than there are available families. So this year Julia very kindly sent along the link (I had completely forgotten about the program) and a bunch of us language assistants signed up, (although I have no clue even if we were technically supposed to since none of us are actual "students" here per se, but on the registration page it doesn't actually specify that, so oh well!)
CROUS makes it into an entire weekend, including a planned reception for families and students to meet each other as well as other cultural activities the Saturday before the "meal". I had received an email from my host mother on Wednesday, and I was very much looking forward to meeting them and sharing a traditional French meal!
Friday night was the reception evening at Hotel de Ville in lovely Place Stanislas, and there I met my "family" for the first time: Anne and Pascal Weiersmüller and their 2 adorable children, Yvan (14) and Lyna (9).
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| my host family (they sent me this picture so I'd be able to find them at the reception) |
Today was the actual "meal" day (I didn't partake in any of the other planned activities yesterday, although they didn't either) and we had all planned to meet at one of the tram stops where Pascal would pick us up since they live in a small town in Nancy's suburbs, called Malzéville. Being a proper guest I bought a nice bottle of the new Beaujolais and a box of Ferrero Rochers (which everyone loves, and so they should). Turned out there were be 3 of us dining, one of Arturo's friends (forget her name, but also Mexican) who we had met Friday was coming along since her "family" wasn't going to be able to host her for a couple weeks.
Pascal picked us up around noon and drove us to their cute little country home on a lovely large property. Their house was rather big and had a huge living room/dining room/office all combined into one and was very cosy. We started the meal with appetizers in the living room part, Anne had made cute little shish kebabs of beets, cheese and cucumber, as well as carrots and dip, sardines, olives, and some kind of meat (the latter 3, not for me!) We also drank "Kir", a traditional aperitif of Creme de Cassis (blackcurrent liqueur) and Alsacian Gewurtztraminer. Very sweet and tasty! After chatting for awhile we moved to the table, where Anne had prepared a traditional southern tomato tarte - literally just pastry, tomato and herbs baked in the oven. Very simple but very delicious! Red wine accompanied, and the main course came out (which I could only eat part of, being the vegetarian, but they knew beforehand and were very accomodating). It was veal (unfortunately) but I got to enjoy the side dish of cooked beans with onions, wild mushrooms (normally I hate mushrooms but I've found I quite enjoy the wild ones from this country) and potatoes. Delicious! Then we moved onto a tasty spinach salad with vinaigrette and finally ended it off with bread and several cheeses, (brie, traditional camembert, munster, fresh goat's cheese, and another "stinky" cheese whose name I forget). Dessert came out, a delicious homemade blueberry pie, French style (the French never cover their pies with pastry, only the base is pastry) accompanied by a sweet dessert wine (I really wish I were better at remembering names of things I drink). Dessert was followed by coffee, and then Pascal then brought out some local l'eau de vie de Mirabelle, (or mirabelle liqueur), which is a specialty of the region (you can find mirabelle everything in Lorraine...it's a little yellow plum and Lorraine is the top producer in the world). The alcohol content was 48%, and in their opinions wasn't "strong" but I almost coughed up my dinner after tasting it. Pascal suggested I pour the liqueur on a sugar cube and eat the cube, which is what French women used to do since drinking hard liquor was taboo back in the day (and was actually recommended for pregnant women, would you believe it.) It still tasted awful.
The entire meal was wonderful and went at the usual leisurely French pace...that is, from the time we sat down at the table to the time we finished our last sip of whatever, it had been about 3.5 hours. A lot of time was taken in between courses to chat, clear dishes, chat more, bring out utensils...never a rush or hurry to get through anything. Anne and Pascal are I think two of the most warm and welcoming people I've met here, treating all of us just like family. And boy do they like to talk. But at least it was interesting, not just yammering on about nothing...they had done a lot of travelling and so we got to hear their travel stories, and in turn they kept asking us about how things functioned in our own countries. I think we all learned a lot about each other's cultures!
After the meal was well over Anne decided it was time we went for a walk "to help with digestion". So we all bundled up (as much as possible...I wasn't really expecting a 45 minute walk in the cold so suffice to say I was a little chilly in my jacket, crappy boots and lack of mittens), but we had a nice walk around the town (chatting the whole time), walked along the river, and arrived back at the house (frozen) but feeling refreshed nonetheless. Then it was time for tea and a "tasting" (degustation) of dessert (round 2); Arturo had brought 2 fruit tarts, so we each had a little piece of peach tarte and cherry tarte to round off the evening. More talking ensued (I was losing my voice by this point) and finally around 7, (yes, 7 hours of lunch), we called it a day. Anne suggested we all get together again soon for another activity or see each other in some capacity, which sounded great to me! I had had a wonderful day, despite it being about 4 hours longer than I expected (silly me, you'd think I'd know the French by now), but it had gone by quickly and there was never a dull moment. Pascal very kindly dropped us off downtown and I made my way home, very full and happy indeed. Never in Canada would anyone come for lunch for 7 hours, that's just unheard of...so is a different liquor for every course! It was a great cultural learning experience though, and despite having spent a good amount of time in this country, I still learn new things all the time about the culture and way of life (and not to mention new vocabulary). I wish the family meal traditions in this country would rub off on North America, ever in a rush to eat and run...
Anne has a few photos that they took on Friday and today, I'll have to email her to get them so I can have them as a souvenir as well.
Well that's all for now, I'll post Brussels soon, promise!
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