Back in the US

Well everyone, I have made it back… Still not quite sure how to feel about it quite honestly.

Let me be perfectly clear here. I love being able to see all my friends and family and especially being able to eat American food (aka BBQ, peanut butter, ice and popcorn). But my ideal situation would be to take all of you with me for a few weeks and go work in the vines again. That is how much I loved this summer and if I could I would do it all again the exact same way, no regrets!

I guess I will start it off with my time as I got on the train until now.

In Lyon, Shannon Higgins, another Purpan study abroad student, and myself reconnected. This was the train station where we last saw each other before beginning out internships. Turns out however it was the last time in a month that Shannon had spoken English! Shannon’s primary goal for the internship was to practice her language skills in French and man did she sure get it! She not only was conversational but was starting to even think in French! Crazy to me! As we were talking on the train we both realized in the time we were gone, our English had deteriorated! For me it was due to rarely speaking in full sentences and not using my full range of vocabulary and for Shannon it was due to not speaking English at all. Even when we were speaking English she would slip random French words in. This was especially hilarious, because unless she pointed it out I didn’t even notice!

We got off the train and took a taxi to the new residence that we were staying in for the night. After checking into our rooms we immediately began to look for our friends from the program! After a little searching we found them all and basically it was the most incredible reunion that I have been to in a long time! A lot of hugs, talking about our host families and just overall an incredible time to see everyone again.

The next day we gave our final presentations to the class about our internships for credit and lunch was arranged for us. After the final presentations, Noel, another one of the students had one last presentation for us. Earlier in the program, before we all left for our internships we were given surveys to do a Purpan Superlatives- As Voted By You. This translates as those things people do at the end of high school that was like “most likely to succeed” “most likely to get arrested.” The difference was ours was focused on the study abroad trip and were a little bit more hilarious. Areas included “Most American”, “Best Butt”, “Fratstar”, “Sorostitute”, and “Most likely to lost their passport.” I was awarded “Mr. Congeniality” and “Social Butterfly.”

After this it was time to part ways and since many of us had flights to catch the next morning a hotel had been rented to us walking distance from the airport.  A lot of us piled into taxis and made our way after saying our last goodbyes and got ready for our flights the next day. This included packing our bags so that way our wine bottles wouldn’t break in our luggage and so they would be under 50 lbs. Not an easy task I will tell you!

Bright and early the next morning, 3:30 am, bright and early a group of about 7 of us walked to the airport and kissed our last goodbyes to France! I was on the same flights from Toulouse to Frankfurt and Frankfurt to Philadelphia as Lauren Moore, another girl on the trip so we were able to talk to each other in between flights.

Finally I boarded my last plane to head home to the land of good BBQ, beef and the “Land of Ahhs” Kansas. The guy I ended up sitting next too was this straight out of college Ford parts dealer who visited dealerships all across Kansas helping them to know what to improve about their services end of the business. Basically a consultant to give them ideas on how to give better oil changes, is how he jokingly described it. What was funny was that when I told him I had been out of the country for 2 months now he laughed and asked if my family would be there holding a sign. I said I sure hope not since that would be embarrassing! This was one of the last things I said to him as we were getting off the plane.

And what do you know… My incredible, loving, awesome family was there for me…. Holding a sign to welcome me home! As embarrassing and geeky as it sounds, I loved it! Even though I was embarrassed it is exactly the kind of homecoming I wanted and let me know that I was truly home, with a family that was not afraid to embarrass me!

We exited the airport and as soon as I sat down, I was handed a bowl of popcorn and a jar of peanut butter. Thank the lord for family! Not only that but we headed straight towards some good ol’ KC BBQ! As good as the French are at cooking, nothing beats a rack of ribs or succulent brisket that has been prepared KC style with that thick spicy sauce that everyone loves!

Like I had mentioned earlier I had some trouble with my English since I wasn’t speaking too often in my time at my internship. Having conversations with my parents soon to be hilarious for the whole family since I would forget words or need help at times on how a sentence was worded.  This still to me is crazy and I can’t believe that I had that issue. My mom said that she could even tell in my blog how the grammar of my sentences had become much more broken in my time among the vines.

Since my time back I am pleased to say that I have had all the foods I was absolutely craving since I had left for Europe! Got my sno-cone fix from the Douglas Co. Fair. Had Chinese food with my parents when I was helping Dad move some stuff for Rylan’s house in Fort Scott. Ate Tex-Mex when I was with my mom and brother shopping for a new computer for Rylan. And even got some fried chicken and mashed potatoes in with Granny for lunch one day.

My time in France was something that I know I will keep with me for a lifetime. The memories made here and the experiences I have had are unlike any other that I will get to have at any other point in my entire life. For that, I just wanted to say Thank You to the incredible people who made it happen.

Mom and Dad- first and foremost I just wanted to say Thank You for allowing me to travel outside of the country and for being secure with knowing that even though you didn’t know where I always was, you knew that I could be trusted to be responsible. Thank you for putting up with me getting you late information or not always knowing the details you need to know. Thank you for instilling me a sense of adventure and a willingness to try new things. Without both of these traits, studying abroad wouldn’t have been very fun and to be quite honest I probably wouldn’t have even gone. This trip was once in a lifetime and I could not have had it happen without you both

Ry and Mo- thank you for giving me something to want to come home to. Having my time abroad is great and all but spending time with siblings and a family that I know is always going to be there for me and laugh with and at me is something that I will always treasure.

Study Abroad Crew- to say that you helped make this experience one to remember would be an understatement. It is you all who made this experience even possible, because lets be honest without each and everyone one of you on this trip, it could have been entirely different. I cannot thank you enough for being such kind, genuine, open people and for always being willing to try new things with me, even if it looked a little scary at first. Thanks for being awesome and I know that when our lives cross again, I will be able to look back with fond memories on the times we had. And hey, if you ever find yourself in the Sunflower State, don’t hesitate to let me know!

Fevre Family- Even though your name is hard for me to pronounce, just as all “r” words in French are, I cannot thank you enough for housing me for the full month in my time in Fontenay. You blessed me with so many incredible experiences that I still can’t believe how much I have learned and done in the past month. Thank you for trusting me to work hard and learn from my mistakes. I hope that I get to come back soon and visit, hopefully even work if possible during harvest! Thank you again for being my family while abroad and I cannot wait to see hear about all the exciting things going on for you! If you are ever in Kansas don’t hesitate to say hello!

French students and friends- Wow! I cannot say thank you enough for welcoming me and all of us study abroad students into your country with such open arms! Part of my whole experience has been due to you all being such incredible people and being willing to talk and learn about us. Seriously, you all cared so much to get to know us and were so willing to share about your culture! Thank you for being college kids just like us and for showing me that people are people and kids are kids no matter where we go! I hope that we run into each other soon and that we stay in touch!

Kansas State Study Abroad and Scholarship Donors- Thank you for believing in us Wildcats abroad. Without your leadership and direction our experiences would not be possible. Thank you for blessing us with the opportunities to learn from those that we may never have had the chance to meet. 

Au revoir France! I hope we meet again soon and I cannot thank you enough for all that you have given me!

“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”- Dr. Seuss

On the train back...

"Originally wrote on July 25th"

Welp… It is finished… The last days of my French internship has ended, I am currently writing this on a train back to Toulouse. Once there I will give my wrap-up presentation to the class for credit and then catch a plane back to the good ol’ US of A the following morning.

These last few days here in France have absolutely flown by and I cannot say enough about the true hospitality that my host family and my French co-workers have shown me. Even though I was not hardly able to speak a lick when I arrived I am proud to say that in most conversations I could get the gist of what they were saying and even though I couldn’t make fully formed sentences and a lot of charades go on I can sometimes even contribute to these conversations.

As for what I have been doing in my time since I left all of you I had just finished my last full week of being an intern. During that week I continue to have incredible food by the host family and I think that they have caught on to my efforts to try and soak in my last few meals with French cheese. Instead of asking me if I want cheese, yogurt or fruit now they just get out the plate of cheese and hand it to me. I don’t hate it.

I also had a chance to ride around the town of Auxerre with my host brother, Martin, the other intern, Romain and one of Martin’s friends we met up with. We were riding in the friends car and I think he has more Lil’ Wayne on his iPod than I knew even existed. We went to McDonalds to eat which was hilarious for me because the only reason we went there was because Romain won a bet with Martin about the size of the pool. At McDo (pronounced MacDough, kinda like how people in the US would say MacDub) we all got our food. While I got the traditional Big Mac, fries and coke to test out Dr. Flinchbaugh’s theory I watched as the other guys get potatoes instead of fries, mayo instead of ketchup and burgers that had a chicken patty already on them. So basically what I am trying to say people is that US McDonalds needs to get there stuff together. Sure McRib is nice but when it isn’t year round what’s the point.

The end of the week, as I may have told you all earlier, consists of the Fevre family all getting together to share appetizers before they all go there separate ways for meals. These hours spent together at the end of the week with wine, food and family is such a cool concept for me and kinda brought it home when Jacques, Martin’s grandfather, asked me if we did this back in the US. When I told him no, he said that maybe I should try and start it. Now if you know anything about my family, you know that we are always on the go. Whether it is Morgan’s endless practices or sports games, Rylan’s hog shows or livestock judging practice or me having endless clubs and meetings to go to you know that it is a little difficult to catch us all in the same place. That is why I find this concept so neat. The beginning to every weekend, with very few exceptions, is spent with your family. The French’s ability to make time and to have such a carefree view of it still blows my American, pack every minute with detail mind and is something I plan on striving for when I get back to the US.

This past weekend was super nice, sunny and literally no clouds. This made my last bits of pool time all that more enjoyable as I chilled with the family. So when I mentioned to my host family that I had never had escargot I can’t tell if they were appalled, offended or felt like I had missed out on some important aspect of life because for dinner one night they decided it was time for me to try it out. Not gonna lie folks it was delicious. Escargot maybe snails but they are delicious snails covered in butter, garlic and parsley. So good!

Martin and I were also invited to Samuel’s, a mid-20’s co-worker, house for a bbq one night this weekend. As with all my French meals so far, it is weird how there doesn’t seem to be a main focus to the meal or how it just kinda flows with no start or finish with random courses and sides just kinda popping up. Not complaining because it was absolutely delicious food and even though I couldn’t understand most of what Samuel’s friends were saying because they talk so fast I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

On Monday work started up again and our task for this week was to spray for weeds using Round-up. Now vines are not necessarily Round-up resistant so we had to be careful to use smaller amounts when we were next to the rootstock, especially on younger vines. We also got to wear this really cool, super heavy backpack thing to spray with, aka super strong shoulders! Kinda reminded me of Ghostbusters backpacks but instead filled with weed killing chemicals. This was also the hottest week in Chablis that I had experienced yet, as in maximum temperatures reaching 92 with no humidity. Sorry Kansas, I ain’t ready for your heat yet…

Ghostbusters anyone?

Brigitte, one of the co-workers I believe I have mentioned earlier, thought that on Monday night it would be educational for Romain and I to see another winery and learn a little about the processes that they use for their wine production in Chablis just to see the difference. This Domaine is only 15 ha but happens to be the oldest in Chablis. The owner can trace his families work in vines back to the 1600’s or something crazy like that. He also has horizontal tanks instead of vertical. He says that he likes these better as more of the yeast is absorbed as a flavor component. It makes for a fuller wine flavor in his opinion. Nathalie and Gilles both told me that this method was very uncommon and was interesting for them as well.

Wednesday was my last full day of work in the vineyards and boy was it exciting. So when temperatures begin to rise in Chablis, normally employers have their employees being work earlier in the morning and let them off in the afternoon so as to avoid the heat. I knew this practice was common and for the US people do it to. I was not as prepared for the wake up time to be ready that morning! 6am is a time I haven’t seen too much of in my European adventures and having to be ready for work at that time was a little bit of a struggle. But I made it and spraying weeds that early made life a lot easier. We continued to work through lunch and at 1:30 we stopped and had our lunch out in the vines. Brigitte was super nice and brought Romain and I food. Super delicious lunch actually, 2 pates made from rabbit and sausage, pickles, a caprese salad, bread and cheese. The only thing that I wasn’t prepared for… Head cheese. Head cheese, for those who don’t know is actually pieces of meat from the head of a pig that had been boiled off the bone and then made into a loaf by using a gelatin of some sort to bind them all together. I don’t know what is wrong with me but it was actually pretty good. The gelatin had a lot of parsley in it and was actually good on a piece of French bread!

During lunch, Brigitte also had a few gifts for me that I wasn’t prepared for. She gave me a hat that had the American stars and stripes on it, she said in memory for teaching her when American Independence day was and then a trophy saying “Cuve 7 A++”. This trophy actually means a lot, since this was the first tank I cleaned by myself and her recognition of a job well done was really awesome.

Me and Brigitte! My ever dedicated French teacher out in the vines!

Wednesday night, being my last night, meant going to a local restaurant and celebrating my time as an intern. It was here that I had my last few bites of authentic French food. Pictures are below.

 Appetizer- Gazpacho a cold tomato soup basically

 Main course- Yes, Steak Tartare. What this translates to is raw ground beef, with a raw egg yolk on top. Sound weird? Sure. Stopping me from trying it. Never.

Essentials for steak tartare are worchester sauce, onions and parsley. From that on it is up to you to mix and match! 

 Dessert- Creme Bruleé as delicate and smooth as ever

Alright here we go with my emotions…

The next morning I was given my intern evaluation and Gilles and Nathalie talked over each part. Overall they were very pleased and especially with my work ethic and desire to learn about all parts of the vineyard. This meant so much to me since before coming I had no idea about anything wine, vine and otherwise, but I had been wanting to prove that I could learn and would work hard to try and learn. Having them recognize my efforts was huge for me and even through the very obvious language barriers they said that they knew they could show me how to do something and rely on my to do it right from there on out.

This experience has been such a huge learning experience for me and the knowledge I have gained while here in France has been huge. I feel much more confident on my knowledge of the wine industry, at least in France and my knowledge about the production of wine in general. Even though I am not the most accomplished wine taster yet, but hey all things come with age right?

Seriously though, for anyone who is considering studying abroad do it. Period. To use a quote by Sandy Klein, the College of Ag Ambassador advisor, there is no other time in your life that you can travel as cheaply and easily around the world than in your college career. This may mean a 2-week faculty led tour or a full on semester. Whatever it is, do it. I will say for me, now that I have done a shorter 2-week trip and the longer 2 months in the summer, the summer is the way to go. It is not for the faint of heart and you need to come with an open mind and a “go with the flow” attitude but as for the benefits it far outweighs any negative I could think of.

There is something about spending that much time that allows you to be so much more accustomed to the culture. This also means you get to meet people and make memories and create bonds that I know will last a lifetime. You think you are tight with someone? Try going to another country where you both know very little of the language and tell me how close you get. There is also something to be said for doing an internship in another country and living with a host family. I can honestly say that both of these experiences were incredibly unique and literally made my trip to France completely worth it. A family that is willing to open up its home to you and share everything that they have including their knowledge, family memories and traditions and all their food is something that I won’t soon forget.

Thank you Fevre family for putting up with the American intern who didn’t speak a lick of French and for helping create this once of a lifetime experience for me. I cannot say thank you enough!

“They never said life would be easy, but they did say that it would be worth it.”- Rosalyn Lucas, PHS Grad 2012

Last Full Week as the Intern

A sad realization hit this week when I was chatting my mother… I have less than 8 days left here in France!!! While I am very excited to return home I am for sure going to miss this place incredibly much and I now know why Annarose Hart, the girl who first told me about this trip, misses this country so much. I will be doing my sob story wrap up at a later time but I had a lot of new activity this week. Not a whole lot of pictures were taken though since I try not to bring my camera out in the vineyard very often in case it gets broken.

            This week I have spent a lot of time inside doing more things for the winery than the vineyard. I helped once again to do a racking this week of regular Chablis wine and this time it was just Romain, the other intern, and myself. A lot of pressure was on and Nathalie and Gilles were just right by in their office if we had any questions. We successfully got the right mixture of wine in the tanks and I went off to clean the tanks we had just removed wine from while Romain cleaned out barrels. My time cleaning barrels was not as smooth this go round since a nice layer of tartar buildup had accumulated from the yeast in one of the tanks I was cleaning. Even with a pressure washer with water near boiling I struggled to get all of it off. This wasn’t helped by the fact that I had to stop every 2-3 minutes because breathing had become impossible due to the amount of steam inside my tank. Eventually I went to ask Gilles and Nathalie what to do about it and they told me that I should have come sooner because they had a chemical that if it does not come off easily they use instead. Lesson learned I went on to clean the others for the day.

            During that same day, in the middle of my tartar buildup battle, an importer from the U.S. arrived. Nathalie and Gilles told me that I was welcome to meet him and Romain and I would be tasting wines with him and his family that day. Sopping wet I introduced myself to Mr. DC Flynt, his wife, two sons who are currently attending LSU and their guide. This guide is special and I don’t know his title but he basically goes around with Mr. Flynt in his French travels and helps with the selections for wine as well as helps with the translation. The Flynt family is from Louisiana and 5 minutes off the coast. Nathalie and Gilles both joked that they could hear their accents and they talked much slower than I did. The sons were really nice guys. One was going to be a senior and was a marketing major. He travels around with his dad quite a bit since he will be taking over after graduation. The other is a going to be a sophomore and is a software programming major. He, like me, isn’t really sure what he wants to do after graduation. Both are in Kappa Sigma and it is funny because they used to be neighbors with AGR at LSU. AGR has since moved since they were needing a bigger house. We at KSU used to be neighbors with Kappa Sig until they got kicked out of their house. I thought it was an interesting parallel. They were staying for 10 days in France doing wine tastings all over the Burgundy for him to decide what wines to import back to the States and begin to sell.

The coolest thing for me about the families visit was getting to talk with them and remember how to make full sentences in English. No joke, for the past 2.5 weeks since I have been here I bet I haven’t had 1 full conversation in English. Instead I mostly resort to the elementary French I know and play a game of charades with my co-workers and use English and French to varying degrees with my host family. Having just a full conversation was super nice and I don’t know how to describe the feeling it gave me.

You see, before they arrived I was ready to go home for a few days and just be back among the familiar. I think they helped fill up my need for the familiar and let me be more at ease. It is weird but I think just the knowledge that I can still speak English was reassuring!

What is odd about that timing is that the day after that I was helping with the labeling off bottles. When labeling I am the one who puts the bottles on the line initially so I have to count how many we need. When it’s a large order I go for quite some time before my partner on the other end tells me how many more. The first time this happened they yelled trente-deux, 32, and I started counting in French without even thinking about English. Around 18 I caught myself doing it and I couldn’t help but laugh. My numbers have started to become not English but French in my head #signsIhavebeeninFrance

In the vineyard we have started the pruning process. As for a description here is what I have learned.

·      Pruning

o   This is done to allow vines to grow for grapes rather than expansion of the plant itself

o   When pruning older vines the goal is to look for and cut off what will not be needed two years from now

§  Branches with grapes on them are kept as are a courson and baguette

·      Courson is a taller straight up piece that provides more support

·      Baguette is a long piece that extends along the wire that provides the numerous branches that you get most of your grapes from

o   Less than 2 years old vines are done as such

§  You stick with what has developed above a certain level and remove everything else

§  You don’t worry about 2 years down the road, instead you are trying to get the vine to grow up, will worry about horizontal later

We use a smaller machete type tool to make sure that all the green part of the plant is gone as well as to aid us if we have difficult branches. This also is a very meticulous process, made all the worse by having to bend over at each vine. This makes for very sore backs and very sore thighs. But our breaks on these are longer in between rows and I have made progress. Within 2 days of doing it, I was quick enough to do 2 rows at once, like everyone else, instead of just 1.

Sad to have the realization that I am coming home soon and as excited I am to see all of you I know that I will for sure miss this summer of a lifetime here among the French cheese, bread, vines and wine!

“I wish there was a way to know you were in the good ole days before they become the good ole days.”- Quote from the series finale of The Office

Bastille Day Weekend

I ended my last blog talking about food and I am sorry everyone but that is what this blog is going to be entirely about! Food is pretty much synonymous with French culture and I have been loving every minute of it!

            Normally Romain, the other intern, and myself have Friday afternoon off due to our contracts with Purpan saying that we are only allowed to work 35 hours a week. But because Sunday was Bastille Day, or French Independence Day, they were anticipating us not wanting to be up early on Monday morning because of the villages party. I agreed with this arrangement and worked Friday afternoon so I could have Monday off.

            Friday night began the weekend off strong as my family took me into Chablis for the arts festival and a wine tasting. Even thought the arts festival wasn’t all that exciting and my host father even called it a bust the rest of the evening was super eventful. The wine tasting was absolutely incredible to begin a weekend. We had 5 white wines paired with 5 cheeses from the same area. Now before when I have done wine tasting, such as at Purpan and at different vineyards I had ended up spitting out a small portion of the wine, since that is what I was taught I was supposed to do. Nope! Not with my host family! They believe very strongly in drinking every last bit and enjoying it all! The wines we had were very good and there were definitely some I liked better than others. There was one that had a very oxidized flavor due to its extreme aging in barrels and we had Gewürztraminer, which is a white that retains a little bit of its sugar. All very interesting and the cheeses also very interesting, some much better than others.

This is what the table setting looked like for our tasting that evening.

The other neat thing about that place was the owner and the building itself that the tasting took place in. The owner had formally been a wine exporter from Chablis to the U.S. and around the world and because of his often very extended time in the U.S. he spoke very clear and fluent English with me. In all honesty I was actually in shock and didn’t know what to say back when he started asking me questions! It has been so long since I have had a full conversation with someone just speaking that I just kinda froze up. This may sound odd but when everyone around you just speaks French all the time and when they talk to you it is only for a few sentences or two it gets to a point where I almost don’t remember how to talk!

The building itself was also a really neat feature. From all the buildings I have seen here in Europe this may have been the most modern, clean, fresh building I have seen yet. Very clean cut white walls with perfect wood and metal accents that set everything off perfectly. I was very impressed with the place and really enjoyed it.

On Saturday, it was a day of rest and laundry, something I needed to do bad! Up until that evening, my family had kept it secret from me that we were planning on going to a restaurant that night. Soon thought they told me to get changed into something nicer and be ready for a surprise! They drove me out about 35 minutes from the house and we arrived at a restaurant. It was a classic Burgundy style restaurant with the servers wearing very unique clothes, men wearing white shirts with suspenders holding up black pants and women wearing what I can only compare to jumpers worn by the girls at my small Catholic private school I attended, Holy Trinity. But we ate outdoors and every single dish was perfect!

For an appetizer that came complementary we had a blended asparagus and cream soup that contained bacon bits, served cold. That went along with our first bottle of white wine.

The second appetizer was one that I got to order myself. I didn’t catch names of everything I ate but this is what I do know and I will do my best to describe it all! Think large egg roll stuffed with snails, cream, and andouillette. Andouillette is a sausage with a casing made of intestine then stuffed with more intestine. Surprisingly folks this dish was incredible! On the side was a nice little salad that served as a refreshing side for the very creamy and intense stuffed roll.

The main course was a classic Burgundy style dish for me, Oeufs en meurette, aka Eggs in Meurette sauce. What this meant is that I had eggs that were poached in red wine and vinegar and then laid in this heavenly sauce made from reduced red wine, beef stock, onions and mushrooms. Literally heaven people, I could have drank the sauce straight from the bowl and my co-workers joke that it is so good that they actually do at home! This was served with a half potato and crisped piece of bread to make my own croutons. For side dishes we had mushrooms and creamed broccoli for the whole table. The flavors of both I won’t soon forget! We also had a nice red wine with that dish.

For dessert I still am not sure what I had, since I had the family order something for me, but whatever it was, was like heaven on a plate. It was a piece of cake as a base layer with a sweet caramel sauce drizzled on the plate. On top was Chantilly or sweet whipped cream and pieces of fruit such as orange, kiwi, and apples. IT WAS SO GOOD!!!

The next day was Bastille Day. To start the morning off I sat and watched the military parade on TV that was occurring in France. Gilles, host father, served in the military and was very proud to point out to me the difficulty at which some of the maneuvers were performed. He was especially proud to point out to me his particular unit as they paraded past the president. We then had a lunch filled with small snacking stuff. What they consider snacky type foods here people is not stuff many of us would want to eat. Foods like blood sausage and andouillette were both included. We also had cold salmon pieces, cantaloupe, multiple forms of pate and lots of bread and cheese! After lunch we all settled down for the pre-party nap, or at least they told me that is what it was! After the nap time to watch a little Tour de France. Seriously it is like a 3-week long Super Bowl for them here. We are constantly checking the leaders and who passed who and when on what day. It is crazy.

We finally headed to the party and it wasn’t quite the usual Ryckert 4^th of July party I was used to but it came pretty darn close. 130 people showed up, which according to Gilles and Nathalie was 90% of the village, so I got to know almost all my neighbors which was cool. It was potluck, so trying all kinds of new foods was for sure mandatory. What was funny to me is that they treated it kinda like 1 big meal with courses in the traditional French fashion. Outside was our starters like pretzels, crackers, and olives. These were all present while games for little kids, 12-18 year olds and yes even the adults had a game. It was darts at a half-man/half-woman scarecrow. Turns out I am just as bad at darts in France as I am in the U.S.

My beautiful/handsome target

After the games and talking concluded everyone moved indoors to start the meal. Roast beef and roast turkey with a huge amount of sides all provided by the families. All once again super delicious and it was super cute, every family brought their own utensils to eat out of in a woven basket!

After that course it was the cheese course. They brought out these large buckets which were basically a bland, white cheese that hadn’t fully hardened yet, meant to put sugar or salt and spices depending on where you are from. I chose sugar. No regrets there. This was also the time that one of the city councilman, that Nathalie sits on the board with, chose to try and send me a very clear message. His daughter, who I was sitting 2 spots from was single and my age and his wife was not to be touched. Everyone died laughing and I, as expected, went super red and laughed right along with. And to everyone who was wondering she wasn’t quite my type and there is something known as a language barrier that prevents a lot of me trying to talk to anyone here!

Next the kids announced that they were ready for fireworks. Which to me was odd, all the kids were the ones who lit off all the fireworks though and had a nice small little show for all the adults. Once the fireworks were all lit off the announcement was made that dessert was ready. This meant that cakes and pies were galore and I couldn’t not try a majority of them. I think my host family is now surprised/impressed with the amount of food I can put away if I choose to. After the food another round of wine, then coffee, then alcohol. #wooftown

In all honesty my Bastille Day experience is one I wouldn’t have traded for the world. What sucked is that after that experience, I think it made me miss home more than anything else I have done here. It isn’t quite the same going to a celebration where you don’t know anyone, and something even more different when you can’t talk to anyone there either. All in all I am truly grateful for this experience, just somedays, like Bastille Day, it makes you realize the comforts of home!