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!