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Published: January 20th 2006
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So from Dec 24th till the day I flew back to Belfast, Jan 4th. I was to attempt to understand the french of everyday people. After chirstmas eve dinner and christmas day lunch, which lasted five hours, my head was realing from the amount I understood and didn't understand.
We ate soo much food. But I was assured this was soely because it was the holiday's. I am sure its the same the world over. Each course lasted about an hour each. The conversation always winning over the begining of the next course. Meals started with oysters, something I tried the first night and vow never to eat again. The experince also freed me of ever eating fish. Oysters is accompnaied by slivers of salmon, for the non oyster eaters. Seonc course was pate followed by foie gras. Pate is liek a cold meat loaf while Foie gras is usually a poultry liver cooked in some sort of sauce. None of this I ate either. I think, acutally now I know, the french don't really undrestand vegetarians. With a culture so domionated by food and its history, it would be hard to be vegetarian here. For Christmas day the next
course was raviollis, since some of the family is Italian.
This was perhaps the funniest part of the day for me. The experts of the dish began to congrugate around the pot of boiling broth and pasta, ready to declare them finished. With each percieved end, one of the four middle aged sons would bring out a raviolii to their parents, who would then each take a bite and declare their opinion. Each time one would say it was perfect while the other would protest and demand five more minutes of cooking. This went on for nearly an hour till finally the dish was declared suitable to eat. They were amazing. Home made ravioliis! Wow. I cna't even spell the word right but they were great.
Of course after this dish the next dishs was Cheese! Oh how I have fallen in love with Cheese! So many Kinds and you eat it at every meal regardless of holiday. The final course of Yule log and chocolates was postponed by presents being opened. IT was over all a continental experince. I missed home more than I thought I would. But being able to talk with sime people on the
phone made it easier.
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My friend Elodie who is still very pregnant was constantly being told by Arno, her very anxious boyfriend, that she needed to rest and sit. She was supposed to be in bed the whole time, but very few of us could follow this order. They and Arno's Parents were incredibly generous and welcoming to me.
After Christmas we all went to the south of Paris to a little town called Marizy where, Arno's father grew up. The family home there was incredbily...well old and very cold when we first arrived. Inside the house was only 3 celsius. near freezing! It was quite cold all over France and the coldest night in Marizy was -14. and the days were around -5. Thankfully to go along with these was beautiful amount of snow! too dry to make snow men but white enough to make everything bright.
Nice moment... when I was watching fresh snowflakes melt in my glove, I realized that they really do look like the snow flakes we draw and make in school. They are absolutly beautiful!
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One day After the Snow had mostly melted thanks to
Poor Papa Noel
these poor Santas were lit on fire and we watched as they slowly melted away the warm rain that came in, Arno and I went to Cluny. Just a few miles from the Taize community(Which was closed for the holidays or I would have gone there). Cluny was the largest and most powerful christian center thru the dark ages till St peter's Basilica was built in Rome. In fact the cathedral in Cluny, built in the 11th century, was the longest and tallest cathedral till St. Peters was built. Unfortunatly it was not only a vicitm of the anarchy which followed the french revolution but also the secularization of the renaissance and reformation. The cathedral was deconstructed piece by piece by locals looking either to make money selling her artifacts or to build their own homes. Now all that is left is the walled city of Cluny, one tower of the Cathedral and the square where the clergy used to be live. These now are home to the prestigous technical school of France. Arno and Elodie both attended this school. In fact its where they met.
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