How To: French Dinner Party

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My first experience of a French dinner party was last night; It would be better described as a marathon of consumption.

It started of fairly late. Around 8pm, all the guests arrived: The farmer couple who lives down the road, their daughter, their son and his fiancé. They all lined up inside the door and the uncomfortable long sharade of cheek kissing unfolded. I'm was told that in the north of France, the custom is 4 kisses. Here, the custom is two, starting on the right. And in Paris, it's also two but they start on the left... See how that might be troubling? Anyway! Two kisses is still a lot when its on someone you've never met before and you're trying the explain who you are and all that jazz in between the two cheek pecks. I'm not sure if its rude to say my name quickly while brushing past their mouths, traveling to the other side. It might seem a bit rushed.

Instead of a causal standing/drinking/eating pre-dinner ritual that I'm used to, we all sat around the table chatting very politically. A multitude of drinks were offered and drank, while different snacks and salted nuts were passed around. For an appetizer, we had a kind of egg dish with a cream and tomato sauce. With Bread obviously.

After that, there was a type of palate cleanse, with different liquors and farm brewed spirits.

Dinner's meat was chicken in a cream, apple and self-made cider mixture. Served with Vegetables on the side with baked skinned apples. And Bread. Oh! and the drinks of choice were changed to an assortment of red and rose wines. An interesting cultural thing I've noticed here is that you get served at the table by someone else, for example, my host mom will pick my plate and ask how much I want, and then go around the table like that.

After that, there was more red wine.

Next was bread and cheese.... which Alison and I swore we were going to avoid... But oh well When In France, Right? Alison and I made coconut cupcakes with cream cheese and vanilla frosting, a caramel chocolate coating, and a sprinkle of coconut shavings for desert. They were a pretty big hit.

Next, some people had beer, and the dads had a really strong liquor, that was bright bright green. It had a minty/burn-y smell.

And then some coffee to finish it all off.

Once I had gotten used to the new company, I found it easier to communicate with them in french. I took out my laptop and brought up pictures of Whistler, Victoria, Sidney and Vancouver Island. I played a few tourism promotion videos from the 2010 Olympics, which show Vancouver as this gorgeous glamorous city. They had a few questions about culture, school and Canadian life in general, which I tried to answer truthfully.

It was around 1am when they left the house, after an assemble line of goodbye kisses.

Luckily they just live down the road, so they didn't have far to drive.

-Madi

*Pro tip* : Try out new vocabulary words you learn in conversations with your student or host parents, that way they'll tell you if you're using it in the right context and not offending anyone.

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