Monday, July 1, 2013

Another Incredible Day In France: Laval Day 2


 June 29, 2013


I'm writing this from the train on my way to Paris; from there I will metro to a different Paris station, take my train to Vernon, get picked up by someone from the auberge, and then be taken to my home for the next to months: Le Jardin des Plumes, in Giverny. I'm so nervous and curious and excited, I...just don't know. This summer, I will closer to a real person than ever before. And pretty close to one, I'd say.
(Okay, okay - most of you reading this probably know what I mean by a real person. But some might not, so I guess I'll explain. It's not that complicated. If you're still in school, you're not a real person yet. Once you're out of school, have a job, live on you're own, etc, you're a real person. Oh, and strop being financed by your parents of course. And lots of people 'put off' being a real person by going to grad school or what not. When I think about It's a funny concept, but everyone talks about being a real person or not these days. So me, I'm not a real person, duh. But this summer I'll be pretty close to one! Which is terrifying. And exciting. And unreal.)
Gloria and Pascal took me to the train station and saw me off. They are so kind. The whole family is. I can't get over how welcoming, generous, and warm to me they were. They insisted on treating me to everything as a guest! Pascal said if I had stayed another day I would have had to cook for them, but since I'm staying only two they'll let it slide this time. I'm not exactly sure whether he was joking (he jokes a lot, but since I don't understand French very well in the first place, I never catch French jokes) but it certainly would have been a very reasonable request and something that I wish I had done!! If I visit again, I will for sure. But I'm always nervous about my cooking. Every time I cook for other people or serve dinner I'm nervous. People think I'm silly because they say every single time I'm afraid it won't turn out well, and every single time it's delicious. Maybe that's why I'm scared - people seem to have such high expectations and I don't want to disappoint! Also cooking is kind of important to me, in case that's not clear. It's kind of a personal thing I guess - sharing it with other people makes me feel vulnerable because it's something I take pride in and if people don't like it, it hurts. I guess it's like performing or sharing your art pieces, or singing. Anyway, maybe after my internship I'll be more confident. Maybe.

Ah yes, so I was going to talk about my day yesterday. My second and last day in Laval. I hope you're not getting too tired of hearing this, I feel like I'm getting a little repetitive, but...I had such a wonderful day!!! (For my sake, if I'm going to be repetitive about something, I would say that's a pretty solid thing for it to be!) Relaxed, interesting, fun, pleasant...my goodness I'm enjoying myself.

At around 8:00, little Guillaume came running into my room, looked at me in my bed with wide eyes, exclaimed, "Je cherche mon pantalon!!!" ("I'm looking for my pants!!!"), got his pants from the dresser, and ran out. It was the cutest thing in the world. I then heard Gloria and his parents downstairs telling him he shouldn't run into my room while I'm sleeping. Haha. I had actually already woken up and was just lying in bed, so he didn't actually wake me, but it was the funniest thing.

Well we hung around the house and had a very relaxing morning. They had already mostly finished breakfast and had eaten cereal. They asked me what I wanted and I said cheese, sauccisson, and rilletes. They were all amused that I wanted cheese and meat all the time, even at breakfast, and they were impressed I think. But once I started eating it, Elouise realized it seemed like a good idea and served herself a plate of cheese with a slice sausage as well, and made a pretty tower with it (see picture below) - she takes really cool cooking classes very regularly (at really good chocolatiers and restuarants and with very impressive chefs) so likes arranging her food with pretty presentation. Anyway, she thoroughly enjoyed her cheese for (second) breakfast and everyone was amused that I inspired her as well. Later on Pascal told me that's typical of what French peasants eat for breakfast, too. Did I talk about the rillettes in my last post? I think so, but I'll talk about it again because it was so delicious! As is all the cheese. Oh boy. The rillettes is made locally, just 10 km away from where they live. Mmmm. Like I said, we just hung around and talked and relaxed in the morning. It was Saturday, so the kids had no school, Helène had no work, and Pascal ended work at noon. I made Gloria finish telling me her story about coming to America and how she and Demetrios met and got together. It was so pleasant. I didn't realized how few things I knew about Gloria's earlier life, so it's been really cool getting to know her family, her town, her life, her stories.




Then I went out the supermarket again with Gloria and Helène, to get groceries for lunch and dinner. So much grocery shopping! It's great. Lunch, just like every meal, was delicious. First we had this little goat cheese round wrapped in prosciutto. Cooked, so the goat cheese was melty and warm. Oh my god it's so good, I don't know why I haven't done that more at home! Then we had this really tasty medley of vegetables, the leftover salmon from last night, and mayo (served cold). It was really quite delicious. We had Ile Flottantes that we had bought from the supermarket for dessert. Gloria especially loves them. I really wanted to go the chocolatier/patisserie that they had told me was the best, so Gloria, Pascal, and I went. I tried to buy myself some macaroons and chocolate, but Pascal insisted that Helène wanted to buy me a box assortment of macaroons. So I got a 16 macaroon assortment. Then I bought my own chocolate separately - I got 6 pieces, expected it to be kind of expensive - it was less than 3 euros!! For really good-quality chocolate. The guy who owns the shop used to cook for the president and at some super fancy place but he was from Laval so he wanted to return and open up a little shop. I took them back and gave everyone a macaroon (I can't eat 16 myself!!) - I also gave the kids a macaroon this morning, the last 4 I have with me on the train as a snack.







Then they took me to a castle an hour away called...well I forget. I slept pretty much the whole way there - man I get exhausted sometimes. But it was fantastic. We went on a tour at 3:30. Yes, in French. Oh boy it was tough to understand. But there were parts that I did!!! She told us about how a tabletop was made in a special way so that when you drop coins on it you can tell what the coin is made of - gold, silver, lead. So you can test whether coins are fake! It was really interesting and cool - but then I turned to Gloria very excitedly and said "I understood that!!!!" She was excited for me too. For the most part she would translate to me what the guide said after she finished. There was a lot of really interesting stuff though, it was a very enjoyable tour. There was a huge tapestry in one room that was made for the purpose of keeping the room warm (as well as decoration). There was a table with weird round edges: she asked if anyone had guesses about why they were made like that, and then told us it was for holding candles. She said the workers used to live on the first floor so there were no windows, but later the owners started living on the first floor so they had windows built then. We saw the huge library room that had some huge books almost as tall as my leg, lots of fans made of various materials, including feathers, and beautiful books with designs on the front made of real gold. The second floor had a little room overlooking the church so that the wife (who lived upstairs) didn't have to walk down for service. She talked about various protection measures: there were cannons by the entrance, a wooden thing of spires, a moat. But they weren't intended for invaders, they were for thieves! Kind of neat. She also said it's just a myth that they used hot oil for protection. Not only did that take too much time to heat, but oil was expensive - so they used it for cooking. Haha. And then there was a room with a really intersting ceiling - lots of squares with a different image in each one. it was called the Room of the Guards evern though they didn't actually live there because some of the pictures were so inappropriate that 'it must have a guard who drew it' (I don't know whether I got that exactly right, but something like that). For example, there was this really weird picture of a man one kne holding a hat...that is catching the pee...of a woman. It's pretty weird. She's standing up, lifting her dress up, and peeing just like a dude. It was really a very inaccurate drawing of how it would work if a girl peed standing up, though... And then there was another picture of a starving wolf with hanging breasts and a calm, pretty woman in his mouth. Here's the explanation: the wolf ate only faithful woman. There were so few of them at the time that the wolf was starving - he hadn't  eaten in ages. The woman in his mouth is the wide of Louis, the castle owner at the time, to portray that his wife was the only faithful one. She still looked very calm though because she had so much trust that her husband would save her. Well, stories are fun! =)




We got back to the house and ate pistachio chocolate ice cream cones. I ate it while sitting on a reclining outdoor chair in the warm sun (yes, it was a beautiful day for me!), with Harry the little Shitzu on my lap. Not a bad life:



I was exhausted (as usual) so I took a wonderful nap. I was out in an instant. Apparently Guillaume came to wake me for dinner, but he went back out and told Gloria, "I can't wake her up, she's sleeping too deeply!!" (in French, of course). Ha. So Gloria came and woke me instead. And we had yet another deeelicious meal. Raclette! I know they eat it a lot in Switzerland, but I didn't realize it was a thing in France as well. We started the meal with melon and, of course, wine. The melon was probably THE best melon I've ever eaten. Just because it was perfectly ripe and sweet. We had white with this dark flavoring thing - I don't really know what it was. But it was interesting. And ohhh my raclette is good. Gloria said she got a raclette machine thing back at home also (basically it's just a circular thing that heat up these little tiny pans on. So you put a slice of raclette cheese on your tiny pan, put it on the circular heater, and when it's melted you put it on your meats and potatoes. And, just for me, because I don't eat a lot of potatoes, they got green beans too! They are so eager to get things especially for me - foods I especially like, foods that are paleo, etc etc. I tried to tell them not to worry at all and to explain that I am happy with everything, but they would have none of it. So it was perfect to have the green beans as well, which were not only delicious but are also...vegetables. haha. I actually think I've been doing quite well with my eating! I'm pleased with myself. I mean okay, yes, I've eaten a lot of different kinds of sweets...but in small quantities! And I've eaten some bread, but very small quantities of that. Honestly, most of my meals have been quite paleo. And I'm certainly not missing out on anything...I couldn't complain about any of my meals here no matter how hard I tried. Ah yes, I didn't finish talking about the raclette. Basically it was pretty bomb. He bought SO MANY kinds of charcuterie (meats like salami, saucisson, jambon, etc) that were all fantastic. My favorite was the...pavre, I think - I didn't quite hear the name of it. But the salami was right up there too...as were the rest. Hah. The raclette cheese is really yummy, and you can putt little cut up onions on the cheese as it melts so they slightly cooked as well and give it an even more delicious flavor. Well, maybe I'll get a raclette thing when I get home...maybe - I think it would be a nice thing for having people over for lunch, etc.




After dinner we ate crepes. So yes, I ate mine with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream, and no it's not paleo, but I gave half of mine to Elise, and furthermore, it was delicious and I don't regret it one bit. Really, though, how can you go to France and not eat a crepe?



So one cool thing about Europe is that after dinner it looks like it's the middle of day. But really, it does not get dark until 11. Thus, after dinner, you can still go out, take a walk, and kids can play outside! All of us, Pascal, Helène, Elouise, Guillaume, Gloria, Elise, and I went to take a walk...through the endless gorgeous green paths they have around their house. It really is wonderful. So much lush greenery, such adorable little paths and roads, and plenty of fields. Here's Gloria looking beautiful in a field of knee high grass:



So we stopped at a nice big green field next to a school, aaaaaaannnnnndddd......PLAYED FRISBEE!!!! I brought two discs along and showed them all how to throw! They loved it, learned to throw and to catch, and decided they're going to get a frisbee for their family! Guillaume was a star. He's 5 years old, but he learned to throw, could catch when I threw to him, and when he missed it and it hit his head, he cried for a minute, got back up, and started playing again! Before I came to France, Fannie gave me a card. It had a checklist of things she wants me to do in France. It was an awesome checklist, and one of the things was find a French person to throw with. Everyone else from home told me they expect me to find a cute French boy. Well, I'm pleased to tell you I've found my French frisbee boy!!!!!!!! He even gave me a little purple flower (see flower in my left hand in the picture below).



(by the way, those picture was taken at 10:20pm...!)


And with that, I will end my narration of my last day in Laval. My goodness, what a vacation.

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