My Weekend

July 1, 2013

Le Jardin des Plumes doesn't serve lunch on Monday and Tuesday or dinner on Monday. Which means right now is the weekend for the kitchen staff. There are some servers who work in the morning to serve breakfast, but Alison has the same weekend as me. I'm really excited about having met her and the fact that she lives here - she's definitely the person I've become closest with and spent the most time with. I think I found my first friend here!

This morning I walked around and looked at little shops. The little artisan postcard shop I saw yesterday and thought Eugenah would like turns out to be a shop of little miniature boxes of scenes that the man creates - he handcrafts tiny little 3-D rooms and houses. The postcards weren't actually postcards; they were photos of the mini boxes he makes. There's something I really like about them. There's a little hat shop that's so 'French shop - esque'. There's a shop with all kinds of different really nice and cute things like scarves, bath salts, a paper weight, pressed flower journals, lots of scented oils (that I think I might buy some of to scent my shea butters with), and much more. There's a store that sells seeds, regularly and in postcard form. Those are cool. After strolling around for awhile I went to the tourism office and discovered they have wifi!!!!! I only had my phone on me, but I responded to some emails and tried to viber some messages (though I don't think they worked). Anyway, I discovered somewhere I can go until our internet works! (For some reason you can now select the network and it accepts the password, saying you're connected, but then it doesn't actually work/you can't access the web.

I went to a little restaurant for lunch called Les Nympheas. I wasn't all that hungry (even though I hadn't eaten yet) so I asked for a light meal recommendation, and he suggested a salad. But then I saw a duck dish and couldn't resist. So I ordered that, and it came with a carrot souffle thing, broccoli, and potatoes. The duck was in like 7 slices with a lot of sauce over it. Everything was so. damn. good. I heard and was under the impression that all the restaurants here are really good. Well this one certainly didn't fail expectations!!! It really was delicious. Oh boy. My meal and my coffee were 20 euros. Not bad. It was a lot of food too. I was full!  

I returned to the house and after a nap I went grocery shopping at a supermarket with Alison. It turned out Francesco didn't come because he was going to get something for his music sound system, so we didn't go to the specialized stores like the charcuterie and fromagerie like he usually insists on. Which was sad, but another time I'll go! (It's not like I haven't seen them before - I've gone to plenty in Paris and what not - I just like them a lot.) Also I really wanted to go to a chocolatier, but the shopping centers we went to didn't have any. Sad. Again, another day. I have two months here after all!

Anyway, the shopping adventure was actually really exciting more me. Like much more so than grocery shopping always is, and even more so than it usually is when I go in another country - because this is the first time I've grocery shopped as a real person. As in I wasn't buying things for all of my family, or thinking about one meal, or buying things with the idea that other people in the family can use it too - I had to think about all my meals I'm going to need, figure out what to buy for dinner tonight, lunch tomorrow, and all my breakfasts. And I guess that doesn't sound like much - but like I said, it's the first time I've done so. And it was cool. Here's what I ended up getting: a huge block of butter, a bottle of organic olive oil (I accidentally got one with rosemary and olive oil, but that's certainly not a disaster), some cheese (I forget what kind - Alison recommended Compte, but it's only in season in winter, so the woman gave me a similar one), jambon, pâté, quail eggs (18 for 2.80 euros - not too bad I think!), 6 regular eggs, a big zucchini, some baby bella mushrooms, and a .33 kg thing of steak/beef. Then I also got shampoo, conditioner, and soap. Alison really is so nice. She helped me pick them out because I couldn't understand the types so she helped me find nice smelling ones that make your hair not puffy (they're cocoa scented, but in a very pleasant for a hair smell way).

Then we had to get her key replicated for me. I'd been using one of Nadia's, so now I have a new one. It took 5-10 minutes to replicate and cost 27 euros (not that I paid). Doesn't it take like a day and cost like $100 back at home? I thought it was something crazy like that...

While we waited for the key we went the stores next door to go clothes shopping. It was fun. I'm so bad at clothes shopping though. I can never decide if I like things. I didn't get anything. but neither did she. Later on in the day she had put on an adorable, really, really good-looking on her dress, and put on a hat and asked me if it looked good. It really did!! It was so cute. (She's also really gorgeous.) I said I would kind of like one, but I don't know how to wear one and she responded with 'you put it on your head'. I put it on and she said it looked good. I'll look at myself with it later. But no one wears hats in the US.

We drove by a pool and she said we could go together if I'd like. I said I'd love to.

I found out that she moved here and started working at Le Jardin des Plumes a week ago. So she's been here only 7 days! Before that she was still in Brittany where she's from, going to school (to be a server), and living with her parents. She's only 20 years old! I guess I just assumed she was older and had been working here for a long time because she seemed so incorporated. She's been dating Francesco for 1 year, and he's been working here for 7 months (they've been long distance - a 5 hour drive away - for that time before she came here. Before that he lives in Brittany also and went to school with her, I think, to become a sommelier.). Anyway that's exciting to me because this living alone thing is also really new for her! And she's new here too, so also not settled in completely I guess. Which makes it seem more likely that we'll become better friends. I really do like her a lot. And of course she's helping me learn all kinds of new words and phrases because when I can't say something or don't understand things she explains. I was afraid it was going to be annoying that I asked for help all the time but she said not at all. It really is weird making a friend when we're only speaking in another language that I'm still so new at, because I don't know how I come across, and I can't express myself in the same way, so I feel in a way like I'm a totally different person. I wonder if the person she sees me as is totally different from the person English speakers see/would see me as. Well, I guess a lot of my characteristics have to still come across the same way.

After shopping I ate my last macaroon and walked back to the tourism office with my computer. I uploaded all my backed up blog posts, some more pictures onto facebook, and then two girls sat on the bench next to mine and started talking in English. I had barely spoken English since yesterday morning before Gloria dropped me off, so it was kind of nice to be able to communicate normally. They were two sisters, one who just graduated, one who's still in college, both doing photography - so they're in France doing some photography stuff. They've wanted to come to Giverny for the water lilies since they were like 5! We chatted for awhile before they went to drive back to...Paris or something. I was going to do some French studying - with Duolingo or something (which requires internet, unfortunately....), but then the woman (who tends the gardens around the tourism office/little courtyard of shops and a café) said she had to lock the doors. I was going to go back home but I thought she said come with me and I didn't really understand but I thought she was going to show me to another wifi place (I thought she might live really close or something). But no, I walked with her to her car a little down the street, talked with her for like 20 minutes, and then when I wasn't sure what was going on, at some point I'm pretty sure she asked if I wanted to go to get dinner with her, and she would pay (adding that she's assuming I'm not paid as an intern). I guess I didn't explain why she was such a weird old woman, but she was really weird. She asked me where I was living and I said close by, just down the street, and she was very intent on my telling her more precisely where, and then she spent several minutes taking out a big map and showing me where she lives and how she has to drive back there, and talking about how it's and hour and 45 minutes away. But she was weird. So I was glad to finally tell her I had bought groceries, I had to make dinner, and then leave.

Shit, now that I'm thinking about it I'm kind of scared. She also asked me who else lived at the house, whether I had a cell phone. She said she takes care of the gardens and is always working there, so I can come by anytime. I'm pretty sure she was just weird. She was also like 70. But if she is part of some ploy with other people to kidnap people and hold them for ransom...well shit.

I just cooked and ate my dinner. I sliced the zucchini and steamed it, then pan-fried it in olive oil and garlic. I rubbed the steak with salt, minced garlic, and olive oil, let it sit, and then pan-fried it in olive oil and butter (at the restaurant Jean-Baptiste taught me that if you use only butter the butter burns, so you can use olive oil or both, but not just butter). Then I made three sunny side up quail eggs and put them on a piece of the jambon. I must say it was a delicious meal. Also one of the simplest ones I've ever made. I'm not used to making very simple things - I also spend hours cooking complicated recipes, creating new dishes, etc. But cooking simple things is something I want to master. Complex is definitely not always better. Simple things are often more delicious, if done really well. Anyway, my meal was yum. My steak was really rare though. I really like rare, and I still thought it was delicious, but I think I would have prefered it a little more cooked, and I know if doing it for other people I would want to cook it through more. But I need to learn how to cook things through best without burning the outside. Anyway, today has been a very pleasant day, and one that has given me a lot of optimism about my future here/the prospect of having a friend. Still though, especially since she is dating Francesco and obviously spends a lot of time with him, as well as just because I think it's good to have more than one friend, I would like to meet some other people...but I don't really know how. Unfortunately there's nowhere to go out in Giverny. There are little no clubs, no grocery stores, etc. So as cute and beautiful as it is, I'm afraid it doesn't seem particularly effective in generating new friendships..

Well I think I'm going to walk around the town a little more. Not sure what exactly to do. Maybe I'll get an ice cream if somewhere is selling them. There are little ice cream stands but only during the day I think.