Living like royalty

A couple days ago we had a party for all the IES participants with birthdays in January. We ate galettes du roi, which is a traditional French cake eaten during January and February. Cooked inside each cake is a little figurine, or la fève. The person who finds the fève is crowned king or queen and gets to wear a crown for the rest of the night. If you're really curious about the background of this tradition, you can read more about it here. As of this party, I have participated in this tradition four times this semester, but only found the fève once.

The one time I was the Queen

Yesterday, we took a historical tour of Nantes and learned all about the castle, cathedral, and other old and important structures in the area. It was really interesting, but by the end I was so cold I could barely feel my toes. I'm sure the weather was nothing compared to back home in the snowy midwest, but the wind was pretty frigid.

Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul

Château des ducs de Bretagne

I’ve decided I love French food. Even just a baguette with cheese (or nutella) makes a delicious meal, but most of the time at my host family’s house it’s just to accompany the actual lunch or dinner. In fact, although we eat bread at almost every meal, it doesn’t go on the plate because it isn’t really part of the main course. So far at home I’ve eaten quite a bit of pasta, a couple quiches, and some interesting but mysterious beef dish (and probably a bunch of other meals I can’t recall), along with side salads, fruit, rice/couscous, and/or potatoes. Invariably at the end of every meal we have a yogurt for dessert. It’s odd to me how little they drink at dinner. We have a pitcher of water at the table, but our individual drinking glasses are about the size of a double shot glass, so I only take small sips during the meal. In the States, I’m used to drinking a couple 8 oz glasses of water at dinner. I’ve just gotten used to filling up and using my water bottle throughout the day instead. During the week, I’m on my own for lunch since it’s typically in the middle of classes and I can’t make in home to eat. I’ve discovered the boulangerie near IES is really good and inexpensive, so I frequently buy some sort of bread/cheese/meat concoction for around 2€. One of these days I might give in and purchase one of their delicious-looking pastries, too.

The other day I went out for galettes and crêpes with a bunch of IES people and some French students we met at conversation club. For the meal, I ordered a three-cheese galette with a salad on top and for dessert I enjoyed a chocolate crêpe topped with vanilla ice cream. It was truly a wonderful gastronomic experience. I made a new French friend at the crêperie, Marie-Marie who taught me some useful phrases and gave me some tips to improve my conversational French. We mainly spoke in French, but I discovered later in the meal that she speaks near perfect English with a really good American accent. Perhaps one day I'll be as bilingual as her...

Yummmmm