Chez Moi

I thought I would do a short post on my home in France, if you’ve been curious. I live in a foyer for young workers, which means it’s nothing special. But I do have my own bathroom, which is a step up from the CROUS I stayed in when I studied in Clermont-Ferrand. The foyer is next to the center of town and has a bus stop right outside, so the location is great, even if, as you’ll see, it isn’t glamorous. The weirdest thing about the foyer is they allow smoking in the rooms because it’s “your right,” but they say they don’t have the ventilation for cooking. I can tell going into someone’s apartment whether they smoke, but I usually can’t tell what they cooked the night before. Oh well, c’est la France.

My desk, from which I am typing.

I have a desk, above which is a little bookshelf, a small cabinet, a stool, a chair, a night stand, a bed, and a closet. I’ve tried to decorate to get rid of the hospital feel, and if you’ve sent me a letter you might see it above my computer in this picture. I also have drawings from my students to the right and a newspaper from when Barack Obama was elected to the left (sent to me by Amanda in Texas). Some of the other foyer residents are a bit strange, but it’s very quiet so I can’t complain too much.

My bed and door. The bathroom is the white door you can barely see on the left.

I’m at the very end of my hallway and the room across from mine is used for administration. The cover to the bed I was given has a creepy circus vibe to it, with yellow and green polka dots. However, I get a clean one every month, so hopefully January will be less reminiscent of clowns. I’m not sure what they were going for with the purple, green, and yellow color scheme. I guess it’s more cheerful than the brown colors of most dorms and CROUS residents, but I would have stuck with two colors for less of a maternity-wing feel. Also, what is with France and carpet? No one has carpet! I have yet to go to visit house that has anything besides throw rugs. I guess it’s easier to keep clean, but it gets cold around here and the tile can feel like ice.

Window to the world (the parking lot).

And here is the last view in the 360 degree tour of my room. I decided to use my X-Ray as window art, although I’m still trying to think of something more creative than that. You can also see my snowboard in this picture. I’m going to attempt to go again next Sunday. My bruises from last time have almost faded. You can see on the window that I have the ubiquitous metal shutter (it’s pulled up in the picture). These are everywhere in France, even on really beautiful buildings. When it’s down, my room can be pitch dark any time of the day and keeps out the cold. However, they look very prison-like from the outside.

Okay, that was my brief tour of my home in Valence! Maybe not as fancy as my other apartments, although it beats the garage apartment I had that was slanted and had mice. And it’s way better than my freshman year dorm and CROUS place, by far.

Joyeux Noël

Close-up of Christmas tree in Valence.

Bonnes Fêtes et Joyeux Noël à tous! I hope you all are enjoying the holidays, wherever you may be in the world. I wish I could have been able to celebrate with all my friends and family, but they haven’t yet invented the technology for that kind of travel. I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my friend Sophie and her family, my second French Christmas. Although the first might not count since I was 8 months old and if you go by some philosophy, your self is only the sum of your memories. And I remember nothing, although the photos from family albums are stored in my brain. This was my first Christmas to be away from my family, and I never realized how much I could miss little things like driving through neighborhoods to look at Christmas lights and the empty Bartlesville streets on Christmas morning, or the walks we always take on Pathfinder on Christmas afternoon. I did listen to David Sedaris’ “Santaland Diaries” on my computer and watched “Christmas on Mars” (filmed in Oklahoma) on DVD to get into the spirit.

The Bastille above the cafe of the same name is decorated for Christmas. Just like it was when it was a real prison, I'm sure.

Christmas Eve is the big night for the French and is when most of the celebrating happens. We got to Sophie’s parents house in the early evening and soon there were about 14 of her family members who had driven from Lyon. I get a little overwhelmed when I have to decipher French in a crowd, it’s subtle syllables get lost in waves of sound. Everyone likes to talk about Barack Obama and fat Americans, it seems, and I think people still think I am from Texas. Anyway, I tried to be as social as possible while not butchering their beautiful language too much. Often, I feel like my tongue is an axe.

The Montelimar bear returns, sporting the holiday spirit.

I can’t believe how many courses comprised the Christmas Eve dinner, it was gluttonous even for France. First, there was the aperatif, where people mingled and drank kirs while eating cheese, antipasto, and olives. Then, everyone sat down and white wine was poured and salads with foie gras (duck or goose liver) were served. I’m a vegetarian, so I’ll list the meat to show the food abundance, but I didn’t eat any of it. Then there were plates full of salmon, followed by a giant bowl of oysters. Apparently, you squirt lemon juice on the oyster to make sure it moves and is alive, therefore good. Sometimes I’m glad to be a vegetarian just to have an excuse not to eat certain things. After the ocean animals were eaten, the next course was a “Trou Normand,” a little glass of pear sorbet with alcohol. This was the third type of alcohol, if you’re counting. You can add red wine after it. Anyway, the Trou Normand is served between meals as a kind of digestive and palate cleanser. After the Trou Normand, the “Volailles” were served, meaning the birds. Giant bowls of turkey and chicken were passed around. Soon after, there were two Gratins: Gratin Dauphinois with potatoes and Gruyere and Gratin de Cardons, also with Gruyere. We were unable to find cardon in the French-English dictionary while we were there, but some internet searching shows that it looks kind of like a thistle and is known as a “wild artichoke” in Spain. I guess it’s close to an artichoke and is used in some regional cooking in this part of France. I still can’t find an English translation. Anyway, there’s still more food to list! Following the Gratins, the cheeses were served. There were two choices: Fromages secs (dry) and Fromages blancs (wet). I guess you could have both if you so desired. I went for the dry cheeses, where there were three massive slices on a plate to sample from. Fromage blanc has the consistency of yogurt and most people added sugar to it. Then came the dessert: Bûche de Noël. There were two, one made from Nutella and another made from Creme de Marrons (chestnut cream). I went for oh-so-decadent Nutella. Oh, and there were macaroons and truffles as well as clementines alongside the main desserts. Finally, Champagne was uncorked and distributed. So there you have the 12 courses served for dinner. I have crazy respect for Sophie’s parents that they were able to prepare that much delicious food for so many people.

Christmas trees on the streets of Valence.

After dinner, gifts were exchanged, and I was shocked to receive some from people I just met. I got a bag of nougat, a jar of clementine jelly, a candle, and on Christmas morning I got a soft scarf and potpourri holder from Sophie. It was incredibly sweet and I was already grateful to have been invited, let alone to be given things. It’s amazing how generous people have been during my time in France. I think the gift giving ended at about 2 a.m. and I went to sleep at about 3 a.m. In the morning, the under-the-tree gifts that Père Noel left were opened and there was coffee and Christmas dinner leftovers for lunch. We paid a visit to some of Sophie’s other relatives in town before heading back to Valence and saw a movie later that night. I’ve condensed a lot of this down, but I hope this gives you an idea of how I spent my Christmas. Sophie was amazing to have invited me and it was much better than celebrating alone somewhere and let me see the French Christmas traditions. I am so thankful that I was invited.

I’ll be leaving for Paris on December 30, although I’ll try to get in some exploring before then. I miss everyone I didn’t get to see for Christmas and I wish you all the best!

Les 7 Laux

Les 7 Laux in the French Alps.

On Sunday, December 21, I went snowboarding with Canadian assistant Lauren and five French guys at Les 7 Laux, about an hour from Grenoble. It was fun, but I definitely need to practice with my new equipment. The board I’m using is a lot narrower and faster than my board back home. And it seemed like all of France was there, because they’re on school break, so people were “schussing” past at breakneck speeds on tiny slopes overlooking cliffs. Not to mention that the slopes in the Alps would all be rated blue and above in the states, no green here to start out on! I never thought about it, but it makes more since that the Alps would be steeper than the slopes in New Mexico where I usually go on spring break. Oh yeah, and these guys I went with go snowboarding every single weekend of the winter and Lauren, being from Canada, has a lot more experience than this girl from the Plains. Nevertheless, it was beautiful and Lauren and one of the French guys, Mathieu, were nice enough to never leave me behind and never made me feel bad about being a bit slower. “Tranquille” was said to me so many times I lost count.

Steep slopes of Les 7 Laux.

Despite the fact that these slopes were super scary, I didn’t see anyone being taken down in stretchers like I always do in the States. When I thought about this, I realized everyone who was there Sunday was French (I didn’t here any foreigners besides us) and they probably go all the time. Whereas on Spring Break in the States, people are coming from the lowlands of Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma and haven’t been all year, but only have a few days and want to hit all the crazy black runs. I had my share of falls, maybe more than my share, and my arms are still sore from pushing myself up from the ground. No serious injury, though, although my knees seem to have disappeared and turned into bruises.

Lauren, snowboarding fast.

It was ridiculous to look around and see all the mountains covered in snow, like a postcard. When we took our lunch break for sandwiches, it was at an outdoor cafe where everyone sat on beach chairs overlooking the villages down below. I didn’t make it through the whole day due to getting worn out. It’s good to go with people who are way better than me, because I have to keep up, but it’s also more challenging than if I were to go slow the whole time. Instead, I hung out with a member of our group, Quentin, who had dislocated his shoulder after whipping his arm around the wrong way. The X-ray of that was pretty horrifying. So there was coffee drinking and people watching, which isn’t bad at all in the French Alps.

My snowboard, while taking a break on the slopes.

I’m going to try to go snowboarding again during break, probably at the nearby Vercors mountain near Valence that I hear is a bit tamer. I can’t believe it’s almost Christmas and I still can’t believe that I’m in France, it’s going by too fast. I think I’ll be going to a Christmas market today in Montelimar. And maybe I’ll watch my Christmas on Mars DVD, which was given to me by my parents (merci!).

Mountains facing Les 7 Laux.

So that was my first day of snowboarding after not being able to go for quite a while due to work and school. I’m less sore today than yesterday and am looking forward to going out again. I’m lucky to have found people to go with who were ridiculously supportive of my beginner state. Hopefully, I’ll have some time to improve before heading out with them again.

Happy Eve of Christmas Eve!