Chefs working at Sirha in Lyon.

I don’t know if any other country eats the way France does. All of the teachers I have lunch with create three course meals out of several tupperware containers and in restaurants the waiters ask if you didn’t like your food if you leave even a little on the plate. But it’s not just the quantity, most everything is also delicious. I could walk into any bakery in Valence and get a pain au chocolat that would beat any pastry back home. However, as a poor language assistant, I don’t often get to sample anything outside of E. Leclerc or Auchan. But this past Monday I was invited by my friend Helen to go with her boyfriend Julien and her mom to Sirha, short for Le Salon international de la restauration, de l’hôtellerie et de l’ alimentation (International Hotel, Catering and Food Trade Exhibition).

A display case of terrines for sampling at Sirha.

Sirha in Lyon is the second largest expo of this kind in France, with the biggest being in Paris. There were about 2,000 exhibitors at Sirha providing just about everything you would need for your restaurant, hotel, catering service, pasty shop, bakery, or whatever area of food in which you are a “professional.” I put journalist as my profession on my invitation. I’m writing about it now, aren’t I? Where’s my free stuff? Anyway, I’d never really thought about all the different elements that go into restaurants and all the different suppliers you would need. You might have to get your cheese from France, your chocolate from Belgium, and your staff’s shoes from Ireland. It was overwhelming.

A cinco jotas. I think Sirha reinforced my vegetarian lifestyle... and I didn't even photograph the snail eggs.

Since I had no real professional reason to be interested in these products, I mostly snatched up free things and sampled from the vegetarian-friendly exhibitors. This didn’t really cut down on sampling, since there was an incredible amount of chocolate. Helen’s mom has a cake shop back in England, so we visited many of the chocolatiers and in addition to the sweets we also got glasses of champagne from one of them. Other sampling highlights included cheese from Auvergne (my old friend Cantal), baguettes, carrot cake and salt and vinegar chips from Wales, antipasti, olives, cheese pastry, and even some sparkling water from the Ardèche. It was kind of a weird mix and needless to say that night I had a light dinner that was chocolate-free.

Dobla chocolate display.

There didn’t seem to be any strict rules for how the place was arranged besides loose umbrellas like “Produits (Products)” or “Planète Viande (Meat Planet).” We did stumble upon a few country-specific areas like Holland, Sweden, and Wales, whose exhibitor stand even had very American pecan pie. I saw on the map that the United States was there, but I didn’t find it. Maybe they were serving fried twinkies and were shut down for indecency. Sorry, I think I’m slightly brainwashed by France. But I would have loved to see what was on display and maybe hear some regional accents. I’ve become a lot more aware of my own accent since spending time in France. Although there are other Americans, they are mostly from the Northwest or Northeast and I don’t know anyone else from the Oklahoma/Texas/Kansas/Arkansas area of vague cowboy twang. I realize my accent is pretty standard American, but it’s just one of those random things I find myself missing.

Chocolatier at work on a delicious edible sculpture.

I’m heading to Paris tomorrow morning to see Of Montreal and indulge in free Sunday museums. I have more pictures from Sirha on flickr if you’re interested.

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!

Armistice Day ceremony in Valence on November 11.

I’m a little behind on posting, so I’ll sum up what I’ve been doing with some pictures of Valence. On November 11, I went to the Armistice Day ceremony in the park. It was raining, although that trend would continue for all of Armistice Day (which as you may recall from a previous post, was one long string of board and card games). It was a little unnerving that the soldiers seemed to be carrying automatic weapons for the ceremony. Although I did like their capes.

Armistice Day capes. Probably year-round capes.

I went to the ceremony with Jacinta, an English language assistant from Australia. We were pretty lost about what was going on. The ceremony didn’t end with much fanfare, just the soldiers marching off and the people with umbrellas staring at them leaving. There was a lively recorded version of La Marseillaise that played during their march. But there were guys with bugles there, so I don’t know why they didn’t play it. Maybe the bugles, like the guns, were just for show. Or at least that’s what I hope about the guns. I really doubt a war is going to break out in Valence in the middle of Armistice Day.

Flowers at the feet of the WWI memorial in Valence.

The memorial itself is in the Parc Jouvet and includes a large concrete obelisque, two walls with soldier names from 20th century wars, and this statue of a fallen soldier. I’ve noticed that almost all the WWII memorials in France have a little box on them or a small urn that contains ashes from the concentration camps. I find this to be a little strange. I guess something needed to be done with the ashes, but then again, all they are is stashed at the bottom of a giant block of concrete. I don’t know, something about it is off to me.

Le Suisse(s). A creepy Valence speciality.

On Saturday, November 15, Sarah, an English language assistant from England working in Privas, came over to Valence and we went to the Bouquet de Vins. It was amazing. We paid 5 euros to get in and could taste all the wine and regional food that we wanted. The regional delicacies included Le Suisse, seen above. He is a pastry man who tastes like an orange scone. The story goes that when Pope Pius VI died while in prison in Valence in 1799, the Swiss Army men who guard the pope came to collect his personal effects. To honor this or mock them, no one is sure, a local baker made a pastry wearing the Swiss guard uniform. And for whatever reason, they kept on making them. The above Suisses are in the window of what people consider to be the best bakery in Valence. I did buy one of the tiny ones on the left when Liza, another assistant in Privas from the States, was visiting.

Stairway to the center of Valence.

In addition to le Suisse, there was nougat, chocolate, cheese, truffle oil, caramel liqueur, and so many other things that are far from health foods and therefore amazingly decadent. Of course, there was also the wine. Over 150 wines and things in the wine family were available for the degustation, like the Champagne-like Clairette of Die. All of the wines were good, although I definitely liked the Clairettes. The wines were all from the region, so there were a lot of red and white Côtes du Rhône (as we are along the Rhône river). And the best part is that none of them were terribly expensive. There were a few that were 40 euros, but even that is decent compared to the cost of wine in the States. On average, the wines were around 8 euros. And all of the winemakers were very friendly and chatty so I got to learn about wine in French.

View of the cathedral in Valence.

I think I’ve finally detoxed from work in the States and can relax. It was just such an abrupt change from working full-time 40 hours a week in a job that never had a break from stress, plus all the freelance work I was doing. I think I’m to a point now in France where I can finally just relax and not feel like I’m wasting time. I don’t know if it’s being an American or what, but I always feel guilty about relaxing when I could be working. I’m also used to rushing around to get things done as quickly as possible so that more work can be done. It’s just such a different approach to life here where it’s okay to drink coffee and stare into space for an hour. Not that I’m going that far yet. If you know me, you know that in a way I like to deadlines and work. But I am starting to not be stressed by the stress-free life, if that makes sense.

Kiosque at the Champ de Mars in Valence.

Work continues to get better as I adjust to the teaching routines. I really do the same thing everytime in terms of the ritual of the class: song, redo what we did last week, introduce new material. Soon I’ll be starting the Very Hungry Caterpillar in three of my classes. I’m also getting better at my private lessons. All of the kids I teach privately are incredibly sharp. So I’ve been using the book of Native American short stories I brought. My favorite is the story of the rattlesnake. Basically, a boy is walking along the road after a cold night and sees a rattlesnake. The rattlesnake asks the boy to pick it up, warm it, or it will die. The boy says no, the rattlesnake will bite him. But the rattlesnake promises not to, so the boy picks it up, warms it, and then the snake bites him. The boy asks the snake why it did that when it said it wouldn’t bite him. The rattlesnake says, yes, it said it wouldn’t bit him, but the boy knew it was a rattlesnake.

Parc Jouvet in Valence.

I’ve gotten to a point where I have somewhat of a routine. I can look forward to the bar quiz on Tuesday, although I’m usually not too much help with the questions about France. I usually meet with the international people on Wednesday. There are philosophy lectures on Thursday. And usually music at the pub on Friday. I do like to mix it up, so this week me and Lauren, a language assistant from Canada, went to the Internationale Biennale Design in Saint-Etienne. It was mind blowing. I have many pictures and will post about it soon. This weekend I was hoping to meet some other assistants today in the South, but I don’t think it’s going to work out, so I’ll try to catch them tomorrow. Next week will be epic, with two Thanksgiving celebrations, the Fete de la Lumiere, and Ratatat in Lyon.

I have a lot more pictures of Valence on my flickr that you can check out. I’m trying to work all my photos into blog posts, so maybe some of them will turn up here soon.

Montélimar with nuclear power plant smoke in the background.

For anyone who is interested, the application for the 2009-2010 Assistantship Program in France is now up. Even if you are not keen on France, there are English assistant programs in Spain, Austria, Germany, Japan, China, South Korea, Finland, and just about any country where English is not the first language. All you have to know is how to speak English! This has been one of the best choices of my life and I would recommend it to anyone who is young and looking for an adventure. Some people have told me they’re jealous of my time here, but there’s no reason everyone can’t do the exact same thing. Sure, it’s stressful at times, but overall it’s a rare opportunity to live in a foreign country and get outside your comfort zone.

Last Saturday, I went to Montélimar with the Happy People 26, a group of French and internationals who do fun things together. Montélimar is pretty close to Valence and we took a small fleet of cars. I road with a Brazilian guy who listened to loud Samba music the whole way and almost drove off the road because he was singing and dancing.

Queen Bee in the nougat museum.

The first stop was a nougat museum. Well, less a museum than a short tour advertising the nougat you could soon buy in the gift shop. Montélimar is pretty much associated with and best known for its nougat. Nougat is a candy that comes in white or pastel colors depending on flavor and consists of honey, egg whites, sugar, and almonds or other nuts. The highlight of the museum was an entire room that was one artist’s recreation of a bee hive. All the bees had separate outfits based on their status and profession in the hive (there were even unemployed bees, watching television). Above is the regal queen bee with her toy terrier. There was also some odd bee buzzing music. The artist must have spent hours on end creating the whole thing and I fear for his or her sanity.

Nougat girl wants to devour you.

After the museum we ate pizzas (mine was eggplant) and then walked around the town. Nougat was everywhere. Above, you can see a terrifying nougat mural with a giant girl and flying almonds. I think she looks like something that would come to life in a Ghostbusters movie. To get an idea of how big this is, try to find the cat sitting on the nougat bar on the bottom of the photograph. That is the same size as your average domestic kitty.

Nounours! The most amazing thing in the town, maybe in France.

The best thing in Montélimar (in my opinion) had nothing to do with nougat. There was an automaton bear in the street blowing bubbles. I think it was an advertisement, but this did not diminish how amazing it was. There were even balloons with his image on them. I hear that he’s going to be in Valence for Noel and I am thrilled and I’m sure to be just as annoying as I was when I first saw him.

Castle above the town.

After walking past the bubble bear several times, we went up to the château des Adhémar. It was very pretty and had a great view of Montélimar. It also had a bizarre modern art installation. One was actually good and had large scale photography and a ring of chairs with footsteps playing in headphones. The other was kind of weird and the artist seemed to have an obsession with arsenic. There were a lot of chemical equations on the walls and a table full of the stereotypical chemistry tools.

Miniature shipwreck in Valence.

I’ll end with a photo from Valence. Me and Lauren, an English assistant from Canada, went on a walk along the river and saw this tiny ship marooned by the houseboats. We also later walked across a muddy field thinking it was going to lead somewhere. It lead to a farmer’s backyard. Oh well, mud always comes out. This past weekend I went to a wine tasting festival and tasted so many delicious wines, chocolates, more nougat, cheese, and truffle oil. I will write about that soon.

The mascot of Crème de Marrons, manufactured in the Ardèche department.

I took the bus last Saturday to Privas, in the Ardèche department bordering Drôme (where Valence is located). I got to hang out with some of the awesome assistants working over there and went to a chestnut festival. The festival, called Castagnades d’Automne, celebrated chestnuts grown in the Ardèche. I don’t think I have ever seen a single item celebrated in such an over the top fashion.

The giant rotating chestnut roaster set up in the middle of town.

After I had been there a little while and we’d gotten coffee and walked through the Saturday market, we saw that this giant chestnut roaster had been set up outside the Hotel de Ville. It was basically a rotating cage above a fire, full of chestnuts. Later in the day, it was opened up and free chestnuts and wine were distributed to all while a band played. It was amazing! And I ate too many chestnuts. Actually, following the free chestnuts we had a chestnut themed meal at a local restaurant. It consisted of a chestnut kir, a chestnut and cheese tartine, and a chestnut cake. On Sunday I also had a chestnut crepe and sampled chestnut spice bread at the market. If I had wanted to, I could have eaten chestnut pasta, bought chestnut flour, or (if I ditched my vegetarianism) chestnut sausage. It was ridiculous.

Bicyclists are honored for some reason. It's hard to understand French when it's coming out of a fuzzy sound system.

Above, you can see that the local bicyclists even wear chestnuts on their jerseys. Behind them, town elders, or something like that, wear robes in the shades of chestnuts. Before, I thought that one of my assistant friends in Privas had overstated the importance of the chestnut. But I was oh so wrong. And I have to admit that the chestnuts were delicious. I had never had one before (the ones in the states are a little different), although I think I will wait a little while before eating more.

The chestnut festival band. They played for the whole thing and somehow stayed energetic.

There was also music. The above band, complete with chestnut leaves in their outfits (sorry, I had to point it out), played songs that were somewhat familiar, but most stayed obscured enough that I couldn’t pinpoint them. They did play the Israeli national anthem, for some reason. Maybe they find it more festive than the  la Marseillaise? Anyway, their music was dirge-like at times, but that man playing the drum on the back row had a fantastic moustache and the woman playing the maracas in this picture had endless energy.

The Privas waiters and waitresses "race" from cafe to cafe.

In addition to the gluttonous gorging of chestnuts, there were other events. Like the “garcons” from the cafes that ran a “race” from cafe to cafe where they picked up drinks and tried not to break them. I saw them later in the day and it seemed like a lot of them had drank all their drinks and were breaking them on purpose.

Rallye!

There was also the Rallye de Régularité de l’Ardèche. It had the appearance of a car race, with each of the over 100 tiny classic cars having numbers, but they just drove through town. Anyway, it was on Sunday morning and there was free coffee and tubes of creme de marrons. I loved seeing all the European sports cars, random American imports, and cars that looked like their owners had just put some racing stickers over the pealing paint.

Each more bizarre than the last.

I don’t think I can make this post without showing a couple of the weird owl sculptures that were at the Sunday market. I have no explanation. There were no prices or information, just 20 owl sculptures set up on a table. It would be hard to pick the most bizarre, but they were all incredibly insane in their own way.

Houses on the valley around the river by Privas.

I’ll post one more picture, (although you can find more on my flickr). This is of some of the buildings seen from the big bridge over the river in Privas. I had an absolutely fun and enjoyable time in Privas and it reminded me that I don’t have to spend ridiculous amounts of money to have fun in France. There are always random festivals going on and little towns/big cities (Privas is in between) to explore. A big school break, Toussaint (All Saint’s), is coming up and I’m going to go to Bordeaux on Saturday and getting back to Valence on Wednesday. I think I will spend some more time exploring my region of France.

This is the building I live in. They love the trompe l'oeil in Valence.

I’m progressing steadily, although today was a setback in terms of confidence. I was clearly told (although this is now denied) that I didn’t have to ask for the bus to stop in Pont de l’Isere, just La Roche de Glun. So I didn’t…and the bus didn’t stop and I ended up in another town. I asked for help at the high school in that town and someone came to pick me up, but it was really embarrassing and awful for my first day at Pont de l’Isere. This is the second time I’ve been really lost. The first was my very first morning in Valence, when I went for a walk and ended up in another town and was late for a rendez-vous with my “responsable.” She probably thinks I have some sort of mental disorder. Oh well. I don’t often make the same mistake twice. I just hate having to explain my mistake over and over again to everyone I’m working with.

Anyway, besides that, things are pretty good. The above building is La Manu, the foyer where I am living. I’ll take a picture of my room when I’m not drying my laundry everywhere. (The French dryers have low heat settings, alas. I guess I should rejoice in saving energy, though.) There are trompe l’oeils all over Valence, and this is the one on the windowless side of La Manu. Don’t worry, I have a window, and actually have the only railing like the one in front of the guitar player and snowboarder. I don’t really know what’s going on with the people dancing on the left, but they are evidentally in the walkway I photographed earlier.

I am getting along with most of the teachers, although there are a couple who are just accepting my presence and aren’t into the teaching of English. The first day of class is the hardest. Although I’m basically saying my name, age, where I come from, etc., I have to gauge how much English the class actually knows. The blank stares are usually a give away. My last round of first classes is tomorrow. And then I’m going to Geneva on Saturday!

A Penguin Pastry!

Above is one of the more amazing things I’ve found. For only 1.80€, I bought this adorable and delicious pastry penguin. It’s hard to tell from this picture, but he had webbed feet, a beak, and eyes. I wanted to buy all ten of his friends, but the sugar contained in his rich chocolate filled head alone multiplied by 10 would have made me regret that. Usually, the animal pastries are disappointing, but this was an incredible exception. And it was a penguin! I think I have chosen my favorite patisserie in Valence. Plus, the woman there is always nice to me and smiles. A rarity sometimes in France. Not the niceness, the smiling. It’s not that they’re not happy, they just don’t show their teeth as much as us Americans.

Speaking of chocolate, I actually went to a chocolate factory yesterday: Valrhona. I was getting a ride from Connie, a woman from Connecticut who has lived in France for 18 years and teaches English here. On the way, she wanted to pick up some chocolate for her daughter’s wedding. The amazing thing about Valrhona is that in the chocolate store, you can sample as much as you want. And you can try everything! I ate too many truffles and then I tried some sort of liqueur filled chocolate and felt like I’d just taken a straight shot of alcohol. Which I covered up with another piece of chocolate. I felt so gluttonous, but it was free and delicious. I might be going back there. In the same town, Tain l’Hermitage, there is wine tasting. That would be a decadent day!