a very french affair.
christmas with eric is delightful. every meal is treated with respect and before each meal we sit down with interesting champagne, real chocolate, nuts and chat for 30 minutes before moving to the dinner table. Last night, eric's mom apologetically informed me that dinner was to be a 'very french affair' because none of her 5 invited guests spoke english. i silently thanked the Gods for my convenient dodging of awkward questions and requested that i could drink in lieu of speaking. She smiled and solomnly swore that my glass was to be permanently filled.
when the guests came there was a flurry of kissing and hellos and i could take a back seat and observe while everyone else struggled to keep the light banter going. Now i know how eric feels most of the time. Stefane, eric's childhood friend (who's band is doing quite well in france), tried to say something in english but he gave up after 2 seconds. Oh well, he refilled my glass and i wrapped myself around the other non-speaking member of the family, Yul*, and tried to follow the conversations around me. I guess my 10 classes of french helped and i could get the gist of the basic themes. Eric's translation skills, of course, didn't help. When i finally figured out that the people were talking about trains, eric leant over and whispered 'they're talking about trains'. When the room erupted in laughter, the loving voice in my ear said 'anne just told a funny joke'. In church, he alleviated my confusion with helpful interjections that were in the line of 'the priest is Polish, that's why he speaks french with a funny accent'.
for the benefit of kopibren, here is a summary of what we had last night:
1. Homemade fois gras. OMG that was the best ever, it was pure goose liver that we feasted on, not the paté version. Eric's momma had cooked it with 2 hours in the oven, and it was perfect. Clem, i'm sorry, but i had to tell mary that her version was better than your mom's. MUAH HA HA
2. exotic salad: i don't know why but the french like to mix tropical fruits with the salad, so we had leaves with kiwifruit and mango. weird.
3. Fish pie 'french style': rather similar to the british version, but with mushroom sauce instead of the white flour sauce, and a pastry cover instead of mash.
4. cheese from Clermont-Ferrard (where eric's nan lives). i think she brought about 6 kilos of different types of cheese and they are presently languishing in a large basket on the balcony that rivals the size of my knitting basket. Over these two days i've watched the cheese shrink from whole circles to pacman size and finally trivial pursuit shapes. scary. That area of france has the best blue cheese EVER. it doesn't stink at all and it's salty and damn i've never had anything like it as it is location specific and impossible to get anywhere else.
5. Log cakes - chocolate and cherry.
on christmas day, the menu was lighter, but no less divine:
1. whole smoked salmon on toasted bread
2. slow roasted veal stuffed with ham and cheese. Potatoes with beef drippings.
3. cheese and fruits
4. another chocolate log cake.
5. coffee with homemade chocolate truffles (read: butter and coca) and biscuits.
When we unwrapped the presents i was magnanimously permitted to burn all the wrapping paper in the cheerful fire, and that put a smile on my face as we headed out for a long walk in the gentle french countryside (nothing like scotland, i assure you). Now the family is watching a DVD about wine.
Joyeax Noel, ya'll.
*Yul is A belgian shepherd who belongs to Lulu, eric's nan. Like the 5 generations of belgian shepherds behind him (who are also called the same name), Yul is not permitted to speak or bark indoors, on pain of death. He is also friendly to cats, chickens and non dog lovers like me.
when the guests came there was a flurry of kissing and hellos and i could take a back seat and observe while everyone else struggled to keep the light banter going. Now i know how eric feels most of the time. Stefane, eric's childhood friend (who's band is doing quite well in france), tried to say something in english but he gave up after 2 seconds. Oh well, he refilled my glass and i wrapped myself around the other non-speaking member of the family, Yul*, and tried to follow the conversations around me. I guess my 10 classes of french helped and i could get the gist of the basic themes. Eric's translation skills, of course, didn't help. When i finally figured out that the people were talking about trains, eric leant over and whispered 'they're talking about trains'. When the room erupted in laughter, the loving voice in my ear said 'anne just told a funny joke'. In church, he alleviated my confusion with helpful interjections that were in the line of 'the priest is Polish, that's why he speaks french with a funny accent'.
for the benefit of kopibren, here is a summary of what we had last night:
1. Homemade fois gras. OMG that was the best ever, it was pure goose liver that we feasted on, not the paté version. Eric's momma had cooked it with 2 hours in the oven, and it was perfect. Clem, i'm sorry, but i had to tell mary that her version was better than your mom's. MUAH HA HA
2. exotic salad: i don't know why but the french like to mix tropical fruits with the salad, so we had leaves with kiwifruit and mango. weird.
3. Fish pie 'french style': rather similar to the british version, but with mushroom sauce instead of the white flour sauce, and a pastry cover instead of mash.
4. cheese from Clermont-Ferrard (where eric's nan lives). i think she brought about 6 kilos of different types of cheese and they are presently languishing in a large basket on the balcony that rivals the size of my knitting basket. Over these two days i've watched the cheese shrink from whole circles to pacman size and finally trivial pursuit shapes. scary. That area of france has the best blue cheese EVER. it doesn't stink at all and it's salty and damn i've never had anything like it as it is location specific and impossible to get anywhere else.
5. Log cakes - chocolate and cherry.
on christmas day, the menu was lighter, but no less divine:
1. whole smoked salmon on toasted bread
2. slow roasted veal stuffed with ham and cheese. Potatoes with beef drippings.
3. cheese and fruits
4. another chocolate log cake.
5. coffee with homemade chocolate truffles (read: butter and coca) and biscuits.
When we unwrapped the presents i was magnanimously permitted to burn all the wrapping paper in the cheerful fire, and that put a smile on my face as we headed out for a long walk in the gentle french countryside (nothing like scotland, i assure you). Now the family is watching a DVD about wine.
Joyeax Noel, ya'll.
*Yul is A belgian shepherd who belongs to Lulu, eric's nan. Like the 5 generations of belgian shepherds behind him (who are also called the same name), Yul is not permitted to speak or bark indoors, on pain of death. He is also friendly to cats, chickens and non dog lovers like me.