This is my last day in Paris. So far, I’ve done a pretty decent job at trying to see what I have neglected during my past visits to Paris : Versailles, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Musée Pompidou, fondue in Montmatre, bar in Belleville, drinking in front of the Sacre Coeur, and hours and hours of walking. Tonight, I’m getting soufflés and drinking on the Seine before coming back to my cousin’s apartment to pack and organize the four bags I have to get to the airport tomorrow morning. I’ve already said goodbye to my cousin. This is real.

I’ve had to resist falling too deeply into the sentimental attitude of doing everything in France because I won’t have it tomorrow. I’ve walked past patisseries and wine shops. Decided to take some breaks to read and grab a café. Didn’t even buy a poster of a Matisse today because I remembered how much stuff I have already. In truth, my discipline is probably due to Chicago having a pretty solid food scene, and that most of what I can find in Paris, I can find in NYC (even if it is much more expensive).

I also know this will not be the last time I’m here. I can still apply for jobs in Paris, visit my cousin or just visit. Why not? My biggest concern is actually preparing myself for reverse culture shock. Don’t worry, I’ll give some updates on how that is going.

Au revoir, la France! Tu me manqueras beaucoup!

The past week has been delightful. My birthday was spent with friends, champagne and regional cakes. My weekend had a lot of one-on-one time with my Californian friend, Cristella. In fact, over the weekend, we drank wine, watched Elf, went to a punk concert followed by a private sing-a-long at her apartment, and finally a nice three-hour long café frappe chat session sitting outside in front of the cathedral. All of this was successfully organized without my phone—it turns out that I left my charger in Toulouse without means of getting it back. Whoops.

Because I was without a working phone, I actually made a greater effort to find something to do with my time and connecting with people. It also made me realize how time is running out to spend with people I have met in Rodez; however, socializing will have to wait 10 more days. This upcoming weekend is another vacation (I know, right?). I’m heading to Berlin on Saturday to visit a beloved college roommate. Then, I’m spending a few days in Paris before visiting my “life little” in Athens, where she is currently studying. This will actually be my last international trip out of France before returning back to the States, leaving only a few weeks to squeeze the last out of my experience in France.

I have definitely been lucky with all of the international travel I’ve been able to do the past year. Last year’s trip aside, I have been able to visit Sweden, Italy, (and soon to be) Germany and Greece, not to mention all of the cities in France I would never have visited had I not been living in the South. The traveling won’t even calm down then. A friend from the States will be around during all of my goodbye parties and last minute Averyon travel before we both travel to Paris and fly back. It’s funny that teaching is definitely secondary to the travel at this end of my stay : of the last weeks here, only two are work weeks. It’s almost over. I cannot wait to not be the teacher in a classroom anymore.

Overall, my emotions have normalized since my last post—actually, the sleep and running were incredibly effective. I still haven’t heard news from Columbia, but cross your fingers for news by the end of the week!

You all are so excited for this list, I can just tell. Now is the time where I have to begin planning on how to pack away all of the stuff I brought to France, but also all of the things family and friends have sent to me. But before I do that, check out my crazy travel schedule!

March 16-20 Bologna, Italy

March 23-25 Toulouse

March 30-April 1 Nice

April 13-16 Athens, Greece

April 27-29 Berlin, Germany

May 1-8 Wandering around France

May 8 Depart for Chicago, sweet home, Chicago

(But it doesn’t stop there.)

May 18-24 Washington D.C. (with a stop in Philly)

May 25-27 Way up north in Wisconsin

June 10-ish Moving to NYC

(Stops to breathe)

I may also add a trip to Paris before Greece. It depends on how I’m feeling. Phew. I’m just tired from typing out all of those trips. I can’t wait to take them. And see you all so soon!

Here are some pictures from my little trip to Figeac. It has a very pretty centre ville and you can also see the façade of the museum and the monument to the Rosetta Stone. I still don’t quite believe how much this little town loves the Rosetta Stone. Ben, le sud de France a beaucoup de surprises. 

My mother relentlessly makes fun of my obsessive list-making. I’m sure she still finds to-do lists stashed in crevices of the house in Park Ridge, even after 11 weeks being away. I figured it was about time to publish some lists on this blog. And since I’m about 1/3 through my scheduled stint in France, it’s also a time to reflect just a little. So here I go. Please bear with me.

Things I Miss from the USA:

1. The ability to be a vegetarian, but maybe not being one.
2. The state of limitlessness and unrestrained ridiculousness
3. Slang and wordplay…and English
4. Vaulting ambition
5. BEER and microbreweries
6. Skycrapers
7. A gym open most hours of the day (and not down three hills)
8. SPICY FOOD
9. Twelve hour clocks
10. Friends/family
11. Thanksgiving
12. The vague notion of “home”

Things I Anticipate Missing from France:

1. Delicious food everywhere and limited number of chain “restaurants”
2. Moderation and simplicity
3. Downsized everything
4. Bi-weekly markets and market bags on wheels
5. The fashion and beauty of everyone and everything
6. French and French accents
7. The state of being informed and the intellectualism present
8. Espresso and tea
9. WINE and its price in France
10. Le paysage et la campagne
11. Flower flavorings in desserts and drinks like rose, coquelicot et violet
12. Euro coins
13. Being in the middle of Europe/31 Euro flights to London
14. The wonder friends who have served as my family away from home

Hmm. As the numbers suggest, I predict missing more from France after I’ve made my return to the States. AND I’m making this assumption while I’m still in Rodez. So…Three cheers to French living!

I’ve mentioned before that I only work 12 hours each week in addition to tutoring or conversation sessions, which comes to 15 (soon to be 16) hours a week of working. This, as my dear friend Keith informed me, is less time working than he works in an entire day. Okay, well, good for me, right? I am living in France, only having 12-16 hours of my week occupied and living just fine off the money I’m earning. I clearly have nothing to complain about; in fact, I deserve a year of lazy after four stressful and overworked years at the University of Chicago. At least this is what I keep telling myself.

This conflict about having too much time is such an American mindset, and truth be told, I have no idea what to do with free time. I’ve never had this much non-procrastination related boredom or free time in my life, and I’m afraid I’ve just been wasting it. Then again, maybe “wasting time” is also a cultural concept most experienced in a culture where underutilized free time is one of the highest evils. If time is money, wasted time is wasted money, right? Then why do I feel like I have to spend money to make this time seem worthwhile to me?

I even posed this question to the Teaching Assistant Program in France group on Facebook: What do you do with all of your free time? The responses I have gotten so far are partying, art class, dance class, and long walks, along with some funny responses such as, finding clean socks. What I really read from this list is money, money, money, cold and oh, I should do laundry (money), too. Some assistants have said that their towns have lists of activities or groups to join, and I should probably do this. However, the negatives of living in a small town, is that there are far fewer free groups to join and even the groups themselves are limited.

The time in the week I dread most are Monday and Tuesday mornings. On these days I have one hour of class each afternoon. Technically, I don’t have to do anything before noon or around 2pm on Monday and Tuesday respectfully. Sure, I can go on a run or walk. I can also go to the Médiateque, where I already paid the membership fees, and read. But what I really want to do is drink some tea or coffee and stretch out to read. I can do this either in my bed or at a Salon de Thé that may or may not be open on Tuesday mornings—because they are definitely not open that early on Mondays.

For the time being, I’m just going to keep using my free time cooking, writing, reading and talking to friends. Why not? Sure, I’ll make the occasional appearance at the Médiateque or a Salon de Thé, but I should probably just enjoy this boredom; I’ll probably never experience this again. And c’mon, who really complains about having time to waste?

Although Ben and I loved Stockholm, despite it’s adverse effects on our minds and bodies, we were glad to be leaving the land of the Krona and entering into the Euro. While it’s a great place to be, Scandinavia is EXPENSIVE. We actually used the hostel kitchen the majority of the time—but by that I mean to keep the milk and yogurt cold for our muesli. Our quality of life instantly improved upon arrival in Paris. The fact we had vegetables alone was enough to make our bodies feel more at ease. When meals in Stockholm were at least $20-30, the roughly $15 meals in Paris seemed like a steal. 

And so we ate. As usual, we tried to choose restaurants and cafés that seemed to have a decent feel to it, and an interesting menu. Le Grenier de Notre Dame focused on vegetarian cuisine that Eva and I adored while waiting for Ben to find his way from his hostel. Le Basserie Bofinger was recommended to me by a French friend I met last week, and was more than amazing. The last place of note that I remember is Café Janou, which Ben and I stumbled into after a long day of walking and before our train down to Rodez. We had to wait for dinner to begin at 8pm with a bottle of house wine (with the label of the café on it!) and then feasted, ending with thyme crème brulée. If you happen to be in Paris, try to check out some of these places.

We also managed to be somewhat cultural in Paris—something we definitely missed in Stockholm. However, our version of cultural was just trying to figure out where to walk and maybe find a museum. We aren’t the most organized when we are together. We managed to avoid a gigantic line for the Louvre by finding a smaller entrance without much trouble. However, the only museum we had actually made plans to visit, the Paris Sewers, were actually closed when we got there. The trade-off was seeing Victor Hugo’s apartment and then to Musée Carnivalet. There are actually many free museums to visit in Paris, some I’ll probably try and visit next weekend…

Yes, I’ll be back in Paris is one week, and I realize how ridiculous this sounds having just returned to Rodez. My friend who is living in Dubai is coming to France for the first time and coerced me to join him with the promise of free booze. I’m too easy to convince, but then again, do I really need convincing to go to Paris? I’m even in the process of figuring out how I may be able to spend this upcoming summer in Paris. This is still a dream I’m conjuring in my head, but hopefully something concrete comes of it. But even if not, I’ll still have my own city to return to.

I feel like it has been a long time coming. Thanks to good friends like Benedict, who challenged my bland food preferences through humiliation, friends like Phil and Daniel who would always go with me to the classy and expensive wine/cheese or vegan restaurants I wanted to try, and for being on a volleyball team where you really just had to eat what you were given, my palate began to expand to include tastes like spices and exotic types of cuisines. I literally only ate bread, hot dogs, burgers and ketchup for a good long time: it really is safe to say that including spice was a big move. Honestly, I think a lot of this had to do with becoming a vegetarian, too. To me, blindly trying a bunch of different vegetables and spices seemed a lot safer than meat. Can you blame me?

Now, I am finally at the point of trying EVERYTHING. Yes, everyone, I am no longer a vegetarian. I still don’t cook meat or fish for myself, but if I am being served a meal, I will not refuse to try the cuisine. I just love food too much. The people in France obviously support this decision—here, the meat is “good, fresh and healthy”, but they understand why I would be a vegetarian in the States. Since this decision (or even before my decision became official) I’ve had chicken, some delicious sort of fish in Toulouse, scallops (not scallions as previously posted), chicken, and duck. I’m soon to have foie gras, if my friends have their way—this still really weirds me out, though. Regardless, my self-identification as a foodie has grown to new levels, just as my ability to talk about food and wine. YUM.

The effort I have put into preparing my own meals has also increased. This is due partly to all the free time I have only working twelve/fifteen hour weeks, and because one of my goals for this year was to become competent in the kitchen. My focus right now is soups. I’ve begun to break in my immersion blender with a delicious mushroom soup I made last week, and a zucchini soup I’m eating throughout this week. I actually made a presentation for myself before I first ate it. New levels of awesome.

I still mainly stick with my go-to stew of veggies like eggplant, red pepper, onion, mushrooms and tomato with either beans, lentils or pasta; but now, I’m starting to experiment with spices and different combinations of ingredients. Who knows? By the time I return I may be able to whip up nearly anything…except for meat. Perhaps.

In previous posts, I have complained how very few things are open on Sundays. While inconvenient for this lonely language assistant, Sundays are the day where there is nothing, freeing families to get together and enjoy each others’ company. This, of course, means they eat the entire day. Coming from the States, this prospective food consumption frightened me; but, my friends, this is France.

This past week, I was invited to join my landlord and his wife at their country home for a lunch on Sunday along with my friends/neighbors. The four of us departed around 12h30 and arrived back in Rodez at 20h. Toward the end, Nicole was concerned that I was bored since I wasn’t keeping up with their French the entire time, but in fact, I thought the entire experience was amazing. Here’s what happened.

First course: Bacon. Melon. White Wine Bottle #1; Approximate time: 20 minutes; After meandering from the car, through the garden and into the most “French” house I have ever seen, we passed around some nibbles and began catching up with each other. It was as if we were warming up our minds and taste buds for the day of feasting we would experience.

Second course: Mushroom Quiche. Salad. White Wine Bottle #2; Approximate time: 1 hour; Unlike in the States, where as soon as the food is put onto the plate I plunge in, only to resurface for conversation to ask for more bread or to try someone else’s dish, here the food was secondary to conversation. Eating only occurred when you had time in between social interactions—eating should more appropriately be called “tasting” anyway. The pleasure found in this meal was the company and enjoying the taste of the complementing food and wine.

Third course: Scallops. Rice with Baked Apples; White Wine Bottle #3; Approximate time: 1 hour; YUM. While normally the idea of fish or any sea creature freaks me out, this was delicious. I made sure to soak up all of the sauce with bread. That’s French. Also, the wine served during this course was also described as le vin de messe (wine served during mass). It was very fruity.

Fourth course: Three Cheeses. Red Wine Bottle #1; Approximate time: 45 minutes; The majority of the time I have eaten with French friends, the inevitable question comes up about if I like cheese and wine. Not that it needs to; I certainly eat and drink enough to satisfy this question. However, I always appreciate how they tell me that I am an American who fits in while in France—or at least my taste buds do. My favorite part of this course was how my landlord jumped up concerned over our wine supply (even though two of the bottles were still half full). It was because cheese needs red wine. What were we thinking???

Fifth course: Le Gateau de Noix. Chantilly; Approximate time: 1 hour; I wrote the name of this meal in French because it sounds much nicer that way than “walnut cake with whipped cream.” Especially since it was one of the best cakes I have ever had in my life. It was more salty than sweet, and really light. The whipped cream was perfect on it, too. Needless to say, I’m asking for this recipe in my thank you letter to Nicole and Francis.

Sixth course: Café. Chocolate with pepper. Approximate time: 45 minutes; For the after-meal courses, we went outside and sat in a circle under a walnut tree in the garden. I told you this house was incredible, right? It was more of sitting and talking than consuming, but it was really nice to have some coffee to ward off sleepy.

Seventh course: Champagne. Appromiate time: 45 minutes; I only put this as a separate course because the bottle was only brought out after everyone had finished their coffee and the chocolate had been untouched for a while. It was rosé champagne, and delicious. It was also during this time that it hit me I was in France. I usually just go about my day-to-day with the pretty buildings, language and architecture, but this to me is what it is to be French. And I adore it.

[Break] As a break from consuming, Christina and I gathered walnuts in the yard for a little, and then, most of the crew decided to go on a walk from Majoulet (where the house is) to see the nearby town, Calmont, which looked lovely in the distance. Then we walked back, and sat around their table talking, until we were asked if we’d like something to drink.

Eighth course: Orange Juice. Diet Coke; Approximate time: 45 minutes; We really only had a little something to drink, but I’m making this the final course because I just couldn’t believe we were going to have more. At this point I was exhausted, getting a little chilly, and watching the clock confirm we had been there for about eight hours.

After a long day of eating, struggling to follow the conversations, and loving life, we returned to Rodez. I was asked if I was hungry (absolutely not!), and we parted ways. I went back to my apartment to relax, everyone else went to go eat more. Oh, the French.