Friday night, we arrived in Freyming-Merlebach and got settled into Françoise’s house. There was yummy pizza made by Ben (Flo’s fiancé from Seattle) for dinner; a special dinner plate was made for Eric that was gluten free. Eric was very surprised at how accommodating Françoise wanted to be and insisted on being about making sure he had things to eat that were gluten-free (something she had never really heard of before).
Saturday morning, I took Eric around Freyming-Merlebach and showed him where I live and work. He thought the town was very nice and cute (I think it’s cause the sun was shining…). I even showed him where I accidently crossed the border into Germany on my run :-). We were back for lunch just in time for the 12:30 starting time as we were told.
Around 1:30 or so, lunch began. We had vol-au-vents with scallops – one of my favorites here so far.
After dinner there was, of course, cheeses and such. Lunch lasted around 2 hours or more. We spent most of the afternoon relaxing.As it was Christmas Eve – we were in for a shock. Christmas Eve is the holiday here. Around 8pm the Aperitif started with appetizers and champagne. There was foie gras, rillettes (so yummy), some type of fish eggs (also yummy), and a few other options all on small slices of bread. One special Christmas food here is – live oysters with a little squirt of lemon on them just before you eat it… I ATE A LIVE OYSTER. It was slimy and not something I will need to eat again soon.
We chatted and enjoyed everything for about 45 minutes and then it was time to open all the presents. Basically they stormed the tree and had opened all of the presents in the next 15 minutes… I practically watched with my mouth hanging open. I couldn’t believe it!!!! I was also surprised by the fact that they even had two presents for me – two “cooking boxes.” Cooking boxes are cute little boxes that come with either cooking or serving utensils and then a recipe book that goes along with the utensils. My cooking boxes were about making chocolate desserts and about making fancy appetizers in cups. I am looking forward to testing out the recipes!!! Once all the presents were opened… they also opened their stockings…
Then it was time to get the dinner all set up… and we sat down to eat around 9:30. We had roasted rooster (it’s in fashion now Françoise says) and a number of different mashes. Once everyone finished eating those, it was time for another round of cheese. After the cheese, it was time for dessert! They pulled out two traditional Christmas logs or “bûches” and everyone got a decent sized slice of the first one and many of us still had to try the second one! (The one with the swirls was better than the other). Dinner wrapped up around midnight and everyone was exhausted and we all headed off to bed.
Christmas morning came and I gave Eric his surprise stocking in a Snoopy sock – it was a lot of dark chocolates. I also gave him his Christmas present – a little hand-drawn calendar. This was then of course followed by my opening of the 15 individually wrapped gifts my mom had sent to me (hand sanitizer, pocket mirror, pens, rubberbands, silly putty – the basics of course… lol!).
The 10am or so Christmas bunch happened around 1:30 – I WAS SO HUNGRY… We had a spread of cold cuts and either fried or scrambled eggs with lots of bread. Sadly there wasn’t enough bacon for me to try a piece… but I did enjoy the other food. Brunch also lasted about 2 hours like lunch the day before. Afterwards, we relaxed some more and I took a little nap.
Once again, dinner didn’t start until after 9:30, so Eric and I were exhausted and hungry… Little did we know, everyone else had been sneaking into the kitchen and having cake periodically throughout the afternoon… Dinner was a simple affair (instead of Confit du Carnard as planned). Even with a simple dinner (still with the cheese and desserts), we didn’t get away from the table until after midnight and Eric and I were leaving bright and early the next morning and still had to pack before bed!
I hope I managed to describe most of what went on. Christmas Eve is very much the holiday here and Christmas day wasn’t anything special for the French. I was quite surprised!
No comments:
Post a Comment