Au Travail...

Last Monday (after recovering for my travels all day Sunday) I returned to work, as the French say: "tranquillement," which is a word they employ often and in different ways to mean calmly, leisurely, peacefully, laid back, or easily. So tranquillement in fact, that, though I arrived at 9am, none of my teachers ended up needing me until 3pm. Since then it's been a pretty slow start back at Bellevue. For the first week everyone is bisous-ing everyone, wishing each other "Bonne année" and "Meilleurs voeux", complaining how "difficile" work is after the "fêtes", and/or complaining of the bouts of "gastro" they've suffered because of the over indulgence in holiday food. As Stephen Clarke aptly observed in A Year In the Merde - which I recommend to anyone who is interested in a laugh or the French (or having a laugh at the expense of French) - the French regard gasto as both a commonplace, even necessary, occurrence, and right of passage that both cleanses the body and builds immunity. One can't support a weak stomach when you're holidays are heavy on duck parts and unpastureized dairy products.

Wednesday evening, per my New Years resolution, I tried out a salsa class at a studio in my neighborhood. A little intimidating at first, but much less so after the first five minutes when I realized no one else knew what the hell they were doing either. It was a pretty large group with an even number of guys and girls of all ages.

Friday night we (Gisele, Gabby and I) celebrated Christmas for the 4th and last time at our house with Gisele's daughter Noémie and her son Mario. Gilou, Gisele's partner, brought us another fabulous wine from his cave which I just learned he has had for almost thirty years, and has, in the last few years started drinking, hence all the amazing wines he always brings over to share with us. I asked him about it Saturday night, how he started it, etc. and he said that since he's from Burgundy and wine is such a big part of the culture there it's very common to take an interest in wine and start a cave at young age, and that his brother has a cave of thousands of bottles. Ah, to be French.

Southern galette - more like a brioche

On January 6th the French celebrate Epiphany - as with most religious holidays it's become more pagan and symbolic. The most important part of this holiday I've gathered is the eating of the "Galettes de Roi" or a special kind of cake, which you can buy in boulangeries throughout the whole month of January. I caught the tail end of these celebrations when I was in Rennes 2 years ago but was surprised to find a different kind of cake here than what I was used to. In Rennes, we ate a frangipane cake - a circular, buttery, flaky, egg-yolk brushed pie with almond paste in the center, while here in South they turn out giant donut looking cakes, that are more brioche-y in texture, sprinkled with giant grains of sugar. In both kinds,  bakers bake a tiny favor inside each cake, and the person who finds the toy in their slice is the "roi" or king, and gets to wear the gold paper crown that comes with the cake.

Frangipane galette

Saturday I went to another delicious French dinner (I'm spoiled, I know) at the home of 2 of Gisele's friends: Queen Mother and Christina, to celebrate the New Year. Queen Mother is quite the dramatic figure: a widowed, 75-year-old, sharp-as-a-tack, still-practicing couturier, who was born in Spain, forced to flee during the Revolutions, and has since lived in France, but keeps a seaside home in Spain that Gisele has passed the New Year at for years. Christine, her daughter, is of one of Gisele's old university friends. The name Queen Mother, with its regal and aristocratic connotations suits her perfectly. She's a all at once lively, warm, and imperial. She cooked us up a fabulous meal. We had aperos of mussels, shrimp, and hummus. An appetizer of fish soup, a main course of fish in a tomato and onion sauce accompanied by rice, followed by a cheese platter, finished with dessert of galettes. It's with her and Christine that I want to start my knitting classes - they have a atelier in the bottom floor of their apartment building which is right in the middle of town.

As it's been atleast 50 degrees here the past four days I've been cruising around on my bike instead of on the metro - it's such a great way to see the city and definitely beats walking at night after the metro has closed.

Tonight we had a Mangesters dinner at Bonnie's - I brought a galette for dessert, I'm hosting Thursday and am planning on making empanadas with Gabby - exciting!!

Gros bisous et a bientôt!
Linz