A 6 Hour French Dinner

A few nights ago I had an experience that was so jam packed with culture, there is no way I could describe it all, but I will try.  I was invited to to my internship coordinator’s house for dinner, and it was so interesting!  Excuse the lack of photos, I am still kicking myself for not taking my camera.

I planned on dinner taking around 3 hours at most and planned on coming home around 10pm.  (First mistake)  I met Odille at the train station and she drove me, my fellow intern Sayora, and this girl from Madagascar up to her summer home in the country!  I stepped out of her tiny European vehicle and I was surrounded by old houses and fresh cool air (I don’t have AC at home or at work, so it felt amazing)  She lives on the hillside with a view of Lyon and surrounding old green farms.  The house is an old stone farmhouse that was converted into a home around 200 years ago. Her family shares the house and it has been in their family for the last 100 years!    All the doors were open, and everything inside looked worn-in and slightly dusty.  Everything was so beautifully French and perfectly shabby.  They had flowers in every room and they were all slightly wilting with the heat of the day.  I felt like I was in a Jane Austen novel.  All the furniture had been sitting there for the last 100 years, and it was the typical idyllic French house in the country.

We arrived at her home at 6:30 and then we sat around and chatted while more friends filtered in.  There were 5 people there from Madagascar (they speak French there, who knew?)  As it turns out, I love people from Madagascar, they were all so wonderful!  There were a handful of family members there for the vacances, the Madagascarians, and the girls from La Maison de l’Europe - me and Sayora from Uzbekistan.

They were such sweet people.  They had this gorgeous old book on their bookshelf called “Memoires de la Maison” and it was a book that they had all of their guests write in since 1952!  They asked me to write in it and they said, “If you write in this, you can always come back!”

9pm, apértifs, or drinks before dinner.  Everyone was drinking champagne and strawberry wine in the garden (even the 12 year olds) and we talked very loudly and passionately for about an hour before we sat down to dinner.  (They gave me orange juice).

10pm dinner.  Dinner was in the terrace under some fruit trees with a gorgeous view of Lyon.  The talking and laughing never stopped, their conversational energy was amazing!  I was getting so tired because I, being a boring and productive American, go to bed around 10:30, and Nate of course had no idea where I was.  We don’t have cell phones here and I knew he was wondering why I wasn’t home yet.  (I didn’t think dinner would take 6 hours) I just had to stay and answer all of their questions about America and everything I was learning in my studies.

11pm dessert. We started with fromage blanc, then brie and baguette, then ice cream, then fresh apricots.  So basically we ate a little dinner, A LOT of dessert and there was a lot of alcohol being passed around.

I got home around midnight and was able to relieve Nate of his panic that I was gone for so long with strangers.  We both (especially Nate), learned an important cultural lesson that sometimes French dinners can take 6 hours.

The church in their town - St. Didier au Mont d'Or