Happy Birthday Napoleon?

I got a day off work to celebrate Bastille Day, or the celebration of France's triumph over the monarchy.  We relaxed most of the day because it's so hot outside, but we saw all kinds of fireworks that night over the Rhône.  They did a fireworks/light show where the basilica was one of the main characters (which we thought was odd, Mormons would never do that).  Everything was blue white and red (as opposed to red white and blue), but we were secretly pretending that it was the 4th of July the whole time.  On the actual 4th of July we went to McDonald's to celebrate America.

Hooray for independence!

People waiting to see fireworks and trying not to get their faces blown off by these children

Communication

Sometimes in France I feel like I can communicate really great, and other times, the words just don't flow.  For example, there is a new intern here from France and we're sharing an office.  I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm an idiot.  Yesterday I couldn't figure out how to type numbers on a French keyboard (because they're different, you have to press a certain button to make the numbers work but I didn't know which button), and she kept explaining to me, This is not an American keyboard!  It's different here!  I was like I KNOW.  Just tell me how to type the numbers!  But she kept saying, This is a French keyboard, not American!  It's different in France!  It went on like that for a minute or two when in frustration she just did it for me.  However, I understand, because I would probably be surprised if someone couldn't figure out how to type numbers on a keyboard.

We're still not over the food here

I know all I do is blog about food, but we're in the food capitol of France!  There is no Eiffel Tower or Louvre in Lyon, so we're forced to go to restaurants and buy treats.  Which brings me to:

Le Fromage de la Semaine - Chèvre

Chèvre is just a fancy word for goat cheese, but it really was amazing goat cheese.  It was locally made and there was a picture of the goats and farmer who made it at the store.

That is a tarte aux framboises that we got at our local boulangerie.  We get a fancy tart if one of us does something cool, like if I did something noteworthy at my internship or if Nate got an interview for a job.  For those we call them a tarte aux félicitations!  Which makes no sense in French, but we like it.

Speaking of boulangeries, our local one is great.  There are two sales ladies who switch shifts and they are both such characters.  One of them, a tall middle-aged woman who is suspiciously tan all the time, always wears scandalous tropical outfits and flirts with the men who come in.  She compliments Nate on his T shirts.  She also tries to count change out of our hands because she knows we're foreigners and thinks we don't understand.  We always understand.

The second lady is rather direct and looks like she is of German descent.  When she's not taking a cigarette break, she's chatting with customers or the guy who makes the bread.  These two ladies always recognize us and know our order (one baguette), and they always say, "Bonjour les jeunes", which means, hello young people.  It's a good thing we have going. 

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

The Westovers come to visit

My parents came to visit this weekend! My dad had some business in France and my mom couldn’t handle not visiting us while we’re here, so she jumped on a plane to accompany him. They spent the week in Paris and took the train to Lyon to visit us for the weekend. It was so much fun showing them all around our new town.

A bit o' History
Back in the day, around 43 BC, Lyon was a Gaulish city named Lugdunum - until the Romans triumphantly conquered them. It then became the capital of the Gauls because of all its desirable rivers and such. Since it was a Roman colony, now there are Roman amphitheaters and even a Gallo-Roman museum. We were delighting in Roman history all afternoon.

Roman amphitheater

In the crypt of the Basilica

We also explored some traboules, which are ancient passageways that go through some of the buildings. Even more exciting, during WWII the traboules enabled the locals to escape German Gestapo raids! (Picture on bottom right)

We ate at yet another typical Lyonnais bouchon. The waiter described the special: chicken and vegetables mixed together. That sounded much more normal to me than anything else on the menu (I was getting a little bouchon-ed out) so Nate and I ordered it. The waiter forgot to mention that it was mixed together in gelatin, or more likely, I don’t know the word for “meat in gelatin” in French. It was beautiful and tasted very good, but I couldn’t get over the texture. But doesn’t it look good?

 

Roman bust.  Awesome photo by Nate.

Chez Mounier

Lyon is famous for being the gastronomy capital of France, so this weekend we ate at a traditional Lyonnais restaurant (a bouchon).  Lyonnais food isn’t what you think of when you think French food - no crêpes, steak, or delicious sauces.  Food in Lyon mostly means food that Americans would normally never eat like brains, different kinds of fish, liver etc.  But the fact that it’s so unique makes everything quite the delicacy.

We decided on the restaurant Chez Mounier and it was an adventure.

Nathan's main course (fish in crayfish sauce) - My appetizer (herring salad)

Appetizer: I had herring salad drizzled in some sort of fish dressing and Nate had an egg soufflé with real sausages in it (Real as in pig intestines! He didn’t eat the intestine part though, just the inside.)  I was feeling pretty reluctant about my herring salad when Nate pointed one of his sausages at me and said, “Don’t be such a wimp Cassandra just eat it!”  So I ate it, and surprisingly it wasn’t bad at all.

Main course: I had a quenelle de brochet (pictured below) which is some sort of dumpling in crayfish sauce.  Nate had 2 different kinds of fish in the same crayfish sauce.  Mine was so good!  I didn’t try Nate’s because I was sick of fish, but he said it was good.

Quenelle de brochet

Cheese course: I had fromage frais which is like bitter yogurt that you add sugar to (so good), and Nathan had some camembert-like cheese that was very strong.  The lady at the bouchon loved Nathan.  She wouldn’t let him have his dessert course until he finished his cheese.  She said, “Il faut être punis!” (You must be punished!)  He charmed her with his French skills.

Dessert: Definitely more normal.  I had an apple tart and Nate had the best chocolate cake both of us had EVER tasted.  It was a bitter dark chocolate cake with sweet crème anglaise sauce drizzled on it.

Surprisingly, we really enjoyed it!  Nate is more adventurous with seafood than I am because of his Seattle roots but we would definitely do it again.  My parents are coming to visit this weekend so I’m sure there will be more strange food to come!

La Fête de la Musique

The first day of my internship was June 21st, which is the same day of La Fête de la Musique.  This is a festival that lasts all night on summer solstice (the most daylight of the year), where different people play music all over the city. Professionals and non-professionals are encouraged to play and it doesn’t cost anything and the musicians don’t get paid.  The slogan is “Faites de la Musique” (Make Music), a homophone of “Fête de la Musique” (Musical Festival).

We had such a great time.  The streets of Lyon were packed with rollerbladers, college students, couples, street vendors and everyone in leather jackets.  And the later it got, the more people there were.  Everyone was drinking, smoking and grooving with the musique. {It is legal to drink and smoke in France at age 16, but no one really cares about that rule}. We actually heard a lot of French metal, which was terrible.  Actually all the music was pretty terrible, but different cultures, different tastes I suppose.  We had our first Nutella crêpes of the trip that night - Nate’s first Nutella crêpe ever!  We were very excited.

Bonjour Lyon

We have arrived in Lyon!  For those wondering, we are here because I have an internship with an NGO called La Maison de l'Europe.  I do research and help prepare for presentations on the European Union.  La Maison de l'Europe's purpose is to get the French excited and educated about being a part of the EU.  I am specializing in what is currently going on with Europe's economy and updating the presentations they give to schools and businesses.  So I basically just read a lot of articles on the internet and ask a lot of questions about what I'm supposed to be doing.

And yes, everything and everyone is French.  There are 5 other interns, 4 of them French, 1 from Uzbekistan.  Et moi.  They call me l'Américaine.  Nathan is studying for the GMAT, growing a beard and exploring France.  It's a good life we lead.

Here are some of our first photos of Lyon!