Christmas with the Bolis family

Soooo this post was actually written at the beginning of January but I haven't had a chance to post it until now...let's hope I do a better job of blogging during these last few months in France.
 

Well, once again I seem to have forgotten that I have a blog. Maybe one of my New Year's resolutions should be to write more. Yeah, that sounds good, I already have down "read more" so I should write more too.

This New Year has already brought many changes. But I'll write about those in another post. Right now I want to write about my memorable Christmas with the Bolis family in Rodemack, France, before my memory dries up.

The Friday after classes ended I was scheduled to take the TGV train up to Lille (a city in the very North of France, not far from Belgium) to stay with Marie (the daughter of the family I spent Christmas with) for the weekend in her apartment before heading to Rodemack. Marie is in the midst of her first year studying law at the Catholic University there. I was running really late the morning I was supposed to leave and didn't leave enough time to get from Croix Rousse (the hilltop neighborhood I lived in in Lyon) to the train station. Not only did I not leave myself enough time to get there using the Metro, but I was so stressed out I managed to go in the wrong direction once I got on the Metro. So, I made a split-second decision to take a taxi. I hopped in the first cab I saw and in my panicked state of mind I told the cab driver to go as quickly as possible (in my flustered sounding French).

It was 10 minutes until my train was supposed to depart when I saw the familiar entrance of "Gare Part-Dieu" and a sigh of relief washed over me. That is, until, we drove away from it. The whole time I was panicking wondering if I would make my train, and if not, how much a new ticket would cost. At 10:56, four minutes prior to my train's supposed departure, he dropped me off at a side entrance to the station. I literally was running through the station, dragging my clunky little suitcase, until I hit a stagnant mass of people. They seemed to be waiting to get onto one of the platforms. My fears were suddenly eased when I realized they were all waiting to get onto my platform. When I looked up at the screen it said the train was 10 minutes late. Had it not been late, I don't think I would have made it. Needless to say it was a stressful morning but once on the train it was a relaxing 3 hour journey up to the north.

So. Now on to the fun stuff. Once I arrived in Lille I met Marie at the train station and we headed back to her apartment. Afterwards we headed into the center of Lille to check out the main square and the Christmas market. It was lovely, with Christmas decorations strung about and a giant Ferris Wheel (similar to Lyon's) in the middle of the square. I ate a delicious waffle, after all, we weren't too far from Belgium. Later in the evening we ate a little potluck dinner in the common room of her friend's dormitory-like residence. Supposedly there were other international students there but it seemed like mostly French students to me. After we went to an event put on by her school at a club. It was...interesting, needless to say. A little to rowdy for me, we didn't stay too long because of that.

Christmas market

The next day Marie's mom Agnès and Marie's brother Simon met us in Lille. We walked around central and vieux Lille for most of the day. It was quite chilly I must admit. I remember thinking at that moment that I needed a better coat, but I haven't been cold like that since then so maybe I can make it through this winter with out buying another one. We ate lunch at a lovely restaurant and later sat down for coffee and tea. Haha so French. That night we saw Casse-tête chinois, the follow up film to French director Cédric Klapisch's films L'Auberge espagnole and Les Poupées russes. I've seen L'Auberge espagnole but I still have yet to watch Les Poupées russes. It took me the longest time to figure out what "Casse-tête chinois" means, so I'll help you out and tell you. It means "Chinese jigsaw puzzle". The movie was pretty good, I really enjoyed it. It was all in French (with no subtitles of course) but it took place in Brooklyn/Manhattan so there was a lot of English mixed in. I'd highly recommend watching it, but maybe watch the others first so you have a background of the story.

Me in front of "le grand sapin et la grand roue"

The following day we drove from Lille back to their home in Rodemack, France. Along the way I lost service and couldn't figure out why, until Agnès told me it's because we drove through both Belgium and Luxembourg. Hah, go figure, driving through 2 other countries just to get home. Rodemack is a tiny medieval village located in North-East France, in between the small city of Metz and the country of Luxembourg. I'd been there 2 1/2 years before with my mom in the summer and had a lovely time. So once in Rodemack it was time for Christmas festivities! Agnès had already made spritz cookies, somewhat similar to the ones we make at home but she used a much older device to print out the cookies. Those cookies are typical of Eastern France and Germany.

Entry to the medieval village of Rodemack.

Their lovely home.

I basically spent the week relaxing and eating delicious food. Lots of smoked salmon (yum!), foie gras, my first taste of the traditional Christmas dessert Bûche de Noël, spritz cookies, amazing cheese, bread (of course), croissants, roasted turkey with chestnuts, Christmas tea, delicious wine, ah the list goes on. I ate so well during my week at their house it was hard to go back to cooking for myself. During the week I watched two other films, "Before Coco Chanel", the story of her life before she became a world-class fashion designer, starring Audrey Tautou as Miss Chanel. I also saw an Indian film (with French subtitles) called "The Lunch Box". It earned rave reviews but I didn't think it lived up to it's hype. It was well done but there wasn't enough of a story.

Smoked salmon and champagne!

Homemade foie gras.

Le vin.

Yum : )

Surprisingly it wasn't that cold when I was there and I managed to go for a run in the French countryside. Probably the most interesting part of my week there was going indoor skiing. We went to the only indoor ski place in France and I believe it has the longest run of indoor ski venues in all of Europe. I went with Simon and his friend Vincent. First of all, I hadn't been skiing in who knows how many years (I'd say 5 is a rough estimate) so I kind of forgot how. I spent the first run basically relearning how to ski with the instruction of Simon. I was nervous about falling but I just went slow and stuck to pizza before finally switching over to French fries. It was pretty fun and gave me confidence for the ski trip to the Italian Alps in January. Another day Marie and I attempted to make French macarons but we didn't have all of the right ingredients so it was somewhat of a disaster...they tasted good, they just didn't have the right texture or shape.

Marie, working on her culinary craft, attempting to make macarons

Un vrai échec (a true failure)

Bûche de Noël from a bakery in Luxembourg

Overall, it was a relaxing trip and I'm so thankful that the Bolis family was kind enough to invite me to their home for Christmas. I had a lovely time and am glad I got to experience "Noël" in France.

The Bolis family!

This time + me but - Jean-Marie