Joyeux Noel

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! This year's Christmas was very different for us, spending it with the members in Perigueux, but it was formidable ( in French this means fabulous ). Being away from family, Kyle and I decided to start some of our own traditions. We made a great big Christmas Eve breakfast together. They don't have bacon here but I found something similar called "poitrine" (I looked it up on the internet and I think it is pork...). It was good but had a little too much fat for me. We found an internet site with a bunch of Christmas cartoons including the classics like "Charlie Brown," "Rudolph," and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." Growing up I remember watching these shows with my siblings and I love it! They never get old. Another tradition we started this year was reading about Christ's birth in the New Testament and Book of Mormon. I think in past Christmases I've gotten lost in the gift giving. Don't get me wrong I think it's still an important part of Christmas but this year I wasn't so busy buying gifts for everyone that I had more time to think about what gift I could give my Savior. Christmas morning I decided I was going to start a tradition of making cinnamon rolls or sweet rolls every year (like my mom). The only thing they were missing was frosting--most recipes I found required powdered sugar or cream cheese which I haven't found here yet. All in all I think this Christmas will be one I look back on for the rest of my life.

So Christmas Eve we had dinner with the Donadier Family. They have 4 boys, ages ranging from 12-19 and they absolutely adore Kyle. The youngest boy (Remy) tells us every week at church that we aren't allowed to leave France. We have a lot of fun with this family. They are probably one of the strongest families in the ward. Sister Donadier (Martine) made a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner for us. The first course consisted of  caviar, a myraid of tropical fruit and cheese. The second course was a shrimp cocktail salad with avocato, cucumber, radishes and a white sauce--very interesting. Poor Kyle dislikes seafood but he managed to swallow a couple bites; I was very proud of him. Next up was escargo...

They were huge! And actually tasted pretty okay after getting over how the texture felt. I ate 3, Kyle ate 9, and Mattieu ate 19--sheesh, good for you kid. Now for the main course: chicken stuffed with cheese, cooked carrots and potatoes, roasted chestnuts and something that resembled bacon. Boy was I sure stuffed after! We've found that when we are invited for a meal at a French person's house, you are eating for the entire three hours. We had to learn how to pace ourselves because sometimes each course could be one meal in itself. After dinner we played games before jumping into dessert.

12: 02 A.M. Midnight Mass. Christmas morning. Was it worth getting to bed at 2:00 A.M.? And I thought my family got up early to open presents at 6:00 A.M.

I took some pictures from our seats (pretty inconspicuously I might add as not to offend anyone) and probably shouldn't have but even got a shot of the priest himself. Kyle and I counted and we guessed there were between 800-1000 people at Midnight Mass in the famous St. Front Cathedral of Perigueux. It was so cold inside we could see our breath! I felt like the priest repeated himself a lot, but it was in French so I could be wrong...

Christmas morning we were excited because we had some small gifts to open from our families. That afternoon we ate lunch with a member family and later that evening had the missionaries over at our apartment to skype their families. Then went back to the member's home because they invited us to watch a movie. Christmas weekend + mountain-sized portions of food = pass out on bed for 12 hours.

A Bit of Noel Joy

We got a Christmas package from my family this last week! Looking at the address and the United States Postal stickers made it feel a little bit more like home. Being 5000 miles away from everything we've really ever known makes you feel so small sometimes. The package looked so lonely in the corner of our living room, I decided it needed a tree for it to live under. Using our creative juices and things lying around our apartment, this was the outcome:

Listening to Christmas music while making our tree really got us in the Christmas spirit! This year will be very different from Christmases we've known in the past. It has made me think of the reason why I celebrate the season. I know our Christmas in Perigueux will be one we will never forget.

Funny story. Last week was our branch Christmas Activity. They asked us to play the part of Mary and Joseph but Kyle was playing the piano so it would have been impossible (side note, this poor branch didn't have anyone to play the piano before Kyle came along. They would sing a cappella or turn on a CD player with hymns). They couldn't find a couple to play the part and being desperate asked me and Elder Heywood to do it. The funny part was, neither one of us can speak French (or understand it) very well yet so when the members read the Christmas story and we were supposed to act it out, we had no idea what we were doing. It was so hard to keep a straight face! At one point Kyle (sitting behind us at the piano) whispered "you're supposed to look surprised". It took a lot to not burst out with laughter at that point. Then there was baby Jesus--a wad of cloth (they forgot to bring a doll). When the angel handed me baby Jesus, some of the members looked at me and made hand motions like "what happened to baby Jesus?" (they were obviously laughing as hard as I was inside). Here are pictures for proof:

In the end, the program turned out great. We had a lot of less active and non-members show up so that made it worth it!

To end my post I just wanted to show pictures of downtown Perigueux decked out for the Holidays. It's very beautiful here! We live five minutes from where these pictures were taken, we are so lucky.

Chocolate Chip Cookies = Success

Can I just say the chocolate here is amazing. The supermarket has a whole aisle dedicated to chocolate and other candies. And I am in love. Kyle and I have decided to buy different varieties of chocolate during our stay here, try them, and then rate them. I will post our findings. I am super excited. The first bar we bought is coeur crème brulée craquante. It is the crème brulée dessert robed in a fine milk chocolate. My mouth is watering as I write...


So cookies. They aren't really made here. The bakeries are filled with pastries, cakes and tarts--but not cookies. Since chocolate chip cookies are a standard in every American home I decided to share them at a ward activity. They don't have chocolate chips here so I used some fancy French cooking chocolate (which is very tasty). I was very surprised when everyone kept asking who made the cookies and then telling me how delicious they were: "C'est qui qui a fait ces cookies?  C'est trop bon!  Tres delicieux!  Il faut qu'elle fasse au moins un kilo pour Noel!  Non, pas un kilo, au moins DEUX kilos!" ("Who made the cookies? It's just too good! Very delicious! She's got to make at least a kilo for our Christmas party! No make that two kilos!") And then I made some ginger snaps for a relief society Christmas meeting and everyone wanted la recette (the recipe). It made me feel good to hear these comments. I told Kyle later that night "if I can't talk to people very well in French, I might as well win their hearts through my cookies!" 


My French cooking is coming along. I tried a soup recipe from a blog I found (latartinegourmande, which I have fallen in love with) called "white lentil soup with chorizo and paprika cream". It was very satisfying. An ingredient they add to a lot of food here in France is an egg. They simply crack an egg in a pot of boiling water, cook it until the egg white is done and the yolk is runny, then place into a hot bowl of soup. Or they crack an egg in the middle of the pizza you ordered with the yolk still runny. I wasn't sure if we would like it in our soup but I tried it anyway just to get the full effect. We were pleasantly surprised! I sadly forgot to take a picture to share.


Tonight we are going to see the third Narnia movie with a young couple in our branch. Ca c'est mon premier film en francais sans sous-titres ( My first full length movie in French WITHOUT subtitles). *Sigh* I hope I will be able to understand what's going on...

Hair Cut

A couple of weeks ago I gave Kyle a haircut--it was my first time. I was actually pretty nervous because kyle's hair has no curl whatsoever (which isn't as forgiving if I had made a mistake). But my hubby was very encouraging and trusted me completely which made it a little easier. So I turned on the electric clippers and...

                                      

Voila! I had a lot of fun in the process so I will be cutting his hair from now on to help save some money. A man's haircut here costs at least 30 euros--sheesh, that better include a meal too. Even though it took me une heur et demie (an hour and a half) Kyle said it was worth it. I'm sure I'll get faster in the future.

Merry December

First off I wanted to give an update about our Thanksgiving feast last week--what a night. An hour before the missionaries showed up, our power went out and we didn't get it fixed for a half hour. By the time they got here at eight o'clock, everything was still cooking except for the apple pie, so it was very interesting trying to cook and eat before nine thirty so they could get home on time (mission rules). It ended up not being the nice, quiet, sit-down Thanksgiving meal I had pictured, but it was still enjoyable. It will be an unforgettable Holiday that Kyle and I will tell our kids about.

I can't believe it's already December--it has been over two months since Kyle and I flew to France. I am very excited for Christmas here in France. Kyle gets two weeks off of work and we've decided to take a little trip somewhere. We thought about Alsace (a region of France near the border of Germany) because everyone keeps telling us how beautiful it is there during Christmas-time. We also thought about somewhere in Italy. Anyone have any recommendations? One of our favorite families in the branch invited us over on Christmas Eve so we'll be here for the Holiday. Apparently here in France Christmas Eve is  the day to celebrate rather than Christmas Day. They invited us two weeks ago saying "we had to do it early enough otherwise someone else would have snatched you up since you're so popular". That made us feel good. Then on the 25th, another family invited us over for lunch. We are so thankful for the church and the members here in Perigueux--everyone has been so kind and generous! Another reason I'm excited for Christmas is because Perigueux will be decked out with lights and decorations. Since the end of October, workers have been out stringing lights between buildings and apartments. I can't wait to see the finished product.

Last weekend we went to Bordeaux with some friends we've made to see the new Harry Potter movie--I thought it was great (probably because it was in English). We went out to eat at a nice restaurant and then walked around centreville (downtown) browsing some of the shops. We had a desert that is unique to this city called le canele. The outside is crispy but then the inside is very moist--super delicious... Bordeaux is famous for the wines they produce and it's also famous for having one of the longest shopping streets (.75 miles)  in Europe. We got a taste of Christmas at night in Bordeaux seeing all the lights and the walking through the Marche de Noel (Christmas market). Each city at Christmas-time has a Marche de Noel where wooden booths are set up for people to sell gifts, food, ect. Haha, one booth we saw was similar to the carnival duck bond game were you fish out a duck and the number on the bottom tells you if you won a prize or not. In this game, it was santa that you chose instead of a duck. I can't wait to check out the market in our little ville.

Le Canelé

Happy Thanksgiving!

Kyle and I have been really excited for Thanksgiving. Europe doesn't recognize it as a holiday (in fact most people don't know what it is) so sadly, it doesn't feel like Thanksgiving here. Plus Kyle had to work from eight to five but I guess with him being gone it's given me time to start cooking. We found out the missionaries didn't have any plans so we invited them over to join us for dinner. The missionaries here are great so it should be a blast. I've been fortunate every Thanksgiving holiday to have a mom (since last year a mother-in-law), grandmas and aunts with amazing cooking skills prepare a wonderfully huge meal and countless pies. This is my first Thanksgiving away from home so it will be a little different but we are going to make the best of it! Here is the meal plan I've come up with:

1. Roasted duck
2. La patate douce ( yams)
3. Cranberry apple stuffing with pecans
4. Mashed potatoes and gravy (must have classic)
5. Steamed green beans with almonds

Duck is Perigord's specialty (Perigord is the region of France we live in). So we decided to mix things up a bit by preparing a different bird this year...I haven't cooked duck yet so this should be interesting. On a side note, a special appetizer they make here with duck is called fois gras in which the ducks are forced fed until their livers become huge and then sadly those cute ducks are killed and their livers are ground up into a spread that is put onto bread and crackers for one to enjoy. I secretly like it but try real hard not to think of those ducks when eating it! Fois gras is especially popular during Christmas for the whole country of France but it is served year-round in Perigord.

The branch here in Perigueux had a Thanksgiving activity last week where everyone brought as close to American Thanksgiving food as possible. I brought sweet potatoes with marshmallows baked on top to share with everyone. When they saw that there was sugar on a vegetable it took everything for them to not throw up...haha the French have this thing about not mixing salty and sweet foods. A few brave souls dared to try it and afterwards raved about it which made me feel better. Quick fact about the French: most absolutely can not eat salty foods (eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, ect) for breakfast. It's usually a baguette or croissant with jam, butter and tea or hot chocolate. Sorry IHOP, you probably couldn't start a franchise here...

I haven't ever made stuffing before but it seems pretty easy. My mom sent me a recipe that sounds delicious and I can't wait to try it with the bread I bought from the boulangerie (French bakery) down the street. Sadly I couldn't find dried cranberries (or fresh ones for that matter) at the supermarket so it might just have to be apple-pecan stuffing.

Mashed potatoes and gravy, for me, this is the second thing after turkey that comes to mind for a Thanksgiving meal. Super easy and real inexpensive to make for these growing, hungry 19-year-old missionaries.

Fresh vegetables are a huge part of the French diet here. There are a lot at the grocery store I don't even recognize...thankfully haricots verts (green beans) are one that I do know and love. My cute mom sent another recipe how to prepare them all fancy. I've tried this yummy recipe before, the only downfall is that it calls for bacon which doesn't really exist here. They do have something called lardons (sounds good huh?) I might use which is similar to bacon and surprisingly really good especially in salads and pastas.

Now for dessert I chose to make a classic American apple pie. France doesn't have pies (they secretly can't make a good cake either), just tarts and pastries. And they don't have pie dishes so I had to make do using a tart pan. I haven't ever made a pie for Thanksgiving before so I was crossing my fingers it would turn out ok. Here is a picture of the finished product (I am pleased the way it looks but the real test is on the inside):

Are you proud mom?! I brushed milk on the top and then sprinkled it with sugar and cinnamon to make it look pretty. I just took it out of the oven and now I am getting real hungry...

So, all this baking is going to take place in the next three hours, in my rather small kitchen that only has 2 burners and a large toaster oven. I've got Christmas music playing to motivate me (thank you sweet husband for not complaining when I started listening to it 2 weeks ago). Keeping everything warm and timing it all out is going to be the real challenge!

MacDoh

Last night I got kissed by 8 guys in about five minutes--my husband was not one of them. The bisous (pronounced beezoo) is very much part of French culture. It consists of kissing one cheek and then the other whenever you see a friend or meet a new acquaintance. If two guys are meeting then they usually just shake hands but if they are of the opposite sex or both girls then the bisous is fair game. In certain regions they kiss up to two times per cheek! Everywhere you turn someone is giving the bisous. This was a very different custom for me  and at first sometimes I just automatically stuck out my hand out of instinct for a friendly handshake. Hopefully I didn't offend anyone... But now I am becoming more of a pro. Thanks to church, there are tons of people to practice on so now I've got it down pat.

Now back to the 8 guys, they invited Kyle and I to go eat at "MacDoh" (what we call McDonalds). These guys are about 19-21 years old and Kyle teaches them in one of his English classes. I guess they got on the subject of American McDonalds versus the French McDonalds. Supposedly McDonalds is a nice restaurant to eat at in France. I haven't eaten a McDonalds hamburger for at least ten years and personally don't really trust the food there ever since seeing the "Super Size Me" documentary. But we decided to take them up on their offer to try it out the French way.

First of all, the inside was super nice with abstract art hanging on the walls and nice cushioned seats and booths. The line to order food was pretty long and it felt like "In-N-Out Burger" because they had an employee walking down the line taking orders electronically. They don't have a super-size me option just one called the maxi which is the biggest you can get but is the size of a regular drink in the US. They even serve cans of beer as a drink option too...The combo hamburgers we ordered were fairly small and instead of having ketchup and yellow mustard they had a special dijon mustard. The fries weren't our favorite either, probably because they weren't dripping in grease and have salt caked on. Sadly we weren't impressed with the quality of the meal, I guess that's one thing we got on the French. We know how to make our hamburgers and fries. One of the guys ate 4 Big Macs! Kyle said he forgot how much you were able to eat at that age.

One of the students named Remy asked us if we were engaged. They were all super surprised to find out we were married. I guess it never really sunk in because the rest of the night they kept referring to me as Kyle's girlfriend. I'm definitely not in Utah anymore. Everyone ordered drinks at the bowling alley and when Kyle and I told them we don't drink alcohol and never have, that was another jaw dropper. It was good because they were respectful about it. You know I am sheltered when I say this was my first time telling someone  I don't drink. After dinner we went bowling which was awesome because it felt like home. The French aren't very good at bowling so Kyle and I were able to show off our skills. My first game I scored a 150 and made three strikes in a row. Apparently when a woman gets three strikes in a row in France, traditionally they are offered a free glass of champaign.  The students were all so excited to get me my champaign and ran off to talk to the owner.  Lucky for me, this particular alley didn't honor this tradition anymore... The whole game everyone was amazed and kept asking us where we learned to play. Kyle has a cool curve ball and they were still amazed even if it curved too much and went into the gutter. We were pretty much their idols.

Gallo Roman tour through Perigueux

Last Saturday we finally got a break from the rain so Kyle and I decided to go out and explore the sites and history of our little town. The first landmark on our map was the Vesunna Temple--a pagan temple constructed in the 2nd century A.D.!  All that is left now is a tower called the "cella", the sacred part where only the priest could enter to worship.












Next was the Barriere Castle--built in the 12th century--which hasn't been restored since being destroyed in 1575.                    








The picture above shows what is left of the inside of the castle. You aren't allowed to go inside so I had to take it from an open window. I don't know what it is about castles that I love so much, maybe it's the history...they are just so fascinating.




Everything here is so beautiful and it's even better with all the fall colors. We went to a public garden called "Les Arenes" (The Ruins) and I immediately fell in love with this place. First of all, the garden is surrounded by archeological remains of an Amphitheatre from the 1st century A.D. that could hold 20,000 spectators--there to watch the Roman Games. Later, during the Middle Ages, it became a stronghold and now a public park. It was pretty incredible to to see part of the structure that is left and to imagine what victories/tragedies happened in that arena and the 20,000 people cheering and such. Now, there is a playground, a water fountain, lots of benches and trails to explore--I know I will want to come back here often just to relax and read.

























The ground is covered with leaves everywhere right now. I was so proud of myself because I remembered the name of this yellow leaf I have pictured off to the right (thank you Mr. Shuler and AP Biology). This Ginkgo biloba tree shed all of its gorgeous yellow leaves blanketing everything below it. Looks sort of like it snowed...I love fall time!

The Beginning

I apologize for making everyone wait for the blog posts. Things here have finally settled down so I can start writing!

There are three things I want to accomplish here in France:

1. Learn the language 

2. La cuisine (cook French recipes)

3. Travel 

So far speaking the language has been more difficult than I thought. The Spanish I learned growing up from my dad (thanks for making us read scriptures in Spanish!) in high school and college came so natural. French is a beautiful language but it doesn't come as naturally! Spanish has helped me to understand the grammar principles but looks like now I'll just have to start committing French words and phrases to memory. Haha, when we first arrived my instinct was to speak Spanish because they couldn't understand Enlgish but then I quickly realized they wouldn't understand that either... Despite all this, I'm learning de plus en plus tous les jours (more and more everyday).

I have to say the best thing in France so far has been the gastronomy. I haven't yet tasted a meal I disliked. Their pastries and bread are 2 die 4 (as the famous choir teacher Mrs. Jolley would say) and I have a feeling I will need to up my exercise time while I'm here. I've always had a love for cooking, thanks to my mother and her delicious concoctions, and I am going to take advantage of being in the country that knows food best. I've already bought several cookbooks which unfortunately I don't understand yet. My sweet husband is going to have his work cut out for him helping me translate! I will be sure to share my experiments in the kitchen. 

Traveling. I've always dreamed of traveling with my husband--I just didn't expect it so soon. What a blessing this is for the two of us. So far we've been able to see the "beach town" Biarittz and Bayonne where Kyle served part of his mission. Last week we decided to head up to Paris during school holiday to see the life work of our favorite painter, Claude Monet, at an exclusive exhibit. By the end of the week, my feet felt like they were going to fall off but I loved every minute of my stay there. Then there is the town of Perigueux, where we now call home. Everyone who knows me well knows that I have a passion for the medieval time period--the castles, the knights, the quests, ect. I know, I'm a nerd but this stuff makes me giddy. Walking down the streets of Perigueux, I feel like I'm in a story book. The Dordogne (region surrounding us) area is dotted with old castles which I'm sure we'll be visiting soon. 

I have tons of pictures so far and adventures to go along with them. I want to share this with everyone and it may take some time to back track but I promise to keep up on the posts. Feel free to comment and please ask questions--I would love to hear from everyone!