Day 1

Shortly after arriving in Paris on Saturday, mon maison d’accueil (host mom) immediately sat me down and cooked for me. Honestly, what more could you ask for. I live in the 10th arrondissement, a neighborhood known for being more laid back than the stereotypical snooty areas near the Champs-Elysees or the Tour Eiffel. As our program directer calls it, the 10th is exceedingly “hipster-esque.” I didn’t know if the same type of hipsters exist in Paris like they do in the States, but on my way home from the metro yesterday night I observed a bearded Frenchman with gelled hair cutting the hair of another bearded man in a coiffure (hair salon) that was 10 by 10 feet wide, and covered in magazine cutouts and bumper stickers. If the image isn’t clear enough in your mind, they both had traditional French mustaches and were wearing leather jackets and skinny corduroys. Get it? yeah….

Anyhow, after we ate our dejeuner (lunch) together, Evelyn took me to the market near to her apartment to help me buy the foods I liked in order to easily suit our 5 weekly meals together. Me, being the ignorant American, was under the impression we would be going to a small supermarket to buy everyday items, vegetables, eggs, etc… but noooooope. Our first stop was a small patisserie, or a bakery, so Evelyn could buy her daily baguette. Insane. And, just like the scene from Ratatouille where Collette shows Linguini that fantastic bread is not understood by the texture but by the sound of the crunch of the crust, the bread maker crunched the crust to show Evelyn her daily pickings. Not kidding. Then we walked across the street, to her boucherie, a traditional French meat shop where they may also sell fromage (cheese; which, by the way I would remember because i’ll be using it a lot). She chose two chevres (goat cheese) for me. One, circular and 2 inches wide and 1 inch thick, and another which I couldn’t get her to speak slow enough to pronounce for me to write down. And if this wasn’t enough, we picked up more cheese at the supermarket. It seemed insurmountable that just me and her would eat that much cheese in one week. Update: we’re making a substantial dent.

After our rendez-vous to the market Evelyn took me to the bus stop I would be using each day to get to class so I could recognize it on Sunday for orientation (which I did not…). We attended a short cocktail party with the participants of my program and their host families where we were served red wine (nope, don’t remember the name of that one either) and small hor d’oeuvres. They included creme fraiche and avocado, topped with shredded crab and parsley, and small tartines (toasts) with charcuterie spread languidly on top.

And, as if this weren’t enough, Evelyn made me more food once we returned to her apartment on Dunkerque. Almond encrusted white fish with fresh lettuce and dijon mustard, finishing the meal with our recent cheese purchases and the fresh baguette.