A dinner party!

Saturday night I walked into a new world. I arrived at her farmhouse with Isabelle around 7:30pm, excited to meet her dinner guests. I have only spoken with this English teacher twice – once when I stopped by her house for tea with another teacher and then early last week when she offered me a ride home from school, and thus invited me to her dinner party. Our co-workers tend to think she is… strange, so I was intimidated to accept her invitation. But I did. And I am so happy I did.

Greeted by a healthy, happy Tom (her beautiful collie), we crossed the muddy yard to an old, lighted house. Walking in the front door I smelled meat slow-cooking on the top of an antique wood stove, formerly a sheep on her farm. Not a minute passed before she and I got to work collecting fresh-chopped wood from the pile next to the house, peeling potatoes and carrots, cutting leeks. Pot au feu is a traditional paysan dish – a comfort food. She made me long for my own house in the country with her garden boasting all of the vegetables we ate, her rich compost, her soiled hands, her thick, wooden kitchen table which doubles as a cutting board, her variety of cookware suspended just above our heads as we chopped and peeled, and her generosity, sending home a box of veggies with each guest. Though she had expected six guests, turned twelve, she was able to walk out to the garden and grab more nourriture, no problem. When everything was done, she walked around, wringing her hands a little as she said, “Il faut rester Zen,” I should stay calm.

Guests arrived and quickly everyone found themselves holding a champagne-filled flute. Everyone looked at me with curiosity and eventually someone got the nerve to ask why I was there. “Who ARE you?” The French are not known for their subtlety. Their boldness was softened by their interest in finger foods holding down the coffee table. Isabelle served black and green olives, two avocado dips, carrots, bread slices, jicama, sunflower seeds. Collecting the olive pits, half coconut shells wobbled on the table like round-bottomed tumblers.

Making my way through all ten guests, trying to catch everyone’s name, city and interesting fact, eventually I met a woman from New Jersey. Yes, in the French countryside! She and I had a good laugh and I had a new buddy – a few times during the evening she gave me a knowing look, “I don’t understand, either.” The rest of the guests were French. Very French. Mostly Parisians, visiting their country home for the weekend. I learned most Parisians have one. Thus, though we were at a farm, everyone was dressed in chic, Parisian-in-the-countryside style. Think Carrie in ‘Sex and the City’ when she visits Aiden’s country house! Not only was I not dressed à la mode, I also didn’t look like any of her other guests – mostly they all had beautiful salt and pepper hair, she has not-so-French red hair, and I was the brunette American!

Eventually we moved the revelry to the drawn out table, a little after 10pm. A good time for a three-course meal?! Ah, the French. We started with the pot au feu and a taste of red wine. Conversation sped toward the wine quickly – this must be how guests tell their host they want to drink all the wine she can offer because thereafter bottles were opened in pairs. As you know, the French like their food, but they really like their wine. Isabelle had to run out to a different building, arriving back at the table with a bottle that looked like it had shared a pen with one of her sheep. She used a nail to flick off the dirt and read the label. We continued enjoying generous portions of wine as we moved through the courses. The next plate welcomed a variety of cheeses: Camembert, Chèvre, Reblochon, Comté, Brie, Chavignol, and optional bread. The same plate invited salad – to help digestion. And finally, the third plate was for the four different desserts: fruit salad, rice pudding, chocolate cake, and rum cake. No, that’s not all. To finish, we each had a ‘tisane,’ a drink brewed from dried herbs, fruits and flowers – no tea leaves.

This unconventional group has a similar interest – architecture – which prompted the dinner party. Isabelle wants them to invest in a farmhouse together which they will renovate in the style it was originally built – using the same materials and techniques. One of the guests, Chantal, is the expert and has helped each of the couples renovate their country houses. But conversation moved quickly, jumping from architecture to jokes with an English punch line, immigration, the best neighborhoods in Paris – with and without children, working in a foreign country, American politics, organic agriculture, the Schengen Agreement, and of course several times we discussed the rumor that Prince had bought a ‘manoir’ in a neighboring town! The dining room was filled with laughter – some of the guests were real characters – until almost 2am! Then, as quickly as they had arrived, all of the guests left.

And that is what a French dinner party looks like!


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I have been neglecting my blog, but the dinner party inspired me to write again. There is more to say about life in the last month, though. I traveled home to Wisconsin on December 22 – my first flight went off without a hitch, I met a new friend, Jessica, as tends to be my pattern when I travel alone. Unfortunately, my second flight, to Madison, was cancelled; I had to wait at O’Hare for two hours for a bus to Milwaukee. My dear brother, Travis, picked me up and took me back to his place where a Christmas party was in full swing. As the theme was ‘white elephant’ party, I wrapped up my lung x-ray from the stodgy French government which warranted a good chuckle. The next day I picked up my luggage at the Dane County Airport and drove home extra slow in the ensuing blizzard. So happy I was to have a white Christmas, it didn’t even matter that my brothers weren’t home. Just kidding. Christmas day was filled with family, food, and drinks. And I sat at the adult table this year! The next day I bustled up to Green Bay to spend a few days with Eric, his family and friends. On the 29th I finally saw both of my brothers and my sisters-in-law! Next was New Year’s in Madison with some of my favorite people in this world – Kelly, Vandy, Rachel, J, and Eric. Woot woot! The next few days spend past – I went to a movie with my parents, I went cross-country skiing with B-mo and I packed my life into a suitcase. Again.

Life back in Nogent-le-Rotrou is good. The last two weeks have been great, despite the fact that it has rained EVERY day. I have read three books, I finished my first semester classes last Thursday, I held my first two English club meetings, I have gone out to eat with my young friends thrice – once to celebrate the Spanish assistant’s birthday, I have eaten dinner at two different teachers’ houses, I went to two movies in our humble movie theater, I took a day trip to Le Mans, I spent a night of folly with ten other language assistants in Chateaudun, I have provoked lots of smiles out of little Paul who is now reacting to funny faces and noises, and I have planned a great vacation for my winter break! I’m trying not to plan away my time here, but I am excited to see more of Europe – starting February 9, I’m going to Budapest, Vienna, Munich, Sion, and Chamonix-Mont-Blanc. I’ll travel alone until I meet up with my roommates, Sadie and Holly, to ski in Chamonix. Booyah!

I would love to hear an update from you, if you have a minute to write me!

Pura vida,
Molly