NANCY'S MOST WANTED: PIERRE THE PAON

I was sitting peacefully...
on one of the park benches in Parc de la Pepinière today, enjoying a lovely Sunday afternoon which will probably be one of the last warm days here. I had bought a Quiche Lorraine - the specialty of this region that has eggs, ham and a crust that is so buttery and flaky that it really should be a sin to eat it, but I digress...so, after I finished my quiche and had sufficiently licked my fingers enough to get all the butter off and tried to clean all the flakes of dough off my black shirt so as to not stand out as the American who eats with her fingers instead of with forks, I reached for my Viennois (a lovely slightly sweet bread) with dark chocolate chips - yes, the French understand that to use anything except dark chocolate is an offense against pastries.

I was eating the Viennois to assuage the pain that is grading English tests (I only finished 2 tests in an hour...ufff). I finished half my Viennois and put it next to me and was grading when suddenly a paon, yes, a PEACOCK came and stole it from me! You can imagine my surprise and utter outrage at the 1. Gaspillage of 1,10 euros and 2. The loss of my legal addiction (a.k.a chocolat noir) to a PEACOCK.

Voilà the culprit and my lovely Viennois:

I'm including the frontal and side views so that if someone catches this villain, know my many (that means just me) as Pierre the Paon, (He's known to use the alias Pete sometimes when trying to cross boarders) they will promptly make it cough up the lost euro and ten centimes I spent on it. Moral of the story: guard your pastries with your life!

Bonne Dimanche !

Rues, Cafés, Épiceries et Églises

This is what I love about life in France:

1. Adorable rues (streets) that veer off in every which direction and are never straight therefore, giving you the sensation that you've just stepped into a movie and you might possibly find a handsome European man that will sweep you away on a little vespa at any minute, but of course, before that there would be an excellent photographer who says, "May take fotograph of lovely American woman with (tall, dark and handsome) young man?" And he captures the essence of the lovely centuries old wall that you lean up against while the handsome young man perfectly positions himself to lean over you with one arm on the wall (you know what I'm talking about, right? That pose that you always see in the picture frames when you buy it.).

2. I've said it and I'll say it again (probably until you're sick of hearing it.) The food is AMAZING! I can't think of anywhere else that I'd rather be in the world than just sipping a cup of café at a little café in France. I feel like I could be one of those chic, boho friend girls who would sip coffee and write a book or a poem or I could be a fashion addicted Parisienne who is also just as chic but in a much more done up way and of course both of these scenarios would have to include me being stick skinny, gorgeous and with a cigarette in my mouth (explaining why French Women Don't Get Fat...). En fin, coffee anytime is delightful but at a corner café, ten times more wonderful!
3. Buying food from local vendors...if you haven't noticed the trend yet, I really like the food here...but, yes, I love that you buy your meat at the boucherie and bread and pastries at the boulangerie/patisserie. I've even started to get to know my local grocers who all ask if I'm anglaise and I politely respond, "Non, je suis americaine." I always get a bit of a response to this like "Ahh! so, do you like it in Nancy?" And of course I say "Oui, oui bien sûr"! I live in a Arabic area of town so they sell things like olives dunked in spices and couscous that you can get by the kilo and lots of Halal meat and lots of sweets like Bakalava that I tried out the other day and it was fantastic! Its no wonder that Organic food is weird to the French because their food already comes that way - I mean shouldn't organic things be organic?
4. Brocantes! Last weekend I went to the old town to go antique/secondhand shopping with Siân and it was so fun to look at all the old French stuff. I got a ring and Siân two brooches that she's going to make into necklaces and just all in all it was a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon...and then you can refer back to number two where we took a lovely cup of coffee in the plaza...

5. Old churches. They're everywhere. I go to mass each week in the Cathedral that is just giant and I'm just kind of dazed each time that I get to celebrate mass there! Love it!

Bon weekend!

Blonde!

AHHHHH!!!!

Yep, this was my sentiment after Siân and I finished our little salon endevour. I am now officially blond, blond, blond! Do blonds have more fun? Well, I must say that since I got paid (the reason for our salon day), got internet installed in my apartment that comes with a free calles to the US on the home phone (!), and after two weeks, got my gas turned back on and the pilot light working so I can take hot showers and cook I'm having definitely having more fun...incidentally, I don't think this is connected to the blondness but all the same, life is really good once you're settled in!

I've also got into the swing of things at the university. French students are a 180 from US students and most of us lecteurs have decided that we can see why teachers either LOVE their job or simply HATE it.

When my students (still weird to say that) actually participate in class, I leave feeling like I've conquered the world, one English syllable at a time and when they don't, and give me that blank stare of confusion...well, I resort to speaking really, really slowly, making hand gestures to illustrate and finally repeating it in French...ugh...and then I walk away worn out and pep myself up by buying a coffee from the Salle des Profs - yes, that's right - I get to use the all exclusive and elite TEACHER'S LOUNGE now!!! I rather enjoy this priviledge after years of wondering what goes on in the infamous lounge...well, in France it tends to be coffee breaks and everyone always use the bathroom there because it is actually clean, has a toilet seat and (gasp!) soap!!!

Thus continues life in France, it really is lovely. Yesterday, on my day off, I walked around the old part of town and bought a rather endearing old leather binded book by Colette in the older part of the city called the Ville Veille (literally, Old City) and because it was such a lovely day, I had to buy a pain au chocolat while I walked around the the Parque de la Pepinière.

Gros Biz!