Laura...and the rest of the week!

I realize it's been a few days...or more - since I last wrote. So what, nothing exciting has been happening? Mais non, bien sûr! I have my reasons, of which I will not get into. Too personal.

However, here I am; newly inspired by a wonderful book I'm reading called Eat, Pray, Love (by Elizabeth Gilbert for anyone who's wondering...& if you haven't read it already - read it. But I won't get into how this book is affecting me so wonderfully right now...)

Last weekend, my most wonderful friend Laura came to visit Betz. Her and I met this past summer at Queen Charlotte Lodge, the fishing lodge where I've been working the last 2 summers. She is also from B.C. but studying this year in London, so of course we planned a weekend in Paris for the reunion of all reunions, a.s.a.p.

Véronique was kind enough to allow this weekend for us, and last Friday night at midnight she witnessed 2 very ecstatic girls reunite after 6 months, hugging each other so tight you couldn't have even forced a piece of paper between us, and laughing so hard because, well...we're just Laura and Allie!

Back at home not an hour later & we sat for a while talking quietly but excitedly over none other than a pot of english tea, before heading to bed....I felt like a little girl all over again having her bestest friend for a weekend sleepover and being much too excited to sleep....oh wait...that WAS what was happening!


We missed the early train the next morning, but it offered us a chance to explore à pied, the town of Crépy en Valois, and to have a morning café to kickstart our big day out.

That didn't seem to please the old Frenchman in this café, as we stood in the doorway with our goofy grins - he gave us the once-over with his skeptical eyes, stopping to glare at our feet...apparantly did we not see the mop in his hands?? Begrudgingly, he got behind his counter and served us 2 cafés...we tried to take a seat at the back of the café but he quickly intervened and shooed us to a closer table near the door. I asked in french if this was not a normal time to be having a café and was he already preparing for the lunch time?...it was only 9:30. He replied in english something about yes, this was the time to clean blah blah...I interrupted saying "C'est bien, je parle français :)" This seemed to calm him a bit that we perhaps were not totally annoying english speaking customers who didn't know a thing about french culture...and I felt so....je ne sais quoi...for being able to say something like "C'est bien, je parle français"


Anyway. Arriving in Paris with no plans for the day whatsoever. Typical Laura and Allie...let's just wander & do what our little hearts desire. So we started with le Tour Eiffel , because really, what else do you start with when in Paris?? We contemplated at one point climbing it's arduous staircases....nah, we'd be too tired by the end of the day. Then we contemplated the elevator route...nah, the line up was far too long, we could spend our time in Paris doing better things than standing in line...

Like searching for the perfect chocolatier, the perfect boulangerie, the perfect pattisier, and the perfect bouteille de vin! All for the purpose of taking each of these typically french delights to somewhere where we could sit, eat, drink, talk and be merry.

I think I may have found one of my favourite monuments in Paris. I was astounded at its monolithic presence! Unlike the Eiffel Tower where I expected it to be taller, here I didn't expect it to be so friggin grand! Anyway, after I stopped gaping at it, feasting on it with my eyes exclaiming "wooowww...." dozens of times, we finally found the underground tunnels that lead to it...we did for a moment consider jay-walking across the mid-afternoon Parisien traffic (of which I miraculously had a moment here to snap a picture with NO cars!!) then we realized there wasn't actually a crosswalk either, and finally oriented ourselves to the tunnels that lead to it. And here we sat for at least an hour maybe more, feasting on our fresh baguettes, still warm from the oven, our 2 wheels of cheese and our bouteille de vin....we talked and talked and talked, catching up on every detail of the last 6 months starting from the day we parted at the lodge...in fact this didn't stop the entire weekend....we're still not done....


Eventually, nearing the end of our bottle, some crusty ol' Frenchman comes up to us, flashes some badge that was meant to say 'Hey look, I'm supposed to be official so listen up to what I'm about to say...' and tells us "You cannot drink or eat here you fools, get out of here!" or something to that effect...We of course were too tipsy and giggly to fully comprehend but something to the effect of us feeling like maybe we were making a mockery of this historic monument by getting drunk under it...so we got up and left to wander les Champs Elysées and the side streets of Paris...not before taking a few silly photos of us of course!


That night for dinner was of course crêpes salés, typiquement français, just for Laura...oh and baguette and cheese and wine and sweet crêpes for dessert!! Seriously...
And then Sunday for lunch? (which turned out to be breakfast for us two chatty kathy's) None other than the raclette I talked about in my first blog....folks, if you haven't eaten raclette before, you just can't comprehend how good it is, how hard it is to stop and how grossly full you feel after gorging on it....so.much.eating.this.weekend.

And so our last day together, bellies FULL, (with Véronique and Victor as well) was in Chantilly, home of the famous crème Chantilly, fine porcelaine and lace (did you know real Chantilly lace is made from black silk?) We visited le Château de Chantilly, considéré comme l'un des plus beaux musées de France et la forêt. Chantilly is essentially an equestrian town, famous in fact for its races...(there are more sandy pathways for horses and signs saying Horse Crossings than you can imagine! The guidebook at home here describes Chantilly in 4 words: château, forêt, cheval et...crème!)

I couldn't be happier to have spent this time with Laura, as she offered up some beautifully sage advice and words of wisdom on my situation here (as I was hoping she would, and she always delivers!) Thank you SO much Laura.


Since last weekend, the boys have returned to school from their mid-February 2 week break. I finally got to see what it was that my duties were to be as au pair here.
So far, seems pretty good! My 1st day I went for a glorious, much needed 2.5 hour bike ride through the countryside (to work off all this damn baguette-cheese-wine-pasta-raclette-ness I've been consuming). I crisscrossed from village to village, along the narrow winding roads through the plots of land and green pastures...sunshine on my face, iPod in my ears, grin from ear to ear, happy as a little escargot. I just don't think I could do my feelings justice to tell you in words how I felt on this day. I don't particularly want to share that magic with you either, no offense! :)

I have also been continuing with my french grammar classes 2x a week with all the lovely Moroccan ladies...teehee. I'm liking it, though I think the teachers are still scratching their pretty french heads as to why I'm there. I'm still insisting to them that it's my passé composé, l'imparfait, futur simple that I need to work on!

Yesterday we went to the Forum des Métiers at the boys' school, a job fair they hold every year. It's a lovely ancient building like everything else here, nestled among the woods of Mortefontaine, about 20-30 minute drive from here. The boys didn't much care to be there, but Christophe and I dragged them around to as much as we could...from pattisier to journaliste...did I mention the only 'conference' we went to right away was on journalism? Christophe insisted I go with him and Victor (Victor, I don't know why, cuz I'm sure he wants to be a pattisier or cuisinier) So I'm thinking wow...Christophe has no idea does he! Mom...are you laughing at this right now? Cuz I'm saying this for you...:)

Oh and I've forgotten to mention that la jolie fille au pair Canadienne, yours truly, became a small time celeb at the school yesterday. See they asked the families to submit a cake to be sold at lunch as fundraising money. So Véro asked me to bake a Canadian cake, to which I replied "What's a Canadian cake?!" Our country is such a melting pot of cultures, in my mind we really don't have much in the way of typical food, especially. [yes, insert maple syrup stereotype here]

I promptly emailed mommy who sent me a chocolate zucchini cake recipe from the Best of Bridge series (yaa! Holla' to all y'all who know and love those Best of Bridge cookbooks eh!) this was not typically Canadian I'd say, but as mom kindly insinuated, perhaps it was a polite jab at Edouard, the 12 year old who refuses to eat ANY sort of vegetables. [sidenote here mom: I'm sorry to say, I never did witness firsthand if he tried it or not, but even his little bro, who eats the verrrry occasional vege, coulnd't keep from exclaiming his surprise that this yummy cake he just inhaled contained...gasp...courgette??!] Véro and I snickered to ourselves.

Anyway, I digress. When we arrived at the school, I noticed my cake was almost gone, and when I went to choose my own piece of dessert, I commented to the lady behind the counter that I was très heureuse a voir que mon petit gâteau est un grand succès! Well! My lord!
The reaction I got! The other 3 within earshot rushed over and swarmed me excitedly, exclaiming how wonderful it was, & everyone who had a piece thought it was just the best thing they'd tasted...they had even made an announcemnt over the P.A system before I got there to 'whoever had made le gateau Canadien to please present themself' Oh god it went on like this for about 5 minutes! I left with my slice of flan, and a small piece of paper with each of their emails written down...I just MUST send them the recipe!

Today, might I just insert here the fact that I, for the first time, ate real french escargots for lunch this afternoon?! I think I deserve a big pat on the back for that one, and I will say this: they aren't half bad....when doused in garlic and parsley that is, washed down with either a glass of fine french wine or a glass of fine portuguese sugary vinho do porto... notice my five empty shells?! Thank you.










After all that was none other than the Salon du Chocolat, a chocolate convention of the region's best chocolatiers showcasing their creations. I still feel a tad sick to the stomach from all les macarons, chocolat chaud, chocolate this chocolate that, everywhere chocolat!



Now, quite opposite to our Sunday night dinners at home, here we just straight up don't eat on sunday night...it's sunday lunches instead...So here I end my day with a soothing pot du thé, reading Eat, Pray, Love...


Life is good.