Not a block from our apartment sits a nice little restaurant called Victor Hugo Cafe. It is a convenient little cafe in the sense that it has service no matter what time of day. On Monday night Ben and I decided to do as the French do, that is go to a nice restaurant and have a coursed meal. We weren't entirely French by what time we entered the cafe. It was about 6:30 p.m. a half an hour earlier than when the French eat dinner. But we got sat down and ordered our meal before a few more patrons decided to come and eat.
What we ordered was up to us of course, but we followed a pre-set menu which we could chose a salad, main meal and a dessert. For my salad I had a tomato and mozzarella drizzled with basil and olive oil. Ben went a slightly different route and had Serrano ham, garlic, tomatoes and bread. Both were pretty appetizing, we had a hard enough time deciphering the menu that we didn't want to go too crazy with our choices. For our main entree Ben had a regional duck breast and I had a thin steak. Both were served with a lettuce leaf and scallop like potatoes with onions and other flavors. Again the taste was pleasing, I especially enjoyed the potatoes. With our meals we had also decided to get some wine. We had help choosing our wine. The waitress suggested a red wine which had a fine taste to it as well. For our dessert Ben had a chocolate mousse and I had a creme brulee. Ben was excited that his chocolate was actually sweet, it had been awhile since he had had anything quite as sweet in France so far. My creme brulee was delightfully creamy and crunchy and had a perfect caramelized top. All in all a pretty good meal. Once we received our check we were given a shot glass of a apple liqueur. We both tasted it but were unable to finish it, we were still feeling our wine! Despite the fact we could not finish it, we thought it tasted good and wished we could have. With our bellies pleasantly full, we left to explore.
A nice thing about living in Europe is the open markets, they are good things to have around, especially if you want something fresh. One of my requests when I went to the open market was to find bell peppers. I have to admit, I didn't think I would be able to find some, bell peppers are popular in the U.S. and are not hard to get, but here I have not seen a single bell pepper. So despite my doubts I headed to the open air market in Place Victor Hugo, this place is just off of Place Wilson (the largest place in the area, next to the capitol). The first booth I found they had an abundance of bell peppers and they were huge! Then an interesting thing happened, the guy standing at the booth requested that we should only speak in English, that just made my day! Both sellers were able to speak some English, even though they did not know the names of the vegetables in English. But I was able to get some onions and bell peppers as requested. But before I was able to leave with them, the conversation of the price of them went a little something like this, a combination of Spanish, English and French were used to help understand why the price was so good. I was able to get 2 peppers and 2 onions for 1 euro 50 instead of the whole lot being about 5 euro. I just thought it was intriguing having such a trilingual conversation so that all would understand the circumstance. It gave me hope that France was more mixed than I thought it was. For we had a conversation involving three languages and we all represented three different countries (at least). One of the men was from Morocco and the other from a different African country. We all could not speak well in French and used what we knew to communicate. What a small wonderful world we live in.
I recently read a book called French or Foe? about living in France. One of the things it talked about was not expecting to be friendly with your neighbors. I have found the opposite to be true. I was headed back to the apartment via the elevator and ran into an older gentleman. When I told him "Je ne parle pas francais" (I don't speak French) he excused himself as if to say he was sorry for speaking French to me before, but some English appeared. He asked me if I was American and immediately went to Obama, asking if he was president. I told him yes that he had just been inaugurated. Once he reached his floor he smiled and said au revoir. Besides the run in with the older gentleman on the elevator people have randomly spoken to me in French. One day I was looking for a pair of jeans in a rather large pile and a woman spoke to me in French, I assume to help me find my size. I forgot my French and said in English "I'm sorry I don't speak French" and she just smiled and waved as she left the pile. So people are nice, its just a matter of working with them as best you can. Even just speaking a little of the language. Everyday I wish I knew more French, but hopefully it will come. The French are friendly, even though the book claims that there is no such word in their language.
We finally were able to get to a "tourist attraction" today we went to the Cathedral of St. Etienne. It is know
n not as a place of worship but for its art. Did it have art! There were many beautiful sculptures and paintings. It was hard just to take it all in. The paintings depicted certain events in the Bible such as the last supper and Jesus' burial. They all were on large canvases that nearly took up half of the walls in which they were hung. The ceilings were incredibly high and beautiful, I'm sure aimed at the idea that one is supposed to feel the Lord's presence. The stained glass was wonderful as well, full of detail and color in a dreary setting. The Cathedral is hard to describe, but it was good to see it. We still have much more to see! But unfortunately one cannot always get away from adverse weather. Yesterday we had a very speedy, fierce wind that reminded me of blizzards in Iowa. The wind was so strong light poles, directional signs and power lines could not stand it. Several trees fell as well. We reluctantly went outside because we still needed to run some errands. At times it was hard to walk, but it was worth it to get outside and walk around despite the wind.
We have started to make our apartment something like home. We have revamped the living room with a little rearranging. It looks a little better and might serve our purposes better. That is keeping our bikes close at hand. Soon I hope to have a few decorations for the wall and some more color. Our bland colorless walls don't leave much for the eye to enjoy. We are also expriementing with making meals. We were able to have a very good homemade meal of spaghetti and bread with garlic dipping sauce. I think we are adapting slowly but surely to our home for the next couple more months. It is a good apartment, just needs a few homey decorations and a nice atmosphere!
What we ordered was up to us of course, but we followed a pre-set menu which we could chose a salad, main meal and a dessert. For my salad I had a tomato and mozzarella drizzled with basil and olive oil. Ben went a slightly different route and had Serrano ham, garlic, tomatoes and bread. Both were pretty appetizing, we had a hard enough time deciphering the menu that we didn't want to go too crazy with our choices. For our main entree Ben had a regional duck breast and I had a thin steak. Both were served with a lettuce leaf and scallop like potatoes with onions and other flavors. Again the taste was pleasing, I especially enjoyed the potatoes. With our meals we had also decided to get some wine. We had help choosing our wine. The waitress suggested a red wine which had a fine taste to it as well. For our dessert Ben had a chocolate mousse and I had a creme brulee. Ben was excited that his chocolate was actually sweet, it had been awhile since he had had anything quite as sweet in France so far. My creme brulee was delightfully creamy and crunchy and had a perfect caramelized top. All in all a pretty good meal. Once we received our check we were given a shot glass of a apple liqueur. We both tasted it but were unable to finish it, we were still feeling our wine! Despite the fact we could not finish it, we thought it tasted good and wished we could have. With our bellies pleasantly full, we left to explore.
A nice thing about living in Europe is the open markets, they are good things to have around, especially if you want something fresh. One of my requests when I went to the open market was to find bell peppers. I have to admit, I didn't think I would be able to find some, bell peppers are popular in the U.S. and are not hard to get, but here I have not seen a single bell pepper. So despite my doubts I headed to the open air market in Place Victor Hugo, this place is just off of Place Wilson (the largest place in the area, next to the capitol). The first booth I found they had an abundance of bell peppers and they were huge! Then an interesting thing happened, the guy standing at the booth requested that we should only speak in English, that just made my day! Both sellers were able to speak some English, even though they did not know the names of the vegetables in English. But I was able to get some onions and bell peppers as requested. But before I was able to leave with them, the conversation of the price of them went a little something like this, a combination of Spanish, English and French were used to help understand why the price was so good. I was able to get 2 peppers and 2 onions for 1 euro 50 instead of the whole lot being about 5 euro. I just thought it was intriguing having such a trilingual conversation so that all would understand the circumstance. It gave me hope that France was more mixed than I thought it was. For we had a conversation involving three languages and we all represented three different countries (at least). One of the men was from Morocco and the other from a different African country. We all could not speak well in French and used what we knew to communicate. What a small wonderful world we live in.
I recently read a book called French or Foe? about living in France. One of the things it talked about was not expecting to be friendly with your neighbors. I have found the opposite to be true. I was headed back to the apartment via the elevator and ran into an older gentleman. When I told him "Je ne parle pas francais" (I don't speak French) he excused himself as if to say he was sorry for speaking French to me before, but some English appeared. He asked me if I was American and immediately went to Obama, asking if he was president. I told him yes that he had just been inaugurated. Once he reached his floor he smiled and said au revoir. Besides the run in with the older gentleman on the elevator people have randomly spoken to me in French. One day I was looking for a pair of jeans in a rather large pile and a woman spoke to me in French, I assume to help me find my size. I forgot my French and said in English "I'm sorry I don't speak French" and she just smiled and waved as she left the pile. So people are nice, its just a matter of working with them as best you can. Even just speaking a little of the language. Everyday I wish I knew more French, but hopefully it will come. The French are friendly, even though the book claims that there is no such word in their language.
We finally were able to get to a "tourist attraction" today we went to the Cathedral of St. Etienne. It is know
n not as a place of worship but for its art. Did it have art! There were many beautiful sculptures and paintings. It was hard just to take it all in. The paintings depicted certain events in the Bible such as the last supper and Jesus' burial. They all were on large canvases that nearly took up half of the walls in which they were hung. The ceilings were incredibly high and beautiful, I'm sure aimed at the idea that one is supposed to feel the Lord's presence. The stained glass was wonderful as well, full of detail and color in a dreary setting. The Cathedral is hard to describe, but it was good to see it. We still have much more to see! But unfortunately one cannot always get away from adverse weather. Yesterday we had a very speedy, fierce wind that reminded me of blizzards in Iowa. The wind was so strong light poles, directional signs and power lines could not stand it. Several trees fell as well. We reluctantly went outside because we still needed to run some errands. At times it was hard to walk, but it was worth it to get outside and walk around despite the wind.We have started to make our apartment something like home. We have revamped the living room with a little rearranging. It looks a little better and might serve our purposes better. That is keeping our bikes close at hand. Soon I hope to have a few decorations for the wall and some more color. Our bland colorless walls don't leave much for the eye to enjoy. We are also expriementing with making meals. We were able to have a very good homemade meal of spaghetti and bread with garlic dipping sauce. I think we are adapting slowly but surely to our home for the next couple more months. It is a good apartment, just needs a few homey decorations and a nice atmosphere!
