C'est la Vie à Paris!: 'Tis the Season

Alors, nous sommes arrivées au décembre... where does the time go?! I absolutely cannot believe there are only 17 days left until I'm home for the holidays. Don't get me wrong, I'm so excited to spend a few weeks catching up with family and friends and eating real home-cooked meals--I've been trying my best in my wee kitchenette, but it's just not the same. Unfortunately the short amount of time until I get to see you all means there's an even shorter amount of time until I have to take my finals. And then I'm halfway done with my first year of college. Whoa.

As much as I might want to kid myself, there's no denying that we've entered full-on winter here in Paris. No snow to date, but I've definitely had to break out the earmuffs and gloves on my bike, and I've taken to wrapping a scarf around my neck and another around my face, but even the biting chill of the wind off the Seine is preferable to having my face in someone's armpit on the jam-packed metro...at least in my opinion! Plus I get to see all the store windows painted with scenes of snowmen and Santa Claus and the elegant wrought-iron balconies draped in cheesy Christmas lights. Love it!

Before I start talking Christmas, though, let me rewind to Thanksgiving! NYU hosted a dinner for all the students and faculty at a restaurant in the Saint-Germain des Pres district called Le Solferino. It was truly a Franglais affair with even more bread than I'm used to at home...no complaints here. We were served butternut squash soup, mashed sweet potatoes (my favorite), green beans, and some type of delicious meat which I'm ashamed to say I'm not even sure what it was. A turkey was definitely carved by our campus director John Moran, but none of that bird made in onto my plate. I have a sneaking suspicion it was foie gras but I don't want to ask because I'd rather not have a lovely meal tainted by the knowledge that I feasted on a liver patê. If you can't tell, I'm still getting over some of my American food complexes, which were not helped one bit by my earlier experience with escargot. And of course the most important part of the meal...pumpkin pie! It was more of a tart with actual chunks of pumpkin, but it was cinnamon-y and warm and came with homemade whipped cream--none of that low-fat, fake sugar nonsense--so I'll give the French an A for effort!

There WAS a turkey...I have proof!

The other highlight of the evening was being asked by the GLS dean Fred Schwarzbach to take a photo. He's the director of my major/program, and he decided to spend Thanksgiving with us in Paris! This ended up on the NYU Liberal Studies Instagram, something I had no idea existed until my friend sent me the picture and told me I was famous.

On the left are Leah and Jonah...my companions at the dinner table! Above are two GLS juniors. One big happy NYU family :)

After our Thanksgiving dinner, the rest of my weekend was pretty busy and fun-filled as well. Saturday morning I caught an early train to Dijon. When I visited France for the first time this past Spring with KHS, we spent a few days in Dijon where Kirkwood has something like a "sister school." Each student from KHS got paired up with a student from Boivon and had dinner with them and their family, so I went to visit my friend Magali and her family again.

It was such a lovely and relaxing weekend! When I arrived, we went to lunch in the city center. Dijon is definitely a city, but it feels much more quaint than Paris. It wasn't too terribly cold, so we walked around for awhile, wandering in and out of tiny shops and also stopping for a treat:

It's never too cold for a Nutella milkshake

That evening I had my first crepe-making lesson. Magali's parents already had plans to dine at a friend's, so we had full reign of the kitchen. I did the measuring and mixing and left the hard part to the expert, but I came back to Paris with a recipe, so maybe if I'm feeling adventurous one evening I'll give it a whirl! Thin pancakes...how hard can it be?

After dinner, we went to see the Hunger Games--en Francais, of course! It was my first French film that didn't involve subtitles, and I was pleasantly surprised how well I was able to follow. Then again it probably helped that I read the books in English and therefore already knew the plot, but I'm still counting it as a victory.

Sunday morning we had a leisurely French lunch that may have been one of the best meals I've had here. People say everything closes in Paris on Sundays, but that isn't completely true. You can still find cafes and boulangeries and the occasional supermarket open for business. In Dijon, its absolutely true. There isn't much to do in the city, so instead of just the traditional Sunday family dinner, they go all out and do lunch as well. Magali's mom began cooking around 10 am and we sat down to eat at 1 pm. She had roasted a chicken and made homemade ratatouille and skillet potatoes. After that we had the obligatory cheese and bread in-between course, and we finished it off with homemade chocolate mousse and raspberries. Yum!!!

The exception to the less-than-lively Sundays I described above is the Marché de Noel, an annual outdoor Christmas Market. These are very popular all over France, but Dijon's is the first I have visited so far.

Stands selling everything from scarves to sausage to nougat to dolls. Perfect place for Christmas shopping! Or a ferris wheel ride if you are so inclined.