La Croissant Magique : France

Friday Julie and I went for a run and worked out in a nearby park. We then went to her school, the ENS, to look around. We also printed off our train tickets for the weekend, from the one printer there. It is one of the most prestigious schools in France, and very different from the prestigious schools in America.

We walked together to tour the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais. 

And we walked around the neighborhood Belleville so that I could see some of the street art in the area.

 

 

"you should beware of words" 

this artist was spray painting in front of us!

We stopped by a little café/bar near the french canals, which was Alice and Wonderland themed and truly impressive.

the bathroom...turned into a place to sit for a meal 

We went to dinner with Marouane's friends (from his study abroad in the US at Johns Hopkins), Sam, Julie, and Douglas (another Frenchman French house frequenter who did his masters at UVA). Meanwhile, there was a Eurocup game in Paris which drew 80,000 people to the north of the city.

I drank one of my favorite European beers- Leffe Ruby, and tried pastis (the specialty of Marseille, Anise liquor).

Once the Eurocup game started, there was the same amount of staff working as people eating in the restaurant.

The french get wild about soccer, and the staff were dancing to a DJ while standing on chairs. outside, the militaire circles the neighborhood with their automatic weapons. Ever since the Paris attacks in November, the militaire has been on guard in France and patrolling. 

Memories from dinner: 

-La Croissant Magique- During Sam's last visit to Senegal, he stayed in a brothel unknowingly. He said that every waitress was a prostitute and there was a pimp in the middle of the hotel, but no one bothered to tell him and it took him entirely too long to notice.

-"Plus de rembourrage pour le fourrage" -Sam's attempt to translate American slang into French...

-Sam ordered salmon tartare, which is uncooked, and said "it's for my glossy coat... like a dog." You never know what he's going to say, and it'll always make you laugh.

Saturday

Sam, Julie, and I took the train to Tours to visit with Julie's family in the countryside. I purchased a Carte Jeune, which is a discount rail pass for students under the age of 26. In order for it to have any validity, you have to have it with you on the train to prove that you didn't buy discount tickets when you shouldn't. Of course, our train left very early in the morning and I had forgotten my Carte Jeune. After speaking with the officer, he knew that I was American from my accent in French and was very kind about the situation.

Julie's family lives in Viegné, a little town 20 minutes outside of Tours (where all the famous chateaux are). Julie's mom and sister greeted us at the train station. When we arrived at Julie's house, her parents had laid out a lovely french breakfast and had already begun making lunch. We had appetizers which included champagne from Viegné.

We toured their truly lovely house. Julie's father builds Aquariums, and there is a large one in her entryway. Their house was built by the men in Julie's family, together, and both sets of her grandparents live on the street with them. Their little dog is named Biscotte and their Bunny is named Claudine (and considerably larger than Biscotte). 

Sam and I had the opportunity to have discussion with her family about French culture over a lunch of rabbit. They spoke only french.

Next we drove in Julie's car to the Chateau de Chennonceau, which I haven't been to since I was a young girl with my family. It was beautiful. The gardens were flooded in the rain last week but they had already redone them. Riding through the fields and little villages was so beautiful.

road trip

Julie then drove us into the city of Tours which has medieval buildings. The grandiose cathedral there had a giant tree from Lebanon as old as 1800, which Julie pointed out meant that it was about as old as our country. 

We had a laugh because there was a placard dedicated to an old circus elephant that used to live in the gardens there, named Fritz. 

For some reason the photo sequences dedicated to the story of Fritz began at the top left with the sad tale of how he eventually went crazy and died, but finished with the story of his arrival and how the people loved him. I was extremely sleep deprived and found it incredibly awkward that they would choose that order of storytelling.. I looked at Sam and said "Fritz was on the fritz" and we laughed for the longest time. 

We of course had to explain the term "on the Fritz" to Julie.

We went for drinks and a creperie for dinner. Walking home, we happened upon this bizarre amount of bread smashed all along the road. As Julie said, "it's a massacre!"

Sunday Sam and I went for a 5 mile run in the French countryside. We ran into an abandoned house and went on inside to explore.

Afterwards, we found a skatepark and played on the ramps like kids pretending we had skateboards. I'm so lucky to have met a friend like Sam, he isn't afraid to be goofy with me and to be completely and totally open to adventures.

Following our run, we went to Julie's family's 12th century cave for lunch. Julie's family didn't tell us much about what to expect, only to dress warmly. We were more than pleasantly surprised....

We drove up a little road in the village of Montbazon, next to Julie's village of Veigné, that looked like a driveway between the houses. We parked at the end of the street and walked through a small gap in the lush vegetation. There was a small clearing in the vegetation in which we saw the opening of a cave. 

We walked into the mouth of the cave and turned right to find a staircase carved into the stone, leading down into the cave and lit by candles on each step. We turned left down the stairs to find two open rooms connected by a tall stone archway, 

One room was lit by a medieval iron chandelier (still candles) and the other by an iron candelabra. The walls were in rough-hewn calcaire and the floors in sand. In the first room was a stone bar built by Julie's grandfather, and in the second room was a round dining table and chairs that they brought along ahead of time in a van. From the second room was a small doorway leading down several more steps to the cellar where Pierre, Julie's father, kept the wine he and his father had collected. Julie's grandfather bought about 20 different bottles for each year one of his grandchildren were born, starting with Julie in 1992. When the grandchild turns 18, she receives the bottles as a gift. Julie's father says white wine can stay good in the cave for up to 100 years, as the temperature is always the same (around 13 degrees Celsius).

Vouvray, the champagne from Tours, keeps around 50 years. In another alcove Julie's dad had several dozen bottles of champagne from 1985, the year he and Julie's mom first got together. These bottles have especially long corks to help keep the air out and preserve the wine longer. He blew the sand and dust off one and we got to try it! The cork had drastically decreased in size over the years, and was no longer the "funnel shape" of typical champagne corks. It was still very good, fewer bubbles than new Vouvray, slightly darker in color, and a stronger taste that lasts longer on the tongue. It tasted more like hay or more "earthy". 

Pierre said that the cave, now underneath the 11th century donjon of Montbazon, was once under the sea and they occasionally find shark's teeth in the rock. We had the Vouvray as an apéritif, and then sat down for lunch with Julie's family (her mom and dad, her younger brother Mathis, and her younger sister Emma). We had salad with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, rice, and tuna, chipolata and merguez sausages. 

We had red wine from the cellar, I think a Chinon from 2011. We had 3 different cheeses: a local goat cheese with a piece of straw in the middle, a camembert, and Comté. We finished with a strawberry tart. During lunch we listened to the playlist of Julie's sister, Emma, which was American/French.

opening a 30+ year old old bottle of champagne, covered in dust 

Biscotte took a liking to my lap 

This kind of cave is particular to the Tours region. It belongs to Julie's grandfather, and changed hands from her mother's father to her father's father. Today was only the 4th time her parents had used it, and the 2nd time Julie had eaten there, just for special occasions. Most important, it was a magical day with Julie and her family and we were so happy we weren't sure what to do with ourselves.

Julie, Sam, and I returned to Paris dazed from having such a lovely afternoon.
Sam and I discussed the irony of our feet being covered in the dust of a 12th century cave while we sat on a high speed rail train.