The Lovely Dinner Party

13 Octobre 2007

Tonight, Mickel and I attended a dinner party hosted by his main professor, Mme Marie-Esther Sanchez. Mme Sanchez teaches Spanish (obviously) and although she is French, her parents initially moved to France from Spain. She considers herself from the area near the Loire River Valley, where she was born and where her parents currently live, known as Fontainebleau (also home to the well-known Chateau de Fontainebleau. Seriously, google it. It’s amazing.) Mme Sanchez had invited us to a small dinner with her at her home around 8pm. Of course, Mickel and I were running a little late (hey, it’s customary in France to be about 30 mins late for dinner!) because we didn’t know the area very well. We also had a little snafu with her ascenseur (elevator). Mickel was joking around, jumping up and down inside of the already small elevator. Of course, I was squealing that he should stop, that something would happen. When we got to the “right floor”, the door opened and it appeared that we were stuck in between two floors! I got a little freaked out that we might get stuck in the elevator and gave Mickel a hard time about making us even tardier. We could hear Mme Sanchez laughing and telling us that we should take the elevator up to the fourth floor and she would meet us. Fortunately, when we pushed the button, the door closed and proceeded up to the next floor. She met us at the door and walked us down a small flight of stairs. Apparently, it wasn’t Mickel’s jumping that caused the problem. The building’s floors don’t quite match up with the elevator, so sometimes you have to take the next floor up and then walk down a small staircase. Mme Sanchez welcomed us into her home and we noticed that there were two other young people there. It happened to be her niece, Anna, and Anna’s boyfriend Guillaume. Since Mme Sanchez doesn’t have any children (or has never been married), she likes to invite her nieces and nephews over to eat with her, as if they were her own children. Anna, 25, works at a hotel and also babysits a young child. Her boyfriend, 27, works at the Charles de Gaulle airport (where I landed) as a flight representative to help passengers check in, check luggage, etc. He amazed me with his knowledge of many languages (French, English, some Spanish and a little German) because of the number of different backgrounds that come through the busy airport. Before the French eat their meal, there are usually les aperitifs (appetizers and alcohol) served to the guests. These can consist of chips, crackers, nuts, dried fruit mix (aka little munchies) and usually some kind of alcohol, like bourbon/scotch/brandy/etc. We sit and eat and talk and eat for about an hour or until the hostess tells us it’s time to eat and welcomes us to the table. Mme Sanchez had prepared us raclette (yum!) only this time she served it the proper way, with all the charcuterie. Lots of pancetta, proscuitto, ham, bacon, etc. And of course, there was wine and tons of cheese! We were consistently receiving the small plaques of melted cheese, even if we hadn’t finished our originally serving. To be honest, it was even better than eating it in the restaurant previously because of how many other people were sharing in the process. After dinner, the dessert was served, a chocolate pear tarte that Guillaume had made. Now, I’m not much of a pear person, but I ate my piece and it wasn’t too bad. We were also served a different wine for the dessert, a nice Riesling from the Alsace region in France. (It’s near Germany.) And of course, because you can’t have too much wine at a French dinner, Mme Sanchez gave Mickel and me some strong red wine from Spain. Throughout the night, the conversation (and the company) was very pleasant. Anna asked her aunt if we could come back for another dinner. She said of course and Anna and her beau left, because they had to work the next day. We helped Mme Sanchez to clear the table, even though she kept insisting that guests weren’t supposed to help with the dishes. We looked at some of her pictures from her travels and then Mickel and I left because it was getting really late! We had to catch the last metro which runs at 2am!