Maggie's French Food Diary

Sara and I just got back from an emergency Nutella run, so now seems as good a time to blog as ever.  


I feel like on the outset, I should say that the theme of this post is food.  So there.


Two nights ago during our dinner with our French family, the son (Cristophe) made sushi.  I don't really like sushi, but it was very good (for sushi...).  We also had tomatoes with mozzarella (much more my style) and wait...for...it.......


CREPES!!!!!!!!!


I ate three (2 Nutellas, 1 strawberry jam).  But then they (the crepes) just stared at me looking all lonely and so I decided to go for the fourth.  At that moment, everyone started staring at me (YIKES) and the host mom sort of called me out (in a nice way though).  So I was quite flustered (as you can imagine).  But I stayed focus and I finished it.  So there.  And I'm glad I did, I didn't feel sick later at all. #winning


Last night (after a very long/tiring/hot while at the same time edifying walking tour of Aix) Sara and I went to our soirée oenologie (wine tasting night) at a vineyard about 20 minutes outside of Aix.  We got a tour of the wine press area (unfortunately it involved many more machines and not as many people stomping the grapes as I had hoped).  Then we sampled grape juice (delicious), then half grape juice half wine (my favorite for the night), then 2 Rosé wines (the area's speciality) and 2 reds.  I preferred the first Rosé the most.  Then we went outside, watched the sunset over the vineyards, and had hors d'oeuvres.  They served us chèvre, comté, emmethal, grape tomates, pâté, and tapenades (green and black).  It was all extremely delicious and delightful.  Last night was a very good night for food.


Today was market day and I bought some fruit.  And of course Madelines (sadly no chocolate today).  But then I came home and realized that all of my peaches were going off so I thought and in a flash of genius (!) I decided to make cobbler.  Well, really a peach crumble.  It was delicious.  Sara and I snacked on it this afternoon and plan on having it for our breakfast tomorrow.  What a wonderful way to start one's day - peach cobbler!!


Tomorrow I'm off to Paris for the weekend.  I am going with two Vanderbilt friends and we are staying in Montmartre (my favorite area of Paris, also where the filmed Amelie).  Sara will also be in Paris with a Duke friend, Karen.  And another Duke friend, Katherine, will be there too.  Hopefully we will all be able to meet up!


"I wish I was hungry. I just want to eat stuff." - Sara Adam

Everyone loves the markets!  Even les escargots (the snails)!

Maggie and Sara in front of a vineyard...at sunset

Hors D'oeuvres!!

Sara Tweets

"Stressed" spelled backwards is "Desserts" #maggieinaword

Sara Tweets

maggie had count them 4 crepes for dessert tonight with our host family #therewerejudgementalglances

Sara Tweets

wishing our roommate would come back from his competition to liven up our auberge #http://www.renaudmargry.com/

A Fountain, A Very(!!!!!) Early Morning, and A Second Lucky Pot

Aix is famous for many things.  Calissons (candies that I mentioned before), the wonderful clear light, the Mistral, the open-air markets, and even olive oil.  The one thing that I love best about it however is the fountains.  The name Aix is a contraction of Aquae Sextius (the waters of Sextius, the Roman General who controlled Provence during the Roman Empire) so it is only natural that this city would have tons of fountains.  And what does one do when confronted with so many beautiful fountains?  Wash your hands in them (as I saw a marchand - seller at the market - do yesterday morning)?  Drink from them (all the fountains have water that is drinkable - unless it says otherwise)?  Nope - those options are for squares!  You dance in them of course!!!  To be perfectly fair, the whole dancing in fountain thing was my mom's idea (a fan of the Great Gatsby - book and movie - the idea has been in her head for years).  And as the wonderful daughter that I am, I decided to make her proud and dance in a fountain.  

So Thursday night (after dessert and drinks) a few of us went to a fountain with 4 dolphin statues near the Vanderbilt center where we take our classes and we jumped in.  The water was very cold - but I had dressed accordingly, in a dress (my patagonia one - so it was basically made for this type of activity) so I wouldn't have to walk home in wet pants.  Like I said we jumped in and took some pictures (I need to show my mom proof after all).  After about 15 minutes of goofing off (and getting stared down by incredulous/no fun/snooty french people) a police car rounded the corner.  We all got very quiet as the cop car slowed down and the police stared at us as if to say "Get out of that fountain you silly Americans".  So we did and they left.  No big deal.  Disaster averted.

The rest of the weekend went well - not as interesting as the fountain times though.  We had plans to go to Cassis Saturday morning so I got up at 6:20 am.  It was rough.  When I walked by the market (Saturday is the biggest market day) the stall owners were setting up.  It was pretty cool to see so much activity and movement in the predawn morning - but I don't think I'll wake up again that early.  Unfortunately after the morning market tour our Cassis plans fell through.  But the rest of Saturday was pretty chill.  I was abandoned by everyone else in my auberge (they were all out of town in various parts of Europe) so I got to hang out at the auberge and do my own thing.

I went over to some friends' apartment for dinner and a movie.  The dinner was a blast!  We talked about Harry Potter - so that was wonderful.  After dinner we watched Miracle - a movie about the 1980 US Olympic Hockey team and how they were the ultimate underdogs against the USSR.  Then I went to sleep.  

The next day, Sunday, I went to church (not a church I will repeat though - think 2 hours in FRENCH - I probably couldn't last that long at a service in English), shopped at the marché, cooked, cleaned, watched 2 Modern Familys and a Glee, cleaned some more, and cooked some more.  Then around 7 pm Auberge Bellegarde (aka just me this weekend) hosted its first lucky pot (for those who may not remember "lucky pot" is french for pot luck - but not really, it is just the term our colloq (housemate) Renaud decided to use)!!!  Luckily Sara arrived just before people got there.  I made pasta with tomato sauce and sautéed zucchini.  Twas delish - so much so, that I hardly got any.  Alex (a vandy friend) brought a delicious tarte aux framboises (raspberry tart) from the 24 hour boulange (again, the place where all things good originate).  I was very glad she brought it.  There was also tons tons tons of cheese (which contributed greatly to the lucky pot's success, I think).  So all in all it was a fun time.  Lucky pots and dessert/drinks nights are just great ways to hang out with people here.  

As you can clearly read, this past weekend was indeed aixcellent, aixtraordinary, and aixtremely fun.  HA!!

La Fontaine des Quatre Dauphins: by day, beautiful example of Aixoise charm

La Fontaine des Quatre Dauphins: by night, hippest spot in Aix

Sara Tweets

Paris with my sister over the weekend!! #onceinalifetimestuff

Sara Tweets

roomies staying in a hotel after we saw a mouse in the house #firstworldproblems

Sara Tweets

Emily accidentally changed her computer's language to Hebrew #tinycomputerproblems

Sara Tweets

maggie has an uncanny ability to turn even the most minor inconvenience into a full on crisis #emilygallquotesftw

Perils in France

Written September 19th, 

Today has been a struggle filled day.  I woke up to check the weather (yesterday was gray and rainy and DEPRESSING) and zut zut zut alors – the internet wasn’t working!!!!!  And since my primary mode of communication is the internet, I felt like I was living on a weird, cold, French island.  Not good.  Luckily I wasn’t in the auberge a lot today – so I didn’t die of boredom.  Because when the internet doesn’t work I can’t talk to people, I can’t do my homework, I can’t understand strange French words in my readings (no googletranslate and my dinosaur era dictionary doesn’t cut it most of the time), and I can’t do fun stuff like read blogs.  Also I can’t check the news so I feel woefully uninformed.  Basically angstville, population Maggie Howell.

Another terrible thing that happened today was the Mistral.  For those lucky enough not to have been acquainted (read: assaulted) by the Mistral, it is a forceful/cold/violent/bone chilling gale that blows through Provence in the winter.  The locals praise it because it prevents pollution, helps organic farmers (blows the bugs away), and keeps the skies clear and blue.  Also it contributes to the famous Provence light that has inspired many a painter (think Cezanne).  But this Florida girl hates it!!!!  It is unbelievably cold (did I mention that it’s only SEPTEMBER???) and blows giant pieces of leaves into your mouth/eyes/hair – basically it makes tiny things feel like sharp projectiles.  Pas bon!  So we have that to look forward to for the next few months… 

But tonight was delightful.  We had dinner with the Betiracs (our dinner family) and they made a special birthday themed dinner for me.  Highlights: the raspberry champagne, the turkey (very delicious main course), and the chocolate mousse.  Seriously the best chocolate mousse I’ve ever had!  Also they had a neighbor girl over for the night.  Her name is Lior – and she made me a birthday card.  Also French children are more adorable than any other type of children.  While you can only understand 50% of what they say (they speak fast and mumbley) they sound so dang adorable!!!!

Some weekend highlights:

-       - climbing up up up to the old fortress at Nice – the rest of Nice was not nice (Ha! See what I did there?) Basically I preferred the city from top of the mountain

-       - the Chagall museum in Nice.  Here are some facts about Chagall – he was Russian, painted during the 2^nd half of the 20^th century, was Jewish and thought the Bible was the best source of inspiration.  All the paintings we saw were scenes from Old Testament stories (Noah and the Ark, Moses, Adam and Eve, the 7 days of creation).  His amazing use of colors combined with the magnificent content pushed him into my top 5 artist list. 

-       - the lucky pot – Emily described it pretty well – but it was fun to just hang out with the Vanderbilt students and talk and eat really really good food

-       - discovering the 24 hour Boulange (pronounced boo-lahnge) basically now we can get really delicious bread and even more delicious cake at any time – and plus it’s just super duper fun to say

-       - JENN ADAM!!!!! Sara’s sister arrived for the week yesterday and she is hilarious!  Seeing her and Sara interact is a treat indeed – I highly recommend it

-       - A recently cleaned kitchen – Sara and Brittany (one of our Vandy roommates) spent literally FOUR HOURS cleaning our vile/dirty kitchen – now I don’t feel terrified (as if 1 million germs are jumping on me) whenever I enter

Memorable Quotes:

"Si l’internet ne marche pas, je die." – Renaud Margry (if the internet doesn’t work, I die)

"Wow! I should go on two runs a day more often!" – Emily Gall

"If I die just bury me – but quickly before I blow away." – Maggie Howell (said during the run through the Mistral)

The Duke group (Sara, Luke, Maggie, Emily) and our fearless directrice Maite

Marc Chagall's Adam and Eve

Lunch in Nice with Ellen and Caroline (Vandy friends)

View of Nice from the old fortress

Sara Tweets

Rando man asking me to go to coffee with him on the way to class #watchoutformenwithpurses

Got asked directions by a French couple today #getonmylevel

Jenn visits Aix

September 18, 2011 - Emily

Jenn, Sara's sister, arrived today for a visit. 

Maggie:  Tell us about Sara as a child.
Jenn:  Sara . . . UGH . . .

Later . . .
Jenn:  Who thinks it's funny that I'm emailing TWO of my ex-boyfriends right now?  Me!

Later . . .
Maggie:  My dad's name is Chanley.
Jenn:  That's like Rodney, except . . . different.
 

 We went for a walk in the park.

Lunch in Nice

Kenya found Sara

This basically says that sheep are the reason that Aix exists (they would go down the mountain and drink from the fountain you can kind of see in the background).

Another fountain near which we celebrated Maggie's birthday!

Sara Tweets

webcam is broken so you would probably rather skype maggie or emily #tinycomputerproblems

Sara Tweets

operation clean out renauds nasty kitchen has commenced #notenoughwindexintheworld

So much has happened!!!!

We have been to our classes (only one session of each - but enough to know whether we like them or not). I am taking a class about Provence history/culture/la vie quotidienne (everyday life), a class about literature and history from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, a french conversation class, and a class about art and literature of the 20th century.  So far I really like all of my classes - but the Provence one seems especially cool.  We will be doing many creative projects and the class and very little actual (read Duke style 1000s of pages of readings daily) work.  Our big project is to make a carnet (scrapbook) of our life in Provence - which is pretty much what I was planning on doing/have already begun to do.  Also in a few weeks we have a small picture slideshow/exhibition due.  So basically this is like an art class with history and culture thrown in!  Magnifique!!  Classes seem like they will be really interesting and informative (with the exception of Conversation which while immensely helpful, seems daunting - we have to read the French newspapers weekly!).

As part of our program, we eat with families 4 times a week.  They cook for us and we walk to their home for a delicious dinner!  Emily is in one group and Sara and I are in another.  But Sara and my family is really great.  It is a woman, Corinne, and her son, Cristophe (who is our age - except wait he's younger because now I am old and wise and 21! - so he's 20).  Cristophe did some sort of culinary work (or maybe study in school, it's a bit unclear) but he knows a ton about food - or at least he thinks he does, so he always critiques his mom.  But he's not mean about it and she usually just laughs it off anyway - it's just a bit strange.  Anyway, the are both very nice and our dinners thus far have been wonderful.  My favorite was two nights ago (Wednesday) when we had a really nice gratin aux courgettes (creamed zucchini) haricot verts avec des tomates (green beans and tomatoes in dressing) and fried salt cod.  And we had camembert - it was divine, I had 3-4 wedges.  But oh my!!! The cheese here is wonderful.  At some point Cristophe is going to make sushi for us - he loves sushi, so we are all looking forward to that.

Yesterday was my birthday and thanks to Emily and Sara I had a wonderful 21st.  Breakfast was fun but difficult.  The place we went to (cafe splendide) was by no means splendid - in fact it was the opposite - so awful.  The service was stereotypical French (which is mostly lies, that is to say, our service was very bad but by no means representative of french wait staff in general) and took forever.  We also had very little food for very much money.  I also had espresso - which apparently is not my friend.  It made me jittery and anxious (even more so that usual) for the next few hours.  Right before my afternoon class, the Vanderbilt ladies in charge brought me an apple and almond tarte for my birthday.  It was super delicious!  So we all had that before class started.  After dinner (my family promised me a birthday with chocolate mousse and champagne on Monday) Emily and Sara gave me my presents.  I got fresh strawberries, champagne, a mug, chocolates, and a book (Le Petit Nicholas, a french children's series thus very funny and very easy to read).  It was a lovely birthday - but then it got better.  Sara, Emily, and I plus our Vanderbilt roommates went out for birthday drinks.  A few other people in our program met us and it was very French - meaning it was wonderful and we sat at a sidewalk bar and we talked for awhile.  All in all a lovely birthday!

Here are some things we have learned about Renaud:

- he enjoys room temperature milk and grenadine (a fruit syrup) - he calls it strawberry milk
- his oven is literally impossible to use
- he has a van (with no windows) to keep his motorbike safe
- he has a movie room/theater in our backyard - apparently we can watch movies there

Sara and her souvenir from the bar last night - the Corona (beer) fedora

(I ran downstairs to snap this photograph. Sara is Renaud's new muse.  -Emily)

Memorable quotes:

Emily: "I hear Renaud making strange noises..."

La Rotunde: the main traffic circle at the beginning of the Cours Mirabeau

Le Francais et L'ambition

Sept. 13- Sara

                For the past 2 years I have lived with a Taiwanese-American roommate so I have been fairly well educated in the culture of Asian-Americans and all the expectations with being the child of immigrants. Christine was shocked that being a teacher was on my list of potential careers. She asked me “Don’t you want to be more successful than your parents?” (They are both doctors and Fulbright scholars so in anyone’s estimation the bar is high). I however, have no desire to surpass my parents either financially or in renown. What Christine faults me for in lack of ambition seems to fall into line well with the culture here in France Universities in France are all public and the competition to go to the very best school is not nearly as intense as in the US. I have even been told that it is rude to ask someone what they do for a living where in the US, that is typically the central topic on first meeting someone.Here it is more important to enjoy daily luxuries like eating delicious French food (by taking an hour or two for lunch) and buying beautiful clothing than saving up to own the biggest and most beautiful house or two or three incredibly gas-inefficient cars. As someone who has never had a knack for saving money and loves food  I am finding these parts of French culture très agréable.  

Les Marchés en Plein Air

In nearly all French cities there are open air markets where you can buy anything from fresh produce, to cheese, to small cakes, to table linens, to shoes.  The markets in Aix however are especially fabulous.  We took a tour (led by an American woman) of the markets – during which she gave us some historical facts, many samples, and a few insider’s tips.  We sampled many artisanal foods (the south of France is very big on food cultivation as a profession – for instance you can be a professional/artisanal cheese maker – my new ideal job by the way).  Our first sample was madeleines (small cakes, similar to pound cake, created for the daughter of Louis XV) made by a professionally trained baker.  They were absolutely divine.  Then we had olives (which I thought I didn’t like, but turns out I do!), saucissons (which are similar to sliced cold cuts), and goat cheese (chèvre - my favorite!!!!!!!!).  We sampled two types of chèvre – a 1 day old and a 20 day old.  I much preferred the 20 day old.  It had a brie like skin or outer layer and then goat cheese in the middle (similar, but much superior to what we have in the US).   Our guide also talked about champignons (mushrooms).  Apparently every pharmacist in France must be able to tell you if your mushroom is poisonous or not.  Some mushrooms have crazy names like “sheep’s foot” or “trumpet of death”!

Our tour guide also gave us Calissons (the famous Aixoise candy) and she described the history.  The candies date back to the 1400s and were created in honor of Roi (king) Rene’s second marriage.  He was 45, she was 22 – classic Medieval love story.  Apparently the candies were the only things that made the poor bride smile!  Even their composition is historically important.  The top white icing symbolizes the purity of the bride, and the wafer on the bottom symbolizes the Catholic traditions.  The name for the candy comes from Old Southern French – Langue d’Oc.  The candies are so important to Aix that every Christmas there is a blind tasting competition of the seven candy makers to see which is the best. 

Today’s tour was without a doubt one of my favorite things so far about Aix.  It combined my love of food with my love of history (picture me scribbling notes – 2 pages, thank you very much, - between bites of fresh chèvre !  I can’t wait to buy tons tons tons of fresh produce, cheese, and other Aixoise goodies aux marchés en plein air !!

Aixoise Spices  

Aixoise tomatoes - have you ever seen more delicious looking ones?!?!

Me at the cheese stall - I feel like Dennis (the guy in blue) and I are going to be good friends this semester!

Mme Monchal cautions us to stay away from bad boys

September 12, 2011 - Emily and Maggie

Today we woke up to recorders!  Their melodies were occasionally punctuated by the noise of the garbage truck in the street.  

(During orientation in English, so we couldn't claim that we misunderstood anything)
Mme Monchal: Don't spend your time trying to keep up with . . . what is it?  Bad Boys.
Good thing we don't watch Mad Men anyway.

We didn't entirely avoid bad boys.  Evidence: we are still here, and Renaud is still here.  There was some drama (read: a serious conversation not in front of anyone else--he was actually summoned to the centre, probably by Mme Monchal's magical powers) with the in charge ladies today (they are great), which probably included more drama than my entire life has had.

Maggie: Living with Sara, you just find the strangest things . . . like her phone in the bathroom.

(A few days ago)
Emily: I know why I'm tired, it was that sip of wine I had earlier!

La Vie à Aix

Yesterday, Emily and I work up and went out to explore.  We grabbed a late breakfast at a boulangerie (bread store).  I had a mini baguette with chocolate chips and Emily had a ½ baguette.  We also walked through the marché en plein air (open air market) where we marveled at the sights and sounds of southern France. In an effort to get basic necessities for our Auberge, Emily and I tried Monoprix (a target like French chain).  We found some things like shampoo and toothpaste.  We also found clothes that we wanted to buy but didn’t.  Then, we came back and grabbed Sara for lunch.  I ate a jambon et beurre sandwich (ham and butter on a baguette) and had water and a shortbread cookie – all for 5 euro!  Later, we met up with the group and took a never-ending walking tour around Aix.  We walked down tiny medieval streets with cobblestones (in the mornings these streets are washed and thus very slippery).   One interesting thing about Aix is that there are tons of fountains.  There are traditional European round fountains with statues but there are also these 2 fountains that are essentially large square rocks covered in moss and ferns – they are gorgeous and by far my favorite.  We stopped in a confiserie (candy store) and bought calissons, which are famous Aixoise candies.  They are basically a paste (not unlike marzipan) made of melon with a hard royal icing top layer.  They are very delightful!  We went to a crêperie for dinner with the group.  We (and by that I mean Sara and Emily) had some very interesting philosophical debates with another boy on our trip.  I was very impressed with Sara and Emily – basically I was silent the whole time while they kept up with this philosophy guy.  It was quite impressive.

Today we went to Cassis – which is a town on the Mediterranean coast about an hour away by bus.  It is gorgeous/wonderful!  There is a beach and instead of sand, it had pebbles!  It was nice to walk on (for awhile) – it felt like a slightly uncomfortable foot massage – but after 15 minutes of walked it felt like walking on sharp rock daggers.  Emily went for a swim in the ocean and Sara napped/tanned.  I mostly avoided the sun (thanks to the help of gallons of sunscreen and Emily’s large wide-brimmed “tourist” hat).  We also went on a boat ride around the coast – Emily and I sat inside the boat but Sara sat on the outside – she was splashed very often.  After some beach time we a group of us walked around the city, stopped in some boutiques, and bought snacks – I bought caramels.  For lunch Sara and I had Kir – a famous Cassis drink!  It is white wine (ours wasn’t very good quality) with cassis (black current) syrup.  It was quite refreshing and we felt très française.  All in all, our sojourn to Cassis was delightful – and will probably be repeated.

Some observations about France:

-       - Swim shorts are very popular as regular everyday shorts from French men/boys.  I have seen about 7 French men wearing swim shorts as real shorts.

-       - Also man purses are very popular here. 

-      -  I’ve only seen tiny dogs (Chihuahuas and miniature poodles) or giant dogs (St Bernards and Huskies)

-      -  Those fountains I mentioned serve as water fountains (as long as they do not say – Ce n’est pas potable – this is not potable).  Emily filled up her Nalgene in one yesterday and she is still alive.  So I think I’ll trust the fountains.  

My favorite fountain in Aix

The beach in Cassis

The Cassis harbor