Evening in the life/French Dinner

7:30 -- nearly on the dot -- my mother calls "Emery, dinner is ready,"and I walked to the table.
French dinner is a bigger affair than American dinner, but French breakfast is much less grand than American breakfast, so I guess it evens out.

In my host family (in french, the term is famille accueille, which sounds like actual, but means welcoming family, I think), at least. The table is always set really beautifully. I know in some families, dinner can last as long as 3 hours, but in mine, it usually lasts 30 minutes. An hour if my host mother is chatty. I have found that they (and other host families I know of) eat very fast. I always feel terrible for making them wait, but I refuse to not taste my food.

Anyways, in essence, the table always looks like how my mother sets her table. Cloth napkins, a table cloth, nice glasses and plates. There are only 3 major differences. There is only water at the dinner table, and my hosts prefer sparkling so there are their two bottles of sparkling water. The second difference is my own water, which is what the french class "l'eau plat," which loosely translate to flat water, and the ceramic picture it is in. The last, and most distinctive thing, is the basket of bread on the table, with the baguette. This is a staple of the french dinner. One gets a slice of bread with dinner, always.
There are two important table manners that the French observe. #1 Bread goes on the table, NOT on your plate. It goes right to upper left of the plate. You can use the bread to get things onto your fork and it is polite to break off a bit and then put it in your mouth.
#2 Hands go on the table. In my host family, elbows are acceptable, but I don't know if this is a rule in France in general or not. Regardless, your hands and forearms go on the table. Under is considered very rude, like you are hiding something. Which makes a good deal of sense to me.

The french have a four course meal every night. Dinner will start with a light appetizer. A bit of carrots with a vinaigrette is what my host mother likes to make best. It tasted very strange to me at first, very strong, but now I really like it. Other options are tomato and cucumber salad, chopped cabbage with a similar vinaigrette. Sometimes, there is a light lecture salad with another kind of vinaigrette. The salad is always AMAZING. It is the best salad I have ever had. My host mother says that the secret is in the vinaigrette, that they don't make the same vinaigrette in America as they do in France. I suspect she's being modest, but that there is some truth in it.
If there is an appetizer, AND a salad, the salad is eaten traditional after the main course, but my host mother often informs me I can eat it after or with. She's used to americans by now though, her and my host father have had 36 OTHER host students, is the number she gave me.

After the appetizer is the main meal. If my host mother is tired, she will make something like a Croque-monsieur, which, in her version is a lot like a grilled cheese. If she's feeling fancy, stuff starts getting exotic with beets or couscous. I know for a fact she loves fish, but because she knows I hate it, there is always non fish meat at dinner (I assume she enjoys it on the weekend, when they don't cook meals for me.). I've had lamb, I've had chicken, and I've had pork and beef. Usually there's potatoes (Pomme de Terre), rice, or something else with it. It's always really nice tasting. She's a good cook.

After the main meal, the french serve the cheese. Usually there is 2-3 cheeses to choose from. My favorite by far is the Guerre cheese, which is Swiss. But the french make it MUCH better. I can tolerate Bree and middle-aged goat cheese as well, but in general, french cheeses are far too strong for my tastes.

After the cheese, there's dessert. In my host family (is this a french thing? I don't know) they're not all that fond of sugar. Usually, dessert is fresh fruit, fromage blanc (which I haven't tried yet), or yogurts. I usually have the fresh fruit, which is really amazing. There's been a lot clementines in season lately so that's what I've had. They're really good. Sometimes though, my host mother will give me an ice cream bar, which is pretty good, or sometimes she'll make an apple composition, ranging to a delicious apple mush thing to a apple crumble/crisp, which is even more amazing. Sometimes, she and my host father will take trips to Normandy, where they have a house. When they come back, she brings the most INCREDIBLE apples. They made the apple thing even more amazing.

During dinner, the conversation varies. On Wednesday, it was just her and I and goodness was I chatty. I learned a lot about her too, like that she likes Gone with the Wind and Woody Allen films. She also likes politics, swimming, and sewing. It was a very interesting conversation. Dinner topics are usually around what went on that day, but the french are much more open about politics and religion. They don't put as much stigma on it. The topic of money is just as taboo however.

We've talked politics in the past, mostly them talking, since I'm dreadfully clueless, and about films, which got my host father involved as well, since he's shy, like me. We've also discussed art. Neither of them are huge fans, but my host mother does know that she prefers the classic stuff and impressionism.

There's been some pretty cool dinners with them. I've shared dinner with their architect friend, a businessman friend from Tours, their french daughter in law and her 3 sons, who were all very sweet, and the mother/in law who had broken her arm. Easily my favorite dinner, however, was when one of the two sons came to visit with his Japanese wife and their 7 month son. It was an amazing dinner. The wife spoke better english than french, and so the conversation was in english, for the most part, but there was french here and there and some japanese phrases thrown in. It was 3 cultures all at once. The wife would talk about Japan, the husband would toss in something about something about his boyhood in france and then ask me if it was the same in america. There was lots of joking, teasing and really good conversation going around. I loved the wife. She was so kind and sweet but certainly hold her own against her husband. She was not quiet hip, but yet, with her personally, she was just that, but warm. It was truly a pleasure to talk to her. But I loved meeting everyone. Besides, it was working with people of all ages and generations. It was nice.

After dinner I will help clear the table off, thank my hostess for the meal, and wish both of my host parents a good evening. From there, I will spend the evening with homework or chatting to my mom or friends. It is when I relax.

And that, folks, is a day in the life.