Host 2: Settling Down
Hi all. Over the next 2 weeks I’ll probably blog a bit less as things are finally settling down and there aren’t crazy things happening from day to day. A routine feels great after a couple weeks of always being on the move and not knowing what tomorrow will bring. I hope you enjoy this post, detailing what a typical day looks like for us while we stay here at Moulin Saleth.
Tawnie and I wake up to my phone alarm at 7:45. We throw on our work clothes and stumble downstairs to make coffee and breakfast which usually consists of some combination of apples, bananas, bread, jam, cake, and grapes. We enjoy our meal outside overlooking the river to the tune of songbirds. We usually eat pretty slow and have a nice conversation - anything other than that would be very un-french of us.
After eating we chuck the last little bit of coffee into the river, and drop off any compostables in the compost. We rinse our dishes and set them out to dry to reuse the next day. Then we head up to work. I like to spend my mornings mixing up a bucket of mud to apply to the many crumbling, and paint chipped walls. I find that takes me about 3 hours, which gives me time to change before lunch. Tawnie either helps me mud, or she uses a heat gun and spatula to chip old paint off of a couple door frames.
We stop working at about 12:30, then head over to Denis and Perrine’s place for lunch. They told us that in France meals and sacred and are a time to stop everything else and be 100% focused on the meal and the people you’re sharing it with. At every lunch and dinner there is a baguette, wine, and cheese. The cheese tray comes last, and I normally partake, but occasionally I will be too full from dinner. Other than bread, wine, and cheese there are typically 3 or 4 other dishes that we continue eating leftovers from. Every meal there might be one new dish added to the rotation, as we finish another dish. Currently in the rotation are lentils, garbanzo beans, pasta, and a big long sausage link. In the US I’m used to just one big thing, like a lasagna with maybe a salad. Here there are always like 5 or 6 different dishes, which really does make eating more fun.
There are some strange things the French do at meals though. For one, they hardly ever eat with their hands. Denis told us that proper French etiquette dictates that even apples are to be eaten with knife and fork! Not just any knife, but a damn butter knife. We had ribs the other night and Denis somehow got his rib completely cleaned up with just a knife and fork. I quickly gave up and picked it up. Same thing with hard boiled eggs - they use and fork and knife. They also just use their butter knife to cut the baguette which I have found to be not impossible by any means, but certainly harder than it needs to be. One thing I do enjoy though, is that they really use their hands to tear into their bread, and then use the bread in their left hand to guide the last bits of food onto their fork. After that you take the bread and sop up all the remaining food until your plate looks clean. I don’t know how many of these things are unique to the French, or just my hosts, but it’s all interesting nonetheless.
Conversations can get deep at the table and it isn’t uncommon to see Denis and Perrine disagree about a particular topic and passionately defend their stance. This is something we read about before coming and have found it to be true. Like I said, at the end of the meal a cheese tray is brought out. If conversation is good, then everyone continues eating bread, cheese, and wine until things die down, then everyone takes their final gulps and the meal ends. Last night for instance, Tawnie, Denis, and I were in deep talking about capitalism and I ended up pouring myself 2 or 3 glasses of wine after I was done eating because while you’re still at the table you just keep nibbling on bread and cheese and sipping wine. I wouldn’t mind another good conversation tonight.
Anyways after lunch there is a little more variation. Sometimes I’ll work another hour or two - usually sanding because afterwards I can shower. Tawnie either works on the renovation, waters the plants, or does homework. Both of us have been reading Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham, and that too is a popular after lunch choice. We also go on walks, write blog posts, nap, or surf the Internet. We’re good at relaxing.
Around 8PM is dinner. It’s pretty identical to lunch. If dinner goes late we will just go to bed. Otherwise we might play a game of chess or read some more.
Yesterday Perrine went to Paris and is there for a week. This Friday Denis will be leaving until Sunday night, so Tawnie and I will be the only ones here all weekend. It’s too bad Perrine is gone, as she is a lot of fun to be around, but we are able to be more active in our mealtime conversations. When Perrine is here we can all be quiet and she will take over and do all the talking, but without her we all have to pitch in to save us from silence. It started quiet, but we’ve begun to build a really positive rapport with Denis, and have learned a lot about him and some of the things France as a country is going through.
That’s our typical weekday! Weekends are when we try to get out, and we don’t do any work. So far highs have been anywhere from 70-low 80’s, but this Sunday we might get rain and the temperature is suppose to drop into the mid 60’s. If there is anything you’re curious about or want me to write about, please feel free to comment on this blog post or any of the others. Thank you for reading!
Tawnie and I wake up to my phone alarm at 7:45. We throw on our work clothes and stumble downstairs to make coffee and breakfast which usually consists of some combination of apples, bananas, bread, jam, cake, and grapes. We enjoy our meal outside overlooking the river to the tune of songbirds. We usually eat pretty slow and have a nice conversation - anything other than that would be very un-french of us.
After eating we chuck the last little bit of coffee into the river, and drop off any compostables in the compost. We rinse our dishes and set them out to dry to reuse the next day. Then we head up to work. I like to spend my mornings mixing up a bucket of mud to apply to the many crumbling, and paint chipped walls. I find that takes me about 3 hours, which gives me time to change before lunch. Tawnie either helps me mud, or she uses a heat gun and spatula to chip old paint off of a couple door frames.
We stop working at about 12:30, then head over to Denis and Perrine’s place for lunch. They told us that in France meals and sacred and are a time to stop everything else and be 100% focused on the meal and the people you’re sharing it with. At every lunch and dinner there is a baguette, wine, and cheese. The cheese tray comes last, and I normally partake, but occasionally I will be too full from dinner. Other than bread, wine, and cheese there are typically 3 or 4 other dishes that we continue eating leftovers from. Every meal there might be one new dish added to the rotation, as we finish another dish. Currently in the rotation are lentils, garbanzo beans, pasta, and a big long sausage link. In the US I’m used to just one big thing, like a lasagna with maybe a salad. Here there are always like 5 or 6 different dishes, which really does make eating more fun.
There are some strange things the French do at meals though. For one, they hardly ever eat with their hands. Denis told us that proper French etiquette dictates that even apples are to be eaten with knife and fork! Not just any knife, but a damn butter knife. We had ribs the other night and Denis somehow got his rib completely cleaned up with just a knife and fork. I quickly gave up and picked it up. Same thing with hard boiled eggs - they use and fork and knife. They also just use their butter knife to cut the baguette which I have found to be not impossible by any means, but certainly harder than it needs to be. One thing I do enjoy though, is that they really use their hands to tear into their bread, and then use the bread in their left hand to guide the last bits of food onto their fork. After that you take the bread and sop up all the remaining food until your plate looks clean. I don’t know how many of these things are unique to the French, or just my hosts, but it’s all interesting nonetheless.
Conversations can get deep at the table and it isn’t uncommon to see Denis and Perrine disagree about a particular topic and passionately defend their stance. This is something we read about before coming and have found it to be true. Like I said, at the end of the meal a cheese tray is brought out. If conversation is good, then everyone continues eating bread, cheese, and wine until things die down, then everyone takes their final gulps and the meal ends. Last night for instance, Tawnie, Denis, and I were in deep talking about capitalism and I ended up pouring myself 2 or 3 glasses of wine after I was done eating because while you’re still at the table you just keep nibbling on bread and cheese and sipping wine. I wouldn’t mind another good conversation tonight.
Anyways after lunch there is a little more variation. Sometimes I’ll work another hour or two - usually sanding because afterwards I can shower. Tawnie either works on the renovation, waters the plants, or does homework. Both of us have been reading Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham, and that too is a popular after lunch choice. We also go on walks, write blog posts, nap, or surf the Internet. We’re good at relaxing.
Around 8PM is dinner. It’s pretty identical to lunch. If dinner goes late we will just go to bed. Otherwise we might play a game of chess or read some more.
Yesterday Perrine went to Paris and is there for a week. This Friday Denis will be leaving until Sunday night, so Tawnie and I will be the only ones here all weekend. It’s too bad Perrine is gone, as she is a lot of fun to be around, but we are able to be more active in our mealtime conversations. When Perrine is here we can all be quiet and she will take over and do all the talking, but without her we all have to pitch in to save us from silence. It started quiet, but we’ve begun to build a really positive rapport with Denis, and have learned a lot about him and some of the things France as a country is going through.
That’s our typical weekday! Weekends are when we try to get out, and we don’t do any work. So far highs have been anywhere from 70-low 80’s, but this Sunday we might get rain and the temperature is suppose to drop into the mid 60’s. If there is anything you’re curious about or want me to write about, please feel free to comment on this blog post or any of the others. Thank you for reading!
Ok! I will...I would love to see pictures of you guys and your hosts. In your work room and at dinner... I'm trying to picture everything...love your blog and look forward to each one...it may seem routine to you now with not much to write about but, it's interesting to me...can you load pictures?
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