Aujourd’hui j’ai acheté un miroir de poche

You know when you’re really hungry, and all your friends around you are talking about food?  Your mouth starts to water, you can hear your stomach growl louder and louder, and when you close your eyes you imagine your favorite foods dancing slightly out of reach in front of your eyes?  That was my experience in class today.  Almost all day too.

We’ve been talking a lot lately about food; how to order food, how to buy food, how to cook food, etc.  We today we spent the majority of the afternoon speaking about meal habits in our respective countries and how they compare to those of France.  This included things like “If you have a dinner planned at 8pm, what time do your guests arrive?”  In the United States, between five minutes early and on time is expected, and anything later than 10 after requires a phone call.  Well in France, if you show up five minutes early you may catch your host in the shower.  15 minutes late is normal in France.  We also talked about table manners, which was interesting, what you bring to a dinner you’ve been invited to (be it flowers, wine, chocolates, etc), and the amount of courses a normal and a formal meal has in each country.  A lot of food talk for a girl who’s been giving half of her breakfast away.  This is because the thought of a croissant or pain chocolat makes my stomach turn now, seeing as I’ve eaten it nearly every single day since I arrived.  Either way, considering the fact that I’m always a little hungry when we get out of class on a normal day, today I felt exceptionally hungry.

Jon and I decided to treat ourselves to a meal in Vieux Nice.  We walked around, reading the menus and consulting our wallets, and settled down at a table at a restaurant in the main square.  The name fails me, but thats okay, we won’t be going back.  First, one of the menu boards on the wall said “Menu 14,90€” where you could chose an entrée, plat et dessert from roughly four choices each.  We saw a few things that sounded appetizing, and thats why we picked it.  Unfortunately, though the sign said nothing about when you could order from it, we were not allowed to order from that menu.  In the US, I would have had no problem saying “Oh, sorry, we were under the impression that we could, and thats why we picked it, we’re going to find some place else.”  It wouldn’t have made them super happy, but its mildly acceptable in the States.  In France, its extremely rude, because they display their menus outside.  Essentially, you’re supposed to decide that you want to eat there, and essentially what you want before you bother wasting their time sitting at a table.  So, we found something on the menu that sounded okay, added some socca for us to split, and said “Oh well.”

I would have much rather been that “rude” American.  I ordered Poulet à la Caesar, something I’ve found to be surprisingly easy to mess up.  The chicken was really dry, and tasted like it was canned.  Given that it probably was, it was more grey in color than normal, and just generally unappetizing.  The croutons were stale and soft, the tomatoes were practically flavorless, and the lettuce seemed like its seen better days.  Jon ordered a calzone with tomatoes, cheese, mushrooms, ham and eggs, made it half way through when he noticed there was some sort of clear-ish liquid in it that seemed a tad unnatural.  Given that the yokes were runny, we both instantly thought “Uh oh, uncooked eggs” and he lost his appetite.  To make the whole thing worse, the socca wasn’t even that good, and I had been craving it for a few days.  Ugh.

After our dreadful meal, we went to the market close by.  We were expecting it to be all fruits, vegetables and flowers like we usually find it to be, but today it was a whole bunch of vendors selling all sorts of really neat things.  For instance, we spent a good twenty minutes at a table FULL of old (like, 1960s old in some cases) advertisements for nearly anything and everything.  The Coke ones were particularly fun to look at, and of course rather pricey for some.  We decided we had to go back when we had more money, because I could probably find a few really neat things for my friends, family and myself.  I did treat myself to a little mirror compact though.  I have been looking for one for a very long time, but one thats kind of nice.  The problem is, I always find the ones that are either cheap, plastic and have some brand name printed across it, or I find the super fancy and terribly gaudy ones with ugly rhinestone and gold plating designs.  This one is simple, perfectly round, and has a  mother-of-pearl design on the front.  After an entertaining conversation with the vendor, who knew instantly we spoke English and teased us by saying “We only speak French here”, only to later comment me on my ability to carry on the necessary conversation in French (score!), I had a wonderful new compact mirror, all for only 8€.  Kind of a silly purchase, but I really have been looking for one forever.

After looking through all the tables, I found a lot of neat things I would love to go back for if I had the money.  For instance, designer silk scarfs (only 80€), really awesome old festival and event posters from around France (anywhere from 200-400€), large sets of real silver table settings (of which I didn’t bother to consult the price), and whole bunch of old keys (only 1,50 €!).  It took up a good portion of our afternoon, and we saw some really cool things, so I’d say afternoon well spent.

Given that we still hadn’t had anything tasty to satisfy our taste buds, we got some sorbet from a place we hadn’t tried before, and decided to walk up to Chateau de Nice (the wonderful park with the great panorama views I’ve mentioned before).  Sorbet proved to be a wonderful idea.  Jon got apricot and I got pear.  Mine was incredible.  It seriously tasted like I was biting right into a really juicy pear.  Jon kept stealing bites and said with sarcastic frustration  “Damnit! Now we have to come here every single day to get some of this” all while making his oh-my-gosh-this-is-the-most-delicious-thing-I’ve-ever-eaten face.  After the long, dreadfully steep walk up the hill, Jon enjoyed playing on the rope play thing while it was kid-free.

We took a few detours going back down to sea level so we would know where all the paths were, and proceeded to go home.  But not without stopping at Zara to get Jon some new jeans.  Two pair, to be exact, since he’s managed to wear holes in one of the pairs he brought.  All and all, a very wonderful afternoon.  I hope the sun sticks around for a little bit longer, and that the tickle that popped up in the back of my throat isn’t the sign of a cold to come.  Especially since we hope to go to Torino this weekend.  And yes, for all my motherly readers, I’ve eating and drinking all the Vitamin C I can manage.  :)

Bonne journée!

Je ne comprends pas l’art abstrait.

First, let me say, still no sun.  I saw the sun for maybe an hour today, and it was while I was stuck in class.  On top of that, there has to be some sort of storm out in the Mediterranean, because there has been a really strong wind coming off the coast that I can only compare to the wind gusts I feel at home in Cocoa Beach before a storm.  Nevermind the fact that the air has a relentless bite to it that has left my cheeks and legs quite chapped.  I did come to Nice, right?

Okay, I feel awful for sending out so much text about the weather into cyber space- especially since I’m sure I only have a handful of readers, and I can imagine you’re tired of hearing about it.  But its all you have to post about when there’s nothing to do!  C’est la vie.

I will say though, that last night, Fabiola, her boyfriend Niko, Jon and I went and had a magnificent dinner at Khalid’s house.  Last night was also the first time we got to meet Niko, and we all got along quite nicely.  Khalid prepared a wonderful meal, as usual, and we sat for over four hours talking, eating, and sharing a few bottles of wine.  Well, Fabiola and I did most of the wine drinking- Jon prefers dessert wines, which we were saving for later in the evening, Khalid doesn’t drink, and Niko arrived an hour or so after we opened the first bottle, and then went out for a second.  All and all, four bottles of wine later, we were a little pink in the face, full of laughter, and not exactly looking forward to our early alarms this morning.

As for today, the cold, harsh, relentless wind made it the perfect day for a museum visit.  Fabiola met us at the Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporian. Now, I love museums… of a certain type.  Particularly history museums, natural history museums, science and industry museums, even interactive children’s museums.  But the past several contemporary/modern art museums I’ve been to have proven to be… a little unimpressive.

I consider myself an art lover, but I find some things about abstract art to be a little… pretentious.  I also consider myself an artist of certain types, but I am no good with a paint brush or clay.  However, a lot of the things I saw today I could have easily done.  The only reason it makes it into a museum is because of who created it, probably because they’ve done something crazy, or they’re the daughter of someone famous.  One exhibit in particular just looked like someone didn’t clean up their garage work bench one day, thought it “looked cool” and expanded on it.  Sure, that probably took a lot of time, but since when does the amount of time put into its creation automatic grant it the title “art?”  What happened to the days when art was simply beautiful, and that was easily seen, before artists had to defend and argue why they believe its art, before television shows turned something that is supposed to come with time, patience, dedication, vision and hard work into something that can be forced through competition?   I guess, in a nutshell, you should say I just don’t get abstract art.  At least not in a sense that museum exhibits should devote their space too it.

However, despite my inability to “get it,” we still enjoyed ourselves, and the view of Nice from the roof of the museum (which is of course open to the public, we aren’t lawbreakers!) was worth the entire visit.  The museum itself seemed to be pretty close to the center of Nice, so the view was 360°.  Well, with the exception of the fact that the Theatre National de Nice was blocking what would have been a beautiful view of the Mediterranean.  But alas, it was still nice.

After the museum, we went for a stroll through Vieux Nice (Old Nice) where Jon indulged himself in some rather delicious cookies, and we had some socca from a corner shop that, according to Niko, has the best in Nice.  It was delicious, and super fresh.

I will leave you with this picture: wouldn’t this be a lovely terrace to have dinner on in the evening, or tan on?  That is, whenever the sun finally decides to show itself?

 

Until next time, bonne journée!

J’ai eu un dîner niçoise magnifique avec mon copain

So since our host family is out of town this week, we are not obligated to have dinner with them every night at 8.  Well, I say obligated, but we really don’t mind.  Its very easy, and always good.  However, we haven’t been able to go out to dinner since we arrived (which is probably best for our wallets), so this week proved to be the perfect opportunity to do so.

Yesterday, Jon did some online research, and found a wonderful little restaurant nestled in Vieux Nice (Old Nice) that serves traditionally niçoise cuisine, including an incredibly simple chickpea appetizer called socca.  It was sort of the chickpea version of a crêpe, drizzled with the best olive oil I’ve had in a long time, and some fresh cracked black pepper.  C’est magnifique!

The entrée choices were somewhat expected; a lot of sea food, fresh vegetables and pasta, and homemade pizzas.  Jon and I both, after heavy consultation with my pocket dictionary, opted for the raviolis ricotta quatre fromages (four cheese ricotta ravioli).  I know, the food in Nice sounds very Italian.  But if you haven’t checked a map recently, Nice is a mere 18 miles from the Italian border, so its no surprise a dinner of cheese raviolis would be typical in Nice.

However, you could not call these raviolis typical.  In the US, when you ask for anything “4 cheese”, its usually consists of the typical mozzarella, parmesan, provolone, maybe some goat cheese if the chef is feeling a little frisky.  But in France, when you ask for 4 cheeses, they’re rarely low on flavor.  This was the cheesiest (the good kind) ravioli I have ever had, and I have no idea what sort of cheeses actually made up the sauce.  Needless to say, they were strong, but fantastic.  Served with pieces of a baguette along side (best eaten at the end to try and eat all the left over sauce) and a few glasses of water, and we were in cheese-lover’s heaven.

Now, despite the fact that we were stuffed full of cheesy goodness, the moment I saw crème brûlée on the menu, there was no leaving without having some.  I think it followed our ravioli quite nicely.  Then again, I would eat it after any dinner, it has always been my favorite. C’est magnifique!

Okay, now that your mouth is watering a little, I do have to bring up the lunch.  Apparently ground lamb is quite difficult to find in Nice.  So its looking like we’re going to end up making chicken.  Which is totally fine with me.  I love chicken, and I can’t think of anyone I know that either can’t eat it because of religious practices, or because they don’t like it.  And with Neelima bringing some sort of chickpea dish, Doha possibly bringing dessert, and Olesya bringing wine (for those who can drink it) I think this is going to turn into a pleasant lunch.

As for today, its laundry day, so we’ll be apartment bums for at least two hours until we can get all our clothes through the washer and hung up.  Then grocery shopping, and the preparation begins.

Bonne journée!