In which we stuff ourselves

Alright, I promised a description of the Wednesday dinner/conversation group nights at Anne Marie's apartment, so here we go. Our group goes in two groups to be a more manageable size, and I am in Group Two, so our first dinner was the week after the first group, on September 23, and the second was a few weeks ago on October 21. When we arrived, we were greeted at the door by Anne Marie with the bisous and André with a handshake. We kind of grouped in the living room and André poured out drinks for everybody (except Kelsey, who doesn't drink, but they thought she wasn't drinking because she was sick and so we just went with it). We had kir, which is white wine with crème de cassis mixed in, and is a very classic French apéritif. After sitting a while and being awkward/trying to speak only in French, we moved into the dining room for dinner, which consisted of an absolutely delicious and perfectly cooked pork loin with a really deeply flavored, yummy red wine and onion sauce, heavenly scalloped potatoes, and, of course, bread. This was followed with a salad and cheese course (goat cheese, mmmm), and then dessert, an amazing, rich chocolate cake for Michael's birthday that wasn't so much a cake as chocolate mousse in cake form. Ohmygoodness it was good. We were all so stuffed afterward, and probably Michael especially, because Anne Marie kept telling him to take more because he was a boy and needed to eat a lot. It was cute. Also, Poupette was running around the table for much of dinner begging for scraps, and, as I was sitting next to Anne Marie, she and I fed her some pork while André wasn't looking, the result of which was that Poupette spent much of the rest of the meal with her head on my lap. Awww...

During dinner, we spoke nearly exclusively in French, apart from asking each other how to say things we didn't know or couldn't remember, and the topics ran from how to say "I'm full" (don't say "je suis plein", because apparently that means "I'm satisfied", but with a sexual connotation) or what are the best regional wines, to where we should go on trips. After dinner, Elizabeth, who plays the violin and brought it with her, gave us a little concert. It was really nice, and it was such a relaxing and comforting way to spend the evening. I must say, it is wonderful to actually be in a home from time to time instead of a dorm. Once Elizabeth was done playing we were all pretty tired, so we all decided to go home, and that was the end of the night.

The next dinner, which was about two weeks ago, had much the same format as the first, except the after dinner part. We arrived (perfectly on time, to my surprise, as we had a few issues actually leaving the dorms), and were again greeted by bisous, handshake, and amazing smells coming from the kitchen. Sadly, Poupou was sick and couldn't greet us and actually spent the whole night in André's room, although I did go in and pet her for Katina. We assembled in the living room and were offered Muscadet (the best known regional white wine; I've become rather fond of it), and we sat around for maybe half an hour just chatting and winking at each other (mostly Sophie short hair winking at people, actually). When dinner was ready we moved into the dining room and had RABBIT! I have never before in my life tried rabbit, and I must say it was good, but I had to try hard not to picture Bunny as I ate. That was served really simply with steamed fingerling potatoes, and the requisite bread. Oh, bread is so good here. I'm going to be quite the bread snob by the time I get back. Anyway, then we had salad and cheese, including roquefort (very fort indeed), brebis, and I think emmental. Both dinners, by the way, were accompanied by red wine. And then it was time for dessert, which was a choice of chocolate or caramel pudding (I chose chocolate, of course :) ). We also discussed what will be on the menu for next time, and it appears we are going to have escargot and some form of seafood. Should be interesting.

At any rate, we were again stuffed, but this time I heard André when he offered cafés and jumped at the opportunity. We all went back into the living room where André was watching the football match between Bayerne and Bordeaux, and watched it with him while sipping our cafés, and after a while he brought out some liquers, Calvados and I don't remember what else. Sophie and I each tried a very little bit of Calvados as it is normal to have some liquer after you're done with coffee. It was very very strong, and a little overpowering. We just sat for some time after that talking and watching the game, and then when it was starting to get late we left to go home. Sophie, Elizabeth, and I decided it would be fun to do some ballet as we were walking back, and thus were leaping and pirouetting at the tram stops and probably drawing some very odd looks from the other people there. But whatever; it was fun. And that is pretty much the end, although there is so much about the dinners that can't be described. I would take pictures, but I have a feeling it might be a little rude. Here are some pictures of Anne Marie and André anyway, taken during the excursion to St. Malo and Mont St. Michel. A description of that will also be coming soon.