The French Experience!!! part - 2

Bonjour mes amis!

My life in France till now have been really eventful. Lots of friends, lots of parties and lots of crazy stuff :)

HeHe!!!

One thing that helped me the most here is the fact that during this time of the year, most of the local french students go back to there homes and lots of international students come here for there work placements. And they speak so better English then French do! ... I am glad :)

Since my last post, I have actually gathered a lots of things to write about. I was invited to a lot of dinners and parties by my colleagues here at IFREMER. So I know a lot about french eating habits and etiquettes now and I can understand why french are so proud of there gastronomy. Believe me, french food is the richest food you will get anywhere on earth ... and if eaten the french way, it even becomes more delicious :) They have a concept of long lunches and long dinners which can extend up to 6 to 7 hours. I am very glad that I was a part of one such dinner. It started at 8 in the evening and ended at 2:30 in the morning ... fuck! :)

Just before the great dinner!

Being a vegetarian, I was first served with salad and wine. I thought that this is my dinner and I am expected to fill up my self with this and hence I ate a lot of it with few glasses of red wine. I was almost full. I thought that we will talk a bit and then leave back to our homes. But surprisingly then came the second round of food. Rice, meat, potatoes and lots of vegetables with bread and more red wine. :O ... what I am supposed to do now!!! OK ... I ate a bit of it just to be courteous because my host made a vegetarian dish specially for me and sipped a bit more of wine. Till now I always used to think that the older the wine the better it is. My concept got cleared in this party. Actually the quality of wine depends upon a lot of things like the sun, the rain, the wind etc. etc. during the time when they are manufactured. That is why few years have become very famous for the quality of wine ... Like 1947, 2005 ... etc. etc. If you go to the market to buy wine, you can clearly see that the wine from these years are much more costly then others. I hope I cleared some of your funda :) Now coming back to the dinner thing ... after rice and vegetables, I was almost ready to leave.

They are doing 3 cheers for India :)

But wait ... there is something more in the kitchen for us :) This time its bread and lots of verity of cheese! Pffff ... This time I managed to ask the host if something more is in the store after this round :) And yes ... how can we leave without eating the apple pies!!! wow ... so we finished everything at 2:30 am ... I think we drank 4 LT of red wine and a bottle of rum by then .. hehe ... it was really funny ... :) ... My first 4 course French meal! All were drunk ... all were happy ... and all were talking dirty :P ... I cannot imagine my professors or even anybody of their age in India to talk with me on topics we discussed that night :)

Nicole's Farewell Party

I have tried many things here. I played volleyball with a local team here and believe me ... I was among the good players :) I also tried playing soccer ... hehe ... but very soon I realised that its france :) ... they really played much better then me ... but it was a good experience after all.

Few points to note about france:

1. There are very less coin phones here. If you want to call, you either use your credit card or an international/national calling card. So if you have to call immediately after you reach france, it can be complicated. Better arrange a calling card before!

2. French eat with a unique style. But its interesting to see the way they eat bread. You can compare that with chapaties in India :)

3. Beware if you are not used to a lot of sea food and if you plan to try something new! I ate a lot of mussels once because I found them delicious but only ended up vomiting 3 times in a row. I coudnt sleep that night and it was a bad experience. You need to train your stomach slowly for sea food :)

4. Drinking and smoking is strangly acceptable in their culture. All they do to have fun is drink! And its same for all age group. But the funny thing is everyone drinks together :) ... imagine doing that in india!!! :)

5. You can travel really cheap by carpooling and couchsurfing. I have traveled to a different city for a weekend in just 30 euros ... better then TGV and youth hostel no? :)

Sharing a light moment with friends :)

Travelling is definately bringing me closer to the ultimate reallity .... I have a lot more stories for you but at the same time I realise that I have just one month left here ...

Let the French Connection prevail ... :)

Au Revoire !

Karan