Northern Hospitality

In the month or so leading up to our departure for Lille I had planned on cracking open my old French language books to begin brushing up. That never happened. I was too preoccupied spending time with friends, having every one of my favorite Chicago foods (that I knew I would have no chance of eating here in France), and moving all the crap from my apartment out from our front living room and into the attic. Before I knew it I was packed and on the plane to Oregon for one last slice of Americana before venturing into the unknown land of Nord-Pas de Calais France.



At the end of the summer our friend Benoit and his girlfriend Fanny came to visit us in Chicago, and I learned two very important bits of information. One was that there is still a significant amount of the eight years of the French classes I took rattling around in my brain somewhere; I just need to tap back into it. The second was that even though that knowledge is there, it wasn't near the level I would need to be at for living in France. I arrived in Lille a little apprehensive about my language skills. Of course the best way to improve is total immersion, and after only a month and a half here I can safely say we are both on our way to becoming as close to fluent as possible by the end of this year.


Kathryn never skipped a beat. Other than the very first day we arrived, when we were both too tired to even understand English, her French (to my ears anyway) is flawless. She is able to stand in front of 20-30 insane, out-of-control 7-10 year olds and conduct forty-five minute English classes almost entirely in French. I have tried not to default to her too often when we are out, but I do know if there is a word I don't understand or cannot remember she will have it for me. At the very least, I know I am better at French than almost all of the students I have been working with are at English. If they do not know the translation of some French word into English I usually have an answer for them (even though they ask each other and not me because the teachers all told them I do not speak French).


Our oral and comprehension skills have been greatly ushered along by the teachers at our schools. On my first day of class I was asked what language I would prefer to speak in, and of course I told them French because I needed to improve. So at school, when not in the classroom, I am compelled to communicate en Français. It has also helped because outside of the English department most professors at Baggio don't speak English, and while passing time between classes in the Salle des Profs I only hear French (and sometimes Spanish from the teachers in that department).

We have also done a little socializing outside of school with some of the teachers we work with. First was on Halloween night. Two of the teachers at one of Kathryn's schools (Rosée and Luc) invited us over to their home for afternoon coffee and conversation. Due to some poor time management on our part as well as an unnecessarily long bus trip to get to their house (they live approx. 15min away from us, but to reach their home by public transportation required at two hour journey into the heart of Lille to catch a bus that would take us back the direction we already came.) an afternoon café turned into our first real French social/culinary experience. I say "first" because Lille is not the most French of cities in the country. They have a very large Flemish influence and it has been surprisingly different from what we both remember French life to be like. This is of course because we spent the majority of our previous time in France in the South and the West of the country; things are a little different in the North.


It really was a wonderful evening. For one, there was almost no English spoken the entire night. In fact Rosée majored in Greek while in school and with my [very] basic understanding of the Greek language there was more of that spoken than English. They have two adorable kids, a son who is 7 and a daughter who is 3 or 4. Their son instantly fell in love with Kathryn, and spent the whole night trying to give her hugs and show her his school work and just all around get her attention. We started off the evening talking about music and cultural differences while sipping on a specialty beer from Belgium and eating a delicious homemade chocolate tart. Then we started talking about French food which eventually led to them inviting us to stay with them for a dinner of crêpes. Of course we accepted.


Dinner started off with an aperitif. Then they brought out a large skillet with six small indentations for "do-it-yourself" crêpes. They had a wide array of toppings that included: smoked salmon, ham, sautéed mushrooms, legumes in crème fraîche and little homegrown cherry tomatoes to top it off. As you can guess everything was scrumptious. Throughout the meal we become more confident in our French. This may have been because of our immersion or it may have had something to do with the free flow of wine throughout the evening. Either way we talked about everything from U.S. and French politics to the fact that when they visited England it was impossible to have alcohol as an aperitif. No matter what instructions were given to servers they always brought their alcohol with the meal. They could not understand this, "why would anyone want to drink [hard] alcohol WITH their meal?" they asked. After our dinner crêpes, the meat and veggies were removed, and replaced with homemade confiture of peaches and strawberries, sugar, and Nutella for our dessert crêpes. By the end of the night we were stuffed, exhausted and a little buzzed. Luckily we were still on vacation because when they finally drove us home we crashed in bed hard. They were incredibly nice and have already invited us back for an "authentic" French meal. I guess our impromptu crêpe feast was only the precursor to something a little grander that they have planned for the future. We can't wait.

Our second experience came just last weekend. One of the English teachers at Baggio invited us, and the rest of the English department, over to her home to experience real "Northern cuisine." This again was a fantastic opportunity for us to practice and improve our French, and at the same time get a taste of the specialties that have made this region famous. Once again throughout the night all communication was primarily in French. It was only after we finished off the fourth or fifth bottle of wine and champagne that Kathryn and I began to intersperse English into the conversation (not a problem since everyone there was an English professor).

As with Rosée and Luc, the meal started off with an aperitif, this time of crème de Cassis (a sweet black current liqueur) mixed with white wine or champagne. The first course of our meal was quiche. Actually it was three different quiches. One of a soft Northern cheese, another of different legumes and the third was made with endives. We all got one slice of each (the cheese one was the best). The main course was Carbonnade Flammand which is a relatively sweet stew of beef, beer, lots of onions, and some other vegetables and spices, which is then ladled over crisp pommes-frites. After the dinner was the salad and cheese course. The salad was good, but the main attraction for everyone at the table was watching our facial expressions as we tried the four different Northern cheeses. One was really good, another was decent, the third was edible and the fourth...well...they had warned us about the fourth. It looked similar to what Shrek pulled out of his ear in the first movie to make a candle except it was the reddish-orange color of Lava pumice soap. Even though four out of the six teachers at the table refused to eat it I'll try almost any food once (ex. lamb brains circa Easter '09). One tiny little bite was as far as I could go, and ended up choking it down using the rest of my salad and wine to help diffuse the taste. Kathryn discreetly spit hers out into the napkin. I think everyone got a kick out of watching us try that one.


The final course was dessert. We had a tarte aux pommes, an unusual but tasty brown sugar and cream tart/cake thing, and tiramisu du nord (which just meant extra rum). By this time the combination of food, drink and conversation in French had led to quite extreme physical and mental exhaustion for both Kathryn and I. Throughout the night I had understood maybe 70-80% of everything that was being discussed at the table (not word for word, but I got the gist), as well as participated in the conversations. Not anymore. Even after downing two espressos to try and get back in the game Kathryn and I were in food comas. Luckily the rest of the group was in about the same state. So, that was where were we said our goodbyes and were given a ride home. It was just a fantastic experience not only because of the excellent cuisine (all homemade) but because of the constant exposure to conversational French.


I cannot quantify how exactly my skills improved because of both dinners, but I feel like I gained a better understanding and comprehension of the language in those few hours than I did in the entire two years of French I took in College. It may not have had the biggest impact on my ability to speak, but I can now tell it takes much less concentration and mental straining on my part to understand my colleagues at Baggio. I’m sure improved oral skills are soon to follow.


Anyway today Kathryn and I are enjoying a laid back Saturday spent mainly working on this blog. We are also beginning to plan out some of our future vacations. We found very cheap bus tickets to London for catching our plane home to Chicago for the Fête de Noël. (We are very excited!) When we return we have a 19day vacation in February, and our plan is to visit La Fleche. That is the village where Kathryn spent her junior year of high school, and hopefully we’ll get to Bretagne to stay with Benoit and Fanny for some of that break as well.


And now, after spending the last couple weeks gorging on Northern French delicacies, Kathryn and I are preparing a little South of the Boarder special for tonight: Tacos and Burritos!

A bientôt,

Jordan and Kathryn

P.S. – I’ll try and keep these blogs coming a little more frequently from now on. This past week has been pretty exhausting with work at school. I’ll explain more in the next blog maybe tomorrow or the next day.