I am very nervous to have a French interview as I fear I will not be able to understand what is being said to me. I am actually quite confident with answering the questions as the family has been training with me, as long as I can hear what the question is. It is intimidating and something I never thought I would be doing 4 months ago when I first started learning french, but when you have goals and dreams you cannot let anything get in the way.
My fiance and I have been working hard here in the yard and kitchen...you could say we have developed a personal attachment to the yard. With both having jobs, the large yard had become overgrown with vegetation and hedges had turned into trees. Seeing the potential, we have been putting 110% into our daily work and trying our best to reclaim this beautiful yard. The family have been thrilled with our work and amazed at our willingness to work so hard. There has been many times they have told us "you can stop now, it's been 5 hours", but we both always want to continue on and keep working. My opinion is, why stop working at 1 o'clock in the afternoon? Honestly, what else are you really going to go do? I guess you could call us slight workaholics, but when you can see how happy people are from what you are doing...you really want to keep going.
Entire trees have been cut down, hedges topped and wood sheds built, and our latest project was taking back the garden. Nestled in the back of the property behind old stables and hedges is a beautiful garden stretching back to vine covered walls. The entire garden was grown over with 2 meter high bushes when we first arrived and behind that was what they referred to as "The Jungle"! An area so overgrown with brambles and trees you couldn't even take three steps inside. We could sense the pure frustration in the wife's voice when she showed us what had become of her garden since life got in the way. In the last week of our planned stay, my fiance and I tackled the garden and successfully removed all the invasive plants and trees and he even surprised her with being able to rota till the soil!
It made us so happy to see the relief in her eyes when she realized she could use the garden again finally. It was actually very exciting to reclaim the land and dig up cement edging and pathways that were previously buried, and to see it return to its original state. After completion of the garden, we both knew what was our next task. Although there was no mention to us to attack the jungle...we knew it had to happen because otherwise it would remain there and infuriate her every time she worked in her garden. All I can describe about that day the jungle came down, was my fiance was like the Chainsaw Massacre to those brambles! Within two days we had every last weed, tree and branch out and it resembled part of the yard again. Brambles have become over the past few months one of my worst enemies, because if you have never encountered them before...they are sharp, they stick to you with every step you take, and they take over absolutely everything! I fear one day they will take over the world...seriously!
Aside from the yard work, I have been making many pastries and breads in the kitchen, which is always received with smiles here. It made me smile when I asked the 12 year old daughter what her favourite pastry was...and she answered "All of the pastries you make". Coming here to France I felt very intimidated to bake as a North American. I felt that people of France would look down upon my style because well....it's France! Surprisingly, I have had nothing but positive feedback and everyone genuinely loves my pastries! The specialty that appears to be most popular with everyone here is the carrot cake I make with cream cheese icing! I have been requested to make it a number of times now and I laugh every time...who would of thought? I have a very funny memory of making carrot cake here in France...Shortly after our arrival in Auquainville, we were invited to a friends house with the wife and after a nice visit and tea the topic came up, "What do you make back in Canada?" I told them that I make many traditional pastries that are in France, pies and carrot cake. The look on both the women's faces was priceless, pure excitement. The friend asked loudly, "With Philadelphia?" I started laughing and nodding my head. Within seconds there was a bag of fresh walnuts in front of me and it was officially arranged...I was to make carrot cake TONIGHT! Then the friend dove into the cupboard and grabbed out a familiar yellow container of baking powder, brought back from Canada (there is no baking powder/soda readily available here, although I've heard soda can be tracked down if you search for it). It was if I was going to bake them gold, their faces were glowing with excitement. When we got back home, I walked into the kitchen and tried to get myself acquainted with the foreign kitchen. To my horror I quickly discovered that there were NO ingredients for this cake! My first experience baking for an actual French family and I had nothing to bake with! There was no brown sugar, baking SODA, allspice, crushed pineapple, measuring cups, measuring spoons and no scale! ( I later in the week discovered a scale hidden in the cupboard). Slightly flustered I went into work mode and thought to myself..'What can I improvise with?'. Needless to say, the cake turned out surprisingly great with some alterations and everyone absolutely loved it!
Since then, I have made carrot cake a number of times and people have actually gotten into arguments over the last piece. Once again, who would of thought? I also made an assortment of pastries for a fashion show for a wonderful designer named Valerie Bacquet. Everyone loved my pastries and at the end I was actually given a standing ovation and Valerie gave me a beautiful apron from her collection. I felt very good that evening, and I must say, baking for people that I was so intimidated by has really given me confidence that I can use in my career ahead.
Getting off the topic of food and coming back to the designer Valerie Bacquet, I was lucky enough to be introduced to this fantastic woman. Her brand is called Modelunik, and is absolutely fabulous! I was invited over to her home multiple times where she served us champagne and showed us her collection...perfect evenings! I fell in love with one particular wool jacket in her collection but aware of my tight travel budget I had to sadly hang it back on the rack. A few days later I was surprised by my family when they pitched in money, so I could purchase the jacket! I was so happy and thankful from their generosity and now I have that gorgeous jacket hanging beside me as I write.
Along with acquiring a jacket, I have also recently acquired a set of copper pots! Yes, I know it's crazy but I could not say no when I seen the old set of pots at the massive garage sale in Liseaux last weekend for only 30 Euros!!! I have been wanting a set for so long and I am so thrilled to have a very authentic French set now...even if it is heavy to carry. Certain things are worth the extra effort to carry around...like my Italian coffee peculator from the Pyrenees and my peacock feather. You really do start to collect odd things after travelling for so long.
Another memory from this month that makes me laugh is the Canadian style hamburgers we made for the family. They wanted us to make a Canadian meal for them, and we had a hard time deciding on something that was 'Canadian' as most of our cuisine is international. Jokingly, I mentioned 'hamburgers' and everyone cheered and said we had to make them! I felt silly making hamburgers as North Americans because how much more of a stereo type is there? My fiance agreed he would prepare the meal and even use the fire outside to cook them. When he started mixing in handfuls of ingredients into the beef and shaping the patties they watched in amazement. That night everyone was praising him at the dinner table. They told us they had never had a hamburger that tasted like this and the husband (who is a manager at the Ritz Paris Hotel) even told him, 'You need to show our chef how to make a hamburger like this!' I laughed so hard after the Hamburger night, and it was requested again the following weekend.
We are loving our time in France very much and I have been enjoying meeting so many new people and having new experiences everyday. I am a more open person now, and I also feel more confident in my abilities. Travelling is helping my fiance and I both become more sociable and outgoing...qualities I hope to bring home to Canada. It has been so fun to watch people enjoy such North American traditions and have such positive feedback.
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