Chez...

famille :-)

another one of those words that doesn't have a good translation~ To be "chez soi" is to be at home in terms of all of the intangibles in life.  Many a frenchman uses the phrase, "chez moi est chez toi" in the same way that we use "mi casa es tu casa" in the U.S., and yet to go to the doctor is to go "chez le médecin."  To say "what I like about her," the French use "ce que j'aime chez elle."  Thus, just as France is becoming more and more "chez moi" in more ways than one, it is fitting that I begin to visit French friends and to go forth more confidently than before, rediscovering the things that I love in life (in particular, cooking and baking) along the way.  This is how I came to organize a birthday party of sorts for my American friend, Julia, to spend the weekend "chez Estelle" with Katie (my American friend who is in many ways originally from Cameroon), and to have a crêpe party with French friends Mathilde, Flora, Paul, and Aurore, and an adorable Chilian/American couple (Pato and Hannah).

Julia, the birthday girl!

     Poor Julia had been entirely too stressed out the week before her birthday with a "commentaire composé," a long paper that essentially serves as a synthesis and analysis of several documents.  As simple as that may sound, like all assignments in France, there were many, many very particular requirements that thus put Julia completely out of her comfort zone of "write the way that you want to...within reason" (which I would say is more or less the dogma of American universities).  We thus cancelled the majority of our birthday plans, but we managed to hold on to the plan to eat dinner at a pizzeria, complete with sparklers in her dessert, a candle for her to blow out, and gifts.  I unfortunately had to leave early to meet up with my little sister, Alix and her mom and the cinema (yes, to watch Harry Potter...in French this time), but from what I hear, Julia left much happier than when she arrived.  My planning for Julia's birthday reminded me that it is not, in fact only the intangibles that help me feel "chez moi," but it is also my agency in any given situation.  What better way to show that one is at home than for him or her to welcome, give to, help another?  I therefore could not have been more thankful that Julia was born on November 26th.

la neige- "snow" outside the train window

macaroni and cheese..looney recipe!

Estelle et Katie à Vitré

     Saturday (the next day) began beautifully...with snow.  Apparently such a phenomenon is rare in November here (although it happened last year as well), but I have spent the last week attempting to explain that it is even rarer in South Carolina...as in it never happens.  Katie, who is from Chicago, laughed at and with my childlike exaltation at the beauty of it all.  The frosty French countryside flew by as we took the train from Rennes to Vitré, the small medieval town where Estelle lives.  There we played a bit in the snow, visited the castle and the market, Christmas shopped for Katie's family friends, and of course, went to Estelle's house.  Her house is the epitome of "chez soi."  The walls in the entryway are a warm golden yellow, and they immediately drew us into the beautiful living room, welcoming kitchen, and Estelle's simply pretty bedroom upstairs.  Her parents were equally welcoming, and we spent several hours eating a carefully prepared 3 course meal made by her mother, who then gave us the liberty to take over the kitchen for the afternoon.  One pumpkin pie and macaroni and cheese later, we snuggled up together to watch the movie, A Good Year (Une Bonne Année).  Chez Estelle, I found family in France in a way that is not possible with a host family where I am somewhere between the age of the daughters and the parents.  Beautiful.

Pumpkin pie...made with a real pumpkin!!!

crêpe party!

    Finally, the next weekend, I went Chez Mathilde to make crêpes; it was an evening filled with rich food and conversation... about cultural differences between France, the U.S., and Chili, about languages, and a few jokes here and there about pageants, since we had "Miss France" on in the background the entire time.  At the bittersweet end of the evening, I said my goodbyes, knowing that I likely would not see these friends again before I leave. We couldn't help but smile, however.  After all, Miss Bretagne won the pageant... Here, in all of its silly imperfection, is friendship.


Giving, baking, loving... reveling in the joy of time with family and friends, it is good to be able to say that in Rennes, I am legitimately "chez moi."