Flip-Flop France: Social Life and Pellegrino

The title may not make a ton of sense, but let me preface by saying: Pellegrino only costs .80 centimes in France. Yes, I know, it seems such a minscule thing to feel happy about, but when dealing with graph paper instead of lined paper, and bagging your own groceries- it's the little things that keep us sane in foreign countries.

Pellegrino is so fancy in the United States; we see in television shows the characters sipping out of glass bottles of the stuff- in America it's about 2 bucks a bottle; much more affordable for a little taste of minerals from Italy.

That being said.

Last night I tried Beajoulais Noveau for the first time; our friend is a wine distributor for that region, and is also in the same relationship situation as us (American girlfriend, French boyfriend). He invited us to a friend's apartment in the 6ème arrondissement in Lyon; AKA the LUXE area. Rue de Sèze to be exact. As I frantically biked down the Rue de Sèze, heart pounding and fear that a person would swerve in a drunken Beaujolais frenzy and kill me I begin realizing that I am really starting to get France.

She's a complicated country, there are things I will never understand... but now I'm getting to the point of responding automatically in French to locals talking to me...a very cool experience.

ONce we got there the spread was incredible; I was too shy to start snapping pictures so I'll have to stick to details. The apartment was about 130m2; which is about 1400ft. Very big... twice the size of our place. There were these artsy posters plastered on the wall, hardwood floors (another saving grace of France) and large windows overlooking the street. The table was set up against the wall and covered with charcuteries, baguettes lined for the cutting, cheeses, more charcuterie... and lots of bottles of wine.

Aurelian, the wine distributor, started us off my detailing each of the wines, what region they come from how the stones used to filter change the flavor. Uncorked, all at attention, we passed around a bottle and checked the clarity and flavor profile of each wine. Starting from the 'youngest', fermented a mere 3 months to a couple of years. 3 bottles in total. By the end a few of the younger girls (19-21) were pretty fizzled and I was involved in a very deep conversation with a Brit expat and a French girl regarding our weird writing obsessions. Brian was raiding the food table stuffing himself with ham products; and I somehow agreed to do English Yoga on Monday.

Today I wasn't hungover, which is a pretty amazing feat for how much I drank in alcohol... and I wandered around today with my Swedish friend, to the library to check out my monthly Anglophone book (which the library woman totally had a conversation with me and I was ABLE TO RESPOND!!) talking about girly things and eating chocolate éclairs. I was craving a bagel or even a hot dog- but I found that while a hot dog costs 5€ in France, a chocolate filled éclair is only 2.50€; so I went for sweet.

So even though the graph paper is something that will never be normal for me- I find myself adjusting with a bottle of Perrier, a selection of very diverse friends, a bottle of wine and the company of chocolate éclairs.

P.S. If you want to try a good snack: