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News from Eastern Paris
Do you remember your first visit to Paris?
You might recall all the walking, and the way the Parisians do it: at a slightly relaxed pace. You’ll surely remember having plenty of time to admire the white limestone Haussmannian buildings, to peruse old books and postcards along the Seine at the bouquinistes stalls, and really, just taking your own sweet time to do everything and anything you darn well please.
The French even have a special word for the kind of wandering you may remember from your first trip – or your most recent trip – to Paris: flâner. And if you’re a wanderer, you’re a flâneur.
When you indulge in wandering, it means you quickly adopted the French art of living, or art de vivre. Here you can just content yourself with being, rather than doing: sitting in a wicker café chair, watching the world go by on a busy Parisian avenue, whiling away an hour or three in a museum you just happened to discover on your way somewhere else, and basically, forgetting that time exists.
But even more than the sum of its cafés, monuments, and restaurants, Paris is a feeling.
Every year, when my different groups of study abroad students arrive, I live vicariously through them. Since I have the memory of a goldfish (my daily planner from last year says so), I don’t remember the specifics of what I visited in Paris on my very first trip.
But I do remember the emotions that consumed me during my first wanderings around the City of Light. It was like all my life I’d been underwater, and when I arrived in Paris, I came up for air - like a goldfish, as it were.
“Free” is one word my students have used to describe their feeling, and I agree: it’s the best way to express it. In fact, my students this year seem particularly astute: they’ve described specifically their sense of freedom from the pressures of consumerism. (Which hasn’t stopped them from lots of shopping, of course.)
We do indeed consume here, but in ephemeral pleasures: we buy creamy camembert and firm-fleshed, crispy-skinned rotisserie chickens. We feast on the freshest of salads – there are over 275 varieties available in France – and on just-ripe Gariguette strawberries. We savor oeufs en meurette in Burgundy, the succulent poached eggs with garniture bourguignonne: bacon, mushrooms, and pearl onions bathing in a rich, meaty wine sauce.
On the other hand, I tend to feel farther and farther away from my students. They were born in the early noughts. They ask me perplexing questions like “Why are dogs so well-trained here?”
My all-time favorite movie line was uttered by the actor Matthew McConaughey in his first and highly memorable role in Dazed and Confused as he preyed on high school girls:
“I get older, they stay the same age.”
As unsavory as his character seems now in this age of #metoo, you can’t help but laugh at his ludicrous attitude towards those girls.
But I find myself using that expression often with my study abroad students. When they arrive, I see them through the lens of my now-wiser self and my only slightly less rose-colored glasses.
And so many times during their stay in France, they ask me my favorite question: “Allison, can I ask you a question?” -AZ
On the table this weekend…
During my study abroad program for James Madison University students, Food & Culture of France, we eat out. A lot. But this week, we were in Beaune, wine capital of Burgundy.
(If you’re signing up for my adult version of the trip in April 2025, you can opt to bicycle through the Burgundian vineyards with us as part of your trip. I can’t wait!)
Students always LOVE this part of the trip, and what’s not to love? We stay in a beautiful little gîte in a country village just south of Beaune.
We bike through vineyards tasting – ahem – grape juice (not all students are 21 years old), and we eat in fantastic restaurants like Ma Cuisine and Le Clos du Cèdre, a Michelin-starred establishment.
But you know what the students love best about being in the country? The cooking.
We spend time together in the kitchen making the tiny French cheese puffs known as gougères (you can find my recipe for choux pastry by clicking here).
Students use skills they learned during their cooking class at La Cuisine: how to make Mornay sauce and choux pastry, different chopping and dicing techniques, and even the basic and delicious French vinaigrette.
I love gathering the students in our kitchen at the gîte to help prepare a duo of gratins (broccoli and cauliflower), chicken with tarragon and vanilla sauce, glorious salads, and a sweet fruit crumble made with whatever’s in season. This year, we used strawberries and this year’s last stalks of rhubarb.
When students return home, they’ll take with them the cooking skills they learned, and can use them again and again. They also take home a little bit of French art de vivre, and most importantly, that Paris feeling.