Galettes galore

I haven't posted in a while because I've been really busy.....eating.

Usually January is the time of year when people are feeling really gross about everything that they ate over the holidays and make resolutions to eat less/lose weight, etc. I'm sure that happens here in France too, but you could never tell by looking.

When I look back on the month, the only memories that really stand out are the ones that were centered on big meals. The words of the month were galette and raclette.

I attended at least 3 galette parties. The Galette des Rois cakes are suppposed to be eaten in early January for the Epiphany, but they kind of last all month. All the bakeries are full of them. It's a cake made of filo-like dough and the filling is frangipane (almond paste). But there are other flavors as well like pear and chocolate or apple! The apple is my favorite, it kind of tastes like apple pie. Baked inside the galette is a fève or a little figurine (in the old days it used to be a bean) and the person who finds the fève is the King (or Queen I suppose) and gets to wear the crown. Also, depending on what circles you move in, the person who finds the fève is supposed to buy the next galette. At my first galette party (at one of my teachers' house with all the teachers from my favorite school) I didn't find a fève. At the second one, I did get a fève! The galette parties are fun because the youngest person gets under the table and calls out the name of the person that each slice will go to - this is so that everyone gets a fair chance at getting the fève.

Here's a picture of me with my slice of brioche (more cake-like than galette) and you can see the fève inside of it.

And now, the raclette. Raclette is like fondue but even better. It's very hearty and filling so you only eat it in the winter and especially when you go skiing. Each person melts a slice of cheese (one at a time) and then eats it with either potatoes and bacon or ham or salami, etc. It's really yummy and really filling. It's also a lot of fun to melt your own cheese.

Last week we had a raclette soirée for 18 people (!) and I took a bunch of pictures but I had problems with my memory card and lost all of them. The raclette dinner was a lot of fun and really yummy. We had an apéro while the potatoes cooked and finally sat down to eat around 9-ish. Even though it was February 1st (the unofficial end of galette season) we managed to find 2 galettes for dessert!

Here's a picture of a raclette machine. I will be purchasing one of these when I get back to NYC. I've also told my French friends that I don't care if you're only supposed to have raclette in the wintertime, I'm having it year round. It's really that good!

Officially French!

I am now officially French. Why? Because I am now in possession of a bike! I got it last Friday and proceeded to get a flat tire that night while showing it to my friends here in the foyer. Luckily enough one of my neighbors volunteered to fix it for me so the bike was up and running by Sunday when Tessa and I went for a ride around Laval. We realized that there were lots of parts of town that we hadn't seen and that the bikes would allow us to cover more area than we could on foot. We rode around town using our schools (we each have three that we teach in) as points of interest. Laval is really hilly (I scale what I call a petite montagne to walk to one of my schools) and that's partially why I hadn't been more proactive about getting a bike before now. We rode around for a couple of hours and saw so much of the town, it was really cool. Afterwards we rewarded ourselves with pastries from the bakery.

Really happy with our new hobby, Tessa suggested we ride bikes again today. I wasn't sore from riding yesterday - or so I thought - but when I sat on my bike to ride over to meet Tessa at her school, it was really painful! We just sucked it up and went riding for an hour. We went in a direction I had never been before and we were no farther than 5 minutes out of Laval when we started seeing farm animals! We rode along the river and it was really pretty. There's a little forest just outside of town where you can camp and ride horses - two things I've never been inclined to do before - and I started thinking it might not be such a bad idea to try them.

I really don't like riding in the streets with cars and stuff, it's just kind of scary. When we ride around town we usually just stay on the sidewalks (this was perfectly feasible yesterday when it was Sunday and there were maybe 2 other people on the main street in town) but apparently that's not legal! If I ever get stopped though, I'm just going to play the "stupid foreigner" card.

For the moment I'm loving my bike and walking is so passé but I know it won't last. In the meantime, I'm going to look into getting a little basket for my bike so that I can put a baguette in it!