My first Christmas

Palabra del día: délicieux

Translation: Delicious, but tricked you, it's in French! Ahh too many languages, it's so confusing!  But I've been pleasantly surprised that with my knowledge of Spanish and English I've been able to recognize a good number of French words, so occasionally I have a vague idea of what’s going on in a conversation here.

Comida del día: The past 36 hours have basically consisted of constant eating of the best foods I have ever tasted in my life, and it was all so good that it wouldn't be fair to choose just one.  Don't worry, I will soon proceed to describe all of the food in detail.

Foto del día: 

Escargot, AKA caracoles, AKA SNAILS.  Call them what you will, but they are delicious.  They smelled so good that I didn't even think twice about eating slimy bug-like animals and proceeded to eat five.  Then someone asked me if snails fit into my pescatarian diet and I decided that they do, only to learn a day later that the snails that I was eating aren't actually sea snails and could easily be found buried in mud in someone's backyard.  A gross thought, but they tasted so good that I have absolutely no regrets. 

This year was my first time ever celebrating Christmas, and it was the best Christmas I could have ever asked for.  Let me start by describing the meal I ate on Christmas Eve:

Course 1: Foia gras (didn’t actually eat it but it looked good)

Crouse 2: Raw oysters

Course 3: Fresh crabs and shrimp

Course 4: Palette cleanser of pear sorbet with pear liqueur 

Course 5: Turkey, pumpkin from the garden, and other vegetables

Course 6: Five different types of cheese with fresh french bread

Course 7: Two Christmas log cakes, one almond and one chestnut, topped with chocolate frosting and a custard sauce

Each course was served with a different type of French wine (the champagne with appetizers and dessert was my favorite).  

Five types of cheese

Christmas log cakes

Now to put all of this delicious food in context (and don’t worry, there is plenty more food for me to describe).  On Christmas Eve, I traveled from London to Boulogne, France with my cousin Jeff, his husband Marc, Marc’s colleague from Japan, and my friend Simone because Marc’s parents were kind enough to include all of us in their Christmas celebration at their 150 year-old house in the French countryside, about two hours from London and right on the coast.  To get there, we drove to the ocean and then took a CAR TRAIN under it (literally a train that you drive your car onto).  As soon as we arrived, we were served champagne and snacks and then whisked off to mass at the local church.  I had never been to Christmas mass before (although for one reason or another I’ve been to mass 4 times in the last six months) but I still recognized some of the hymns although the words were in French instead of English.  I thought that the service was beautiful and I enjoyed experiencing a different religion in a new language.  Afterwards we celebrated with all of the food I mentioned above, interspersed with gift giving (no one could wait until Christmas!) and spontaneous dancing, and we didn’t finish dinner until 2 am!

On Christmas day, I awoke to fresh croissants from a bakery down the street and a long walk through the sand dunes on the coast.  The croissants were definitely French and definitely delicious, and the walk on the beach was absolutely gorgeous (Not to mention necessary to walk off last night’s dinner and prepare for our next meal, which was equally large, long, and delicious).

View from our Christmas day walk

The menu for Christmas day lunch included the escargot I already mentioned, plus smoked salmon, another palette cleanser, wild pork from a neighbor who had killed it himself (I skipped this one), baked pears, homemade pasta, red cabbage, and more Christmas logs.  After this I felt like I wouldn’t be able to eat again for days, but Marc’s parents refused to let us skip dinner that night and served more delicious food, including a pumpkin soup with veggies from the garden. 

The food and the beautiful location were definitely highlights of my first Christmas celebration, but I also appreciated how welcoming Marc’s relatives were to us.  Despite language barriers, I really felt like part of the family: they included us in everything, made lots of jokes, and of course made sure we ate as much as possible.  It was nice be in this sort of family environment and share their traditions, especially after being away from home for so long, and I’ve decided that this beautiful house on the coast of France must be the best place to celebrate Christmas out of anywhere in the world.