'Tis the season to eat eat eat.
I'll be staying in Toulouse for Christmas this year, and I'm not embarassed so say that one of the things I'm most excited for is the food.
Standard fare for the holidays includes champagne, oysters, foie gras, and assorted pastries. Mmm.
The kick-off began on the last day of classes at the school cafeteria for the repas de Noël. I had missed this last year since I was flying home for the holidays. As this is an establishment that regularly serves artisanal unpasteurized cheeses at lunch and had been generating a significant amount of buzz in the teachers lounge in the weeks leading up, I figured it was worth coming in for on Friday even though I don't normally work that day.
I was not disappointed. Indeed there was a feuilletée de canard as an appetizer, filet mignon or fish for the main dish, and 3 choices of desserts. In room where the teachers eat there were heaping plates of roquefort being passed around (eat your heart our FDA), and the red table wine that usually accompanies school lunches (yes you read that right) was flowing more than usual.
Friday night I went to a colleagues house for a champagne and foie gras apéro with some of her ex-colleagues from the previous schools he worked at. They were talking about how they unfortunately missed their school's meal this year and were especially disappointed as they had heard through the grapevine that the school opened several choice bottles of wine from their cave. Excuse me? Apparently it's not uncommon for schools – yes public high schools – to have personal wine cellars. Incredible.
Yesterday Gisèle and I decorated our tiny Charlie Brown-esque tree and swapped Christmas traditions. I introduced her to the Jackson 5 christmas album and told her how my parents, brother and I always left out milk and cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve up until an embarassingly old age, and she told me that in France they leave out a glass of wine for Santa. Why of course, she explained, Santa is old enough to drink isn't he? Vive la France.
A bientôt!
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