Sunday, February 26, 2006

A Sunday Paris lunch


A benefit of working in a French company is having French colleagues to ask us over for for the sacred Sunday lunch. This Sunday we were whisked into a completely different world - the tightly connected world of French families.

Over the course of the 3 hour lunch we collected 10 children and five adults from four different families, interrelated through family and school ties. Most of the adults had gone to the French equivalent of MIT, Ecole Normal Superior.

The conversation was conducted using a nearly incomprehensible melange of Franglish, with everybody doing their level best to communicate using their least comfortable language. The topics ranged from favorite interpreters of the Goldberg Variations to the name of Alexander the great's horse (and of course politics, that most dreaded of all subject for Americans overseas).

The centerpiece of the meal itself was a roasted Poulet de Bresse - the queen of French chickens. To accompany we had a 2000 Margaux, Chateau Giscours, easily one of the best wines we have had so far in France. Desert was an incredible looking chocolate cake from Lenotre, but by the time desert rolled around our ranks had been swollen to the point where there were not enough slices to go around.

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