From North to South France (Etrechy)
Post date: 31-Aug-2009 22:06:45
On Friday, Aug 28, 2009, Colin and I took the train from Fosses station to Chatlet Les Halles. We again subjected ourselves to cheap fast food at Quick the Quality Burger Restaurant. It was cheaper than McDonald's. We walked to the Saint-Michel station and took the yellow C6 RER line to d'etrechy station. The family that we're staying with picked us up from the station. Isabelle
and Louis have a beautiful home and cooked us a wonderful Bievenue supper. We had merlot, barbecued canard (duck), potatoes with cream and chives, salad, fromage and baguette, ice cream and espresso (which they always eat with dark chocolate). It was so great to have a barbecue because it's the first one we've had since we left home a month ago. The duck was cooked over wood on a barbecue too. I can definitely get used to all the chocolate and cheese. Supper was very delicious, but I don't know how Parisians stay looking skinny and like supermodels. The couple we are staying with also look too young to have 3 teenagers (2 girls and 1 boy). They also have a cat and 3 birds.
On Saturday, we enjoyed a quiet day outdoor in their yard. They went out of town past Normandy to pick up their youngest daughter. We walked to the bakery for lunch and enjoyed these wonderful petit chocolate and pistachio cookies. In the evening we went to our second barbecue and a Jazz festival in a town just outside Etrechy where are hosts used to live. Their youngest daughter came too and she was born there.
The festival was at a community hall. The patio area was decorated with coloured lights and lots of art work. We had biere and chili for supper with the exception of Colin who had a baguette with 2 barbecued sausages in it. When there are festivals in France there are always lanterns and confetti involved. We helped light and hand out paper lanterns with tall candles inside them. Once all the lanterns were lit, we followed a band that was parading through the streets with a dancer in front of them. The dancing girl could really shake her booty. While we were walking, Isabelle's lantern fell off the stick and it burst into flames.
After we got back to the community hall, we spoke a bit in French with their friends and they helped translate too while we had another biere and listened to the Jazz band playing in the hall. It was such a cool cultural experience to spend an evening with the French family we're staying with and participate in the festival with them.
You can see our other 57 pictures from the weekend here.