I took many, many pictures during the informative château tour. Tragically, however, none of them came out because I wasn't allowed to use the flash. I wish I could post the pictures of the Grand Singerie, a room decorated with beautiful, strange rococo paintings of monkeys dressed up in vaguely Eastern clothes. I also wish that I could summarize the château's history -- first owned by one royal family, then by another! -- in an interesting way, but I fear that might be beyond my limits.
The sun came out and we walked all around the grounds. The gardens are enormous and include a French garden, an English garden, a waterfall, a woods, and, apparently, a kangaroo house. Somehow I managed to miss the kangaroos. I did see the huge stables and gorgeous horses, for which Chantilly is justly famous.
But on to more important matters, namely, food. I've had a lot of questions about the food here, and my response is unequivocal: it is awesome. Of course, you might think, how can any cuisine that depends so heavily on butter, meat, bread, and cheese fail to be awesome? That's a big part of it. For many Americans, French food is at a basic level stuff we like to eat, stuff that's normally fraught with moral implications (so much cholesterol!, empty calories!, etc) but when in France, we throw up our hands, succumb to deliciousness, and give it a free pass. Sure, I say, why not, I'll take the crème brûlée. Another quiche. Steak au poivre, please!
I think there's another important difference, though, and that has to do with the way people think about eating here. Basically, they value eating well. Not in the way we as Americans think of eating well, our obsession with the low-fat and the vitamin-fortified, concerns that reflect our understanding of food as an aspect of health; rather, the French are very serious about the quality and taste of their food. I realized this when my host mother offered me some grapes one day. I said "Merci, I like white grapes," and she was puzzled by the term. She identified the grapes at a completely different level, actually the kind of grape, its name, provenance, flavor, and the best few weeks of the season to buy it.
My favorite manifestation of this particular French value, the value of eating well, is the boulangerie, or bakery. There's a boulangerie or two on every corner in Paris, and every one sells fresh bread: two or three different kinds of baguettes, round crusty farm bread, brioche, wheat breads. Any time of day, you can walk in and buy warm bread, sandwiches, pastries (the pastries! Pain au chocolat, éclair, mille-feuille, réligieuse, tarte au chocolat, croissant aux amandes, tarte aux fraises!). Obviously the quality varies, although I have yet to find a bad baguette in this town. At first I was astonished to observe how serious Parisians are about their bread; a month later, I'm a regular at my own boulangerie.
So, in short, the food is amazing. My host mother is an excellent cook, and I eat dinner here five times a week. For the other two, I'm free to explore the restaurants of Paris. I have yet to find anywhere serving anything involving peanut butter, but the search will continue!
One last thing, to wrap up. I've chosen my courses for the semester:
Introduction to Francophone Literatures
Stories of Madmen in 19th Century Literature (Russian & French)
Marx for Beginners
French Feminism, 1870-1970
All the professors were engaging, comprehensible, interesting, and friendly, and the reading lists look fabulous. More on school coming soon!
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