So We are Moving to Paris: November 2012

A day of thanks

2012 Thanksgiving meal. Or as we say in France- the meal we ate on Thursday Nov 22nd.

I associate this season with loved ones and the time we spend with each other, so this week I've been missing family and friends and the frequent gatherings that last from Thanksgiving to the beginning of the New Year. Seeing everyone's preparations for the holiday- be it travel plans or dinner menus- makes the distance between us and them more tangible. Last year, I was making those same preparations. Almost every year since I can remember, I've sat around a table replete with an abundance of food and an atmosphere filled with friendly conversation (and a debate or two covering current events).

This year, Thomas and I decided that we would not make a traditional meal. At this point, we don't know enough people who would appreciate such an effort. We will celebrate it - sort of - tomorrow. Thomas has an American friend who lives in Italy. He and his wife are visiting Paris this weekend, so tomorrow we will go out to dinner. I'm sure it will be nice. But no turkey. no pumpkin pie. no stuffing.

In France, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving, so there aren't many people to share in the anticipation. It is just another ordinary Thursday. To try to make today not so ordinary we included a few festive dishes to tonight's dinner. It made us feel a little less disconnected with everyone in the States. While not the traditional turkey Thanksgiving day dinner, we came close. Today's dinner was lamb with homemade stuffing and green bean casserole. In my opinion, Thanksgiving isn't really Thanksgiving without the green bean casserole.

The stuffing was your basic recipe. It was good, but not extraordinary, although I do recommend using a day old baguette because it soaks up the butter and chicken broth nicely. The green bean casserole was a nice find on allrecipes.com. It uses a tasty, easy to make cream sauce instead of cream of mushroom soup and caramelized onions and planko instead of french's onion. I'm glad we included a little bit of Thanksgiving in our new French life. Making time for family and friends that includes good food and desserts sounds like a good idea no matter in which country one lives.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Things I am grateful for:

* My husband who is generous, caring, smart, and industrious

* Our two beagles who are loyal, reliable, and great bed pre-warmers

* Family and friends and the ability to skype and facetime with them

* The opportunity to live here in France

The Holiday Season is Upon Us

The municipalities have started hanging their Christmas lights throughout the Paris region. Stores are slowly bringing in their holiday items. Le Bon Marché's Christmas display is delighting passerbyers in the 7th arrondissement. Unless you are living in a cave, you cannot miss the fact that the holidays are upon us.

Thanksgiving and Christmas this year will be spent here in France. While exciting, I will miss spending time with family and friends. Around this time last year, Thomas and I were planning what to have for Thanksgiving dinner and deciding when to have our Christmas party. Here in France, because they don't really celebrate Thanksgiving and they don't really have an autumn, I feel a bit cheated out of a full, festive, family oriented holiday season. But maybe the US has always prolonged the holiday season a bit too long. I heard Christmas decorations were up before Halloween.

We are trying to get into the holiday spirit. Thomas and I went to the Christmas Market at the American Church. Lots of crafters (my mom would have fit right in). It was small, but we did manage to find some Christmas cards. They were also serving Filipino food, of all things, so Thomas and I had pork adobo, lumpia (egg rolls), and leche flan (the Filipino version of creme brulée). That's about as close to family/home I am going to get around here for now.

Thanksgiving will be spent at a restaurant this year. A nice restaurant near La Place de la Madeleine, but there will be neither turkey, nor pumpkin pie, nor stuffing. Even when I was in West Africa, the peace corps volunteers managed to assemble a traditional Thanksgiving meal. There is no excuse for us to not have it here in France. I will start planning now to have this stuff on our Christmas menu.

Other random item for the day:
We ended our Paris excursion at La Bon Marché épicerie (fancy grocery store). Their American section included chocolate syrup for 8.5 euros (~11 USD), Newman's salsa was 7 euros (~9 USD), and croutons were 5.40 euros (~7 USD). They did have canned pumpkin and the British section had Campbell's cream of mushroom soup. We can definitely make pumpkin pie and my favorite holiday dish - green bean casserole, but I might have to spend a week's salary on the American meal!

Toussaint Holiday Weekend

We spent All Saints Day holiday weekend touring the area between La Mans and Tours ( a two hour drive south west of Paris). Below are a few photos. I'll write more later...