Ma Vie est Belle: Janvier à Rennes

So I am back in Rennes after an epic New Year's, and an incredible Christmas break. The weather has been very not-Rennes, and not-winter. Knock-on-wood, the weather has been about 50 degrees and sunny for the past 2 and a half weeks, so I have been definitely taking advantage of being outside taking walks, going to the park, and going to the soccer matches. In fact, the last game I went to was the first play-off game, against Cannes, and we won 7-0! It was really fun to watch, even though it was a bit painful for the other team. New year, new adventures, so I am trying to do more! My friend Julia and I have started swimming in the brand new, beautiful, indoor pool in the park every Monday, which is great. I started a small job at a pre-school called "Les Petits Bilingues" for French/English bilingual kids. I have only been once so far, but I'm really hoping to go back. Last time we made cupcakes with 11 7-year-olds, it was messy and tiring, but so incredibly cute. I also went to IKEA the other day to freshen up my room a bit with living things, like flowers, so my studio is finally feeling very chez moi.

Attempting to grow some
flowers in my room!

Beautiful sunsets outside my window

I also FINALLY bought what we call a "mini four" (which sounds much more glamourous than a toaster oven, which is essentially what it is). Nevertheless, I've been using it almost every night as my improve-culinary skills continue. Below I made pizza for myself using mushrooms and spinach, and instead of a sauce, I puréed sweet potatoes. It was absolutely delicious.

I went to a professor's house for dinner on Saturday night and it went really well (by professor I mean teacher, and by teacher I mean colleague). He, Loïc, and his wife, Véronique, could not be nicer and there were two other couples including a French teacher from my high school, and an Italian professor from my high school. It was the most typical French evening I don't even know where to begin. My professor picked me up around 8 and we went to his house close the the lycée. We started with aperitifs (appetizers/cocktails), which were small, small bowls of cherry tomatoes, nuts, and chips. The drinks were raspberry juice, passionfruit juice, or orange juice with rum. We sat and talked and drank in front of the fire for about an hour and then moved into the dining room where we started with a homemade soup: celery, pumpkin, and leek (absolutely delicious). We took our time, had seconds, enjoyed some white wine and waited for the next course. We then had rice with scallops in a kind of cream sauce. The market was earlier that day, so Véronique was explaining how she had bought everything that morning - gah amazing. We digested with some mache, which is incredibly popular and in season, some fresh bread, and of course, four different kinds of cheeses. Something I learned: it is rude to have seconds of cheese, therefore, it is not rude to take mass amounts of each kind the first time. I guess that's fair. We then had dessert: little chocolate cakes, tiramisu, and vanilla bean ice cream - and yes, we got all three. We finished with some tea and coffee and talked more about travel and films. At the end Loïc gave me some French CD's (due to a prior conversation at dinner about my embarrassing lack of knowledge about French artists), and he took me home. Dinner was incredible, they were so welcoming, and when I got home my clock said 1 am! Dinner parties here are NOT like in the USA when you can assume to be out of there in 2 hours. If you RSVP 'yes' to a French dinner party, prepare to be there all night - which trust me, is NOT a bad idea ...

So from reading this entry, and reading others, it pretty much sounds like all I do is eat ... which isn't completely incorrect. Well I have also been seeing a lot of films, both French and American. The films that I saw, that I recommend, are "Pieds Nus sur Les Limaces" with Diane Kruger, about two sisters which was very good, and a sort of French indie film. "Les Vrais Mensonges" with Audrey Tautou and Nathalie Baye (who is fantastic!). Before break I saw "Les Petits Mouchoirs" which some people said was only good because it had a lot of famous French movie stars, but I disagree. I didn't understand every single word, but still, it was a really great film - starring Marion Cotillard. At dinner on Saturday we were talk about another English film "Exit Through The Gift Shop" which is a movie by famous English graffiti artist Bansky. It is mostly about a French filmmaker, so the French have really enjoyed it. My friend Cait told me to see it over Christmas break, and I just got around to it. It was so good! A super odd and quirky documentary, but worth it. On Saturday morning, I was walking around Rennes and went to the market, and I found images by Space Invader - which is a pseudonym for a well known French graffiti artist. Below are the pictures - really cool!

Close-up of image

Space Invader above apt. building

Aaaand back to food - I hope that's ok ... Sunday afternoon I had a big brunch at my apartment with my friends. It was incredible. We had all been craving some real brunch I think so we made a big deal of it. It wasn't exactly an American brunch, but it involved quiche, croissants, and champagne. We had a pot-luck style brunch and everyone brought so many incredible things. We took our time and ate around 1:30, followed by a nice long walk in the park, and later we came back to either eat more, relax, and play cards. It was a typical French afternoon, slow and involving lots of eating, but it was nice to take our time and see each other and chat before a busy week.

Mushroom/caramelized onion/gruyere cheese quiche
My toaster oven at it's best!

The spread: breakfast pizza, croissants, scones, jam, quiche,
baguettes and, of course, mimosas.

Fresh croissants and pain au chocolat - yum!

Berit's delicious almond and lemon scones.

Taking a walk in the park we
discovered a merry-go-round ...

and a bull ... which Caely decided to ride.

I have another ode ... and that is to Speculoos spread. I have been hearing about this spread for a while, and I haven't been able to find it. When I was in the grocery store shopping for brunch, I decided to grab some for the bread. Best idea ever. Worst idea ever. Speculoos, for those that don't know, is a ginger-y, butter-y Belgian and Dutch cookie. You often have one served with coffee or tea in the afternoon at many cafés all over France (you can read more about the traditional Dutch/Belgian use online). Anyways, this is the spread - sort of a cross between Nutella and Peanut Butter - but beyond. It is absolutely delicious, and I recommend eating it on warm bread ... but preferably solely with a spoon. To say something is better then Nutella is a very bold statement ... but I think half-a-jar later, you will agree.