Some Reflections on Culture

Originally posted 9-30-2003

This week passed very quickly in light of the weekend’s plans to venture to Switzerland.  Shout out to the roomie for the letter.  I loved it.

My mom sent me two articles to read on the status of Franco- American relations, one from the French perspective and one from the American.  Those of you who read the Sunday Post may have seen Gene Weingarten’s excellent cover story in the magazine.  It is hilarious, true, and profound without seeming so. 

I attended a French cooking class today where I learned how to make soufflé à fromage, ratatouille, tourte à la viande (red wine and Provencal herbs flavor a mixture of fresh ground meat which is baked in a made-from-scratch pastry shell and served like a pie), and clafoutis aux cerises.  That’s basically how the formal French meals go, you start with a small appetizer, here they call it the entrée, then soup, then the main course, then cheese, then dessert.  So I spent the afternoon learning how to make these fabulous dishes in a yellow and blue kitchen that I decided I must recreate in my own home some day.  However, it won’t be the same without the lovely view of the mountains from the window. I bought a cookbook in Burgundy last weekend I want to start using as well. 

For the most part you don’t mess around in someone else’s kitchen in France but Marie-T is very liberal that way.  She and I prepare dinner together most evenings and she taught me how to make this salad dressing which I am obsessed with.  She and I discussed some of the things from the articles I read at dinner this evening. 

One of the things we hit upon was the difference in the culture of food.  French have next to nothing at breakfast, usually just a café au lait.  They have a little bit at lunch, a small sandwich or panini and some yoghurt, then at dinner they eat the meal in courses and they take a long, long time to eat.

 The word restaurant comes from the French verb “restaurer” - to restore.  That is a fitting description of the way food is regarded here.  At dinner you sit with the people you love the most and rebuild what the long work day has taken away.  French people don’t like to work, that’s why they have long lunch breaks and haphazard store hours.  They know they have to work to make a living, but they don’t live to work.  They live to relate for a long time over a glass of wine and enjoy each morsel of a doubtless carefully prepared  and beautifully presented meal .  This “restores” them. They do, of course, have McDonald’s here.  It’s a big hit with the young people.  Older people think of it as something like an invasion.  They hate it.  They hate that the word “weekend” is used instead of “fin de la semaine” and “e-mail” as opposed to courrier electronique *.  Anglicismes pervade French culture.  The article said that the French government has mandated that at least 40% of the songs played on the radio must be French. It may be a joke, but it just seems so likely.  I thought about how Americans try to emulate French sophistication, refinement, and luxury, while the French adopted/adapted our rapidity, casual approach to dining, and our music.  They are in dire need of some help on that last front though.  I can’t stand the music here, with a few exceptions (KYO!).  French people are helpless when it comes to creating a good pop song (French Affair’s “My Heart Goes Boom” notwithstanding).  French television, other than the news, is also completely devoid of entertainment value for me.  Sometimes for the sheer humor of it, I will glance at “Star Academy”, the American Idol knock-off in which wannabe pop stars live together, practice, gossip, complain and compete in front of the country.  At least in America some of them can sing, this is not true in France.  And if talent is out there, it’s not on Star Academy.  I should caveat, though, that I'm not even an American Idol fan in America.  

I’m comparing things daily.  Some things I like, some I don’t.  I’ve started a list for each.  I’m up to 27 on the “things I love about France” and 15 on the “things I love about America”.  

Time to prepare for the Swiss adventure.  Rain is in the forecast all weekend. Hopefully it won’t hinder us too much.  Chocolate and cheese with holes, here I come. 

* Courrier electronique has now been shortened to courriel in the vernacular.