France's other holidays

A hearty thanks for all the help and suggestions! It's great having transferable recipes for Thanksgiving food, even if one does have to pay cher for a piddly number of pecans. Through this process, I've been wondering why Thanksgiving never caught on in France (so what if they never had pilgrims or Indians). You'd think the French would be all about having another holiday that revolves around food, sports and family time. Those are, after all, their obsessions.

Last week while I was explaining Thanksgiving to her class, little Marie raised her hand and asked if we ate chips (french fries) for the meal. I said no and tried to convey the vastness and importance of the Thanksgiving dinner using tone, arm gestures and broken french. She seemed perplexed. Five minutes later, not willing to let this go, she raised her hand and asked "But why don't you eat chips for Thanksgiving?" "Because it's a formal meal. Formel. Chips are informel." She just looked at me like I'd either (1) grown a Native American headdress or (2) discounted her entire logic system. French fries are very popular here. They even serve them on bread...a french fry sandwich. It's apparently outside the 9-year-old range of thought that one can have a nice meal without them.

Maybe Thanksgiving never caught on because two holidays already exist this week. Sunday was Armistice Day. It was really sobering thinking about how much violence struck Valenciennes. I believe the British liberated them because there were lots of Union Jack's flying in the city center. They had a ceremony at 11am that lasted about an hour (a very COLD hour). All the branches of the military were represented, and there were small troops from England and Scotland (sporting bagpipes and kilts!). The most notable part of this was the parade. I'm not sure how this fits in beyond being a demonstration of civic pride and participation, but almost every sports club marched in it behind the military band and the boy scouts. My favorites were the martial arts club, the SCUBA club (in wetsuits and flippers), the baseball club (it does exist!), the umbrella club, and the hot air balloon club (who had the bottom parts of their balloons on trailers and drove around shooting fire in the air... that warmed things up a bit.)

Then yesterday was another day dear to France... and any oenophile. The first day of Beaujolais Nouveau. It's a type of red wine that is harvested later in the year (now). I don't know why it's always this day, but it is. People have beaujolais parties, and bars have free buffets. And if bars have free buffets, hungry English assistants will flock there in droves. (Who knew France had buffets?) So we went to try this new wine. It was nice, but I'm still not sure what the fuss is. We also ought to have checked to see what the buffet consisted of before sitting down and ordering a bottle. This was not the gourmet buffet of wishes and dreams. It was stinky, drippy cheese on a wheel, couscous and canned vegetables. I felt insulted. Wronged. Still do. Shame on you, France. Shame on you. That should be illegal or persecuted.

Also disappointing: the transportation workers are on stike again. So our trip to Paris this weekend has been jeopardized and postponed. On a brighter note, it has been sunny the last three days (even though the temperatures hover around freezing). The Alps opened up for skiing today. These are the things one knows when one lives in France. It's weird.