The French have great stage presence in musical settings as well. Idols of French music include Serge Gainsbourg, the classic tortured artist who drank, smoke, and drugged himself to an early death. But you can't beat the first five seconds of this live performance.
When he was younger, Serge Gainsbourg wrote a very suggestive song for the young France Gall (another heavy-hitting name in French pop culture) about a girl named Annie who likes suckers. This was a scandalous hit in the 60s, and France Gall had to work very hard to recover her dignity afterwards.
My years of Youtube research paid off recently as I was complimented on my knowledge of 20th century French musicians. Jean-Jacques Goldman, Lorie, Charles Trenet, Jacques Brel... I've watched them all, following one internet link to the next. Before changing subjects, one more classy song by Gainsbourg is "Je t'aime... moi non plus," which translates literally as "I love you... me neither," a duet featuring a solo of sexual moaning.
What else is new? I technically only teach twelve hours a week, and I have many vacations. For lack of other purpose, and to keep a tight budget, I spend a lot of my time just buying and cooking meals. I know the approximate or exact price of almost every item in my small living space, from the bargain 5€ skillet to the 0,92€ can of tomatoes (a cheap pasta sauce).
I'm trying to experience more or less the French lifestyle, but to a certain point I do need to keep my morale. The milk comes in tepid boxes, which I refrigerate. I found the baking powder hidden in little sachets, translated baking units in an American recipe and made pancakes... crepes will come soon. I am also apparently bizarre in eating eggs for breakfast; a neighbor friend was really confused when I mentioned that, and then concluded that I was like the English.
In French; very roughly quoting:
"You had eggs? For breakfast?"
"Yes." "Eggs for breakfast?" (Now assuming he just must not personally know how to fry eggs quickly on our burners) "Yes. Look, I can show you how, just crack it on the skillet, it just cooks" "I know. With bacon? Bacon and eggs?" "Well you don't really have bacon, but I used ham, yeah." "We do have bacon. Do you want to find bacon?" "I'm fine for now." "Ahhh... eggs for breakfast... you're like the English!"
A lot of the youth workers around me seem to be eating pasta. Since I'm no French chef, I seek out some foods that to some extent I already know are good. In my search for tasty foods, I've been wandering all around town and have visited every store possible.
This sad substitute for macaroni was a serious disappointment:
There is no delicious cheese packet! It's also bothersome to see a cracked raw egg hovering above my forked noodles.I managed to buy a bunch of soy/rice noodles with sweet & sour sauce, soy sauce, hot chili sauce, popcorn, etc. at an Asian food shop (in Angers... Ancenis may be too small for that sort of thing). On a related note, I recently made fajitas. Not a bad feat, since they rarely eat anything like that in France; I had to consolidate ingredients available at different places. MMM! Not that French cuisine isn't excellent... but if I'm living here seven months I think I'll need my Mexican food.
In French, by the way, "sour cream" essentially corresponds to "crème fraîche" i.e. "fresh cream." That seems strangely opposite in meaning.Looking out my window while cooking at night I can usually see the high speed train spark as it flies by. And looking into a window at the train station in Nantes I managed to catch a glimpse of the work being done by the SNCF (national train system) welcome booth representative:
Hey! That screen seems awfully familiar.
