The first course was a cheese and apricot platter, and the second course was a warm shiitake mushroom soup. This was followed by eggplant filled with ratatouille (a famous French dish consisting of stewed vegetables) and a main course of shakshuka (a dish originally from North Africa consisting of eggs in tomato sauce and vegtables). Finally, we had some delicious chocolate cake for dessert! It was wonderful to have a home cooked meal, and I enjoyed the change from the heavier French cuisine I've been enjoying for the past couple of weeks.
Since I stayed with my classmates in Chamonix, we played a lot of French music to get us in the mood for skiing. My favorite French songs included "Papaoutai" ("Papa Where Are You" in English) by Stromae and "Ma Meilleure Amie" ("My Best Friend" in English) by Lorie.
Skiing! I haven't gone skiing since last winter at Dartmouth (we're well known for our ski team and the college even owns its own skiway in New Hampshire, about a 30 minute drive from school). However, the ski conditions in the northeast U.S. are drastically different from that in the Alps in Chamonix. The powder in Chamonix was really amazing, the mountain had so many levels of trails and the views were unbelievable.
We have been assigned a fair amount of reading by our professors this past week. We started the week reading "La tour de Gaule de l'Astérix" (Asterix's Tour of Gaul), a French comic book that provides insight into the regional specialties of modern France using a beloved, classic cartoon characer.
