A Word About Crêpes

Pronounced "crepps".
A tradition from Normandy (Where the Allies landed on D-Day - 2 hours northwest of Paris by car).

There are 2 kinds of crêpes - sweet and savory. Most tourists only see the sidewalk crêpe stands in Paris, but there are crêperies (crêpe restaurants) everywhere.

The thing to do is to go for a meal. One orders an apéritif perhaps (alcoholic cocktail, juice or soda) and the main course is a savory crêpe called a galette (not a crêpe). It is made in the same fashion - an ultrathin, very wide pancake, but with brown Sarazin flour - which is like whole wheat flour. The toppings are usually sliced ham, grated swiss cheese, and any combination of: more cheese, ground beef, sausage, a fried egg, chopped bacon, fresh lettuce on top, mushrooms, goat cheese, tomatoes, onions, walnuts, eggplant or seafood.

The traditional drink to accompany is Cidre - which also comes from the Normandy region where they grow many apples. French cidre is what Americans might call Nonalcoholic Apple Champagne. It is light and fizzy with an apple-juice flavor - not too sweet. It is not at all the strong autumn flavor of American apple cider. Cidre Doux is soft - 2% alcohol, while Cidre Brut is hard - 4% alcohol. You can hardly feel the alcohol - and almost never taste it. It is traditionally served in small porcelain bowls.

For dessert one orders another crêpe - a sweet crêpe this time. Made from a more cake-like flour. The crêpe is thinner and smaller and topped with any combination of butter, sugar, chocolate sauce, Nutella, banana, walnuts, jam, pears, lemon juice, Cointreau, Calvados or Grand Marnier (flambée of course.)

They may look small and thin, but you almost never finish both crêpes, or if you do, you can't walk straight for a while afterwards....

November Strike

Well, it's been over a month since I last wrote anything. Perhaps you were looking for pictures and news of the big strike? Perhaps news of more riots in France? Or gossip about the president's divorce? Honestly it's just been too busy lately to write anything, but I'll attempt to update a few things over the next couple of days....

The first strike I wrote about in October was nothing compared to the 2 week fiasco that took place in mid-November. For my part, I prepared early, and packed enough to stay at a colleague's house for the first few days. Although it was advertized to start on Wednesday the 14th, trains mysteriously began to run late on Monday evening. Tuesday already had a few trains delayed or even cancelled because of "technical difficulties", and the Metro was so packed on Tuesday morning that I had to manage my way on two busses to get to school - total time from Rambouillet to Paris on Tuesday morning: 2 1/2 hours.

Stayed at N.'s apartment on Tuesday and Wendesday evening, didn't see much of what was going on elsewhere on the trains, but on Thursday the trains were running to Rambouillet, so I left most of my luggage at school (so I could fit on the train with one small bag) and walked the 4.5 kilometers to the station in 45 minutes. In fact the train was pretty empty, since they had prepared for quite a few trains to run at rush hour, and most people were avoiding the trains altogether.

Still, the only reason I had a train was because we live outside of the RER commuter trains. Those were hardly running at all, and I only saw one Metro go by all WEEK.

So for the rest of the week I took my bike on the train and biked through Paris from the station to school. Even so, the bike lanes had heavy traffic, and the cars were mostly stopped in both directions during rush hour. At one point a roundabout was so jam packed with cars all perpendicular to eachother and honking, that I couldn't even weave my bike through - had to dodge pedestrians on the sidewalks to go around the knot.

Another evening the traffic wasn't even edging anywhere, and when I got near the station I found a policeman had roped off one of the main roads and traffic had to turn around. There didn't seem to be any reason, so bikes were allowed through, but the officer just stood there watching the cars.

Overall, people took about 2 days off of work, started from the house at 5:30am, took bikes, scooters, rollerblades, skateboards, walked, or attempted to drive. A car from one side of Paris to the other took about 2 and 1/2 hours - the same it would take to walk.

I don't really have an opinion on whether the strikers should get what they wanted or not - I don't really think much will happen in the end, but for some reason the right to go on strike is still one of the most revered civil duties in France. In case you hadn't heard, the railroad workers were followed by the Postal service, Elecric and Gas service, lawyers, teachers and most recently high school students. I think going on strike is a disease that will never be cured here, no matter what the strikers win or lose...