Family is something close to my heart. I knew coming to France that I had Mathieu's family to be there for me, but I would have never expected to find myself a part of someone else's. It wasn't until February of this year that I was so welcomed into the home of three beautiful girls and their amazing parents.
My friend Nicole shot me a Facebook message one day from a friend of a friend looking for a babysitter. By the following week I was at the door of a family of complete strangers, whom four months later had become such a big part of my life.
It was enlightening to see how they went about preserving the culture they left behind. The family is French but had spent the last 10 years living in England. The only way to keep up with English was to keep Wednesdays as "English Day." Hence the point of me being there. The youngest, Soline, is 9 and still needed help with the language, being that the other girls, Elise and Lorette are older and have had far more practice.
Soline and I did her homework together, read in English, taught each other hand games, cooked, shared stories, pretty much everything we could do in our short 6 hours a week together. What was more special than anything, is how I kept watching her grow and become closer with me each visit. I was never raised with younger siblings or cousins, so having that bond was such a great experience. I learned how to be a kid again, and I truly needed it.
Watching the parents raise these three girls was a good dose of French culture. Just as Mathieu's family does, they have healthy, cooked, sit-down lunch together with genuine conversation, no cellphones, and respect. The first day they said to me "we are fair here, everyone takes their own plate to be washed, and every one helps clean up." All I could picture is my Mom cleaning up by herself after so many meals when I was a kid.
Not only this, but reading was huge in their home. The girls had limited time on the computer and in front of the TV, so they did the next best things--play or read. Instead of sitting on Facebook for 5 hours like most of the population, they played games together. It has also been a while since I've seen girls that age excited over a new book. I loved it!

By far the one of the coolest things about these girls? They're not bilingual, nor trilingual, but they are well on their way to being multi-lingual. French and English have been accomplished, but Elise and Lorette are in the midst of learning Spanish and Chinese as well. Their parents really encourage them to be smart, independent girls. These sisters are going to rock the world and they don't even know it yet.
Not only did Elise, Lorette, and Soline become like friends, but they became like the little sisters I never had. I felt like I had a family in a city I barely knew, and I think to this day it is a big part of why I loved Bordeaux so much.

It's good to see how other cultures live. I'm so grateful to have experienced it through the eyes of an adult as well as a child. I encourage anyone to venture out of the bubble and really learn what other people in the world have to offer. I was blessed to have stumbled upon such a wonderful family. Love you guys!

There's a highly complicated, very gourmet, and extremely traditional dish of France deemed "poule au pot." Translation: Boiled Chicken. You probably did what I did, raised your eyebrows maybe squinted a bit in confusion. Yep, the tradition is to put a chicken...in a pot...with veggies. I'm not sure about you guys but I call this chicken soup.
For a year now I have yet to understand why his parents get so excited to make this. It's chicken and veggies? But I've got it figured out now that it's kind of like when I cook Thanksgiving dinner on a random Monday in February, it's just that one traditional meal his family enjoys. Check-out Mat's dad, he's the master of poule-au-pot disaster.
What I think is cool about it is the fact there's actually a history to it. I mean its Wikipedia worthy, and in my 21st century book that means something. From my understanding, and very poor attempt at google translating the article (luckily I have a French boy to help), it all started out with Henry IV.
Henry apparently had a big heart, and a big appetite. He wanted to make sure, that above all, even the smallest of laborers and subjects were to be able to have a chicken in a pot for Sunday dinner. Screw the rest of the days of the week, as long as that chicken was on the table on Sunday those peasants would survive just fine.
It's not just any chicken, oh no, it's stuffed chicken. It's exactly like what we do with the Thanksgiving turkey. If you check out my stuffed pepper blog, the recipe for the "farce," aka stuffing, is right there. It has to be accompanied by carrots, turnips, leaks, onions, and potatoes. You can see here that they eventually put the stuffing with the veggies.
The Rudelle's have put an even better spin on King Henry IV's Sunday tradition, dessert. Apparently he was no Queen Marie Antoinette telling his people "let them eat cake."

I've found a step-by-step website with pictures if you are feeling really ballsy and want to tango with your inner French. It takes around an hour and a half, and not much thought (basically it's my kind of recipe).

Okay I get it. I tease you with food porn, posting pictures constantly, yet telling you nothing about how it's made. It's not very nice, and lots of you have asked me for some recipes, so I'm giving in. Here's the first of many, and a good one at that. You can't beat something homemade from a French mother, especially Agnes' Stuffed Tomatoes and Peppers.

I am a cliché 21st century American. My parents are divorced, I only have one brother, and we're just middle-class white folk coming from a boring suburban town. Not to mention none of us live together. Our family is nuts like every family, but I like to think that we put the fun in dysfunction. Sure sure you find this here in France, but for the most part everyone I met has the stereotypical nuclear family. So after two years with Mathieu, I've now become a part of his rather normal nuclear family.
I'm just going to start by saying this was a culture shock. I'm use to eating whenever I have time, running around like a chicken with my head cut off, and hanging out with family while we all use our laptops. God that sounds terrible in writing.

I can truly say I don't know many Americans who spend their afternoons like this, actually none.
Here's why the Rudelle's do it right:
#1. They eat together. Wait what? Your actually all home at the exact same time? Shocking. Not only this but they eat for a solid hour and a half together. Maybe because in France they spend their long lunch breaks at home instead of running errands. France-1, USA-0.
#2. They drink wine, with every meal. Call it alcoholism if you please, but they don't do it to get drunk. It's kind of a pizza and beer thing, it's just because it tastes good. Some days we have more than others..and if by chance we're drunk, well then it was just a great day.
#3. They eat THIS. Nothing, not one single thing is from a package. For God's sake his dad actually went in the forest to search for the mushrooms. Laugh. No seriously, because that's friggin hilarious. Homemade vegetable soup, hardboiled eggs, mushrooms, and chicken.
#4. They consider every day a day for dessert, cheese, wine, or all of the above. You know why? Because they don't count every calorie they eat so they can go beat themselves up at the gym later.
#5. They like cats. I'm just putting this out there because 75% of my American friends hate them yet every French family I know has a cat, because cats are great thank you. This is Mimine by the way. She spends the afternoon outside with us.
#6. They relax afterwards..no cellphones, no laptops, communication. I'll be honest sometimes I get the shakes from this. My instagram feels very important to me at times. But we're kinda cute eh?

It has officially been 3 months since I've lived here and I can finally communicate people! Yes, in French. After last years experience I was somewhat traumatized by the thought of Christmas, but this year after living here for some time and being able to speak, it turned out to be a genuinely great experience.
It was just us four, me my boyfriend and his very French parents who take me in like their second child. As you can imagine heavy heavy wine and champagne drinking takes place during the holidays here. BUT in the Rudelle household, it's like the wine olympics. His dad's wine cellar is the gateway to heaven (at least for people like my mom and I) and he takes the holidays very seriously when choosing what we should drink.

2012 Saint-Véran

I, a previous drinker of Miller Light during the holidays have upgraded immensely. Mat's dad sells wine, and Mat is following in his footsteps. Can I get a hallelujah?

Dish #1
2 Bottles of champagne. I'm going to consider this a dish because I was full, and extremely happy.

Bernard Goucher Champagne

Dish #2
Homemade vegetable soup. Simple, yet delish.
His mom and dad are gods of soup. In their household during the winter, soup is a necessity to every single meal. Their purées blow Panera Bread out of the water, bread bowl included.

Dish #2
Shrimp, very very large shrimp...with eyes.


Dish #4
Tarte aux poireaux (turnip tarte)

Dish #5
Camembert, Comté, and Bleu cheeses..with more wine, and a baguette.
Dish #6
La Bûche

Dish #7 

It took everything in me to find an icing recipe without corn syrup, because the French are somewhat more conscious of their waist lines (disregard the last 6 pictures), but I was a girl on a mission. Mat helped me and it was actually so much fun, and hilarious how horrible at decorating we were.

Side note: we had no rolling pin, but a wine bottle was perfect..go figure.

My favorite part of the entire experience? Even though they weren't familiar with the songs, Mat's parents encouraged me to play Christmas music during the entire dinner. I felt at home, really.