La Vie Parisienne: Familiar Faces in Familiar Places

Last summer I spent six weeks living with a host family in Annecy, France and studying in a little nearby town called Talloires, through a Tufts summer program. It was one of the best summers I have had – and one of the most beautiful places I have ever been – so naturally I just had to show Mom and Char! When they agreed to my plan to go for the weekend, I was immediately thrilled, and contacted my host family from last summer telling them I would be there to visit. I had told them I am in Paris, and they were excited as well for me to come down, so it worked out perfectly!

Lake Annecy

Buildings in Annecy

We took a train to Annecy leaving Saturday morning and arrived around 1pm. Once we checked in to the hotel, we set out to explore the town for a while. It was wonderful to be back where I had lived all summer, and I still remembered how to get everywhere since it is such a small town. Annecy is situated on the tip of a huge lake, and right in the Alps. Last summer I did a ton of hiking with my host family and with a guide from the Tufts program, which was amazing – we got to see so many cool places! The lake is very cold at this time of year, but it warmed up enough to swim in by the end of June last year. I love how clear the water is, and the contrast between the mountains and the lake. The actual town of Annecy is very cute – they call it little Venice because it has a couple little canals that go through it. Ok I am starting to gush… and you can see for yourselves in the pictures why I love it there so much, so I’ll get back to what we did.

Park by the lake

Main Canal into old Annecy

When we arrived, we walked around the edge of the lake and through a park/garden there and then headed into the old town. We found a little place along the main canal to get some yummy salads for lunch (I got chevre chaud salad – warm goat cheese salad) and then walked up to the castle on a little hill above the town. I had a great time annotating the visit with all my experiences from last summer. We lucked out with fantastic weather – it rained for about 45 minutes while we changed to go to dinner with my host family that night. I had told my host mom that we wanted to take them out to dinner, so she made the reservation for us all. My host family in Annecy

consisted of my three host sisters, aged 18, 16 and 12. The 18 year old is now at school in Lyon, France, but she came home for the weekend to see me, which was really nice of her! We went over to their house for drinks before dinner, and once again I had the fun experience of hearing them all speak English. And as a special treat, I got to hear Mom pull out some of her French as well! I was rather impressed with how much she remembers, and so was my host sister who whispered to me to ask when my Mom had last taken French. She was very surprised when I said high school!

Me and my host family in Annecy

For dinner we went to a restaurant that had great
traditional Savoie specialties. Annecy is in the Savoie region of France, which is particularly known for its great cheese! Their specialties include fondue, raclette (cheese that you melt yourself and put on potatoes and ham), and tartiflette (cheese, potatoes, ham, and more cheese all baked together). I ordered tartiflette, which was incredible, but also incredibly rich so I could only finish about half of it! After dinner we made plans for the next day. My host family had offered to drive us around the lake, and over to Talloires so that I could show Mom and Char where I took classes all summer.

View of the whole lake

We met them in the morning for a lovely breakfast at their house, and then Mom, Char and I took some time to go explore the market in town. I remember the market from when I was there last summer and it is something that I wish the US had more of! Stands of fruit, vegetables, cheese, and sausage line the tiny streets. There is a large mix of tourists and locals wandering through tasting, snapping photos and picking up groceries for the day. I just love all the colors and the variety of things they sell. You can't deny that there is a certain charm to being able to buy it all from stands outside along a canal too! Once we had wandered through the market for a while, we got in the car with my host parents to begin our tour of the lake. They first drove us up to a beautiful area where we could get a whole view of the lake. Then, we took the road down and headed to Talloires, where the Tufts center is located. Tufts was given an old priory in Talloires that they use now for their summer program. The priory is a beautiful old building (but very cold as I remember!) and there are really cute gardens out back. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go into the back since the building wasn’t open, but Mom and Char at least got to see a little of it! The abbey that used to be connected to the priory is now a hotel and restaurant. We walked down to the lakeside, where there is a beach and dock with some cute old rowboats and sailboats.

Overlooking the Talloires bay

We drove a little further along the lake and had lunch at a beach restaurant where we all got salads that had guacamole on little toasts (I, of course, was thrilled. I tell you, it’s the little things in life…). We continued along our tour of the lake after lunch, stopping at a little modern art museum that has an interesting outdoor part with sculptures as well as a rotating exhibit in the indoor part of the museum. The indoor exhibit was all based on nature, and there were some very cool things as well as very strange ones! There was one installation that was a bunch of pots filled with dirt that had headphones sticking into the pots. When you put the headphones on, you could listen to the “sounds” of whatever fruit or vegetable was marked on that pot. Very bizarre, but kind of fun! We all decided we never wanted to peel a carrot again after hearing it squeak!

Me, Mom, Char and my host mom overlooking the lake

We finished our tour of the lake back at my host family’s house to pick up our bags and have a quick drink (water with some delicious mint syrup that I am determined to find before I leave!) before we headed over to the train station. Saying goodbye was not too hard because they are planning to come to the US for the month of August, and Boston is on their list of places to visit. It will be interesting to meet them on my own home turf! The train ride home was rather uneventful, and we all crashed when we arrived back at our hotel in Paris. I was so glad to have had the chance to revisit my host family in Annecy – it made me remember just how warm and welcoming they were. I really felt like I was a part of their family when I was with them. It also reminded me of how different the two families are in Paris and Annecy – though not in a bad way. They are both wonderfully welcoming and friendly, but the family dynamics are so different that it is interesting to compare them. While I think living with a host family is always a great experience, it can also actually narrow your vision of a certain culture. When my current host sister went to the US, she stayed with a family where they were almost never home, never ate meals together, and when they did eat together they would eat out at fast food restaurants. I hope I have been a breath of fresh air from those American stereotypes for my family here, though I don’t deny I embody other American stereotypes (peanut butter probably makes it on my list of my top 20 favorite foods!). Nevertheless, I think it is important to see how different families live, so that your experience is not solely based on the habits of a few people.

Me and my host parents

Whew! Sorry, getting all reflective there. I’ll move on to more exciting things – namely delicious food, some shopping and lots of wandering and sightseeing back in Paris!

Monday morning we got breakfast at the Deux Magots, a café near our hotel where Hemmingway supposedly ate when he was in Paris! I had class that afternoon, so I left Mom and Char to fend for themselves, and met up with them later for a bit of shopping and a lot of wandering. That evening we went to a restaurant I had picked out, which was recommended on a food blog that I have started reading since I came to Paris. The blog is written by David Lebovitz, who was an American pastry chef, but now lives in Paris and blogs about all sorts of great places around Paris! The restaurant was called J’Go (I go) and specializes in traditional French food from the Gascony region. I had duck that was delicious, and Mom and Char both got roasted lamb that they enjoyed as well.

On Tuesday I did work until my class later that afternoon (unfortunately, I had a paper due on Thursday – alas, the world does not stop despite my visiting family) and Mom and Char went to Montmartre with my Mom’s friend. I was able to finish most of my paper, and we had dinner with Mom’s friends that evening at a beautiful restaurant. I am still dreaming about the avocado and grapefruit salad that I had for an appetizer – so amazing!

Picnic on the Champ de Mars

Wednesday was Mom and Char’s last full day in Paris, so we had a lot to fit in! They had coffee with Mom’s friend in the morning while I continued to catch up on work, and then we had plans to picnic on the Champ de Mars for lunch! I love picnicking with my friends here (probably evident from all my posts by now) and I wanted to take Mom and Char for a picnic as well! When it gets nice out, the French go out en masse to picque-nique on the pelouse! I personally, am a huge fan of this tradition and we decided that there was no better place than in front of the Eiffel Tower for their last day in Paris! We went to a couple different shops and stands to pick up our supplies, and ended up with some baguette, fromage, sauscisson, et fraises (baguette, cheese, sausage and strawberries). I had a little trouble finding the bus that was supposed to take us there, but we made it and had a delicious picnic. Afterwards, I had class from 3-5, so Mom and Char went to the Rodin Museum while I was in class, and I made plans to meet them for afternoon tea at Ladurée, which is a very famous pastry and tea shop in Paris. They are reputed for their macaroons and tarte citron (lemon tart), which is said to be the best in Paris! We split two between the three of us and I think it very well lives up to its name!

Our tartes and tea!

After tea, we walked through the Tuilleries and past the Louvre again, ending up at the Pont des Arts (Bridge of Arts) which is a pedestrian bridge in Paris where it has become a tradition for lovers to write their initials on a padlock, lock it to the bridge, and then throw the key into the Seine, symbolizing their eternal love. Whether the theory is true or not, all the padlocks on the bridge make the bridge look really cool, and there are always people sitting (picnicking!) and enjoying the sunset, which is what we did that evening. Once it was dark, we made our way over to the Eiffel Tower so that Char could watch it sparkle (it only goes for 5 minutes, once every hour). We had not really had dinner because of our afternoon tea, but we were getting

Padlocks on the Pont des Arts

kind of hungry so we went for French onion soup at a restaurant called Au Pied du Couchon (The foot of the pig). It was a great way to end the day, and we headed back to our hotel afterwards so that Mom and Char could put last minute things in their suitcases before they were picked up in the morning. They were picked up at about 6:00am, and I got up to see them off, then went back to bed for about an hour, and finally got up around 7:00 to finish my paper due that afternoon! I was so sorry to see them go, but we had a fantastic time together while they were here. It was so fun to be able to show Mom, Dad and Char why I love Paris so much, and I hope they loved it as much as I do. It was a slightly strange role-reversal to have them here, since for once, I am the one who knows where we are going, and I was responsible for making sure we got there and everyone was happy! Usually, I just tend to follow Mom around on our vacations since she has them so well planned – it’s quite different when you are the leader of the pack! Sheesh, this whole growing-up thing is hard. Well, I guess if it must happen, might as well be in Paris!