Bechamel in Marseille

Admittedly, there is a point in every relationship where it has gotten serious enough to introduce one another to the parents. My introductions were not so successful, as neither parent look too kindly on their only, eldest daughter shacking up with a 30 year old bald former french bartender.

So when the time came to finally meet his parents, it was met with some trepidation on my part. First of all, I have never met any boyfriend’s parents. True, my ONE former relationship yielded a brief meeting with the parents, but nothing to the extent of “hey nice to meet you. Thanks for letting me stay for the next two weeks”.

Sigh.

On top of the initial trepidation, it didn’t help that they didn’t speak much english and my french was passable. Lots of hand signals that thankfully didn’t get interpreted as obscene helped the two weeks pass. And the fact that his father was hilarious. Which made me wonder why the boyfriend wasn’t as funny…..

ANYWHO… some adventures in Pierrevert

Alex took me to Montfuron (about a 10 minute drive northwest of Pierrevert) to check out a cool (boring) windmill.

I have to tell you, the coolest thing I did see was this very old map of the south of France.

The man there was interesting, if not a bit chatty. Claimed he was related to JFK when he heard I was American, etc etc.

And for your viewing pleasure, I need to show you how strong my boyfriend is…

Alex’s mother joined us on a day of apartment hunting in Marseille. Alex told me the day we were leaving. (Marseille is about 40 minutes south of Pierrevert)Crap. I thought.

Ha ha. Now she has to talk to my mother!

Actually, the day was pleasant. We saw MANY MANY crappy apartments, had a good lunch, and then our last apartment visit became the one we eventually moved into. (pictures will come when we have finally furnished this place)

We also cooked his parents a korean meal of kimbap. Now, after weeks of possibly the world’s best french food, I was DETERMINED to pay back somehow with my humble offerings of Korean cuisine.

This was the end result of Alex and I slaving away 2 hours in the kitchen. Kimbap, miso soup, fried tofu, some cucumber slices and jochugang. Now, did they enjoy it?

Man, the stray cats did!

Ha ha. I did get Alex’s mother to enjoy the tofu, which she claimed when she watched me cooked me that she HATED it. So kudos on that.

Alex’s father made some AWESOME fondue savoyarde. For the unknown, there are two kinds of fondue: savoyarde and bourguignonne. Savoyarde is made with cheese, the kind Americans are familiar with, while bourguignonne is a pot of hot oil where one dips various raw meats and crudites.

Cutting up the cheeses. There were two kinds gruyere and comte and he also added a special white wine.

YUMMY.

And the finished product.

Alex enjoying it… which I did too….mm.. melty cheese with bread…

Marseille… I love the smell of sea in the air as I walk to my various appointments. It’s orientation week for the new assistants and I have thousands of places to go…

Which had me discover something very curious..

I had been asked about 4 times this week whether I was chinese or not…

The conversation goes like this..

“Excuses-moi, mais vous etes Chinois?”

“No, je suis coreene”

And then they would go OH, thank me, then move on. I had thought it was strange until today I got asked again, and when I replied I was Korean, she handed me bible literature in Korean….

Apparently, the chinese are good enough to be saved but not the Koreans. I politely declined the materials, but this was one of the pushy kinds. Apparently, even french christians can be rude.

Hello fresh baked croissants. Hello smell of diesel fumes in the air. Hello boyfriend who has the best hugs and the sweetest kisses. Hello new apartment in the 5eme arrondissement, where I am down the road from the Vieux Port. Hello….FRANCE.

Yes I am here and have much to catch up on. And thanks to someone’s free wireless I’ve been stealing, I can. My last couple of weeks in California, my fantastic Chicago trip, and of course, my first couple of weeks in France.

SO thanks to the amazing world of Myspace, I managed to catch up with an old friend…. a VERY VERY old friend…

Jinjoo was my first best friend. She was my first heartbreak as she moved away to North Carolina a year after we met, leaving me all alone, prompting my mother to buy me a book called “how to make and keep friends” I have scoured the internet for a picture of this book, which was a bit of an insult to me then. It was a picture of a blond, white girl, dressed in the oh so fashionable pink tights and large tied-dyed tshirt, with huge scrunchies in her hair. SO the way to make and keep friends was to dress like a bad 80’s pop video… needless to say I never read the book.
Turns out she grew up as mischievous as I did, both of us causing our parents a fair amount of hand wringing. I guess it is a good thing we never grew up together…..

We went to Santa Monica pier together with her dong sheng, Ban sook

Then of course, like the good koreans we are, hit the noraebang…

Then on to my last dinner with the girls….

Last girls’ picture…. hey guys I have a clic-clac set up for you…!

ONCE again, a huge thank you to Jean, Sarah, Joey, and Mike for letting us be a part of their lives for a couple of days.

Chicago was amazing… ok more importantly, Berrien Springs was amazing. Lemon pasta (found the recipe Sarah!), the still adorable twins, Megan who has SO grown on me (and is an amazing eater, a Rosemead girl already), a faux beach, and even a bit of sightseeing…

We went raspberry picking… with spaz excited BEYOND belief about u-pick

Note I didn’t take any pictures of the actually picking, but Megan did eat about a pint of it. We did visit the “petting zoo”

Then off to Lake Michigan to swim!

The waves were amazingly rough, but the boys loved it…

Well they enjoyed their toys on the sand more..

THe three days were over too soon as we headed to chicago for the airport…

Then off to France…!

Now I can describe how hellish my trip was. How I threw up two times on the flight from Paris to Marseille because the man next to me decided to bathe in cologne that morning and how heavy my bags were…

Which made more sense on why when I saw Alex I just balled my eyes out. So much for the romantic moment…

BUT sneaky french boyfriend had a plan. A WONDERFUL plan. Right from the airport, he took me to Gorges du Verdon. Think of it as a grand canyon’s little prettier sister…

We stayed at a little hotel called Le Colombier and the first day I spent….

sleeping. No marathon catching up hours. I was so jet lagged all I did was sleep…

But the next day, sneaky boyfriend had more plans.

BTW, chevre fromage (goat cheese) is wonderful. But I realized the distinctive taste comes from.. the chevre….

He took me up to see the gorges

Then we rented a canoe and effortlessly sailed into the gorge itself…

And by effortlessly, I mean he did…
We had a picnic lunch by the gorge…. mmm… french baguette how I have missed thee..

The water was TOO cold to swim in, which was a pity..

SO when are YOU coming to France to visit me?