Slowly Into Winter

This morning, like every Wednesday morning, I rode down to the Les Halles Farmer's Market.  Most of the leaves are fallen now.  The bare trees revealed a low haze over the Loire river valley, rendering the morning sunlight cold and wintry.  Since we've been working on blocking this week and I don't have gloves, my Wednesday morning ride turned into a (much needed!) cold air ice bath for my hands and fingers.  Haha!

I'm getting to know my way around here pretty well and now I can't even remember the last time I was lost.  I'm also finally building up a rapport with the local farmer's market merchants.  They recognize me now and greet me with a more familiar generosity in their eyes.  Today, two of my favorite people - mushroom lady and artisan tomato man - weren't there and I almost cried because I look forward to our exchanges so much.  I've become quite appreciative of their tiny acts of kindness and their willingness to engage a lonely stranger.

All romance aside, though, the farmer's market is just a great place to practice my french and increase my food vocabulary.  I've become quite adventurous lately, asking random people questions about the different vegetables and their favorite preparations.  For example, just today I took a chance and bought a quarter of a huge warty looking pumpkin with instructions that involve peeling, boiling, draining, and mashing with milk, cinnamon, and sugar.  Doesn't that sound delicious?!?

Disney Was Right... It's A Small World!

Yesterday, I was walking down the wrong aisle in the grocery store looking for bar soap and some people passed by casually speaking English.  I stopped dead in my tracks and turned around as quickly as I could and just shouted at them "Are you American?!?" like any sane, but slightly lonely and desperate person might.  The couple was Canadian.  Oops?  They were collecting a lost-luggage-esque assortment of items along with an American woman who lives here in Tours.  When I told her I was here playing volleyball, she told me that she met Kelli Smith (THE marathon winning, ass-kicking wife of TVB star middle blocker David Smith) at this very same supermarket under the exact same circumstances (ie totally randomly).  It's a small world after all  ...and it was about to get even smaller.  After chatting for barely five minutes we discovered that we were both invited to the same Thanksgiving dinner.  What?!?  After we picked up the parts of our exploded heads, we said our goodbyes and I found the bar soap at the end of the aerosol deodorant aisle.

I hope you are all looking forward to Thanksgiving.  I know I am!  :)

Bordeaux!

At 10:30 AM Sunday morning the whole team piled into a nine-person van to make our 4PM match against team AMAZON (I mean, Bordeaux Merignac).  This team came down from National 1 at the end of last season and has been dominating National 2 with their scrappy defense and ferocious offense ever since. 

Unfortunately for our record, the road trip was the highlight of the day.  The freeways here are fast, direct, and cost a fortune.  The gas was 110 euros, and the tolls totaled 150 euros!  OUCH!  Coach Maguy said if you aren’t pressed for time the national routes here are beautiful *free* back roads that wind through the countryside and tiny town centers (a great way to see the French way of life up close).

Bordeaux was unlike any wine country I’ve ever seen...  Lush vines extended from the freeway in their uniform lines for as far as the eye could see in every direction.  Vineyards weren’t nestled in a valley, or shelved along steep, rocky cliffs.  They just stretched on and on and on forever.  Rows of trees and solitary farm houses spotted the landscape and spurred deep conversations about food, farming, and the environment. 

You will never believe this, but it turns out that on this three hour car ride, I happened to be sitting next to a girl on the team who has also been to Madagascar!  Oh, we went on and on, sharing with Maguy all the coolest things about Mada.  Since Maguy spent most of her life in Brazil, she could relate to a lot of the eating habits that characterize that latitude (ie tons of rice, a million different types of bananas, and avocados for dessert).  Mmmmm… 

I often forget that Madagascar is where I first developed a respect for food.  Despite annual family outings to Apple Hill and my mom’s lifelong gardening and fearless foraging habits, before studying abroad in Madagascar in my mind food primarily existed prepared, packaged, and priced on a shelf, in an aisle, in a huge air-conditioned building with slick floors and friendly employees.  Madagascar is where I finally realized that even the ingredients for pop tarts are planted, grown, and harvested, before being shook up in a test tube, squirted out a mechanical arm and zipped up in a rectangular foil wrapper.  Haha!

That reminds me of a great bit from Jerry Seinfeld on pop-tarts:

Pop-Tarts aside, it’s really rare to meet someone else who has been to Madagascar!  It was so nice being reminded of the year I spent learning, eating, and experiencing life there while studying abroad.  So many names, faces, moments, and meals flooded back into my memory; devouring banana and nutella sandwiches around a campfire; meditatively chatting while peeling apples and oranges; snacking on boiled manioc doused in sweetened condensed milk; harvesting, de-husking, sorting, washing, and cooking huge pots of white, red, brown, and black rice; savoring samosas and skewers of beef with lemony hot sauce; and washing everything down with THB (Three Horses Beer)...  It made me want to go back so bad!

To put it lightly, the game we played once we arrived in Bordeaux left something to be desired...  Enough said.  Bordeaux Merignac provided post-match pâté and crêpes (YUM!) and on the ride home we chowed down on a yogurt and nutella cake that our setter baked and my dad’s famous chocolate chip cookies (which arrived in the mail this week!).   Even though all of us were stuffed from the snacks, the club paid for a pit-stop.  We sat inside a gas station dining area and supped on delicious (by American standards) microwaveable pasta boxes.  Outside the sun set on distant forests and farms in hues of highlighter yellow, orange, and pink behind wide blankets of dark purple clouds. 

We made it home by 10:30 PM.  My head hit the pillow hard, gears still turning over missed serves and bad plays from earlier that night.   Alas!  Sunday nights remind me to look forward to a sit in the sauna and swimming, and a week of hard work for our next match.

That’s all for now.  More later!

Nutrition: Everyday Eating

Back in the States, working for SweetWARE, I started getting a lot questions from people about what to eat and why.  I'm no expert, but (because of my natural curiosity and the tools I had at my fingertips) I had the privilege of learning a lot about what food is made of and what works for me.  Here are a few rules of thumb that I like to think can be applied to any diet for added energy and vitality!

1.  Eat rainbows.  Not Lucky Charms, people!  I'm talking red tomatoes, orange carrots, yellow peppers, leafy greens... You get the picture!  If you eat a bunch of grays and browns, that's how you're going to feel.  PS - Condiments don't count...  Sorry!

2.  Fast food = once a year!  For maybe five years now, Billy and I have been getting Taco Bell for Valentine's Day.  This radical tradition started when we found ourselves wandering around Alameda on V-Day with no reservations and the realization that a nice dinner would require an hour wait and about a hundred bucks...  Going to Taco Bell was the most counter-cultural thing we could think of at the time and it stuck!  Now we look forward to it every year and fast food just feels wrong on any other day.  Haha...  Bottom line?  364 days a year, swap fast food for fresh food to feel (yep - pretty much instantly) better!  PS - In-and-Out does not count as fast food after a long day of tournaments and that's just the way it is...

3.  Whole Foods.  Not the store.  The food.  Unless you have a deadly allergy, foods that do not require packaging are generally better for you.  If it absolutely has to have a package, it also requires an ingredient list - so, read that shit!  Ingredient lists are required to list ingredients in order of predominance by weight.  If I'm debating between two products?  Compare the first three words and then run the last three words through my difficult-to-sound-out filter.  Red flags that get a product put immediately back on the shelf:  hydrogenated, artificial, monosodium glutamate, high fructose corn syrup, flavor, and color.  I rarely look at nutrition labels, but when I do it's normally to ensure that foods high in saturated fat, transfat, and sodium don't make it to my grocery cart.

4.  Anti-oxidants: our bestest friends in the whole wide world.  All we need to know is that, as a species, our favorite foods (in no particular order) are: any apple, any dark fruit, all berries, pecans, dark beans and pinto beans.  Period.  Okay, fine, fine!  Go ahead and throw in artichokes and russet potatoes if you insist...  Do it!  :)

Last thing before I get off this soap box (which I'm totally unqualified for if you forgot or missed that part).

5.  HYDRATE!  Replace the liquids you currently drink (soda, iced tea, coffee, alcohol, etc.) with the liquid of life: water...  or fruit and vegetable juices...  or just fruits and vegetables!  And this is where everything starts circling back to reinforce itself:  The USDA recommends 8-9 servings of fruits and vegetables day.   These foods (raw) are 75-90% water, so eat (or drink!) that ridiculously hydrating, nourishing, colorful stuff!

So, if you find yourself asking yourself "Do I dare eat a peach?"  The answer is just yes.

Writing this has made me very hungry, so I'm going downstairs to get a snack...  That's all for now.  More later!

WEEKEND

The treasurer of Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire Volley Ball invited me to stay with him and his family in the countryside North of Tours this past weekend.  Beautiful family, beautiful home, beautiful food, ahhhhh...  It was really nice to unplug and unwind!

On the first night we ate fajitas for dinner with tortillas and guacamole and everything!!!!  OH MY GAWD!  So nice!  So tasty!  Mmmmmmmm...  We ate so well!  Four and five course meals all over the place.  Unfortunately, because I was constantly caring for my sore foot, when I wasn't eating everything in sight, I was kindof a big bummer.  :(

On Sunday, we went on an outing to Château-La-Vallière, but because of my foot I didn't make it too far (ouch!).  Our first stop was a little lake where they foraged some blackberries and played volleyball while I laid back and just enjoyed the sunshine and the breeze.  Next stop, we went to go visit a friend of the club and his family, who - guess what? - is loaning me his bike until May - Yayayay!  We ate rhubarb tart and talked and laughed and I almost understood something he said once... I think...  Ahahah!

The rest of the weekend was spent sword fighting from the couch and playing games with the sweetest little boy in the world, the Treasurer's eight year old son.  We completed an entire "Ou est Charlie?" book, he whooped me repeatedly at Memory (a matching game), he learned how to shuffle cards, and we watched cartoons ("Shiva" is Legos in French!).  

The Treasurer got the ball rolling for my transfer paperwork, insurance, and - drumroll please! - we went to visit an apartment that looks like a keeper.  All in all, it was a super fun and productive weekend.

That's all for now.  More later!

Good Finds and First Official Practice

Today, I set out on foot again, this time really determined to find this farmer's market and post my personal chef flyers around Tours.

Good finds:

1.  Simply - grocery store right on the bus line where I know I can buy Nutella, the coffee capsules I've been using non-stop at the house, and also price out shampoo, conditioner, and toothpaste against the organic brands here.

2.  Farmer's market - one farmer!  That's right.  The farmer's market was comprised of one farmer.  I bought six apricots, four carrots, two lemons, two gigantic summer squash (one green, one yellow), and a bunch of chard (which would spend the rest of the afternoon wilting in my bag unfortunately) - all for just five euros!!!!  We spent a while talking and he told about his family (his wife and daughter) and how he grows his produce.  Really beautiful stuff.  I gave him one of my personal chef flyers.  He said his wife works on the radio and that he can pass that along to her.  Woohoo!

3.  Bike shop - I tried out a bike that was only 93 euros, but it was too small for me and the handle bars were all whack.  Everyone likes to ride upright here...  Bleh!  In one shop I met a guy from Poland (whose household employs a personal chef from Thailand!!)...  He works as a specialist in the whisky and spirits industry.  He's in Tours learning French and researching the wine industry.  Not a bad lead...  I gave him a flyer!

4.  APARTMENT!  There is a really, really perfect apartment for rent in Les Halles (an amazing area on the perimeter of downtown Tours) that I checked out today.  The manager showed me around and it really seems like exactly what I need (except that there's no bedding, cookware, laundry, etc., hmmm...)

I returned home triumphant today.  After a week here, I finally feel like I'm organizing my life and settling into France in my own lazy-American-accent-driven sorta way.  :)

I went shopping to the little organic market and got home at around 4pm ready to cook!  On the menu today?  Quinoa with almonds and raisins, sauteed salt and pepper carrots, and roasted garlic and rosemary summer squash (in hindsight, I'll admit I should've roasted the carrots and sauteed the squash...).  I guess they have a convection oven here, so it cooked the shit outta that squash in twenty minutes flat!  We didn't eat until after practice (11pm-ish) anyway, so I planned on blaming any faults on the microwave...  Hehe!

Tonight, was our first practice with the entire team.  There were ten girls in all.  Maggy sat us down all together.  We introduced ourselves and listened to her philosophy.  Looking around, it felt like a team we can invest in and be proud of!  If we miss a practice, the girls agreed, we have to bring snacks for the entire team (Isn't that awesome?!?!  I love them!).  I have been tasked with coming up with a pre- and post-practice cheer for our team - OH MY GOD THE PRESSURE!!!!  Anyway, we had a hard practice (a lot of running and passing and jumping).  I'm going to be sore as hell tomorrow and I can't even imagine how the other girls must be feeling right now...  Ey!

Here are a couple of fun words I've encountered recently and their meanings:
piquer - to sting/to be spicy hot (like food)
grignoter - to snack
clignoter - to blink
une cloque - a blister
la sueur - sweat
respirer - to breathe
transpirer - to sweat
s'égoutter - to drip
pleuvoir - to rain
la tonnerre - thunder
le coup de foudre - lightning

...and YAY, yoga tomorrow, so I'm quick studying body parts vocab - you had it coming!  ;)
to stretch - s'étendre
head - la tête
back - le dos
neck - le cou
chest - la poitrine
shoulder - l'épaule
shoulder blade - l'omoplate
arm - le bras
armpit - l'aiselle
elbow - le coude
wrist - le poignet
hand - la main
finger - la doigt
stomach - le ventre
belly button - le nombril
hip - les hanches
leg - la jambe
knee - le genou
calf - le mollet
ankle - la cheville
foot - le pied
arch - la voute plantaire
heel - le talon

That's all I can think of for now!  More later!

Musee des Beaux-Arts

I never made it to the market on Sunday!

Today, I set off on foot to find a farmer's market.  I didn't get lost per se (haha!).  I just went in a direction and tried to take in all the details (the sights and sounds and smells) of my surroundings.  There's something about the way laundry hangs out to dry here, the way hedges grow behind mossy stone walls, the narrowness of the streets and the way they weave through the town that just gives the impression that the people came first, then the homes, then the roads.  I can't quite describe the architecture, but it's uniquely French.  Structures are built with a concrete creativity.  The patterns in the bricks, the contrasting colors of the shutters and the doors, and the artistry of the rot-iron fences display restraint, but still seem at ease with the cycles of natural life around them: the rust, the rot, the browning branches...  It's hard to put into words, but I will take some pictures eventually to show you what I mean.  I already have a portfolio of entrances coming together in my head.  Blah blah blah there is beauty everywhere here blah blah blah!

I ended up snaking through the circuitous streets and staircases of Saint Cyr only to arrive smack dab in front of an organic beauty salon that I google mapped yesterday as a possible place to ask about hot yoga.  It was closed - boo!  So, I crossed the bridge into the center of town and stumbled into the Musée des Beaux-Arts.  For five euros I was able to roam freely through the gardens and up and down the magnificent staircases of this impeccable building.  I admired the permanent installations, but really enjoyed the exposition and the artwork of Olivier Debré.

This guy is a serious PIMP.  He paints outdoors with a broom!  I whispered words to myself such as, "formidABle, SUper, GENial" and really meant them.  There were maybe seven or eight huge wall-sized abstractions of emotion and poetry on canvas.  In the same room with his work was a mobile hanging over a brightly painted piano.  I walked meditatively through this room for a while thinking deeply about Billy, his work, and our life together.  I can't say I wasn't moved to tears...  :)

The museum closes down for lunch at 12:30pm so when the clock struck noon, the volunteers were almost shooing me out the door.  Haha!  Maybe, also, I looked a little lost or out of place in my gym clothes, but I seriously got asked 3 or 4 times if I was looking for the exit - LOL.  I bought another batch of postcards (which went out already) and asked at the front desk of the museum if there was a farmer's market (un marché en plein air) in the area that day.  Snobby pants said it wasn't until tomorrow...  I spent the next four hours wandering the cobble stone streets of the artist quarter.

Good finds:

-Creperie - Seriously smells like heaven...  I can't wait to go!

-Printshop - YES!  Finally printed/photocopied/prepared flyers for being a personal chef.  

-Women's fitness center - Ella Fit! - where they're giving me my first yoga class FREE on Wednesday

Made my way back home by bus, and, in the evening, met with the entire staff of the Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire Volley Ball Club.  The leadership asked me to coach the men's team.  The two guys I've met so far on the team really love the sport of volleyball, so I'm looking forward to it being a fun and rewarding experience.

First practice with the entire N2 team tomorrow...  More later!

Open Air Market

Sunday morning!  The sun is shining!

Here's my vocabulary lesson for the day!

Vocabulaire Alimentaire:

water - l'eau
sparkling water - l'eau gaseuse
orange juice - le jus d'orange
coffee - le café
milk (whole, skim) - le lait (entier, écrémé)
wine - le vin
salt - le sel
pepper - le poivre

basil - le basilic

ginger - le gingembre

cinnamon - la cennelle

oregano - l'origan

parsley - le persil

dill - l'aneth

cilantro - la coriandre

mint - la menthe

vanilla - la vanille
garlic - l'ail
honey - le miel
sugar - le sucre
bread - le pain
eggs - les oeufs

granola - le muesli

yogurt - le yaourt
rice cake - la galette de riz
grapes - les raisins
raisins - les raisins secs
apple - la pomme
pear - la poire
peach - la pêche
lemon - le citron
lime - le citron vert
avocado - l'avocat
beet - la betterave
corn - le maïs
lettuce (iceburg, romaine, butter) - la salade (la laitue iceburg, romaine, batavia)
peppers (green, red, yellow...) - les poivrons (verts, rouges, jaunes...)
potato - la pomme de terre
spinach - les épinards
rice - riz
pasta - le pâte
almonds - les amandes
hazlenuts (very popular here) - les noisettes
walnuts - les noix
organic - bio

Words that are the same (or close enough that you can just get away with saying them in English with a strong French accent - haha!):
apricot - l'abricot
banana - la banane
carrot - la carotte
cereal - la céréale
cumin - le cumin
nutella - la nutella
onion - l'oignon
orange - l'orange
quinoa - le quinoa
sauce - la sauce
tofu - le tofu
tomato - la tomate

Things I haven't seen yet, but I want to know how to say as soon as I do see them (haha!):
swiss chard - la bette
brussel sprouts - les choux de Bruxelles
sweet potatoes - le patate douce

Favorites:

peanuts - les cacahuètes
peanut butter - le buerre de cacahuète
pineapples - les ananas
grapefruit - le pamplemousse

In general, I've been very satisfied with the quality of the food here in France!  The organic market down the street has tortilla chips and avocados!  :)

Anyways.....   Today, I'm working on a flyer to advertise myself as a personal chef in some of the more hoity-toity areas around downtown Tours.  Ideally, I'll find some rich artists who can pay me handsomely to make delicious organic vegetarian meals for them a couple times a week.  

Oh oh - the title - today is the open air market in downtown Tours, so I'm off to go scope out some good spots to post my flyers next week.  

That's all for now!  More later!

BBQ

Yesterday I jogged a 5k with my bro here.   After that, he took me shopping to an organic market where I spent around 22 euros of my own money on a few days worth of food (even though the president is putting me up/putting up with me (haha!) I think I can manage to contribute a loaf of bread and some peaches here and there).  When we got home my bro left to kick off his Friday night and I attacked the kitchen in full force!  I made a garlicky quinoa tabouli with raisins, almonds, tomatoes, onions and mushrooms.  Mmmm...

The president and his girlfriend took me to a BBQ at the team captain's house for dinner, so I brought the dish along to share and everyone seemed to like it okay...  Even though they know I'm having difficulty integrating with my level of French as it is right at this moment, everyone was really nice!  The captain of the team has two children and a beautiful house with a garden outside of Tours.  They showed me a real French meal, with an aperitif, starter, main course (vegetarians get crudites), cheese, pie, digestif - voila!  We dined under a wide French sunset and then the group talked and laughed until dawn.  I mostly listened and tried to pick out as many words I could (not easy!)...  This was my first real language challenge and I can't say with confidence at this point that I passed.  One on one I'm okay for now, but when the conversation is moving along quickly in a group I'm not confident enough in my ability to speak concisely within the context of the conversation to just jump in.  I'll be honest - I ended up being the quiet creeper at the end of the table who everyone could poke fun at for dozing off.  In any case, they had fun and we made it home safely, so all is well.  What a night!

Today, I went online to search for apartments and to contact some local cyclists about maybe getting a bike and latching onto some group rides.  I NEED TO RIDE, but it just rained a little and it smells amazing, so maybe I'll run instead.  That's all for now...  More later!