Geography, Americans and the French

Well, Americans tend to be criticized for their geography skills - or should I say, lack of.  Now I've been defending Americans about this for a long time.  My theory is, while the French learn about Europe, Americans are taught American geography first and foremost.  And then they learn about the rest of the world.  And America is big.



The French media loooves US 'oops' moments.  So, sure enough, when a Republican presidential candidate, Herman Cain, didn't know anything about the Obama administration's handling of Libya, the French Press had a field day with it.
Check out the video:

Killing two birds with one stone

So is this the greatest idea ever ?  Well, maybe not the greatest idea
EVER but pretty darn convenient.  I was in the Louvre yesterday and
had to use the restroom.  Part of the sink was the faucet, of course,
and then there was another fixture attached to the counter top.  If
you look closely you will see that it is a water fountain.  I have
never seen this before but it is such a clever idea.  First of all,
convenient because it is all in one place.  I also think it is great
for the environment.  If lots of places had this feature there would
be less need to wander around with a plastic bottle of water.  Saving
money and more importantly, there would be a lot more space in our
landfills..

The French-English dictionary doesn't always have the answer

It took me a long time to find the equivalent of my favorite products from home in France.

Today I'm going to talk about Crème Fraîche.

 

Yum.  But it's not the same kind of cream that you have in the supermarkets in the United States.
And it's definitely not like whipping cream (liquid cream that you can literally whip into cream, right?).

So, what is crème frâiche?
Well, ever hear people talk about the great sauces in French cooking?  A lot of that comes from yummy ingredients combined with crème frâiche.  Crèms fraîche is a mix between heavy cream and sour cream.  It has a slightly tart taste to it, but not as tart as sour cream.  It's not as sweet as heavy cream.  Come to think of it, it's kind of close to half and half.

It comes whole or light (about 20%).  You can get the liquid kind, or the solid-ish kind.  Both are good for sauces.  Here's an example of a recipe with crème fraîche.

Chicken with a mustard-cream sauce for two.
You'll need,
- 2 chicken breasts - cut into tiny squares (or as close as you can get to that).
- 2 tablespoons mustard - without seeds in it
- one small container of crème fraîche (or entière; it's the same thing, as least for me it is)
- 1/4 cup of white wine
- an onion chopped into small pieces
- a dash of herbes de provence

Ok, so cook the chicken in a little butter (salted is better), and add while cooking a dash of herbe de provence.  Add onions.  Once cooked, take the chicken out.  Try to keep as much onions in as possible.  Add white wine to the pan.  Stir in cream.  Add mustard.  Taste.  Add more mustard or cream depending on how you like your sauce.  Once all mixed together, add the chicken, heat it all up, and serve (with rice or pasta).

This is Lindsay, kind of hungry, signing out.

French Confessions is moving

Hi guys, French Confessions is moving over to Wordpress. Here's the new address, www.frenchconfessions.com/blog. Not only will you find the blog, but other information on living in France. A survival guide, pictures, and you can even join if you'd like. Please stop by! I might continue writing some articles here until everybody gets a chance to move over to my new location. Thanks a lot. Lindsay

Tuesday Tips - How to avoid strikes in France

France = wine, food, beautiful countrysides, cheese (good cheese and the moldy kind if you like that sort of thing), Paris and the Eiffel Tower, did I already mention wine? and STRIKES.

I know I've already written once about strikes, but there's so much to say about them.
First of all, I'd like to say for the record that I understand why certain strikes occur.  They are not all bad.  But, as a person who commutes to work every day, I can tell you that it can be a little unnerving at times.

So, today I'd like to give you tips (which I try to do every Tuesday even thought it doesn't always work out that way) on how to avoid anything strike-like in France.

1.  Don't take the subway
2.  Do take the bus - in towns where buses are run by private companies (like where I live)
3.  Learn to ride a bike
4.  Don't travel by plane
5.  Don't put your kid in school, or if you have to at least don't sign your child up for lunch at the cafeteria.
6.  Get a back-up plan for random days when school is cancelled the day of.
7.  Have the website www.francegreve.com handy.  It lists all of the upcoming strikes in France.
8.  Don't move to France if you can't stand strikes.
9. Or...become one of them.  A 'strikee' or a 'strikette'.

This is Lindsay, signing out.

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Is age taboo in France?

A fellow blogger, Keith Eckstein from A Taste of Garlic, writes a review of every Tuesday "of some of the posts from the last week that have made me smile, made me chuckle or, even…. just made me think."
I wrote a post about my Birthday a little over a week ago, but I didn't mention my age.  The truth is, I could care less about people knowing my age.  Keith tried to figure out how old I am.  I'm sure that he probably figured it out - it takes a little googling to do so, right? - but to be polite or due to lack of time, he apparently things I'm anywhere between 21 (which I know he's kidding about- and 30.  Keith, I'd like to thank you for that one.
So, do French women talk about their age or not?  About a month ago I went to the States on a business trip (I know, there are worse things in the world).  My American colleague told me about a time when her French (and male) boss asked her how old she was.  She was shocked.  Now, I think the French women are different.  It's not such a secret, and it's not insulting to ask.  Most people even put their age on their resume.  I believe it's better that way.  If somebody doesn't want to hire you because of your age, than why would you want to work for them (unless of course you're close to retirement because it's harder to find a job in France at that point)?  Age isn't taboo in France, even among friends and acquaintances.  Maybe this changes when you get much older, but all in all, the French women are not as afraid of ageing as American women are.  They actually embrace it - maybe I'm getting a little carried away here.
So Keith, any idea how old I am after having read this article?  There are about two clues in there.
This is Lindsay, wishing you a happy Monday, signing out.

The French-English dictionary doesn't always have the answer

You say tomato, I say tomato.

If you don’t say it out loud, it sure seems like the same thing, right?

It took me a long time to find the equivalent of my favorite products from home in France.

First of all, I never found some of them.  Maybe some of you out there will be able to help me with that down the road.  Secondly, they’re never exactly the same, but you get used to it.

So, I’ve decided that there are so many things to discuss under this topic that I’ll need to split it up into weekly articles.  Are you as excited as I am?  Good.  So let’s get started.

So, today let’s talk yogurt, or ‘yaourt’ in French (I still don’t know how to spell that by the way).  You can generally find yogurt in the ‘cremerie’ aisle (crème/dairy), or with the deserts.

Take baby yogurt for example.  France is like the mecca of yogurt.  It takes up the same amount of space that snack food does in the States.  No, I take that back…the chip aisle.  And 99% of the yogurt in France totally fatty, made out of whole milk.  So, if you’re looking for light yogurt, you might find some.  The name of the two biggest fat-free or light yogurts are Taillefine and Sveltesse (couldn't find their website, sorry).  Anwyay, that’s not my point.

Yogurt in France is creamy and thick.  When my son was born, I fed him lots of yogurt.  I usually fed him the Dannon baby yogurt.  The stuff is creamy and delicious.  Then I went to the States to see my family when he was like 6 months old.  I searched and searched for baby yogurt.  99% of the yogurt section is fat-free.  And all of the yogurt is liquidy.  Even the baby yogurt that I found after like 10 minutes of roaming in the dairy aisle.  Why is that? 

To make a long story short, if you’re used to very liquid, fat-free yogurt, you can find it in France, but there aren’t a lot of products like that out there.  I suggest you get used to the creamy, delicious yogurt that France has to offer and deal with it!

This is Lindsay, signing out.