France- Day 5: Gourmet

I had a really hard time sleeping last night. I was really tired, and fell asleep for a little while, but then I had a nightmare that woke me up. After that I couldn't sleep until well past when the sun had risen. Eventually I got a couple of hours of sleep, and got up at about ten in the morning. Of course Jet lag decided to punch an already tired Caitlin in the face, and I was dead for the first part of the day. My legs were barely functional, my head hurt and pretty much I wasn't working correctly. Thus, I got ready for the day, and then took an hour long nap. I still felt weird and tired all day, but that helped a bit. Next, we all packed up in a car, and started driving to our celebratory gourmet restaurant.

A quick side note about the drive though. Looking around, watching forests, villages, and castles pass, an interesting thought popped into my mind. The area of France we are in reminds me of fantasy. There are huge stretches where everything remains nature, due to the hills (or mountains. I'm not sure because they are bigger than what I think of when I think of hills, but smaller than mountains, I fondly dubbed them hilltains) being impossible to really build much into, other than single building (with the exceptions of cities like Rocamadour, which I highly suggest you look up photos of that place!). There are forests everywhere, and the scene is fantastic. Small cottages and villages occasionally dot this scenery, and occasionally castles rise up out of the tops of the hills (two of which you can see from my grandparents house). I thoroughly expect a dragon or something to pop out from one of these hills anytime XD

Anyways, back on track, we were headed towards a famous restaurant (The chef there is considered one of the best in France).
It was a beautiful place, and the service was amazing (Not surprise, because in France you have to go to at least two years of waiter school before you can be a waiter. weird huh?) Some of the food was.. well, a bit too gourmet for me, but other parts of it were truly fantastic! It was fun. Also, when we got there my Grandmother gave us all presents. I got this sand landscape thing I used to always play with, and my mom got some jewelry (on is a beautiful necklace that my great great great grandmother wore for her wedding. Apparently if I get married I have to wear it for mine too, I hope someday to inherit the piece!). When we started eating I can proudly say that I tried everything I was given, which is something I would not have done a few years ago. Anyways, on to describing the food. in detail.

This was an appetizer that was included for everyone. I am not sure how to best describe it though. I may or may not have quickly swallowed a lot of it, because I didn't like how it tasted. I wanted to eat it though, and thus impress my grandpa by eating a lot. (Unfortunately in just the next course he hadn't noticed and made a cruel comment about me not eating much (based on assumptions of past years) it almost made me cry.) The little breadstick on top were nice and sweet though, so that was nice.

Now this dish was weeeeird. The red stuff was super spicy, and the white was foamed ilk with something underneath. I tried it, but it was too large of a portion for my 'swallow it quickly philosophy' and I couldn't eat it. Like I said, it was just too gourmet for me!

 Okay, seriously, the good dishes came later XD. This was mostly a fault of no one clearly translated the menu to me (this wasn't what I expected when they told me it was ravioli! Frankly I don't even see what is ravioliesque about it...)It was a really weird dish with an egg yolk (I hate uncooked egg yolks), mushrooms (I also dislike mushrooms), and eggplants (guess what! I don't like egg plants either -.-). Pretty much the only ingredient I liked in this dish was the ham. The ham tasted like bacon. that bit was good.

This is where it got freaking fantabulous! (finally!) This laaamb. It was cooked beautifully, and tasted absolutely amazing. And you see the thing that looks like a flower in the back? It was fried, and pretty good! This whole thing was seriously delectable, like I was really sad when the lamb was gone, but it was okay, because of the dessert that followed...

Oh. My Gee. This was my favorite part! you know those little chocolate cakes with the melty centers? Now imagine one of those, except made by one of the best chefs in France. And it had a yummy little white chocolate thing on top. Seriously, I can't even communicate to you how delicious this was!


Now, onto other people's food XD

my mom's foi gras dish

my grandma's dessert. I ate her ice cream though :P

our waiter, with a cart of cheese for people

a congratulations thing they brought us. It had a flaming thing in the back! Cool

some more dessert for everyone

Anyways, we went home after that! I spent some time on the internet, looking at skit patterns and stuff, and I really wanted to sew, but I talked to my grandma and she just got me frustrated about it. (I did design a few skirts I want to make eventually though). After that Not much happened. I spent most of the night putting away clothes and on the computer. I was feeling kind of lonely though, because all of the adults were downstairs watching a Danish movie (I wouldn't have understood it both humor wise and and language wise) and I could hear them laughing and having fun.

Speaking of lonely, I just found out that I have to go have dinner with this girl that my grandmother set me up to meet. (You may have read about it in an earlier blog post) I wanted to try and get out of it, but apparently that would be impolite... I really don't want to go though, it is just going to be awkward and unpleasant. I am not looking forward to it.

Anyways that was my day. Goodnight!