Reasons I love France continued...

Here I will continue with some things I love about France...

Reason #4: Fresh croissants in the morning

 Sometimes, when I have class at 8 am, I don't have the energy or time to have breakfast at home. Especially now that I have started leaving extra early since if I get on the tram literally 10 minutes earlier its empty while if I go 10 minutes later I am packed in like a sardine for 5 stops... So instead of being a sardine (though the warmth is nice in this freezing weather) I like to stop at the bakery and get a croissant sometimes.  The first time I did this was the best because right when I walked in the door the baker pulled hot fresh croissants right out of the oven.  It made my day start off great :-)

Reason #5: Vin Chaud ie. Mulled Wine

The Christmas season is here which means Christmas Markets! Now I won't do a post on those yet because it needs its own reason and I haven't had a chance to go to all of them around Strasbourg yet and I am waiting for my cameras to get fixed... But Vin Chaud is amazing at the Christmas markets.  If you don't know, Vin Chaud is wine heated and mixed with spices and fruits, usually tangerines or oranges.  It warms the heart and soul in the cold.  They sell you the wine in collectors mugs that you can return at the end or keep (if you return them you get your deposit back, if you don't you just paid 1 euro for a really cool cup!) Strasbourg has plastic cups instead of the traditional mug but they are still pretty cool.  This year Strasbourg has I think 4 versions of the cup and of course I have to get them all. I am halfway there. :-)

Reason #6:  French bands that I have loved forever and finally get to see in Concert!!!

This year I have already seen 3 of my favorite French bands/singers and I will see one more in March!  I saw Aldebert, Emily Loizeau and Tryo.  They were all amazing (as I had assumed) and I am very happy to finally have gotten to see them.  Emily Loizeau is one of the first (maybe even the first) french CDs I bought when I first came to France and of course I had all her lyrics memorized.  Aldebert was one of the next along with Tryo.  Therefore they are all oldies but goodies in my music repertoire.  The best concert was definitely Tryo.  They put on a great show despite (or maybe due to) having been together for about 17 years.  Of course my favorite song "Desolée pour hier soir" played and I about went crazy.  In March I will be seeing Tété, who is also an amazing singer and who I happened to meet while in the Bahamas.  Maybe he will remember me!! :-P

Reason #7: French books

French literature has been around for a very long time and there are many great French writers.  I recently read the whole Count of Monte Cristo in French and it is now one of my favorite books.  I have also been reading a lot of other books in French (especially last year when I had a lot more spare time) It helps me learn some interesting vocabulary and also discover some good authors! My favorite book I have read recently is "Le Mec de la tombe d'à côté".  Its a translation from Swedish but it is a very very good book.  I just finished the sequel as well :-)

Reason #8: French movies 

Of course with the music and books has to come movies.  I need to watch more French movies but really it is hit or miss with them.  There are a lot of good French movies: "Le Dîner de Cons", "Bienvenue chez les Ch'ties", "Cap ou pas Cap", "Les Bronzés", and a lot of more recent ones also, but there are also a lot of very strange ones like one I saw recently "Dans la Maison".  Really did not understand where they were going with that… But I really do like French movies and need to take a lot more advantage of the fact that I live in downtown and there are movie theatres right around the corner from me.  However, those are not free, so I have begun to take a lot of advantage of the library where we can rent 3 movies and 3 documentaries at a time.  They really are amazing, libraries. J 

Reason #9: Théâtre National de Strasbourg

There are apparently 5 National Theaters in France: 4 are in Paris and 1 is here in Strasbourg.  Last week I finally got off my bum and went to see a play.  I went to see “Salinger”.  It was a very interesting play, and when I say interesting I mean I would have liked to understand it better.  It wasn’t that I didn’t understand the French, it was just that it was very symbolic and there were a lot of times that I couldn’t understand if something was really happening or if it was in someone’s mind, you know it was that kind of play.  But all in all it was a very cool experience, and the theater was really nice.  I will definitely go back.  

Reason #10: Cheese!!! 
I know I have done a blog post about this before but I really am a cheese addict, its bad.  I just thought I would show you how hard it is to quit this addiction! Here is an example of an ad in a grocery store magazine.  Look at how many cheeses and how big they are.  There are 4 full pages like this in said magazine.  And if you go to a grocery store there are entire aisles just for cheese! Its like they want me to eat cheese and get super fat! 



Ok I think that is enough reasons for today, I was on a roll!! But there are tons more so stay tuned!