Le réveillon de Noël!!! (a.k.a. it's Christmas Eve and it's time to get your eat on)

It was finally here! Katie and I were very excited to have our first French Christmas and a true French Christmas could not be complete without le réveillon de Noël. Le réveillon de Noël is essentially a big feast that lasts for hours Christmas Eve. The meal starts with plat de fruits de mer (seafood plate), then the main course, dinde de Noël (Turkey), and and usually ends with bûche de Noël (Christmas logs, yum! Ridiculously sweet pastry dessert in a log shape). Our réveillon de Noël was exactly this!

I was given the task of shucking the oysters.

Jean-Louis (Elodie's dad) was the expert at this and showed me the proper technique.

Raw oysters - looks appetizing, eh?

Little fresh lemon squeezed on top and slurp them down. Katie gives one a try. Only after slurping it whole, did she find out that the French chew them before swallowing. We are American, what can we say, we slurp: no chewing required.

I tried mine afterwards using the chewing method.

Not bad.

Elodie's grandmother hosted all of us at her house and created a beautiful table setting.

A true french pastis - Ricard served as an apertif before a meal. Notice the color of it now, before water is added.

Now, with water, it becomes a cloudy whitish-green liquid. Kind of tastes like black liquorice.

Elodie and Laurent

Elodie's Grandma and Laurent

My place setting, as I mentioned, above, was created by Elodie's Grandma including a folded napkin, little snowmen, and decorated glasses.

If you wonder how the french pronounce Katie - it's Ketty ;)

Ben and Ketty ;) Too cute.

Us.

Let the meal commence with fruits de mer.

Laurent said to kiss the turkey and I obliged but when I got close I notice everyone was laughing. This was the tail end of the turkey.

We all had a good time that night.

The famous French dessert - bûche de Noël

After le réveillon de Noël, we went into the living room with the Christmas tree and it was time to open presents.

Santa had visited.

Yeah, so this is what too much food will do to me. Needless to say, it was a good night!

World War II sites and the Northern most point of Normandie

Over the next two days, we went with Elodie and her mom to explore more of Normandie. We saw some pretty amazing sites.

Battery Crisbecq - a battery of the Germans. The gun was used to fire at the Allied forces.

A memorial at Utah Beach. This was the second time that I have been to the D-Day beaches. I visited some back in 2005 during my last France visit. It's truly moving to think about what happened on these beaches, the sacrifice, the courage. I couldn't be prouder to be born on the 4th of July.

The next couple of pictures were taken on the Northern most point of Normandie. It was really beautiful. There were some hiking trails that Katie and I wished we could have hiked; maybe next time!

Us.

Elodie and her mom.

Sunset.

After taking some of the pictures above, we walked along what looked like a trail that soon came to an end so we had to hike up through some thorny bushes. When we got to the top we saw this sign. We had to laugh, whoops! In case you are wondering, the sign says: Danger - danger of death. It is forbidden to go down the cliffs!

Few more pics as the sun sets.

These cliffs were surrounded by farmland for miles with sheep, horses and cows. Also, in the distance here is the nucleur power plant that powers France.

A few stops along the way home...

This is a farm land that floods during the winter with all of the rain, essentially becoming a swamp, but it makes for a pretty sunset on the water.

Caen and last minute Christmas shopping...

The next day, we headed out to Caen with the flatmates to do some last minute Christmas shopping. Not much to report from this day but here are a couple of pictures of Caen.

The postal museum...I took this picture for the architecture, the building looked so old. The cross beams of wood running horizotal were sagging from age. It gives you a feel for what the town might have looked like in days past.

The town church

Our Christmas vacation begins!

As the bitter cold crept into Bordeaux and the sweet sounds of students striking still ringing in our ears, our flatmates and us got up at the crack of dawn to head up north to Normandie. Katie and I had made it to the Christmas vacation, a whole SIX weeks working since our last vacation. (...yes SIX weeks, do you believe we had to work that much until our next two week break?!?)

We were very fortunate to be invited to spend a French Christmas with Elodie's (one of our flatmates) family and had a great time. (More to come in the following blogs stay tuned!)

Our first destination, once we arrived in Normandie, was a stop at Mont Saint-Michel. Mont Saint-Michel is an abbaye (or church) and a commune that was founded on an rocky island just off the shore that is surrounded by water when the tide is high and is surrounded by sand (and quicksand, look out!) when the tide is low. After a quick picnic lunch in the parking lot and feeding the the birds, we headed up to take a look around, below is what we saw...

The view from the parking lot. Here is one of the flock of birds that came to feast on our crumbs. They must have had some practice because we threw some pieces into the air and they swooped down and caught them in mid-air. Impressive!

Mont Saint-Michel is famous for their omelettes which they make by whisking in a rythmic tapping pattern as seen and heard in this video. We did not taste them but saw people eating them in the restaurants. They looked extra puffy and extra delicious.

The tiny streets leading up to the abbaye at the top.

Some views from above...


A sculpture inside.

Looking out from the abbaye courtyard.

Our flatmates next to a large wheel (top picture) which was part of a pulley (bottom picture) that I believe was used to bring food supplies and people/guards from the bottom of the island to the top.


All along the watchtower...I think this is a really cool pic.

The chocolate Mont Saint-Michel...

...and the real Mont Saint-Michel.

After our tour of Mont Saint-Michel, we headed to Chef-du-Pont where Elodie's family lives.
Click here to see where we were at in relationship to Paris and London