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December 16th-January 12th
A month is a long time, but also the blink of an eye. I was lucky enough to be able to spend this past holiday season in France with Jelly. Don't worry, I'm not going to recount what we did every single day for a month. Instead, I just want to focus on some of my favorite memories that I'll take away from this trip, and some of the things I've learned about the French culture during my time in France.
My flight was pushed from December 15th to the 16th (thanks Norwegian Air) so it wasn't the best start to the trip, especially because now poor Jelly had to come pick me up from the airport at 4am. Thankfully, all went smoothly after that.
We spent the first week in the city Jelly studies in, Troyes, because he had one more week of classes before his two week holiday break. Just as Jelly predicted I would, I quickly fell in love with the city. It's so cute and quaint and has so much French charm to it. The Christmas decorations that encompassed much of the city only made it more stunning. In the center there were large blown up globes that you could walk through, like life-size snow globes. In all the cities we visited while I was in France, the holiday decorations seemed to add a magical quality. There were also many small pop up vendors that sold holiday specialities such as churros, waffles, beignets, and vin chaud (hot wine). Another detail I loved was the holiday music that was playing in the streets surrounding the city center. While the Christmas Day celebration in France may not be quite as big as in the US, they sure know how to create a sense of Christmas magic in the cities.
We spent Jelly's birthday, December 17th walking around Troyes, visiting two of the cathedrals, and then went to a creperie for dinner. At the creperie we had crepes, of course, but also kir, which is a popular French cocktail. Another party arrived and I quickly noticed they were speaking English. When the woman heard me speaking English as well, she asked where I was from. Turns out they were from the states too, small world! The rest of the week we spent mostly at his university and I sat in on some of his classes. Honestly, they weren't all that different from classes at my university, apart from the fact that they didn't speak English.
At the end of the week we left Troyes and stopped in a city called Reims on the way back to Autreville (Jelly's home city). Jelly has an aunt that lives in Reims, so we stayed the night at her apartment. She and her family were so kind and welcoming even though we could not communicate directly. Jelly and I spent a bit of time at the apartment before heading into the city center to meet up with one of our friends we'd met in Northern Ireland, Angela. It was so nice to see a familiar face from that wonderful chapter in our lives. We had a drink and visited the city center a bit, and then returned to Jelly's aunt's. Angela ended up joining us for dinner which was especially nice for me because it meant I had someone else I could talk to. We stayed up late sitting and talking in the kitchen.
The next day Jelly and I visited the city center again and spent some time at the Christmas market that was set up in front of the cathedral. There were so many interesting vendors, and I tried tartiflette for the first time, which is a popular dish in France. It was delicious, but I made sure to take my Lactaid pill beforehand. We had a really nice stay in Reims, and I'm glad I got to meet some of Jelly's family.
We then headed to Jelly's home where we'd spend the next two weeks. We spent a lot of time relaxing and just spending time together, but there were a few highlights over those two weeks. For starters, we celebrated Christmas there. They didn't have nearly as many decorations in their house as I'm used to, but they did have a pretty Christmas tree and a wall projector that said "Noël Arrive". Jelly's mom had him and I set up the Christmas dinner table which I enjoyed doing. On Christmas Eve, Jelly's brother and his family came over. We enjoyed an extremely long, classic French dinner consisting of multiple courses and quite a bit of wine. By the end of the night when we finally got to the main course, there were only three of us left at the table. Jelly's nephews couldn't wait until midnight to open their gifts. They caved around 9pm. I was happy because Jelly's parents agreed that we could open the rest of the gifts on Christmas morning like I was used to.
We didn't do anything special on Christmas day except open gifts in the morning and then visited Jelly's parents' friends' house later on in the day. I was very intimidated there at first because there were a lot of people, and I couldn't communicate to any of them. Also, it's polite in the French culture to do "la bise" to everyone when you arrive in someone's house, so I had to walk around the room giving la bise to 15 strangers. We didn't spend too much time there, and on another occasion, I ended up feeling quite comfortable in their house.
A few days after Christmas, Jelly and I drove about two hours north to Brussels, Belgium where we'd spend two days. When we arrived, we parked the car and started wondering around. We first came upon a large Christmas market (Europe really loves their Christmas markets!). We walked around the market, grabbed something to eat, and then continued on to find a pretty church that ended up displaying a light show later in the night. I had gotten used to seeing signs in French, so it was strange to see signs in a completely different language once again.
We eventually made our way to the Grand Place which is a breathtaking square in which you're surrounded by gold-trimmed buildings on all sides, and a beautiful tall church. I had to stand there for a little while in order to really take it all in. We then moved on the a stop that Jelly was particularly excited about, the Manneken Pis. I had never heard of this statue before Googling "things to do in Brussels", but apparently a small statue of a boy peeing is one of Brussels' most famous landmarks.
We walked around for a bit longer, stopped in a pub for a quick drink, and then decided to check into our hotel, Made in Louise, before dinner. We were pleasantly surprised with the hotel and how cute and charming it was!
The next day we woke up, had a delicious breakfast at the hotel, and left to explore the city once again. We visited the Palace of Brussels, walked through the park, and continued on to Mont des Arts which was a very beautiful view. There was a man there who was very talented, playing multiple instruments at the same time and he had little puppets hanging from his guitar that moved in synchronicity with his guitar strums. After walking around the area for a bit, we drove to the Atomium, which is the symbol of Brussels. The sculpture was very cool and looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. There was a park next to the sculpture that Jelly and I walked through for a little while, and as we were walking back, seeing the Atomium through the trees and nature looked almost ominous. It was a very cool sight.
We visited a pretty church, and then began the drive back to Autreville. We made a stop for food in the city that Jelly studied in for a semester, Valenciennes. When we arrived back home, two of Jelly's cousins from the south had been waiting to surprise him with a visit. After spending a few days with them, I could see how close he is with one of his cousins, so I was glad I got to meet them.
Jelly and I had originally been planning to spend New Year's Eve in Paris, but with all of the riots that had been going on and thinking about how crowded and expensive it would be, we decided to stay in Chauny. We spent the first half of the night at Jelly's parents' friends' house, which I was nervous about after feeling overwhelmed there last time. However, I quickly began to warm up to them this time and I ended up having a lot of fun. We had some snacks and drinks and sung karaoke. At midnight, I missed watching the ball drop, but I was happy to be with Jelly and to start 2020 with him by my side. We went around the house wishing everyone "bon année," I called my parents to wish them a Happy New Year (even though it was only 6pm for them", and then around 1am Jelly and I went to his brother's friend's apartment to celebrate with another group of people.
It was nice seeing Jelly's brother and sister-in-law again, and Jelly's aunt from Reims was there too. At both parties, I never thought I could feel so included being surrounded by people who spoke a different language. It was a really wonderful night.
A couple days later, Jelly's dad, Jelly, and myself went to Disneyland Paris for a day. I wasn't sure what to expect since I'd only ever been to Disney World in Orlando, but I was excited to see what Disney was like in another country. Luckily, the Christmas decorations were still up when we went, so it looked even more magical. There are only two parks in Paris, which is much less than I was used to in Orlando. The first park had the castle which was very beautiful. We spent a few hours in that park, but didn't go on many rides because first, I'm not a ride person, but second, the lines were so long. That's something that's no different than Orlando. I honestly was surprised at how much was similar though. Many rides were the same, and the designs to the parks were similar too. I still enjoyed visiting though.
One of my favorite parts was in the second park, Hollywood Studios, there was a little area dedicated to Ratatouille since the movie takes place in Paris. They had Gusteau's restaurant and the Ratatouille restaurant as well. The area felt very Parisian and I loved it. At the end of the night we went back to the first park to see it all lit up, and when we were walking down main street, it started snowing! (Not real snow, but Disney's magic snow that they also create in Florida in the middle of the summer). I wish we could've spent more time in Disney, but we had to get back home because guests were coming over for dinner. I'm sure I'll be back though.
That night we had a French dinner and the main course was raclette. This was something I hadn't heard of before. Raclette is a type of cheese, and for this dish you take different meats and potatoes on your plate, and then put a piece of raclette cheese into this little heater in the middle of the table, and when it's soft and melted, you pour it onto the meat and potatoes. It was very good! Except my stomach couldn't handle nearly as much cheese as everyone else's could.
We spent the last week back in Troyes because Jelly had classes, so we didn't have time to do too much. We did visit a crêperie one last time, and the crepes were massive. I'll definitely miss crepes, and French bread, and French wine back in America.
Over the course of a month, I met so many people in Jelly's life and Jelly and I made so many wonderful new memories together. His family members touched my heart and from what Jelly told me, I touched theirs too, even though we could hardly speak to one another. I never thought I could feel so comfortable in a foreign country, but I did in France. By the end of the month, I was told my French had improved. Obviously I'm no where near being a fluent speaker, but I learned many new words and phrases and got more comfortable with listening to the language being spoken. I wish I could've spent more time there, but as we all now, all good things must come to an end. Saying goodbye certainly never gets easier. Quite the opposite actually. And this time, I was not only saying goodbye to Jelly, but also to his wonderful parents who had grown very fond of me, and to the country that I had come to love. For now, it's back to reality and my last semester at university, but I'll be back France. À bientôt !
