Five Things I miss About the U.S.A.

 

Don’t get me wrong.  I love living in France.  The pace of life is a bit slower.  It’s normal to have two hours for lunch or to work half days on Wednesdays.  The food is fantastic.  So is the wine.  The language is beautiful.  The film, fashion, music, and art scenes are avant-garde.  Because of my job I get to hang out with people from all over the world.   

 

But every now and then I miss the good ol’ USA.  Here are some things I miss:

1. My car – yeah, yeah, I know it’s good for me to walk.  But sometimes a girl needs her wheels!  When it’s cold or raining I often fantasize about being able to drive to work, rather than make the fifteen-minute trek.  Sometimes I have dreams that I’m driving through the countryside with my windows rolled down.  When I wake up I’m left with a lingering feeling of disappointment. 

2. Mexican Food – (and by that I mean, Americanized Mexican food) Whenever I am REALLY hungry, I find myself fantasizing about a Chipotle burrito.  Or a quesadilla, tortilla chips with salsa, and a frozen margarita.  I can get a hamburger and fries at the local “Quick Burger,” but Mexican food (of any sort) is nowhere to be found.  Domage!

3. Twenty-four hour convenience stores – All the grocery stores (except the stores owned by Arabs) close at 7 or 8 pm.  My neighborhood Arab grocery thankfully stays open until 11 pm.  The owner laughs at me when I come in to do my shopping at 10 pm.  Clearly not the French way of doing it. 

4. Well drinks – In the France, bars do not sell well drinks.  You must buy the liquor and the mixer separately.  As a result, a simple gin and tonic will easily cost 8 euro.  I miss my four-dollar well drinks!  But not having them is surely better for my liver.   

5. Being ‘normal’ – What I mean is, I miss being just a “girl,” rather than an “American girl.”  Of course, being foreign has its advantages, but sometimes I wish it weren’t such an essential part of my identity.  It is always the first thing I discuss when I meet new people.  When I speak, people immediately treat me differently because of my accent.  I guess you could say I miss being just another American chick in a sea of others. 

La Percée du Vin Jaune

 

The temperature has really been dropping in Besançon.  And as expected, the heating in my two hundred-year-old apartment building is not particularly “central.”  The past several days I have woken up to find frost on the inside of my windows and snow scenes like this:

But it turns out one of the best ways to fight the cold is to drink wine – lots of it. 

The Percée du Vin Jaune is a festival held every year in the Jura – the area near Besançon that is most famous for it’s wine.  In my post  “Madame Nebraska,” I mentioned the wonders of vin jaune. The Percée is a day dedicated entirely to consuming it.   

Each year, the festival is held in a different tiny town in the countryside surrounding Besancon.  This year, the lucky village was Ruffey-sur-Seille.  At 10:30 am on Saturday, my friends and I hopped on a party bus in downtown Besançon and arrived in a field outside Ruffey an hour and a half later.  

Trudging through the felid in the cold turned out to be worth it, however.  When we reached the festival, we were each handed a glass and told to enjoy the wine!

There were about seventy-five wineries represented at the festival, from all around the Jura.  Each had it’s own cave (a kind of cellar with a bar area) where wine enthusiasts (like myself) could taste the various delicacies.

Here is what was generally available:

Macvin – a sweet, strong wine, that is usually consumed before a meal.  It can be red, rosé, or white.

White wine- Chardonnay or Savagnin; has an earthier taste than wines from other regions.

Red wine- Poulsard, Trousseau, or Pinot noir; usually lighter and less acidic than similar wines from other regions.

Crémant- bubbly!  Can be white or rosé

Yellow Wine (vin jaune)- the most celebrated Jura wine.  A typical bottle of vin jaune costs about 26 euros, which is extremely expensive for wine in France.  (The wine I buy for myself usually costs between two and three euros a bottle if that gives you any idea.)  Vin jaune has a high alcohol content and a very distinct taste.  The wikipedia site claims that it holds hints of hazelnut, almond, toast, honey, walnuts, cinnamon, vanilla, caramel, gingerbread, and even… celery?  I must admit that my palette is not sophisticated enough to detect all of this, but I do know that I have never tasted anything like vin jaune before.  And I like it!   

In between wine tastings, festival-goers were encouraged to purchase food such as locally-made sausage, boiled potatoes, comté cheese, and onion soup.  You could stop and watch a parade of locals dressed as various animals or listen to the Beatles music that was blasting on the speakers throughout Ruffey. 

By the time my friends and I got back on the bus to Besançon, we had consumed an embarrassing amount of wine, and couldn’t seem to stop ourselves from singing and/or giggling. 

I was struck, however, by one insight.  Although our party bus was mostly full of university students and other young people who had been drinking wine for the past seven hours, no one seemed to be out of hand.  Sure, people were slightly more talkative and likely burst into song; but no one cried, started a fight, or vomited.  

This made me think:  In the United States, an event like the Percée would probably be heavily regulated – carding at every cave and strict limits on how much alcohol each person can consume.  (No one so much as asked my for identification the whole day at the Percée.)  But despite all the rules, at similar events in the United States, people always get sloppy.  This made me wonder – which comes first, the chicken or the egg? 

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Just quick unrelated plug:  I have started doing translation work for a website called Watching America.  It compiles opinions pieces from well-known news organizations around the world and translates them into English.  

Here is the link to the website if you are interested in checking it out: 

Watching America

And here is a link to my latest translation.

I am currently working on a piece about the superbowl, so keep checking the site! 

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