Time to Jet Off to France
We love these country dates! This time, we visited the country of love...and sorta ruined it by going overboard.
But first, check out our beautiful French village setting:
and our cute French attire (awwwww):
and this amazing spread of mouthwatering ingredients:
So, to start the date, we sampled some the different alcohols that would be used for cooking. (The verdict: I like the simple Moscato and Jac really likes the cognac.)
And then we cooked together. Jac made A LOT of complicated dishes:
and I helped by making the tarte tatin (apple tart):
But in hindsight the cooking and the drinking went on for much too long. Hours! By the time the food was ready to eat (many hours later), we were both pretty sloshed:
and pretty tired. Sadly, we didn't get to savor every delicious bite. We were just too tired and too drunk. :( The next day, we could barely even remember eating it. But, we do have proof in the form of these pictures:
Jac made French Onion Soup as a starter, and then Beef Bourguignon, Coq au Vin, Ratatouille, and Garlic Bread:
We certainly had delicious lunches the following week with all the left-overs, but still...we learned our lesson. Future country dates will have less cooking and most definitely less drinking. :)
Ideas for next time. We definitely will visit France again, and next time it will be for longer than just one night. Here are some things we could do:
- Paris' Montmatre district is famed for street artists. Watch a YouTube video about it and then do each other's portraits (regular or caricature)
- France is a fashion mecca, so go to DI and pick out 'high fashion' outfits for each other, then take them home, wash them, and wear them out to dinner
- have Jac make something with foi gras
- the Provence region is famous for its perfume industry. Buy the 'birth flowers mini perfume sampler' on Etsy and do something with that
- the Loire, Burgundy and Champagne regions are famous wine producers. Have our own little wine tasting.
- kiss each other on the cheek in French greeting style all month long
- watch a recording of the Tour de Force and have a drinking style game to go with it, except with escargot
- do something related to the Louve, the Mona Lisa, etc
- 9 out of 10 French people are Roman Catholic, so go visit SLCs Cathedral of the Madeleine, then go get some French pastries at Eva's bakery
- create our own cave paintings of Lascaux (DIY directions saved on phone)
- make a replica of the Eiffel Tower (3D puzzle or matchstick version)
- do our own version of the Giant Omelette tradition [in Bessieres], but maybe not with 4,500 eggs :)
- learn how to do the can-can (via YouTube videos)
- play Risk, which was created in France
- watch The Red Balloon, which is set in France (plus to relive my childhood memories of being riveted to it every time it was shown at school)
- listen to chanson francaise ('the music of France')
- try a few different types of champagne (to see if I'm wrong...maybe it's good)