Last Saturday several of us Americans went to Rennes because we had volunteered to cook a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for some French friends. (We all worked onThanksgiving Day, which is why we had to go on Saturday.) We got there around noon and ourfriends came and met us at the train station. We went to Carrefour to pick up the ingredients and then headed to our friend's place to start cooking. The French guys had managed to find a turkey (it cost 67€) but it was not sufficiently butchered for most North American tastes. That is to say, it still had a head and organs. Luckily some brave souls, who, afterwards, named themselves the Gutwrenchers, got in there and did what had to be done while the vegetarians hid in the living room.
We prepared a huge fest having been told that there would be about 10 hungry French people joining us. In addition to the turkey we had green bean casserole, herbed potatoes, roasted vegetables, salad, sweet potatoes, creamed corn, cranberry sauce, two pumpkin pies and an apple crumble. I am proud to say that the North Americans pulled their weight at the dinner table. To my great shame and disappointment, the same cannot be said for our French guests. Not only did they not indulge in the gluttony we expected after slaving in the kitchen all afternoon (only one serving each??), but some of them (sin of all sins) had eaten BEFORE THEY CAME! The North Americans tried to pick up the slack but, frankly, we were not expecting France to drop the ball like that and there were a lot of leftovers. (Which we happily consumed the next day for brunch.)
While the French people were very nice to let us take over their kitchen for the day and it was fun to spread our great holiday to an interested and curious new audience, the moral of the story is, North Americans have more robust appetites than French people and Thanksgiving just doesn't really translate.
p.s. I am also very disappointed to report that a slightly (read: perhaps more than slightly) immature Frenchmen drew a rude picture on our Thanksgiving (paper) table cloth, which we had decorated with bilingual Thanksgiving greetings, pictures of cornucopias and pumpkins, and hand-turkeys.
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2 comments:
I don't understand why Thanksgiving isn't catching on around the world. It's the best holiday. Eating all you want, followed by a nice nap, and you don't have to go to church or anything, what could be better? I hope your French friends at least appreciated the treat you gave them.
your blog made me smile! Check mine out...www.bitterinbrittany.blogspot.com.
I am an american living near Mont St Michel with my french husband and 2 kids and I can relate to your thanksgiving woes. Last year I was able to get a turkey and invited my french family over. They had a really hard time with it(even though it was delicious!) and all the traditional dishes (cranberries, sweet potatoe casserole, the pumpkin pie made my mother-in-law gag) freaked them out, they made horrible faces. oh well...
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