Well, here I have gone and hyped the Mirabelle festival. Mirabelles are a small fruit that grow on trees in Lorraine and are quite abundant in our little town. They've been described to me as both like a plum and like a cherry. In size they are somewhere in between those, but they do have a big pit/seed. They are yellow and are very sweet~it's flavor isn't exactly like any other fruit I can think of.
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| Mirabelles are a lovely tart topper. |
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For the past 60 years, Metz has celebrated this fruit in the same way the South upholds cherished peaches, peanuts, and... tobacco? The fete as all the fixings~ a beauty pageant, a parade, fireworks, open air food and craft markets, and a concert featuring Celtic musicians (what is it with this region and their love for the Celtic stuff~ remember this
late night parade Kyle and I caught in Strasbourg?). Last year Kyle and I missed this weekend long event by just two weeks~talk about a major let down. It's too soon to think about how we came the wrong year for the
Hot Air Balloon Festival which occurs ever two years. Well, after nearly a year of anticipation we were all geared up to celebrate tiny yellow fruits.
Can you imagine what weather we were dealt in our particular chilly region? We had temperatures in the 60s, strong winds, and on-and-off raining pretty much the whole time. This, however, didn't deter Kyle and me from having a grand time. Sad to report that my camera opted out of participating... it's been a bit finicky. Friday night they crowned Miss Mirabelle. Kyle has been tracking the competition online, and we were really hoping to see one lucky girl
reap the benefit of all her work. Our dream of seeing the results didn't come to
fruition because the weather was sporty. We did manage to make a dish using the eggplants we bought last week at the farm while watching the results
bloom online.
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| We took some liberties with an eggplant parm recipe by putting it all on top a bed of risotto. |
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| As appetizing as it may look, it wasn't as good as we hoped. We really didn't think it could be bad because we liked everything we put into it. Alas, it was not meant to be a keeper. |
Saturday Kyle and I kicked off what started as a beautiful day taking a jog on my typical 4 mile path. We had such a great time just talking and jogging~I nearly forgot how good it is for us. After showers and lunch we'd be set to head downtown for some fun. There was a large food market in front of the train station we wanted to take in before grabbing some dinner. There were stands for meat, cheese, fruits, and baked goods like crepes, waffles, and (of course) mirabelle tarts. It was nice to walk around, but the large number of bees looming over every tasty treat made all food seem quite unappealing.
We went to a fairly new sushi place nearby where they have a neat little set up. The whole restaurant is outfitted with conveyor belts; the kitchen adds more and more small plates to the belt, and delicious bite-sized fishy treats flow by you the whole time. You can just select whatever you want to try~each dish comes on a colored plate indicating how much it costs (orange = 3euros, green = 4 earos, blue = 5 euros, etc). I liked it because Kyle and I tried things we wouldn't ordinarily order. Also, we stopped eating when we were full (rather than ordering a large plate and feeling obligated to finish since you are paying for it). The most fun of it all was that Kyle befriended the owner. If you know Kyle, this is no surprise to you, but the owner hung out near our table for a good part of dinner telling us about moving from Paris (his hometown) to open this restaurant and how to improve our rice when making sushi at home (our method sometimes yields very different results...). He even introduced Kyle to some of the fellas who worked in the kitchen and offered us free bowls of rice. Goodness, I love how Kyle manages to befriend folks most unexpectedly.
After dinner we had some time to kill before the fireworks. We headed to another restaurant to enjoy a coffee and get out from the chilly evening air. Then we headed to that glorious park we biked to last weekend (where Kyle showed off some
sweet acrobatic skills), and enjoyed the free concert. It was really nice~there were so many families, and lots of the children had those light up things and glowy things that parents always succumb to buying at Stone Mountain park laser shows. As it was cold and getting a bit late, we opted to walk home and hoped to see the fireworks from the comfort of our own porch. It was a success! We had a great view and thankfully didn't have to battle the crowds exiting the park when it was all over. It was all very sweet and even romantic until the loud booms awakened all the crows on bird island causing them to squawk endlessly and fly in creepy circles over their island home.
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| Bird island looks like an enormous bush growing out of Lake Symphony. |
Sunday morning we went to church at Temple Neuf. Kyle had made Jack's favorite peanut butter, chocolate oatmeal cookies to share with the congregation during the pause cafe (coffee break) after the service. There were two baptisms yesterday~two little boys named Louis and Lucas. I didn't know the French still named their children Louis, but I really like it! There was a lovely sermon about taking up our own crosses because God has given us salvation~ not serving God in order to earn our salvation. Jack tied it very beautifully into the baptisms by saying that these two little tots have done nothing to be baptized, but that it is simply a gift from God.
After church we headed to the crafts market with JP and Su. I dare not share too many details about this because Kyle and I obtained a good number of gifts for our families here. I will say that I had a woman say to my face a number of times that I must not understand French, but it just happened to be that her accent was a bit difficult. Immediately after that, another woman told me how good my French was. Nothing but highs and lows with the second language... one can only laugh. Kyle picked out a calendar for us with lots of pictures of Metz watercolors. There was a particular original painting of St. Pierre-des-Nonnains we both really liked, but it was going for 70euros. The artist encouraged us to haggle with him, but we still don't think it would have come down to a price we could really afford. Perhaps we'll have to commission one from Captain Milligan.... We had successfully made all the purchases we intended to make when it started to rain. Thankfully JP and Su didn't mind dropping us off at home despite the fact that they are in the middle of moving this weekend. We were ever so grateful not to be caught in a downpour with all sorts of gifts.
Finally last night, we had our friend Jing Fei over for dinner. We talked on a wide range of issues, but I've been asked not to share too much of it. It was his first time having sausage and pepper grits (Mom~Kyle gave you all the credit for this dish). On his recent trip home to China, he was sweet enough to think to bring me back a treat to remember him when we go back to the U.S. He also brought a Beaujolais to share (which was a particular favorite of mine from Lyon).
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| It's all the cute summer Olympics mascots~way better than that Izzy from '96 in ATL. |
It was an excellent weekend, but not as mirabelle-y as I had anticipated. We are down to our last two weeks in Metz. I don't think I'm ready for this. We have a life here (albeit, a cold and windy one), and it's difficult to envision what life will be like stateside. All in due time...
