Vive la france

Thibaut came to visit last weekend. It was an extravaganza of French culture. After he arrived Saturday around noon, we went to see a French movie (Avenue Montaigne, or Fauteuils d'orchestre) at the nice theaters by Lincoln Plaza. It was a fun movie, but I think I missed a lot because of the cultural references. We discovered that Thibaut had arrived for the beginning of a French film festival at the Lincoln Center. We tried to see another French movie at the theater at Lincoln Center, but it was sold out. We went home because it had gotten cold, and we found another French movie to see downtown, Flanders. It was the most disturbing film I have seen in a long time, but it was very good, all about the horrors of war, so you can imagine the terrible stuff that was in it. There was an unexpected treat for Thibaut at the end; the director of the film, Bruno Dumont, had just flown in and was there for a Q&A session. Lots of people asked silly questions, which is always the case at these sorts of things, but it was fun.

After the movie, we celebrated Thibaut's new job teaching--what else?--French cinema, by having a fancy dinner at the restaurant of the French Culinary Institute. We started with an aperitif, and I have to say I ordered probably the best sparkling sweet wine I have ever had, an Italian muscat from Asti. I had an amazing French onion soup, while Thibaut had some tasty mussels and scallops. The fish course followed, but it was my least favorite because I had a big chunk of salmon with center parts undercooked, as is the fashion these days. Then we both had some lamb, which was very nice, followed by a tiny salad and dessert. I had a chocolate thing wrapped in phyllo pastry with brandied cherries, and Thibaut had a fantastic apple tart, which I helped him finish because he was full.

The next day, we ate breakfast at El Malecon. The cafe con leche was superb as always, and we tried a Dominican breakfast of mangu (mashed green plantains) with eggs and cheese. We were served huge mountains of mangu along with fried eggs and--sacre bleu!--fried cheese. It was like a giant platter of tasty but kind of overwhelming unhealthiness.

After Thibaut left, I hung out with my new neighborhood friend Shane. It turns out that this guy who also works full-time and studies at my college only lives two blocks from me, which we discovered one day going home on the same train. It also turns out that he is studying music education and plays the guitar, which is a happy coincidence because I happen to have a guitar I bought in Mexico that I never learned to play. The other happy coincidence is that he wants to learn Spanish (we had run into each other at the free Spanish classes offered by our union), so now we are doing a guitar-Spanish exchange; he teaches me to play the guitar, and I try to teach him some Spanish. The advantages of having a guitar-teaching, Spanish-learning friend living so close are numerous; one of these is that he cooked dinner for me last night!

I have to run now, because I actually do have to get ready and go to work!