Saturday, January 21, 2012

Le Quinzieme Jour


Jeudi, nous avons eu du temps libre! Et à mon avis, la seule chose à faire pour passer du temps libre est le shopping! (Il y a beaucoup de soldes en France maintenant.) Une amie et moi sommes allées au centre ville pour acheter des chaussures. Nous avons trouvé un magasin de chaussures avec des bons prix. Après avoir parlé du très mauvais français et après avoir demandé des tailles incorrectes, la vendeuse était très heureuse quand nous sommes parties!
Après ça, nous avons mangé avec quelques autres amis dans un petit restaurant. J'aime beaucoup le sucre, donc j'ai demandé à la serveuse la carte des desserts. J'ai choisi le coulant au chocolat, un gâteau au chocolat servi avec des amandes, de la chantilly, et de la crème anglaise.  
Pendant la chasse aux chaussures, quelques autres étudiants ont pris le train pour aller en Espagne. L'Espagne est près de la ville de Bayonne, juste trente minutes en train. Il y a beaucoup d'influence espagnole dans cette région, comme les couleurs rouge et verte, et la nourriture avec des poivres.
Et quelques autre étudiants ont choisi de pratiquer leur musique au conservatoire Maurice Ravel. Les gens du conservatoire étaient très gentils envers les musiciens de Luther.
En général, c'était un jour fantastique. J'ai des nouvelles chaussures, et tous les étudiants de Luther ont eu des aventures. Dans l'après-midi: le jambon!

Aujourd'hui, nous avons aussi visité une charcuterie artisanale Basque. Dans la charcuterie, les produits principaux sont le jambon et le canard. Le jambon est salé avec le sel de terre et pas fumé. Les produits sont envoyés dans toute le France mais pas dans tout le monde. Les cochons habitent en Aquitaine parce que, ensuite, les artisans savent d'où les viandes viennent et qu'elles sont fraîches. Tout les produits sont faits sur place au-dessus du magasin. Cinq personnes travaillent dans l'atelier donc c'est une production artisanale depuis 20 ans. Il y a des publicités pour la visite de l'atelier à notre hôtel: Bien qu'il y ait des touristes, les étiquettes sont en français seulement.

* Saler le Jambon
Appliquez le sel de terre sur les jambons et laissez pendant douze jours
Rincez les jambons avec de l'eau et laissez pour neuf mois avec une température croissante
Suspendez le jambon pendant trois mois avec un glaçage de gras, de poivres, et de farines


Our Thursday adventure began with two of the best words in the English language: free time! And in my opinion, the only way to spend free time is to shop, especially since we're right in the middle of the twice yearly French sales. A friend and I buddied up and set out to downtown Bayonne with the common goals of shoes and jewelry. French shoes stores are an adventure, to say the least. Pretty shoes are in abundance due to the good materials and craftsmanship here, but it takes some work to find them on a student budget. We finally found a store that combined both elements and the real fun began. Between our garbled French, our indecisiveness, and our utter lack of knowledge of European sizing, the salesgirl was quite relieved when we finally made ou decisions- ballet flats for me, boots for my friend. After that, we explored the French department store Galleries Lafayette in pursuit of jewelry. Due to my extreme attraction to anything sparkly, shiny, or glittery, the rest of the morning went by in a flash.
We decided to break for lunch and meet up with another group of friends at a small café. While everyone else politely and maturely ordered lunch, I threw the waitress for a loop by immediately requesting the dessert menu. I was presented with a gloriously long list of confections, of which I recognized exactly none. I ended up ordering a mystery dessert based on my recognition of a single word in the name- chocolate. 'Le coulant au chocolat,' or molten chocolate lava cake came served with whipped cream, slivered almonds, and a tasty white sauce that seemed a bit like melted vanilla ice cream. That white sauce, I later learned, is la crème anglaise, or a type of French custard. I highly recommend it!
While we were enjoying our great morning, other members of our class got a little more creative than retail therapy and sugar highs. Because of Bayonne's close proximity to Spain (only 30 minutes by train!), some students decided a spontaneous day trip was in order. After the frantic flurry of almost missing the train to the town of St. Sebastian, a relaxing stroll and Spanish snacks like Boca Bits was just what they needed. Spain's influence in this part of France is apparent in everything from the prominent colors (red and green) to the food (a lot of peppers!).
And still others chose to take a different path. The musicians among us decided to do the responsible thing and practice at the Maurice Ravel Conservatory of Music, which we had discovered earlier in the week when we attended a violin recital. The conservatory was very kind in welcoming us to use their practice rooms. (Although I must admit that the lure of shoes was too great, and I never saw the practice area.)
My morning brought me new shoes and I ate nothing but chocolate for lunch. All in all, a very happy Hannah. The other students also enjoyed their morning of exploration. Read on to learn about the ham company we discovered as a group in the afternoon.

Today we went to a Basque ham store. At the ham store, the main products are ham and duck. The ham is cured with salt from the earth without using smoke. Basque is the onle region that uses this curing process. The products are sent all over France but not around the world. The pigs live in Aquitaine because then they know where the meat is from and that it is fresh. All of the products are produced above the store. Five people work at the store so it is a small shop that has been open for 20 years. There are advertisements to visit the shop at our hotel. Even though there are tourists, the labels are only in French.

* Salt Curing Process
Apply the salt to the ham and mature for twelve days
Rince the ham with water and mature for nine months with an increasing temperature
Hang the ham for three months with a coating of fat, pepper, and flour

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