I mentioned my first visit to Fanny's home in Pollionnay in
this post about la Fête des Lumières, and I've been meaning to do a separate post about it ever since. I'm more than a year late in writing this entry, but better now than never. It was such a fun experience, and I want to capture it here so I won't forget it!
Time-traveling back to December 2014...
After spending a few hours enjoying the light shows set up across Lyon during la Fête des Lumières, Fanny, one of her friends from university, and I took the metro to the outskirts of the city to catch a bus into the country. We alit at her stop and hopped into the car Fanny had left parked there while she was in Lyon and drove the rest of the way to her family's house. (Apparently that was Fanny's first time making that drive since obtaining her permis de conduire. Thankfully, she was an excellent driver!) It was late when we got in, but we stayed up a while longer to watch Les Intouchables before going to bed. It's an excellent movie, if you haven't seen it!
The next morning, Fanny's mother took the three of us to the Christmas market in a nearby town called La Tour-de-Salvagny. The stands had lovely things for sale, but the highlights of the market were the puppet show and the display of crèches from all over the world.
First of all, the puppet show wasn't just any puppet show. It was a show with
Guignol! Guignol is unique to Lyon, and he's in all of the guidebooks about the city. The tricky thing about Guignol, though, is that he speaks with a very heavy regional slang that is all but incomprehensible to anyone who didn't grow up in Lyon. I hadn't really considered going to one of the shows in the city because I figured I wouldn't understand a word of it, but I was still curious because it seemed like an essential Lyon experience. That's why I was so excited to come across this puppet show for kids at the Christmas market. I got a taste of what Guignol was all about!
My other favorite part of the market, much to my surprise, was the display of crèches (i.e., nativity scenes) from all around the world. The incredible variety and beauty of the creches was fascinating. I can't think of anything else quite like the nativity scene that has been reinterpreted over and over again by so many cultures and communities around the world. Some of them were really remarkable!
After leaving la Tour-de-Salvagny, we had a slow afternoon back at Fanny's house. We took her completely adorable, loveable dog, Ulysses (pronounced /Ooo-lease/), for a walk and chatted with her parents while they prepared for that night's big event: a medieval style (!) gala to raise money for the restoration of a 12th century chapel!
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| Beautiful sun room |
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| Fanny and sweet Ulysses |
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| Cows on our countryside walk |
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| Fanny reassuring Ulysses that the cows weren't that scary |
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| A la campagne! |
That evening, we headed to la salle des fêtes (the party hall) to help prep for the gala. I got to work setting tables, slicing thick loaves of bread, and pouring cups of Hippocras, a Medieval drink similar to mulled wine, for the friars, lords, and ladies as they arrived for a night of dinner, music, and dancing.
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| Me and Fanny in our costumes! |
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| Setting up before the other guests arrived |
It was such a fun night! I helped serve food with the other members of the association, chatted with Fanny's parents' friends and the town mayor (I have no idea how I ended up seated next to him?!), played tabletop petanque, danced up a storm, and ate lots of delicious French food. Fanny and I stayed late into the night, but her parents stayed even later!
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| Appetizer: salad, terrine, and cornichons |
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| Main course: Pot au Feu, a quintessential French dinner. |
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| Preparing the cheese course! There were at least three, maybe four, types on each plate. |
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| Apple tart for dessert. Everyone was stuffed by the end! |
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| Tabletop petanque! (i.e., tabletop bocce, but the French wouldn't dream of using the Italian word for it!) |
Needless to say, we were all moving pretty slowly the next morning, but her parents still had one more surprise up their sleeve. As if I hadn't already eaten incredibly well that weekend, Fanny's mother made a gratin for brunch with smoked salmon, fresh salmon, potatoes, and plenty of cream. It was, hands down, one of the single-most delicious things I've ever eaten. My mouth still waters when I think about it! It was a perfect ending to a perfectly lovely, unique weekend.
Fanny and her parents are incredibly warm and welcoming, and I cherish the memories of this visit (and of
my second one with them a few months later). They sent me a book this past December about la Fête des Lumières in honor of my first weekend in Pollionnay during the festival in 2014, and it made me super nostalgic. They are definitely friends for life. <3
