The Art of “Bon Appétit”!

I need to talk about “bon appétit” for a minute because I like it so much. One of the most regular questions I get while in France is “What do you say in English before a meal?” Unfortunately we do not really have a good expression other than “Enjoy your meal,” or in some cases “bon appétit” is used. This is always received with a sad face. Why is bon appétit so important? I think one reason is because food is so important in France. Enjoying fresh, rich, flavorful food is embedded in the culture. Meals are meant to be savored and enjoyed at a slow, relaxed pace with good company.

There are several common courses that I have experienced and I am sure there are others: apéritifs, entrees, main courses, cheese, dessert, and digestifs. Apéritifs are usually some sort of drink before the meal and can be a mild alcohol, wine, beer, etc. Entrees are a small plate, such as a salad of some sort which is then followed by the main course. Cheese acts as a follow up to the main course and can be eaten with bread. Dessert is self-explanatory but may be fresh fruit instead of another form of sweet. Finally, digestifs are normally a strong alcohol or liquor that is at least 40%. Eating is a ritual and is taken quite seriously.

I bring this up because in the past week I have had three strangers wish me “bon appétit” randomly and each time it has made me smile. The first occasion was when The Hobbit and I went for pizza in Châtillon. An old couple entered while we were eating and as they walked by, they wished us “bon appétit” in the sweetest fashion. For the second occasion I was at the train station in Dijon waiting for my ride to Nice. I decided to grab a sandwich and was eating while resting against a wall when a young, awkward looking guy walked by and wished me “bon appétit” quietly. The third case was last night in Nice when we were returning to the apartment with some food in our hands and my friends’ neighbor wished us “bon appétit” as we were ascending the stairs.

I thought about how bizarre this is to have strangers say this to other strangers, but then my mind transitioned to thinking this is rather nice. It is unusual to get a “hello/bonjour” from strangers in France, but “bon appétit,” this is something sacred. 

I Got a Bit Distracted

Well, the excavations finished this week and I realized that I have not provided an update in a long time. While this might make some of you worry (Mother), this is actually a good thing because it means I was keeping busy and was having such a great time with my friends that I was not on the internet all the time. Since I slacked off, I will give a brief summary of what I did and what we discovered at the excavations this year.

We were still working in the same area as last year on top of Mont Lassois. There is about 12 to 18 inches of soil on top of the bedrock which was removed with some heavy machinery. After much of the top layer was scraped off, we cleaned off additional layers of dirt to search for features, such as postholes, pits, and ditches. We opened a huge area and it took four weeks to get everything visible and clean. What we discovered were lots of postholes which indicated that there was another (or several) houses on top of the plateau in addition to the large house which they discovered several years ago. In the past then, the site had one very large house which they believe belonged to the princess of Vix and then there were several smaller houses, but still quite large, that were around the big house. The entire area was then enclosed by a ditch which we also explored further. Several structures of later dates were also evident during our work and two more graves were also excavated this year.

I did none of this work though. I was adopted by the documentation team and helped to describe and draw 300 of these postholes, pits, and ditches. I worked with then daughter of one of our directors to do this. I am incredibly grateful to her because, though she speaks English very well, she let me practice my French which improved dramatically in a matter of the first three days with her. She is only 19, but she is one of the sweetest and most mature people I have ever met. It would have been a long and more trying summer without her help! Anyway, we were quite the team and really kicked ass at getting all of these documents in order. I even got to do some drawings this year which turned out quite well in my humble opinion and much to my surprise. My supervisors were also quite happy with my work and I feel good knowing I helped make things run smoothly this year. The weather was also much improved this year and we only had one day of rain, but it was not bad enough to make us stop working.

In addition to the work, my very good friend The Hobbit was able to come to the site at the last minute. He is in the top ten of my favorite people in the world, so we had a lot of laughs and good memories again from this summer. There were a lot of great people at the site this year in general. I really liked the people on the Swiss team, which was a nice change from last year and the Austrians were great this year too! Overall, there were lots of good conversations, good jokes, and late nights this summer. I have never felt more exhausted after an excavation as I do this year. It was worth it though.

To recover so that I may do more work when I arrive home, I am going to Nice for a week. Many people know of Nice, a beautiful and expensive city in the south of France which overlooks the Mediterranean Sea. I am so excited to see the beach and the water I can hardly stand it. I am sitting at the train station now waiting for my train (which goes back to Lyon first). Why did I decide to go all the way down to Nice? Well, there are Minnesotans in Nice. A couple who went to high school with Reed and who I have met several times have taken a year off from the States to live in Nice. I am looking forward to some familiar faces and accents and I hope they are too! After Nice I will go back to Paris for a day or two and then will finally fly home on the 21^st of August. I will write again before then to share my adventures, but for the moment, just know that I am happy, relaxed, and going to a fantastic place in just a few hours!

Hugs to all!