Emily in France 🇫🇷 3 Ways I'm Still Pretty American
You can take the girl out of New York...
From linguistic snafus (apparently Americans don’t “eclipse themselves”) to awkward goodbyes (see: my terrible saluting habit), living in France for my entire adult life hasn't made chicer; it’s just made me odder. (I’m OK with it.)
But while living in France has indeed changed me in many ways, there are also a few American habits that, try as I might, I just can’t shake. Here are three of them.
I hydrate.
Take a seat at most French bistros, and your water will be served in a dinky Duralex glass, ubiquitous in homes and cafeterias across France. It holds approximately three American mouthfuls of water.
The French firmly believe that drinking too much water during a meal is bad for the digestion. (They also really like talking about their digestion.) I understand where they're coming from, but I’ve been a drinker of copious quantities of water since long before a Stanley became a status symbol. And while I don't typically carry my Nalgene unless I’m hiking, I also don't apologize for asking for une carafe d’eau (a bottle of tap water) when dining out – and I definitely take full advantage of the free drinking water from the Wallace Fountains dotting the city.
I drink drip coffee.
Dinky little espressos and copious cafés crème may be Parisian, but when it comes to my coffee habit, I’m a New Yorker through and through. In France, drip coffee is often termed jus de chaussette (literally: sock water), but I own my love of a weaker brew drunk in copious quantities.
Unfortunately, truly American-style coffee is hard to come by in the capital. While craft coffee has come to Paris in a big way, joining the ho-hum espresso you’ll find at most Parisian cafés (find out why French coffee sucks here), there’s nowhere I know of aside from Breakfast in America where you can get your hands on a mug of real diner coffee. It’s for this reason that I typically make my coffee at home with beans from one of the awesome roasteries in Paris. My favorites include Ten Belles, Brûlerie de la Folie-Méricourt, and Brûlerie de Varenne, though if I’m really keen, I’ll take the suburban rail line out to Meaux, where the local brûlerie sells my favorite – and where I can pick up some local Brie to boot.
I talk about my job too much.
So, what do you do? The question comes easily, in English; in French, it would be a bit akin to asking, So, how do you wash your underwear? We know everyone does laundry, but it’s boring – bordering on improper – to ask about it, especially when you don’t know your interlocutor that well.
I’ve learned, over the years, not to ask French people about their work too early in a conversation. In fact, I’ve learned it so well that sometimes I forget that this is a cultural difference and spend the entirety of a food tour with American clients never asking them what they do for a living. (Don't take it personally!) But one unfortunate side effect of loving what I do is that it’s eroded my free time, most of which is spent developing new pastry tours, discovering new cheeses, or trying new restaurants. And while of course I can fall back on other topics of conversation, at this point, I’m leaning in. I love what I do, and if my enthusiasm for my work makes me more American… well, I suppose c’est la vie.
Cheese of the Week
While many cheeses have their own names, often taken from the name of the closest village to where they're made, others are anonymous. Such is the case of this tomme, a word used to describe any pressed mountain cheese with a hard or semi-soft texture. And yet in its anonymity, this particular cheese proved extraordinary.
The mixed-milk tomme takes advantage of the rich creaminess of sheep’s milk and the acidic, caprine notes of goat’s milk for a melt-in-your-mouth cheese with a delightful creaminess. I discovered it at the Fromagerie du Louvre, which is one of my favorite cheese shops in Paris.
To discover more of my favorite cheeses, be sure to follow me on Instagram @emily_in_france, subscribe to my YouTube channel, and tune into the Terroir Podcast, where Caroline Conner and I delve into France's cheese, wine, and more one region at a time.
What I’m Eating
NHOME is a fine dining spot steps from the Palais Royal helmed by the French-Israeli Chef Matan Zaken. The convivial dining room is located in a beautiful vaulted cellar, where guests pull up a chair at a massive, 20-seat table to feast on a 140-euro nine-course tasting. More on the blog.
Where I’m Going
1. To my favorite covered market in Paris, to introduce some guests to some seasonal delicacies.
2. To the Latin Quarter, where I’ll be diving deep into the Lost Generation writers who helped transform the area into a literary haven once known as Odéonia.
3. To the Centre Pompidou, to catch this exhibit on the works of Suzanne Valadon before it ends (and before the museum closes for a several-year renovation).
What I’m Doing
I’m so excited to announce the next dates for TERRE/MER, the ceramics and culinary retreat I co-host in the Mediterranean seaside town of la Ciotat. This long weekend is governed by creativity and terroir, encompassing a 10-hour ceramics workshop, three locally-sourced meals a day (prepared with love by yours truly), hands-on cooking workshops, a cheese tasting (bien sûr), and more.
We'll be welcoming our next small group September 4-7. Take advantage of our Early Bird discount – a nearly 100-euro savings – by booking your spot now!
What I'm Writing
1. Forget a trip to the Eiffel Tower; the most Parisian thing you can do is settle into a wicker chair and spend the afternoon with a cast-iron cassolette of beef bourguignon at one of the city’s countless cafés. Or is it a bistro, brasserie, or bouillon? Time for some definitions – and the best of each in Paris. For The Infatuation.
2. Despite decades of science, Zeldin’s EPA now claims greenhouse gas emissions don’t endanger public health. This begs the question: Who stands to gain from these rollbacks? For Organic Authority.
3. From the archives: Stop buying French cheese in the U.S. – try these instead. For InsideHook.
FAQs
With the goal of bringing you the content you crave, I'm soliciting your help. What questions can I answer for you? Drop them into the newsletter chat, and I’ll answer as many as I can!
What I'm Reading
1. I usually regret my tendency to stick with a book even when I’m no longer enjoying it, but it paid off with Paris Pages. This book started strong with an evocative, thrumming depiction of Paris through the eyes of a chorus of characters. A few chapters in, the piecemeal structure of the book in fragments seemed to meander, and for about 100 pages, I struggled to remain invested. The payoff, however, was phenomenal: At about the midpoint, the disparate stories began to congeal, revealing a tapestry of artistic insight that is deeply rooted in Paris and resonated with me for many days to follow.
2. This news that Camembert (and, ostensibly, other bloomy-rinded cheeses) might be good for your memory. In PsyPost.
3. This article about the weird psychology of airports, which notably suggested the theory that they may be thin places. In the Conversation.
A bientôt !