What is that, exactly? Well, this is the first year Merial (the company sponsoring my internship here) has brought American students to France, and so they decided to sponsor a week and a couple days of scientific enrichment, cultural visits, good food and conviviality for the three of us who are here (and it's all FREE! Like, everything!.) I am the only student in Toulouse. the other two are in Lyon, so I took a flight there today, where we'll pass the weekend, and the coming week we'll go to Nantes. There are vet schools in both of these cities, as well as a strong research presence, but one particularly awesome thing?
Lyon is THE international headquarters for the entire Merial company! I know, right? How cool is that? We're going to visit tomorrow, so I'll let you know how that and the rest of the weekend goes. To start...I was out like a light during the plane flight due to having stayed up late the previous two nights. We're presenting the projects we're working on this coming Tuesday, entirely in French, and both myself (and my professor) have somewhat high expectations - so I worked really hard to make it as good as possible. But even then I still have a bit to work on.
I got to Lyon late afternoon, got picked up by a German lady who works for Merial in Lyon, who was returning from Belgium on a flight not long after mine (cool, eh?). We then drove into town, and I checked into my hotel before dinner. And seriously, you know I don't expect much in life when a basic hotel room to me is extremely exciting and the height of luxury. I mean, there's a tv! With cable! And a real bathtub! And a kitchenette! And a double bed! Not to mention the hotel and breakfast each day are already paid for, and I have a seventh-floor view out my window smack dab into central Lyon below. I feel like I'm living large here.
But the highlight of the night? Of course, dinner! They told us that the country director for Merial France wanted to meet us (neat!), so they took us out to a nice Lyonnais restaurant for dinner. Aside from Paris, Lyon is the gastronomy capital of France, and their food is no joke. Seriously, a four-course dinner for more than I could ever feasibly pay, plus wine, and every dish impeccably delicious. We were in heaven. Lyonnaise cuisine is known for being pretty heavy (I actually liked the foie gras I tried, which I normally detest - that's a testament of itself), and also for using plenty of parts of animals that one doesn't "normally" eat. As examples, people took dishes including various components such as pork cheek, intestine, liver, and even thymus - yes, I said thymus. And there was even fried pork fat (whaaa?) as a little appetizer. I gamely tried everything, and concluded that besides the fried fat, which was acceptable, everything was extremely tasty. You know these people know how to cook if they can make the stuff nobody wants taste good.
In true French fashion, we forecasted to arrive at 8 pm, actually got everyone there closer to 8:30, and didn't leave the restaurant until 11:30 pm, pleasantly stuffed. Excellent conversation was had, and my dishes included a salade lyonnais (with seafood and pâté), a seafood quenelle, which is a soft egg-and-breadcrumb patty thing (hard to explain...) that can be made many ways, but mine was based of crawfish (yummy!) and had a delicious creamy seafood sauce that seemed to infuse into it. Sounds weird, but is stinkin' amazing. On the side for the table to share was fried potatoes and pasta gratinois (gratinois = cheesy), with more bread and wine.
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| Une quenelle! |
Another funny thing, we actually had three glasses per person, which as it turned out we needed. One for red wine, one for white, and one for water. Add the apéritif in there for before dinner, and much alcohol was had! Desserts, which we ordered but everyone gave each other tastes, included baba au rhum (rum cake), crème brulée (the best I've ever tried), cheeses, and an awesome cassis sorbet (a small french berry known bizarrely in English as a blackcurrant). It was a great atmosphere, and it was awesome how friendly and welcoming the Merial people were. And the other two students are very nice, and considerably braver than me for both coming to conquer France and the language barrier (both scientific and everyday language) for the first time!
That's all for the night! I've been to Lyon once before in December for the festival of lights (which may be found in an old blog post somewhere), but it'll be nice to visit during the summer. And Saturday and Sunday are completely free! So, who knows what kind of adventures are to be had? Until next time!
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