Being in Dijon was a real test of my family’s French skills (I give them a D-, which is generous). Not as many people speak English as in Paris, so they were much more dependent on me. Since it is a part of wine country, I was able to find some English tours to send them on while I was in class.
I didn’t have class until 1 on Monday, so I showed them how to take the bus to the Olympic-sized pool on the outskirts of Dijon. Having two swimmer sisters necessitated finding a pool for them to work out, and the city must have prepared for their arrival by building the pool last year. I took the bus back right away to do more homework before class, but they managed getting back on their own, and we had arranged for them to go on a little walking tour related to the Dukes of Bourgogne while I was in class.
I met back up with everyone at the hotel that evening, and we took a taxi to my host family’s house for the big meeting of the families. My Wake professor came to help with the translation since my family speaks no French and my host family speaks limited to no English. We didn’t really have any communication problems, and I was so glad my two families got to meet, especially so my real family could see where I’d been living for the past three months. My sisters were nervous about what they would be eating, and we started with champagne as an apéritif and my host mom made salad, duck with mushrooms and rice, cheese, and Poire Belle Hélène (vanilla ice cream with pears and hot fudge) for dessert along with some macaroons, which all went over quite well. Everyone got along great, and I was glad it ended up working out to have my families meet. It’s too bad my dad wasn’t able to come for the festivities.
I spent the night at my host family’s house, so my mom and sisters were on their own for most of Tuesday. While they went to the pool in the morning and on a wine tour in the afternoon, I had class in the morning and skipped my afternoon classes to work on a presentation for the next day. I ended up missing my last wine class with my group (they tasted 10 wines) and missed the wine tour with my mom and sisters, but I had homework to catch up on. I reunited with my family for dinner at Le Grand Café before heading back to my host family’s house.
I had class on Wednesday, and my sisters went to swim before they caught a train back to Paris that afternoon. They managed to get back to their hotel by themselves (impressive for their level of French), and I stayed back in Dijon to do my presentation on the French education system (for which I had to interview a real French person), finish up an internship application that was due back in the U.S., and study for a final the next day. The prospect of going back to Paris again helped me through (and sort of distracted me from) my studying.
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