History and Mystery

June 19, 2012

Today we had another day of full morning of class, followed by two-hour lunch. In class, Dr. Haggbloom brough in a few delicious aged Maconnais goat cheeses which we tasted. They were, as he says, "like little candies." 

At lunch, I ordered a salad that had smoked salmon and shrimp. Shrimp, were actually prawns. Still in the shell? That I can deal with. Uncleaned? Okay. With the heads on? And no extra bowl or plate or anything on which I place the shells? That's just overstepping it a little bit. Nonetheless, I got down and dirty cleaning the shrimp myself so I could get on with the rest of my salad. In the end, with a little bit of work and a few extra napkins it was delicious. 

The salad dressing here is so good! It's always some variation of the same thing including oil, vinegar, djion, salt, and pepper. The dijon here has a potent kick, like wasabi, that I particularly love. The group shared a few carafes of local wines and concluded our meal dessert: for me, a scoop of pistachio ice cream. Boy, could I get used to this.

After lunch, we met with Dr. Reinart again to go to the Cluny Abbey museum which contained fragments of the once ornate, beautiful building. We located one pillar remain with particular relavence to our course: carved grape vines. 


After this, we went to the old Abbott's house, for another glimpse at living quarters of the 13th century. The house had tremendous fireplaces in every room and intricate black, red, and ivory tile floors. It's amazing that things like this have survived so long through the centuries. That we were standing on the same floors and climbing the same stone staircases that the Cluniac monks had climbed hundreds of years before us. 

Around 4pm, we parted ways with Dr. Reinart just as some dark clouds rolled in and it began to drizzle. We headed once more to the town "supermarche" to get picnic supplies for our group lunch tomorrow during our first excursion. We divided up who would be buying plates/napkins/cups, fruits, vegetables, meats, and cheeses. 

After making our purchases, we headed back to Cluny Sejour before dinner. Not everyone was hungry, so we ended up dividing up for dinner for which Hannah and I went back to Basserie du Nord. I had been so satisfied with my veggies there yesterday, that I ordered the same thing.... or so I thought. What came to the table was a cold salad of tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, shredded endive, and an odd cream dressing. Ordering food seems to be a constant mystery, which I surprisingly don't mind. I accept that I never know what I'm going to get--every meal is a multicourse adventure! 

Since the cheese seemed to be lacking that day, I ordered a post-meal assortment of goat cheeses. Three were served in age order, youngest to oldest. The oldest was my favorite upon first bite. Upon second bite, though, I tried to slice into the firm hunk of cheese on my plate, and the whole thing shot off the table and rolled down the cobblestone hill. Fortunately, only me and Hannah saw. So it was more of a funny, yet devastating loss of deliciousness than it was embarrassing. 

We finished our meal, and asked our waiter where in town we could watch the Eurocup game. He provided us with the name of a bar which would likely be airing the game. We quickly made our way over to catch the last 30 minutes of the game in which France lost to Sweden 2-0, I can't say I am disappointed--I'm not much of a fan of the way the Franch team plays. Viva Espana y Italia! At the bar we struck up conversation with a middle-aged couple from Holland. They'd informed us that they were on holiday in Cluny and on that past Sunday attended the horse races in town which occur once per month in the summer. Can't wait to view the rest of the soccer games!

Tomorrow we wont be meeting in the classroom, but rather we are taking our first excursion to the vineyards owned by Sonia, who we'd met Sunday at le Cellier de l'Abbaye. We'll also be traveling with Catherine Healy, the Director of the Rutgers Study Abroad Program in France. Can't wait! It's looking like it might rain though, but we're hoping it'll hold off so we can still have our picnic.

- Adrianne Speranza