So Anyways

Who wants a Million Euros?

Unlike last night's wine-induced euphoria, tonight I'm suffering from France overkill.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, the room was spinning when I went to bed. That spinning only intensified when I actually got in bed - to the point that I thought for sure I was on some kind of carnival ride from hell. I kept asking that they just stop the ride because I wanted off. Didn't happen, though.

I haven't experienced anything quite like that since my college days. Fortunately, after a few prayers to the porcelain god, the spinning finally slowed back down to a manageable level, and I was able to fall asleep. Thankfully I awoke this morning without too many bad effects, but I'm pretty sure I won't be looking for any opportunities to drink a lot of wine again anytime soon.

This morning, I tried to estimate the amount of wine I consumed last night - it started out with 2 glasses of mescal, followed by 2 glasses of a white wine from the Alsace region with dinner, then 2 glasses of a pinot noir, and finally by 2 glasses of a Beaujolais. Eight freakin' glasses of wine in one night. I'm not entirely sure, but I'm thinking that was the equivalent of at least one full bottle of wine. No freakin' wonder the room was spinning. I'm just lucky I didn't pass out on the street as I was walking back to the hotel. It's a good thing I didn't, otherwise one of the very many hot French guys around here might've had his way with me. And that just wouldn't be a good thing.

I swore to myself this morning that tonight would be a *very* early night, with nothing more than a "Royale with Cheese" and a Coke from McDonald's. Unfortunately, when you travel with other co-workers, you're kind of obliged to go to dinner with them, even on nights when your hosts aren't taking you out to dinner and even when you want nothing more than to have a quiet night in the hotel room. Trying to be a good traveling partner, I reluctantly agreed to go to dinner with my co-worker tonight. He wanted to go to an Irish bar near the hotel for pizza and beer, so needless to say, I couldn't escape alcohol this evening. I did manage to limit myself to two beers, though, so I think maybe the bed won't spin out of control tonight. I'm keeping my fingers crossed anyway.

I'm now sitting in the hotel room watching French TV, which is an experience in itself. Tonight's show of choice - "Qui Veut Gagner des Millions?", which is apparently France's version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?".

I don't understand word one of French, but I've had fun watching the show. The Regis is just like Regis is supposed to be - slightly older, gruff but lovable, and wearing a dark suit with a dark shirt and a dark tie. It's like a little piece of home.

The first contestant on tonight's show got up to the 12,000 Euro question, although he had to use all three lifelines to get there. It was kind of funny when he phoned a friend and the phone connection was so bad that the friend couldn't hear the question. Didn't matter. 30 seconds expired, and the guy didn't get an answer. No do-overs allowed just because the phone connection sucked. Anyway, with no help from his friend, the guy got the answer wrong. The funny thing is, I would've gotten it right since one of the four answers was "DeGaulle." That was the only one of the four names I recognized, so that's the one I chose as my "final answer." Turns out, I was right. I have no idea what the question was, but at least I got the answer right. Too bad for the guy, though. He lost 10,500 Euro. I did pretty well on the Fastest Finger as well - I managed to surmise that the question was "Put these TV shows in order according to when they debuted on French television, starting with the earliest." Two of the answers were "Friends" and "Dallas." I put "Dallas" ahead of "Friends," which was correct, but I didn't recognize the other two and didn't get them in the right order.

So that's it for today. Tomorrow is the big group dinner, which I have a feeling means even more drinking and an extremely late night. Wish me luck.

Tres Bien

Oy vey.

France is a great place. Forty eight hours ago, just before I embarked on my latest business trip, I would've told you that France was the absolute last place I wanted to be. Right now, though, I'd be hard pressed to name a place far from home that I'd rather be.

I was forced to cut a long Thanksgiving holiday weekend short by leaving on a 1-week business trip to Toulouse, France on Saturday. I *so* didn't want to go. I wanted to stay at home and enjoy a full four days of rest and relaxation like most Americans. Watching a little football on TV, maybe finishing a little holiday shopping, helping Ed to get the Christmas decorations up, and catching up on TiVo was all I wanted to do. That wasn't to be, though, as I had a trip scheduled and couldn't think of a good excuse to avoid it.

So, Saturday morning, with a pissy attitude and a sense of dread, I took off on what promised to be a long and tiring trip. It got off to the start I expected as well, since the trip was interrupted by a weather delay that resulted in missing a flight, my bags being lost, and a much-later-than-expected arrival. Despite my predisposition and the challenges thrown in my way, I managed to force myself into a somewhat positive attitude, though. I arrived safe and sound. My bags arrived not much later, and with a stiff upper lip, I ventured into the office this morning thinking I'd get through the week one way or another.

I managed to fight the initial urge to sleep as soon as I arrived, and thereby (I hope) managed to avoid the worst of any jet lag I might otherwise have felt. I ended up going to bed at a bit early, but still not unreasonable 9:30pm, which allowed me to get a good 8-9 hours of sleep, and I got through the day feeling remarkably well. At the end of the day, a French co-worker took me and my traveling companion to his home for dinner.

Let me just say, the French really know how to live.

We started out the evening with a pre-dinner apertif - I chose to sample a mescal - a wine that is apparently from either southern France or northern Spain (our host told us the history, but my mind being somewhat addled at this point couldn't say for sure where it came from). All I know is that it was very sweet and really quite tasty.

After a half-hour or so of conversation in his 250+ year old home, we adjourned to the dining room, where we were treated to what I now believe was a 27-course meal - first came another apertif, then a salad, then a main (fish) course, followed by the fromage (cheese) plate, then by a chocolate mousse dessert. All the while, we were treated to what seemed like an endless supply of wines - wines from the Bordeaux, Alsace, and Boujalais regions. I lost count after like the fifth glass, but it was all very good wine. The entire dinner itself lasted for a good 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

Of course, no French dinner is complete without bread. And cheese. And wine. And more wine. As I told our host, I think God had me born into the wrong country. I love bread, cheese, and wine so much that I could be (and probably should be) French. I forget how much I love it all until I come back to France and experience it all again. I really did lose count of how many glasses of wine I had tonight, but it really doesn't matter. I certainly am not feeling any pain, and I've decided all over again that I really do like France.

Now if I can just get through four more nights without catstrophe, I'll have it made.

Stay tuned. I hope/plan to provide some updates throughout the week. France, for all the good things about it, certainly provides a lot of fodder for a blog. It's like they do everything differently here just to spite us Americans - if I get a chance, I'll fill you in on some of those things as the week progresses. In the meantime, all I can really say is, vive le France! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try to find something solid to hold on to as the room just will not quit spinning.