This weekend at the Carrousel du Louvre is a wine salon. Naturally, my FWB is attending. He came up last night on the TGV after his interview in Nîmes for a VIE (Volontariat International en Entreprise), i.e.:
Le Volontariat International en Entreprises (V.I.E), instauré par la loi du 14 mars 2000, permet aux entreprises françaises de confier à un jeune, homme ou femme, jusqu’à 28 ans, une mission professionnelle à l’étranger durant une période modulable de 6 à 24 mois, renouvelable une fois dans cette limite.
Le Volontariat International en Entreprises (V.I.E), instauré par la loi du 14 mars 2000, permet aux entreprises françaises de confier à un jeune, homme ou femme, jusqu’à 28 ans, une mission professionnelle à l’étranger durant une période modulable de 6 à 24 mois, renouvelable une fois dans cette limite.
The International Business Internship, inaugurated by the law of March 14th 2000, allows French business to entrust a young person, man or woman, up to the age of 28, a professional mission abroad for a flexible period of 6 to 24 months, renewable one time within this limit.
Unfortunately for him, the business he's looking to VIE for already has someone on-site in New York currently doing a VIE and they will most likely hire that person full time with an American J-1 work visa, aka, meaning they won't take anymore stagiaires, such as my FWB, in NYC. (YES!!!! VICTORY!) However, should the business not hire the current individual in the job, my FWB explained that he is one of four candidates to be sent to New York in that person's place.
Oh sweet Jesus I am a horrible person who wants you to S-T-A-Y.
Funnily enough, I was also turned down for a full time job yesterday in Paris, for the third time. Oh how timing is everything right now, or so it seems. Hélas.
Funnily enough, I was also turned down for a full time job yesterday in Paris, for the third time. Oh how timing is everything right now, or so it seems. Hélas.
Last night I spoiled my FWB and bought him amazingly good cheese from Nicole Barthélémy, which is Barefoot Contessa Ina Garten's favorite cheese shop in Paris. Nicole is the queen of cheese and regularly given national awards for her craft. If you like cheese, it is heaven, and I happen to love cheese (there's a reason my own father used to call me ¨Mouse¨ when I was a kid!). I share this love of cheese with my FWB, who like any red flooded Frenchman, can't get enough.
I was also eager to show my FWB the difference with his own local Claudine Vigier, who is Nicole's rival. Cheese is serious business in France. You walk into Nicole Barthélémy and you are immediately helped by one of the staff fromagères who ask you what you're looking for. These goddesses of all things cheese will then propose not only several varieties of what you're searching (comte, gruyère, brébis, tome de brébi, the list goes on) but also multiple affinages based on how long the cheese has been left to age, most commonly 6, 12, 18, 24, and even 36 months. A cheese's character and taste change over time, like a wine's. You can also tell, as my FWB taught me, how long a cheese has been aged based on the thickness of the rimmed crust ( the croûte ) which is produced as the milk in the cheese dries out. I've been in this country two and a half years and yet there is still so much to learn...
Thus, to prepare FWB's arrival, I walked around the corner and picked out a fabulously rich and salty Rocquefort (one of FWB's and my favorites), a good comté, and his ultimate favorite cheese, a beaufort d'été. Then it was on to charcuterie (rillettes, saucisse séche, mousse de foie, saumon fumé) and...drum roll please...Poilâne.
The pretty paper bag the bread comes in :)
Poilâne is a Parisian institution. Founded in 1932 by a young baker from Normandy, the bakery is still located on 8, rue du Cherche-Midi in the 6th arrondissement and about 10 minutes walk from my studio. FWB had tried slightly dried out Poilâne that we'd bought at Claudine Vigier, and I wanted him to try fresh Poilâne to taste the difference. I bought a quarter of a round. I should've bought a half a round...when I say he likes bread, I do not lie. He downnnned slice after slice. Yet he is trim...sigh. If I ate bread like he does, I'd be a whale. The small price to pay for being a woman, alas. He was very, very happy with the bread though.
¨When the bread isnt good, you don't eat a lot of it,¨ he explained. ¨But when it's really, really
good, you eat a lot!¨
The same apparently goes for cheese. What was supposed to be our apéro turned into our dinner. Full of good cheese and charcuterie (we both LOVE rillettes like mad, I've discovered) and wine he brought, he was sleepy and laid back onto me on my couch. I was so happy to have spoiled him. So damn happy. I put his head in my lap and stroked his hair and he closed his eyes. There are moments when I just want to hold him forever and never let him go, I am so at ease around him, so comfortable and so happy. It feels very natural, nothing is forced. Even the silence between us is easy, sometimes there is no need for words, no need to feel the gaps with idle chatter.
He is again staying at my place this weekend while I jet off to the countryside for work (UGH. I need my life back!) but he was adorable this morning and didn't want to go (!!!!) to his wine salon, which started at 10. We woke up at 9 and he hugged me and exclaimed:
¨I don't want to go I don't want to go I don't want to leave!¨
Don't go don't go don't go then stay here stay in France stay with me invite me down for Christmas and I will stay and you will stay and we will stay all we want.
I handed him my set of spare keys and hugged him. Then he left, off to taste a large list of wine. I'll be back early enough on Sunday to see him before he leaves again for Avignon.
Then I went off to Poilâne, and bought him a half a round of Poilâne for the week-end...
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